Highlights

Wendy Powley Becomes First Recipient of Queen's Employment Equity Award

The School of Computing's own Wendy Powley was awarded the first-ever Queen's Employment Equity Award for her work in the cause of women in computing. Provost Alan Harrison presented the award to Wendy in a ceremony sponsored by the Queen's University Equity Office and held on January 25th with many of her co-workers present. Well done, Wendy, and congratulations!

Photos and video by Dave Dove.

Eid al-Adha Celebratory Potluck (November 11)

Muslim students of the School of Computing once again invited their colleagues to join them for a slightly-belated celebration of Eid al-Adha. We are quite sure no one went away hungry! Thanks to the students for their generosity and congratulations on their culinary skills. Happy Eid!

Selim Akl speaks at TEDxQueensU 2011

School of Computing Director Selim Akl was a featured speaker at the second annual TEDxQueensU conference at Convocation Hall on November 6. The event was created "to showcase Queen's creativity, ingenuity, and innovation," according to the conference Web site, http://www.tedxqueensu.com/, and Dr. Akl presented a talk entitled, Computation is Universal... Computers are Not!

Fall Preview (October 29)

The School of Computing presented another terrific display at the Annual Queen's Fall Preview, on Saturday October 29. Members of the School where on hand to promote our undergraduate programs, and the discipline of computing in general. Their demonstrations and presentations to high school students and their parents attracted a great deal of attention. Well done, participants, and thank you!

Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing (ONCWIC) 2011

The 2nd annual ONCWIC Conference (founded in 2010 by Queen's own Women In The School of Computing group) was hosted at the University of Toronto on the 21st and 22nd of October. The event was well-attended by women from the School — our contingent represented the largest group of any that attended, including the group representing the host university.

QSC Masterly at MICCAI 2011

MICCAI 2011, the 14th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, was held from September 18 through September 22 in Toronto, Canada. MICCAI annually attracts world leading scientists, engineers and clinicians from a wide range of disciplines associated with medical imaging and computer assisted surgery. This year it was the largest gathering of the MICCAI series with about 1,100 attendees.

Members of the Queen’s School of Computing had a pivotal role in this grand event:

• Gabor Fichtinger served as general and program co-chair.
• Randy Ellis and Purang Abolmaesumi served as workshop and tutorial program co-chairs.
• Parvin Mousavi and Purang Abolmaesumi served as Program Committee Members.
• James Stewart managed the scientific review system.
• Andras Lasso and Thomas K. Chen were the event photographers.
• Sacha Robinson managed the airport transportation and help desks.
• More than 15 other Queen’s students and postdocs assisted in running the five-day event flawlessly.

2011 Undergraduate Students' Spring Convocation

The Spring Convocation on June 7 was followed by an informal reception outside Goodwin Hall. Congratulations to all School of Computing graduates.

James Cordy Receives NSERC CREATE Grant

On June 1 the School of Computing's Dr. James R. Cordy was presented with a Natural Science and Engineering Council (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant in a ceremony at the Life Sciences complex. In attendance at the ceremony were Dr. Stephen N. Liss, Vice-Principal (Research), Queen's University, Ms Isabelle Blain, Vice-President (Research Grants and Scholarship), NSERC, and the Honourable Gary Goodyear, MP, Minister of State (Science and Technology)(Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario). Here is an excerpt from an article on the subject posted on the Queen's News Centre page:

James Cordy has been awarded a $1,650,000 Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) grant. The grant will be used to fund a unique School of Computing graduate program in ultra-large scale software systems (ULSS). "With our existing industrial relationships and global leadership in ULSS research, Queen's local expertise in professional development, and our strong ties with leading international research institutes, we are in a unique position to offer this, the first and only graduate program of its kind worldwide," says project leader Dr. Cordy, a professor in the School of Computing and ACM Distinguished Scientist in Software Engineering. ULSS are national or global computer software systems that process the financial, healthcare, communications, leisure and networking infrastructure that underlie every aspect of modern life. These systems pose unique challenges for software developers and maintainers as even a minor failure or outage risks bringing entire economies to a halt. The program aims to train over 80 students in its first six years in the specialized methods, advanced design concepts and professional development skills needed to populate this industry and bring knowledge to practice in the real world.

Photos by Tom Bradshaw.

School of Computing 8th Annual Concert

Thanks to Dave Dove for putting together another great concert on May 10.

paperphone

The School of Computing's Human Media Lab (HML) has set the media world abuzz with news of its prototype thin film computer, the paperphone. Here's a smattering of links from around the world:

• On CNET
• On the BBC
• From France
• From Germany
• On Al Arabiya
• From China

Knowledge in the Cloud

Congratulations to organizer Dr. Farhana Zulkernine on the success of the Knowledge in the Cloud symposium which ran on Thursday, May 5.

While data and information are some of the key contributors in technology enhancement, the necessity of extracting useful knowledge from the data is becoming increasingly more important to make effective use of the large volume of data being collected from various resources.

The symposium focused on the importance and techniques of knowledge extraction and making the same available to a wide group of users and various application domains such as business intelligence, medical tools, systems management, and Web applications.

Photos by Dave Dove.

David Skillicorn In the News

As a result of the Sony Playstation security debacle of April, 2011 (in which hackers stole the personal information for 75 million PlayStation users), the School of Computing's David Skillicorn became a much sought after expert voice for the media, appearing in the Globe and Mail, the Montreal Gazette, on CTV National News, on the CTV News Channel, on CBC Radio's Ontario Today, on CBC.ca and on CTV.ca.

School of Computing Awards – 2011 Edition

Dear all,

On the afternoon of April 13, 2011, a large crowd gathered in the Goodwin Hall Art Gallery on the occasion of the Third Annual Queen's School of Computing Awards ceremony.

This is one of the most important events in the life of the School. It is an opportunity for us to recognize excellence in various forms of endeavor, an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of those of us who distinguished themselves through their exceptional work, and an opportunity to say thank you to those who made a difference in our lives. It is certainly the most enjoyable part of my job.

Selim Akl
Director
School of Computing

Congratulations to this year's recipients:

• COMPSA Howard Staveley Award for Teaching Excellence: Nick Graham; Runners-Up (and former recipients): Dorothea Blostein, Dave Dove
• Excellence in Teaching Assistance Award: Eric Rapos
• Ph.D. Research Achievement Award: Hossain Shahriar
• Outstanding Master's Thesis Award: David Sears
• Graduate Student Distinguished Service Award: Andrew Dickinson
• Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award: Ahmed Hassan; Runner-up (and former recipient): Jim Cordy
• Distinguished Service Award: Laurie Truman
• Award for Outstanding Contribution to School Life: Melissa Trezise

Photos by Dave Dove.

CISC-877 Engineering Digital Games Show

On Friday, April 8, there was an end-of-term show for the students of CISC 877 (Engineering Digital Games), where they showed off the games they created during the term, and where guests could join in and play. The students created a suite of highly imaginative games solving interesting technical problems.

(requires flash player)

The player will show in this paragraph

CISC470 & CISC499 Poster Presentations

Students in the 2011 graduating class had a chance to present their thesis projects by way of an exhibition of posters held during the last week of the Winter term. (Photos by Dave Dove.)

3rd Annual COCA201 Computer Art Exhibit

COCA201 is an inter-disciplinary course in the School of Computing's Computing and the Creative Arts program where Queen's students from visual arts, computer science, engineering, and music collaborate to create interactive art pieces. On April 4th, the students displayed their final course projects in the ILC atrium in the 3rd Annual Exhibit.

2nd Annual Queen's Computing Invitational High School Programming Contest

Area high schools entered seven teams of four students in the second annual programming contest hosted by the Queen's School of Computing held on March 29. The contest consisted of a set of four programming problems which the teams had to try to solve in three hours. The winning team was from Sydenham High School, coached by Mr. Jon Swaine. The four top teams from the contest will compete at the next level of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario's programming contest series on April 16. Well done, all!

Maya by Zach Clark

Zach Clark is a 4th year COCA (Computing and the Creative Arts) student in the School of Computing. In association with his studies in the School of Music, he has created an installation in the Project Room of the Union Gallery in Stauffer Library. The installation is open until April 27, 2011. The following description is from the Union Gallery programme.

"Maya is an interactive sound installation, which explores the Hindu concept of Maya, the veil of illusion cast over unitive reality by our senses. A kaleidoscopic invocation of everyday dualistic reality is rendered in total three dimensional surround sound and participants are encouraged to channel their energy and focus on seeing beyond the illusion. Maya's veil is evoked in a swirling tapestry of sounds both recognizable and obscure. In seeing beyond the illusion, participants are carried through the void and back to where they began, in the only reality given to us, Maya."

(requires flash player)

The player will show in this paragraph

Principal's Visit

Queen's University Principal, Daniel Woolf, visited the School of Computing on March 10, 2011. Dr. Woolf was quite impressed with all the people he met and everything he saw. He indicated his interest in returning soon in order to be introduced to all those he missed and visit the rest of our labs he heard so much about. Special thanks to Dean McKeown for organizing the Principal's visit and to Tom Bradshaw and Kibum Kim for the photography.

School of Computing Student Testimonials

A new feature on this Web site is the Testimonials page whereon students past and present of the School of Computing tell us, in their own words, about their experiences in the school. Look for the Testimonials link on the About Us page.