Online and Remote Learning

The Gothic architectural style reached its height at Chartres.  Join us as we learn to read the allegory of Chartres Cathedral—its architecture, painting, and sculpture.  It embodies in stone and glass the high mysteries of Christianity and Neo-Platonism.  The cathedral school was the centre of an important revival of classical humanism three centuries before the Renaissance, and one the greatest flowerings in literature, art, philosophy, and science in the history of the West.  We’ll read a selection of such influential Chartres-centred poets, theologians, and cosmologists as John of Salisbury, William of Conches, Alain of Lille and Bernard Silvester. We’ll assess their brilliant re-imagining of the Christian religion in terms of ancient pagan, and especially, Platonic symbols and ideas.  Learn about Gothic architecture and iconography. Discover medieval theology and philosophy, especially the poets, philosophers and theologians of Chartres. Consider the influence of Platonism on Christian doctrine Learn about the allegorical interpretation of the classics in the Middle Ages.

Creative non-fiction tells factual stories in a literary style. This intensive, craft-oriented workshop gives you a deeper understanding of creative non-fiction so you can refine your work-in-progress and develop new material. With an emphasis on workshopping students’ work, the course will also allow time for writing exercises, discussion, and analysis of assigned readings. Whether you're writing a memoir, personal essay, travel story or biography, you'll benefit from constructive criticism and evaluation. The course will also introduce you to a community of writers working in your genre. Summer Writing School courses are applicable to the Certificate in Creative Writing. Improve your understanding of Creative Non-Fiction Improve craft and develop writing techniques Workshop your own work-in-progress

This course, which follows PTI and CTI training, includes developing concepts presented in the course in more depth. In this course you will learn: (1) practicing preambles and delivery of formal practices; (2) deeper scrutiny and discussion of trauma-informed facilitation strategies; (3) pain and neuroplasticity; (4) starting up courses; (5) administration of courses; (6) validated outcome-measuring instruments for application to a chronic pain population; (7) use of distance delivery methods; (8) immunity and pain; and (9) further opportunities to practice and deepen skills of enquiry. There will also be discussions regarding assessment criteria for class-based teaching, as well as further certification levels. Recognize overt and subtle strategies developed in the course in facilitating in a trauma-informed way. Organize strategic approaches to introducing the concepts of Neuroplasticity into pain management. Demonstrate increasing expertise in delivering formal practices Apply increasing competence in use of preambles before delivering formal practice guidance. Identify appropriate tools to evaluate outcomes in a chronic pain population Identify qualities for facilitators in embodying and role-modeling Mindfulness attitudes and practice. Recall the role of the immune system in exacerbating pain when under chronic stress. Identify strategies and challenges in enrolling and administration of the MBCPM courses.

Formally called Mindfulness and Writing for Discipline and Productivity. Time=Life. In this four-week intensive course, the topic of discipline and productivity is approached from an inside-out perspective. Discipline is a path to walk on and a muscle to exercise and strengthen. We learn not to be tossed around by our emotions and “external circumstances” over which we have little or no control.  We will draw from the tradition of mindfulness practice and the wisdom of the ancient Greeks and Romans—Pythagoras, Socrates, Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Through the practices of mindfulness and generative writing, journaling, wisdom circles and group discussions, we see ourselves more clearly. By identifying some of the inner, outer and secret obstacles to success and wellbeing, we recognize ways in which self-sabotage can occur. Through the contemplative practices of Mindfulness, Stoicism and writing and practical strategies such as activity scheduling, habit-tracking, setting intention and daily review, we discover ways to achieve greater stability, focus and joy in our lives. Discipline is a key tool for making good use of our precious human life. Discipline=Freedom. Make good use of the sacred gift of each day and master your Time=Life. Gain a clearer sense of the work that you wish to accomplish and organize your life in alignment with your core values.   Through the practices of Mindfulness, Stoicism and Writing learn to paradoxically slow down to accomplish more. Set intentions and work with inner and outer obstacles through the contemplative practices of maithri and loving kindness and practical strategies such as activity scheduling and daily review. Achieve one-pointed attention, focus and embody the paramita of discipline.

Successful organizations must care for their assets efficiently and effectively. To do that, they need physical asset managers who make sound and timely decisions. This five-day program has been designed to help managers care for company assets and achieve maintenance excellence. You'll learn how to reduce maintenance and repair costs as well as company liability, and extend the economic life of capital equipment, systems and components. You'll do more than maximize the useful life of assets - you'll have a significant impact on your organization's bottom line. Understand the full scope of the tasks involved in efficient physical asset management. Help your organization reduce costs and increase profits. Discover and apply the best maintenance routines. Get the tools you need to help your organization manage its physical assets. Learn how to increase profits by reducing repair and maintenance costs  

Extend your knowledge and understanding of Machine Learning to Deep Neural Networks. In this course we will cover the theory and practice of modern neural nets through a series of exercises and examples in different domains. You will build your own algorithms to classify images, perform rudimentary language translation and generate synthetic images or music. Know the theory and practice of modern neural networks. Use Tensorflow2 to create and train deep neural networks Tuning deep neural networks for different tasks  Understand the difference between various network architectures like CNN, RNN, transformer and generative algorithms Apply deep-learning network architectures to solve a range of problems- e.g.  classify images, predict trends and generate artworks    

Modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems often combine techniques from many sub-disciplines: Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Planning, Intelligent Agents, etc. In this course, you’ll build your knowledge of techniques that can be built into AI’s that allow them to reason about their current situation and plan their next move. You’ll build AIs that can learn to play games and need to trade off exploiting strategies they already know are useful vs. exploring new strategies that may be even better. You’ll be ready to apply these techniques to solve real world problems such as finding adaptive strategies for dealing with difficult customers or optimizing use of parking spaces. By the end of this course, learners will be able to: Create your own system of intelligent software agents Use constraint solvers to find solutions to difficult problems Use increasingly rich forms of logical inference to enable the agents to make decisions that will help them achieve the goals you’ve set out for them Use probabilistic reasoning to allow them to make decisions with incomplete information Use Reinforcement Learning to enable the agents to learn winning strategies for themselves while exploring the environment they find themselves in Combine these techniques and apply them to industrial, scientific or business challenges

As our climate changes and future energy sources remain uncertain, we must know how to improve building performance for greater energy efficiency. This foundational course deals with indoor and outdoor climates and the thermal envelope that separates them. You'll learn the physics of heat and moisture transfer, how they interact and the function of thermal envelopes. The course will apply this knowledge to new construction and to modifications of existing designs.   The course material covers part of the Examination Learning Objectives of the Building Science Theory Exam conducted by Building Science Specialist Board of Canada (BSSB) for the Building Science Specialist (BSS®) designation. Understand the practitioner's role in building more sustainable buildings. Understand and incorporate the properties of moist air and the movement of moisture within building materials in design and construction. Measure and incorporate the characteristics of the outdoor environment in design and construction. Measure and incorporate the characteristics of indoor environments and human comfort in design and construction. Measure the transfer of heat through building assemblies and estimate transmission heat losses. Prepare to write the Building Science Theory Exam ( Part I) for BSS®

If you've completed SCS 3552 and want to deepen your understanding, this course will teach you how moisture moves in and around buildings. Learn to manage the impact of rain and moist air movement within building materials and how this interacts with solar heating. Life-cycle costing will be examined, along with principles of building science for cold and hot climates. You'll get real-life examples of responsible building practices to help you design and build tomorrow's building. The course material covers part of the Examination Learning Objectives of the Building Science Theory Exam conducted by Building Science Specialist Board of Canada (BSSB) for the Building Science Specialist (BSS®) designation. Understand and apply the physics of heat transfer to assess buildings' thermal status. Understand the practitioner's role in building more sustainable buildings. Incorporate the advanced properties of moist air and the movement of moisture within building materials. Measure and incorporate the advanced characteristics of the indoor and outdoor environment in design and construction. Measure the transfer of heat through building assemblies and estimate transmission heat losses. Prepare to write the Building Science Theory Exam for BSS®

This course deals with the interrelationship of building envelopes and environmental control with an emphasis on sustainable building practices. The course will examine thermal comfort and indoor air quality, heating, cooling and moisture regulation, air distribution and pressure regimes, energy usage, solar and internal gains, natural and hybrid ventilation, and heating and cooling loads. More responsible building practices are identified and illustrated throughout.   The course material covers the Examination Learning Objectives of the Mechanical Systems Exam conducted by Building Science Specialist Board of Canada (BSSB) for Building Science Specialist (BSS®) designation. •    Understand the basic layouts and pros and cons of common HVAC systems. •    Calculate energy requirements by applying psychrometric theory to basic air conditioning processes. Psychrometric charts will be used to assist students with visualizing the processes. •    Understand the energy-saving benefits of enthalpy wheels. •    Understand the comfort implications of indoor air quality, the common contaminants that affect IAQ and how they are controlled. •    Calculate air infiltration/exfiltration due to wind and the stack effect with the crack method as applied to walls, windows and doors. •    Understand several solar energy concepts and the direct and diffuse solar heat gain coefficients, and the effect of solar gain on the building cooling load. •    Calculate the heating load for a building based on conduction and air exchange through the building envelope. •    Understand the cooling load and qualitatively comprehend what contributes to this load – including several time-dependent heat transfers. •    Prepare to write the Mechanical Systems Exam for BSS®