Highlights

Queen's Graduate Computing Society Conference 2012

The third annual QGCS Conference took place on May 9th and 10th this year. It included

• Student Presentations
• A Poster Session
• Invited Keynote Talks
• A Panel Discussion
• A Programming Competition (won by Cordy's Angels)
• A Social Event

It was, by all accounts, a successful, vibrant conference. Congratulations to the organizers!

Photos by Dave Dove.

Creative Computing Exhibition

An exhitibion of computing art and research was held on the afternoon of April 5 at the BioSciences Atrium. The event featured the 4th Annual Computer Art Exhibit from this year's students of COCA 201, projects in Game Design and Game Technology from students in CISC 226 and CISC 877, and poster presentations from our fourth year students based on their major undergraduate research projects. In addition, special guests from Frontenac Secondary School's 'CyberFalcon' Robotics team were on hand with their impressive basketball-throwing creation. The event was, by all accounts, an outstanding success.

Many thanks to the many people who contributed to the organization of the exhibition, including Nick Graham, who conceiving the combined event, Tom Bradshaw, Ben Hall and Dave Dove, who arranged the physical venue, with special mention to Ben who also did the Web site and poster for the event, Geoffrey Seaborne, who did logistics for COCA 201, Scott Grant, who did logistics for CISC 226, Bob Crawford for CISC 499, Mike Ounsworth, who arranged the robotics demo from Frontenac Secondary, Richard Linley who organized the printing of a roomful of posters, and of course Irene Lafleche, who herded all the cats to coordinate the event itself.

Photos by Dave Dove.

School of Computing Awards – 2012 Edition

On the afternoon of April 4, 2012, a large crowd gathered in Goodwin Hall on the occasion of the 4th Annual Queen's School of Computing Awards ceremony. The awards were created to recognize excellence in various forms of endeavour, an opportunity to celebrate the contributions of those in the school who distinguished themselves through their exceptional work, and as an opportunity to say thank you to those who made a difference in School life. The awards were presented by Selim Akl, Director of the School of Computing.

Congratulations to this year's recipients:

• The COMPSA Howard Staveley Award for Teaching Excellence: Mary McCollam
• Ph.D. Research Achievement Award: Xiaoxue Piao
• Graduate Student Distinguished Service Award: Karolina Zurowska (with honourable mentions to Andrew Dickinson and Eric Rapos)
• Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award: James Stewart (with honourable mentions to Juergen Dingel and Damian Redfearn)
• Distinguished Service Award: Lynda Moulton (with honourable mentions to Tom Bradshaw and Tamas Ungi)
• Award for Outstanding Contribution to School Life: Charlotte Blinston
• Award for Excellence in Teaching Assistance: Simrin Nagpal
• Distinguished Thesis Award: Shane McIntosh (with honourable mention to Creag Winacott)

Photos by Dave Dove.

3rd Annual Queen's Computing Invitational High School Programming Contest

Area high schools entered six teams of students in the third annual programming contest hosted by the Queen's School of Computing, and held on March 30, in co-operation with the Limestone District School Board, and the Algonquin & Lakeshore District Catholic School Board. 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 St. Theresa Catholic Secondary School of Belleville, coached by Mr. Daniel Tie Ten Quee. The three top teams from the contest will compete at the next level of the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario's programming contest series later in April. Well done, all!

Photos by Dave Dove.

TEI2012

The Queen's Human Media Lab hosted the 6th international conference on Tangible, Embedded and embodied Interaction (TEI) from February 19 through February 22. TEI2012 was a conference for researchers, artists, and designers interested in creating user experiences that bridge the gab between bits and atoms through work in HCI, design, interactive arts, tools and technologies. Themes this year included Organic User Interfaces and explorations of folding and unfolding in design. Congratulations to the TEI2012 organizers for a job well done!

Photos by Dave Dove.

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.