The Perimeter Institute isn't all theoretical physics. In the Black Hole Bistro atop the Perimeter building, the gin is cold and the piano's hot, as the song puts it. Toronto-based jazz artist Bernie Senensky, who has received Juno nominations for two of his eight albums, will be at the keyboard Friday night starting at 9:00; tickets and dinner reservations, 519-883-4480.

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More Chinese links for school of CS

from the UW school of computer science

The University of Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science and Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Academic Cooperation.

The collaborative activities being explored include a program under which Tsinghua students will study at their home university for years one through three, then spend years four and five — and possibly more if they continue to a PhD program — at UW; an undergraduate student exchange; joint preparation for the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest; computer science curriculum collaboration; Tsinghua co-sponsoring Stage 1 of UW’s Canadian Computing Competition in China; and faculty and graduate student academic exchanges.

“This agreement allows us to reach out to the best students and researchers in China, and gives the Waterloo students a chance to explore a new world,” says Thomas Coleman, Dean of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo.

According to UW’s Prof. Ming Li, “Tsinghua is the number one university in China, attracting absolutely the very best students from a quarter of the world's population. Each year, 70% of Number 1 students and 70% of those who place in the top 10 from each province on the national university entrance exam choose Tsinghua for their undergraduate studies.

Tsinghua’s computer science department has over 100 professors, including a Turing award winner, publishing over 700 papers each year, attracting over $10 million (Canadian) in research funding each year.”

“We are particularly excited by the fact that the agreement includes these students staying on as graduate students here at Waterloo,” comments George Labahn, Acting Director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “This continues our direction of expanding our graduate program in CS at Waterloo with the best students that the world has to offer.”

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UW shares award for IBM think-tank

Twelve universities were “represented” by UW this week as a national award honoured the institutions’ partnership with the IBM Center for Advanced Studies, based at the computer giant’s Software Development Laboratory in Toronto.

The project involves major universities across Canada, from Victoria to Dalhousie. The CAS, now 16 years old, is described as “an innovative model for industry-university collaboration that brings tremendous opportunities and international prestige to Canadian university researchers, IBM Canada and the IT industry. It also fosters strong and sustained partnerships with Canadian government funding and research agencies.”

And it has earned IBM Canada and its university partners the 2006 Leo Derikx Award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada's largest science and engineering granting agency. It’s one of seven “synergy” awards announced by NSERC on Monday.

“The 2006 NSERC Synergy Awards for Innovation honour and highlight the best achievements in research and development collaboration between universities and industry across Canada,” said Maxime Bernier, federal minister of industry. “Collaborations such as these allow the wider community to share in the economic and social value that is found in the world-leading research conducted at Canadian universities.”

In the case of the IBM centre, projects have led to many publications, patents and prototypes, a news release explains, “while placing a strong emphasis on the training of graduate students. Collaborations over the years have led to more than $100 million in research activity funded by IBM, universities and government contributions and awards. This has resulted in tangible commercial and knowledge-based benefits as well as high-quality research.”

It quotes Johnny Wong, former director of UW’s school of computer science and a visiting scientist at the centre: "My research program and graduate students have greatly benefited from my partnership with CAS.”

CAS Toronto is recognized as the innovative model for industry-university collaboration: as a result of its success, IBM has replicated the Toronto CAS model at 16 sites around the world, including Ottawa, Victoria and Edmonton.

Each year, CAS Toronto hosts up to 150 faculty members and some 60 graduate students from about 50 universities around the world. Students receive fellowships that are renewable for up to three years. Students also have the opportunity to spend the summer at the IBM Toronto lab and collaborate with development groups.

The lab is the largest software development facility in Canada and IBM's third largest anywhere. Established 39 years ago, it employs 2,500 software developers, engineers and support staff.

The university leaders in the seven collaborations that received this year’s synergy awards are each receiving a $25,000 research grant, NSERC says. “Industry partners received the prestigious Synergy sculpture.”

Besides the IBM project, winners included the University of British Columbia and Angiotech Pharmaceuticals for their collaboration in the development of a number of controlled-release drug delivery systems and drug-loaded medical devices, and McGill University with a group of four companies “for advances resulting from their collaboration in the Agile All-Photonic Networks, which seeks to improve Canada’s communications infrastructure through research into developing ultra-high bit-rate optical networks”.

Awards were presented at a gala dinner at a Winnipeg hotel, which also honoured Dragan Tubic of Université Laval, the top prize winner in NSERC’s Innovation Challenge Awards competition. It invites graduate students from across Canada to identify potential products and services that could be created from their thesis research. Tubic won the top prize of $10,000 for his work in developing software for real-time data capture and modelling of three-dimensional structures. Two runners-up received $5,000 each.

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The talk of the campus

The latest word from the on-campus United Way effort comes from Karen So in the campaign office: “We’re onto Week 3 of the campaign and we’re doing very well so far. As of Monday, we were at 59% of our total goal. We’ve received over $77,000 of personal gifts from Faculty and Staff alone and with the help of the retirees and special events, the total has reached $96,411! The Early Bird Draw for donors and volunteers ended October 13. The results are being finalized and will be announced soon. Don’t forget that the New Donor Early Bird Draw is still going and new donors that hand in their donor forms to the office by Friday get a chance to win a gift certificate from Retail Services. Here is an update on some of the United Way events around campus. The Library Staff hosted a Chocolate Extravaganza this past Wednesday and raised $325.40 for the United Way. IST had a raffle ticket draw for 2nd row seats to a Toronto Maple Leafs game and raised $238.63.” She notes that tomorrow is another Dress-Down Day in support of the campaign (for stickers, call ext. 3-3840).

Yesterday's Daily Bulletin noted the previously announced "UW Has Talent" event, a joint presentation of the UW Recreation Committee and the Employee Assistance Program that was supposed to be held October 25 (next Wednesday) in the Humanities Theatre. Then word arrived about a change of plans: the EAP Committee has announced that the show "has been postponed to the new year due to the small number of participants who applied. The event will be re-scheduled to a date in March and themed to fit in with other planned events for UW's 50th anniversary celebrations."

Devon (Hutchinson) MacDonald, weary but happy after last weekend's Go Eng Girl event in the engineering faculty, sends this report on its success: " We had almost 230 girls and parents attend our event: 72 girls in Grades 9 and 10, 55 girls in Grades 7 and 8, and 94 parents. If you include our guest speakers, organizing committee, and the 30 or so current female engineering students who volunteered to help the day run smoothly, we had close to 300. And our sponsorship was incredible this year with $12,500 in monetary support plus over $4,200 in-kind sponsorship. We look forward to hosting an even better Go Eng Girl event next year!" The photo (left) shows two girls in the older group modelling how air bags work in vehicles; the younger girls worked on designing earthquake-proof structures.

Heavy rain overnight and in the early morning hours Tuesday reduced the OUA golf championships to an 18-hole event. The Warrior men’s team earned their second straight OUA title, and the third in four years, with a team total of 294. UW’s Jimmy Latta shot a 1-under-par 71 and was awarded the Len Shore Memorial Trophy as the OUA men’s individual champion, just one stroke ahead of Ottawa’s Alain Robichaud. A three- way tie for third place included the Warriors’ Victor Ciesielski, and Jud Whiteside was one stroke behind that group. Western and Toronto finished second and third in the team standings. The Western Mustangs took home the women’s championship for the second year in a row; Waterloo placed fifth.

The engineering faculty's electronic newsletter reports that Catherine Rosenberg, chair of the electrical and computer engineering department, has been elected to the board of governors for the Communications Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ComSoc has almost 50,000 members from industry, academia and beyond. Rosenberg's two-year term will start in January 2007.

Canadian Blood Services reports that 142 people gave blood during the early October drive in the Student Life Centre, and is planning for another campus clinic November 15-17. . . . The men's hockey Warriors play at Western tonight and will host the Mustangs in a return match on Saturday night. . . . Dean of graduate studies Ranjana Bird and dean of science George Dixon are forming a working group to advise the senate long-range planning committee about issues involving postdoctoral fellows and other academic visitors to UW. . . .

The survey of students and faculty about academic integrity that began last week has drawn thousands of responses, and more are wanted, says associate provost Bruce Mitchell, who heads the committee that's sponsoring the study. The online survey deals with such issues as plagiarism and cheating, and is offered in versions for faculty and students. A reminder memo went out by e-mail yesterday, and the survey continues until next Tuesday.

CAR

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