Month: January 2011

Work-integrated learning preparing students for changing labour market, study finds: Work-integrated learning (WIL) such as co-operative education, apprenticeships, and internships can help Ontario post-secondary students respond to rapid change in the Ontario labour market, according a report prepared by Academica Group and commissioned by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario. In the first phase of a study of institutional and employer attitudes toward WIL, both groups view it as an important part of the student experience, preparing students to enter the labour market with relevant, transferable, and marketable skills. They cite career preparation and improved employment prospects as the top motivating factor for students. Among PSE institutions surveyed, strengthening linkages with community and enhancing institutional reputation are the most significant benefits of WIL, while for employers the key attributes are access to highly motivated and creative students and improved productivity

Research summary

1.  Undergraduate achievements. A graduate from our Biomedical Computing program was this year’s winner of the Governor General’s Medal for achieving the highest academic standing in a bachelor degree program, across all disciplines.  The research work of a third-year undergraduate attracted a tremendous amount of positive publicity from national and international media, including the CBC, Wired Magazine, and the NSERC web site, and earned a tip of the hat from a reigning World Chess Champion. Another undergraduate was the recipient of a prestigious CRA Undergraduate Research Award, placing in sixth position over all categories, being the only Canadian in the top 40, and enjoying the company of winners from Princeton, Harvard, Rice, Tufts, Yale, Brown, Berkeley, and the like.

2.     Undergraduate enrollment. Our undergraduate enrollment is up. The number of first-year students is now twice that of three years ago and very close to twice the University’s enrollment target for the School. Fully 35.8% of our undergraduates, and 37.5% of our instructors, are women.

3.     Undergraduate programs and activities. The School’s program prerequisite charts received national attention. Our undergraduate students organized and executed an excellent orientation week, earning praise from both the Administration as well as their peers.

4.     Graduate students. Many of the School’s graduate students completed their degrees successfully and moved on, we welcomed a wonderful new group of excellent graduate students, and our graduate program maintained its positions as the largest (and best!), its members making an impact, winning awards, and organizing the first Graduate Computing Students Conference.

5.     Research contributions. Our researchers had an impressive presence in terms of journal publications, as well as at international gatherings of professionals in biomedical computing, communication networks, databases, human computer interaction, knowledge discovery, software engineering, and theoretical computer science. A colleague in the School earned a prestigious Research Chair from Cancer Care Ontario.

6.     Research Grants. Substantial research grants were received from the main granting agencies, including NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, CFI, OMRI, and ORF. The latest funding received was a major award from NSERC, General Motors and IBM, intended to make automobiles safer, more reliable, and more secure.

7.     Interdisciplinarity. The School continues to be a model of interdisciplinarity; our collaborators, in Canada and around the planet, come from electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, physiology, anatomy, psychology, linguistics, philosophy, politics, sociology, business, medicine, kinesiology, art, drama, film,  and music.

8.     Service. We are not only citizens of the world, but we are also good citizens. We respond to every request for service from the Faculty of Arts and Science and from the University. We offer courses in Continuing Studies and in Enrichment Programs. Through outreach activities, we are involved with the local community, at elementary and secondary schools, as well as at organizations such as the H’art School, and we hosted the first Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing.

9.     New colleagues. The ranks of our award-winning staff were enriched by the arrival of several wonderful new members, including instructors, administrative assistants, research associates, and research adjuncts.

10.    A new lab. After three and a half years of preparation, design, and planning, construction work is finally set to begin on a world class facility, a School laboratory in Jackson Hall, the new Human Media Lab.
Happy holidays everyone and best wishes for 2011.

Selim

Please follow this link for an article featuring Professor Roel Vertegaal of the Queen’s School of Computing. The Communications of the ACM article covers research in the area of eye communication.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1859211&coll=DL&dl=ACM&retn=1#Fulltext

http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/2011-ranking-200-jobs-best-worst

http://www.careercast.com/jobs-rated/10-best-jobs-2011

Software Engineer, a job that involves the design and creation of software for everything from operating systems to cell phone “apps” to interactive games, ranks as the best job of 2011, according to this year’s Jobs Rated report. Surveying 200 different professions across a wide variety of industries, skill levels and salary ranges, Jobs Rated researchers determine their rankings according to five core criteria: Work Environment, Physical Demands, Outlook, Income and Stress. The goal of each Jobs Rated report is to determine how gratifying each job will be for a majority of workers – not just those who are famous or exceptional – so they can be sorted into a list of the “worst” and “best” professions

What helped Software Engineer capture the title of America’s Best Job? While many factors push a career to the top of the rankings, the strong performance of Software Engineer this year can be attributed to two emerging industries: web applications and cloud computing. A proliferation of companies making applications for smartphones and tablets, along with the push to develop “cloud” software hosted entirely online, has made the job market for Software Engineers broader and more diverse. And a diverse job market brings improvements in stress factors such as Growth Potential and Competitiveness, as workers become less beholden to employers or vulnerable to outsourcing. In fact, the stress ranking for Software Engineer improved 10 spots this year, jumping from 25^th to 15^th place overall.