Month: November 2010

Dear all,

I am delighted to announce that Queen’s School of Computing undergraduate student Laura Bartha (4th year, Biomedical Computing) has been selected by the Computing Research Association as a finalist of a 2011 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, for her work on thermal ablation in percutaneous surgery, under the supervision of Gabor Fichtinger.

Laura’s win is all the more impressive when one notes that the top 17 award recipients come from Princeton, Harvard, Rice, Tufts, Virginia Tech, Yale, Queen’s, Vanderbilt, Rochester, Minnesota, Texas A&M, William and Mary, Berkeley, San Diego, and Brown.

An excerpt from the citation reads:

“This year’s nominees were a very impressive group. A number of them were commended for making significant contributions to more than one research project, several were authors or coauthors on multiple papers, others had made presentations at major conferences, and some had produced software artifacts that were in widespread use. Many of our nominees had been involved in successful summer research or internship programs, many had been teaching assistants, tutors, or mentors, and a number had significant involvement in community volunteer efforts. It is quite an honor to be selected a Finalist from this group. On behalf of the Computing Research Association, we are pleased to have you as a member of the computing research community, and wish you the best for the future.”

Congratulations Laura, we are very proud of you.

Selim

Dear all,

Our own Wendy Powley spoke earlier this afternoon with Nora Young on Spark, the CBC Radio Show on technology and culture. The topic: “Computer Science: Where Are All The Ladies?” If you missed the interview you can listen to it here:

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2010/11/spark-129-november-28-december-1-2010/

After the interview took place, we learned that the number of women students in the Queen’s School of Computing has now climbed from (the previously high by Canadian standards) 25% to an all-time record of 35.8% (most likely the highest percentage in North America). This accomplishment is due in great part to the “Women in the School of Computing” group under Wendy’s leadership, and to the many role models among our instructors and researchers, 37.5% of whom today are women.

Selim

Headline: National Computer Science Education Week: December 5-11

Subhead: Universities across the country promote fastest growing career field

The idea that computer science involves nerdy men, sitting alone behind monochrome terminals doing boring work is very far from the truth. In reality, there are all types in the field ranging from mathematicians to artists to environmentalists and entrepreneurs.

In recognition of the field, more than two dozen computer science departments from every province have planned activities the week of December 5-11, which marks the first Computer Science Education Week held in Canada. At Queen’s University, the School of Computing will offer an opportunity to see the amazing research projects undertaken by their faculty and students.  The Open House is open to everyone and we expect a couple hundred people will attend.  There will be research demonstrations in Goodwin Hall, at the EQUIS Lab (140 Collingwood Street) and the Human Media Lab (third floor of Jackson Hall).

“It’s a field hungry for graduates. The demand is so high, that students are getting multiple job offers,” says Dr. Ken Barker, the president of the Canadian Association of Computer Science / Association d’Informatique Canadienne.

“Students live and breathe computers from YouTube and their iPods to Facebook and instant messaging but they don’t realize how much more there is to learn about the science of computing and how much of an advantage that extra knowledge could be in so many different careers,” adds Barker, a computer science professor and the Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary.

Unfortunately, while enrolment in most institutions has recovered after a few slow years following the dot-com bust, it is nowhere near where it needs to be to meet the demand.

Projections by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) in its 2008-2015 outlook suggest that by 2015 up to 179,000 new ICT jobs approximately will be created. The study notes that half of these jobs will require a university education. A further 30 per cent will require college training.  It says that the number of students graduating will not meet the demand of employers.

In its report, ICTC notes that occupations in the ICT industry are desirable careers that drive innovation and social change in our communities.  “The impact of these careers needs to be communicated to attract workers from all disciplines.  ICTC believes that current enrolment levels must be maintained and increase at levels that match the changes in demand. ICTC believes that encouragement for elementary and secondary school students to take math and science is crucial, not only for the ICT labour market, but for Canada as a whole.”

More than two dozen computer science departments across Canada are holding events from Dec. 5 to Dec. 11 to highlight the variety of job prospects and educational opportunities at universities. The events taking place during Computer Science Education week range from open houses to public lectures and hands-on activities.

“Many of these events are designed to inspire high school students about the exciting ideas in Computer Science and its connections to so many other disciplines,” says Michelle Craig, the co-ordinator of the Canadian Computer Science Education Week and senior lecturer at University of Toronto.

For more information about the events taking place across the country: http://www.cacsaic.ca/computerscience_educationweek_2010 Website Contact: mcraig@cs.toronto.edu

For the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) report:  http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/uploadedFiles/ICTC_Outlook_e_Summary.pdf

Media Contact:

Dr. Selim Akl,

Director, School of Computing

(613)533-6000 ext 77468

akl@cs.queensu.ca

Get a head start next year by taking a Queen’s credit course this summer term on campus or wherever you are!

A full list of summer term credit courses is now posted on the Continuing and Distance Studies website at http://www.queensu.ca/cds/offerings/byterm/springsummerdistance.html

Registration begins March 21, 2011.

Questions?  Drop by the Arts and Science Student Services Office in F200 Mackintosh-Corry Hall or e-mail cds@queensu.ca <mailto:cds@queensu.ca>

Maria Cardoso

Administrative Assistant

Continuing and Distance Studies

Faculty of Arts and Science

F100 Mackintosh-Corry Hall

Queen’s University

Kingston, ON  K7L 3N6

613-533-6000 X75762

http://www.queensu.ca/cds/

A universally frustrating experience for undergraduates is the struggle to determine the prerequisites they need to graduate in their chosen fields. But help is close at hand.

Robert Tennent, chair of undergraduate studies at Queen’s University’s school of computing, has developed software tools for preparing easy-to use prerequisite charts that allow students to see, at a glance, what courses they should take if they want to specialize, say, in biomedical computing at Queen’s, or cognitive science or software design.

The technology has not yet been widely adopted – even at Queen’s – says Dr. Tennent, who hopes to persuade other departments at his university, and elsewhere, that “you don’t have to be a computer scientist” to set it up.

“Faculty and staff members, being already familiar with their courses and programs, often do not appreciate how inconvenient it is for students to access all the information they need to make course choices. For example, program requirements are typically specified as lists of course codes for required and optional courses; one must look elsewhere to find the titles of the courses, the relations between them, their prerequisites and timetabling information,” Dr. Tennent writes in the introduction to his primer on how to produce high-quality prerequisite charts by adapting open-source applications freely available on the Internet.

“The students love it,” Dr. Tennent said in an interview. “And we certainly use these prerequisite charts as a recruiting tool. High school students love to see exactly what they’re in for.”

For Andrew Wald, a Queen’s student who is completing a dual degree in electrical engineering and computer science, the prerequisite charts have been invaluable.

“I have been averaging eight courses a semester, and I have very little wiggle room,” Mr. Wald said in an interview. “If I do not do things in the correct order, if I do not do a prerequisite in the year I am supposed to, then I can potentially be thrown off a lot of things, which would be devastating in my case.”

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/navigating-course-prerequisites.aspx

The polar bear population will be studied by using traditional knowledge of Inuit hunters and state-of-the-art genetic DNA analysis. This unique approach has been developed by Dr. de Groot, Queen’s scientists Peter Boag (biology) and Roel Vertegaal (computing), Inuit hunters and international collaborators.

For the full story:

http://www.queensu.ca/news/articles/collaborative-project-gives-queen-s-strategic-polar-presence

Recently, NCE GRAND with NCE NeuroDevNet offered collaborative research funding between their two networks through the Opportunities Initiative program.

Nick Graham, Dr. Darcy Fehlings of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, et al, were successful in their application “CP Fit ‘n’ Fun Project: Health & Social Benefits of Virtual Exercise Games in Adolescents with CP.”

Congratulations, Nick. We wish you every success.

Selim

Postdoctoral Fellows-Unionization Vote
	Nov 16, 2010 – Nov 18, 2010
	VOTE DETAILS CONFIRMED The vote to determine whether or not postdoctoral fellows at Queen’s University will be unionized will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010. The Ontario Labour Relations Board has confirmed the vote details. They are as follows: TIME AND PLACE OF VOTE Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 Time: 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Place: McLaughlin Room, John Deutsch University Centre (Corner of University Avenue & Union Street), 87 Union Street Please bring your valid ID card with you when you vote. All postdoctoral fellows are strongly encouraged to vote to ensure that they have the opportunity to express their individual choice with respect to whether or not they wish to be represented by a union. Please contact Patti Evaristo (patti.evaristo@queensu.ca) in Human Resources should you have any questions regarding this process.

Dear all,

The venue had changed (Mackintosh-Corry Hall) but the enthusiasm was as high as usual among School of Computing volunteers, as they participated in Part 2 of the 2010 Fall Preview held on Saturday, November 13. On your behalf, I would like to  express our gratitude to the following people for their creativity, their skill, their energy, their eloquence, and their courtesy, when welcoming our prospective students and their parents, showing the visitors what we do, and answering questions about our School and our programs:

Brian Butler

Sacha Robinson

Joey Pape

Audrey Girouard

Eril Berkok

Charlotte Blinston

Julia Canella

Melissa Trezise

Maryam Ahmed

Anson Herriotts

Daniel Basilio

Marie Matheson

Ben Hall

Dean McKeown

Irene LaFleche

Such is the loyalty among our alumni, that Tanya Wolff, B.Sc. (Hon.) ’95, M.Sc. ’97, now with IBM Ottawa, came especially to Kingston to help out with the event.  Thank you Tanya so much.

Best wishes,

Selim

Natalie Gruska, supervised by Pat Martin in the Database Systems Lab, won the Best Student Paper award at CASCON with her paper entitled “Integrating MapReduce and RDBMs”.

Xianrong Zhang’s poster, “Fair Bargaining in One-to-One Web Services Negotiation”, co-authored by Pat Martin, Kathryn Brohman (from the Queen’s School of Business) and Wendy Powley won the Technology Showcase People’s Choice Award.

Pat’s group had a tremendous showing at CASCON this year with 7 posters, 3 papers, a Vintage Demo (to celebrate 20 years of CASCON), as well as 2 workshop presentations.

Pat Martin was a panelist on the Twenty Years of Impact Panel which examined the impact that the IBM Center of Advanced Studies has had on innovation, research, business and people.