Shawn Capper

I specialize in quantitative economic geography with a focus on regional development and GPNs. I seek to understand the intersection of economic processes, labour markets, and spatial patterns. Through mixed-methods analysis, I explore how economic forces shape human geography and vice versa.

Research Assistantships

Work conducted at the University of Toronto

2026 Winter
2025 Fall
Effects of Incentive Structures on Worker Productivity
Economics
2024 Fall
Resident Experience with Urban Noise
Sociology
2024 Summer
Big Tech and Online Harms Affecting Minors
Canadian Studies
2024 Winter
2023 Fall
Alumni Outcomes
Political Science

Featured Projects

OSNA | Qualitative Analysis Program

Open Source NVivo Alternative (OSNA).

JavaReactVite+2

Cramberry | TTS & STT

Cramberry.

Next.jsPostgreSQLPython+2

Reperium | University Portal

Reperium is an AI-powered university portal that helps students quickly find courses, jobs, and research opportunities by chatting with a chatbot, saving them from sorting through hundreds of irrelevant postings. For this project, I led the front-end development using Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, focusing on creating a responsive, intuitive interface that works seamlessly across devices. To power the platform’s data needs, I developed a Python web scraping pipeline that automatically extracts, cleans, and structures over 10,000 data points from multiple university sources into a PostgreSQL database, ensuring that users have access to accurate, up-to-date opportunities.

Next.jsPostgreSQLPython+2

Haladay | Learning Management System

Haladay is a full-stack, all-in-one LMS CRUD system. Built using Dart and Flutter for the web app and Java (JavaFX) for the desktop program, it provides seamless, cross-platform functionality integrating Firebase and Google Cloud functions.

DartFlutterJava+2

Quill | Document Viewer

Quill is a highly-threaded PDF and EPUB viewer designed for handling rendering of large documents such as textbooks. It uses React for the front-end and Java for the backend.

JavaReactVite+1

Badger | File Transfer Utility

A versatile C++ utility for copying files and directories with support for in-memory operations, streaming, CRC32 hashing, PSARC archive handling, multi-threading, and multi-destination transfers. Badger is primarily intended for transferring from a high-speed, external, source, to a lower-speed destination ensuring copy in the event the source drive is disconnected.

AssemblyC++

Technical Skills

Programming

C++JavaJavaScriptPythonRSQL

Research & Analysis

ArcGISArchivalContent AnalysisEthnographyNVivoSPSS

GitHub Contributions

2025

Select Publications

Tiny Terrors: The Microplastic Problem in the North Atlantic Ocean

Capper, S.

Review Article

2024
EnvironmentGeologyGIS
Read Paper

Systemic Rights Abuses Caused by Deplorable Indigenous Reserve Conditions in Canada

Capper, S.

Research Paper

2022
Canadian IssuesLaw