Month: April 2010

Congratulations are extended to two of our researchers for their independent recent awards under the NSERC / CIHR Collaborative Health Research Program (CHRP). Competition for these awards is intense; about 10% of applicants are successful.

Dr. Randy Ellis’ research project entitled “Kinematics-based navigation for reconstructive hip surgery,” with co-applicants Drs. Abolmaesumi, Bryant, Rudan and our own Dr. Gabor Fichtinger was funded. Drs. Pichora and Taylor will collaborate on this project.

As well, Dr. James Stewart’s research project entitled “New methods for articular cartilage repair through computer-assisted surgery,” with co-applicants Drs. Bryant, Deluzio, Waldman, Rudan, Fenton and Bardana was funded.

We are very proud to have these nationally recognized biomedical computing experts in our School.

Selim

Congratulations to Dr. Ahmed Hassan and Dr. Bram Adams on their recent receipt of funding under the NSERC Interaction Grants Program for their application entitled “Business Intelligence Platforms for Automated Performance and Reliability Analysis.”

This is a new program, with the briefest of applications and an almost instantaneous response-to-application-time, that funds researchers who identify a company-specific problem they could solve by collaborating in a subsequent research partnership. The program is intended to foster new relationships.

Well done Ahmed and Bram!

Selim

More information

Congratulations to the recipients of IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) Fellowships:

Jim Cordy and his MSc student Doug Martin for their work on “Web Services Tagging Architecture,” and Pat Martin and his MSc student Marie Matheson for their work on “Supporting Smart Interactions with Predictive Analytics.”

CAS Fellowships are very competitive and only a small number are awarded each year.

As well, I am pleased to announce the renewal of Jim’s, Pat’s and Wendy Powley’s CAS Canada’s Research Faculty Fellow appointments for 2010.

Selim

Dear All,

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming Queen’s Graduate Computing Society Conference (QGCSC 2010).  Note that the abstract registration deadline has been extended to April 30th.

This is our first School of Computing graduate conference, and all graduate students are encouraged to present their work (in posters or oral presentations) even if previously published.

Our School members, alumni, researchers from Queen’s and RMC, in addition to the media, are invited.

For registration and more information kindly refer to our site.

Sincerely,
Sharief

– On behalf of the QGCSC organizing committee

The Annual School of Computing Awards ceremony was held on Thursday April 8, 2010.

These awards are an occasion to celebrate excellence in the School and an opportunity to take pride in the achievements of our students and colleagues. They recognize individuals who went a little further to establish a higher standard in research, service, and supervision.

Congratulations to this year’s award recipients:

• COMPSA Howard Staveley Award for Teaching Excellence: Dave Dove
• COMPSA Howard Staveley Award for Teaching Excellence Runners-up: Jim Cordy and Doug Wightman
• COMPSA First Honorary Member: Irene LaFleche
• Excellence in Teaching Assistance Award: Ian Bentley
• Ph.D. Research Achievement Award: Manar Alalfi
• Graduate Student Distinguished Service Award: Sharief Oteafy
• Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award: Juergen Dingel and Hossam Hassanein
• Distinguished Service Award: Karilee Reinbold

We applaud you and thank you for your contributions and for leading the way as role models and inspiration to your peers.

Selim

Dear all,

Please join me in wishing a dedicated team of volunteers, under the leadership of Wendy Powley, every success with the upcoming conference described below. Wendy and her team continue to make us proud through their efforts to mentor and network, first our students, and now women in computing science across Ontario.

On October 22-23, 2010, WISC is hosting the *first Canadian* ACM-W Regional Celebration of Women in Computing, “Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONCWIC)” at the Radisson Hotel in Kingston, ON. The conference is targeted to women students studying computer science at all levels, from first year undergraduate to PhD. The conference will provide attendees a chance to meet and mingle with other students, faculty and representatives from large software companies. Sessions will include keynote speakers from industry, panel and discussion breakout sessions relevant to women in CS, a poster session and “lightening talks,” as well as a career fair.

Cost has not yet been determined, but one goal of ONCWIC is to ensure that the conference is accessible to all, so it is expected that the cost will be very low for students. We expect space to fill up quickly as the conference is open to students attending universities all across Ontario.

If you’d like to help, Wendy would welcome your suggestions and questions (wendy@cs.queensu.ca).

For updates, see the ONCWIC site.  (A work in progress but up and running)

You can also follow ONCWIC on Facebook and Twitter.

Selim

On behalf of the School, congratulations to our faculty members for their successful Discovery grants.  Another exceptional year for our researchers:

• Selim Akl for his research “Parallel models of computation and algorithms”
• Gabor Fichtinger for his research “Image-guided robotic needle-based surgery of soft tissues”
• Parvin Mousavi for her research “Towards integrative data analysis for predictive modeling in biomedical computing”
• David Rappaport for his research “Computational geometry and data analysis”

And especially to Bram Adams for his research “Empirically Studying and Improving the Co-Evolution of Source Code and Build System.” Congratulations on your first NSERC Discovery, Bram!

Congratulations to Jenny Zou on the renewal of her IBM Center for Advanced Studies Research Fellowship. Her research proposal was entitled “Service City: An End-User Centric Infrastructure for Service Discovery, Composition, and Sharing” and was selected through a highly competitive process based on its research relevance to IBM and the high potential for applicability and business impact.

Well done, Jenny!
Michael Greenspan, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Associate Professor and Department Head
Electrical and Computer Engineering

The EQUIS Lab open house held yesterday was a tremendous success. The rooms and halls were full of interested people learning about 3D computer game development at Queen’s within the School of Computing. Please watch this clip from CKWS News.

The students of CISC 877, Development of 3D Games, would like to invite you to their end-of-year show. All are welcome to come and experience the games that they have created over the last term.
When: Tuesday April 6, 3:00-4:30 PM
Where: EQUIS Laboratory, 141 Collingwood St.

Refreshments will be served.

We look forward to seeing you there,
Jason