News

Research by Queen’s School of Computing Professor Nick Graham (Director, EQUIS Lab) is highlighted in a Toronto Star story on developing physically active video games to improve the fitness levels of teenagers with cerebral palsy.

The School’s own David Skillicorn expressed his views that the Canadian government’s cyber-security policy does not go far enough in protecting both government and private sector information.

The story was reported on Global TV National, CTV National News, CTV News Channel and in the Wall Street Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Nanaimo Daily News, Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Victoria Times Colonist and cbc.ca.

This week School of Computing professors Jim Cordy and Thomas Dean are hosting over 100 of the world’s top software engineering researchers at the 19th International Working Conference on Reverse Engineering, WCRE 2012, at the Radisson Harbourfront hotel here in Kingston. Researchers from 15 countries and four continents are discussing the latest results in large scalecomputer software analysis, understanding and reengineering.

The Working Conference on Reverse Engineering (WCRE) is the premier
international research conference on the theory and practice of recovering
information from existing software and systems. WCRE explores innovative
methods of extracting the many kinds of information that can be recovered
from software, software engineering documents, and systems artifacts, and examines innovative ways of using this information in system renovation and program understanding.

Thanks to School graduate students Gehan Selim, Eric Rapos, Paul Geesaman and      Doug Martin for helping to make our guests welcome here in Kingston.

Click here for the WCRE2012 website.

This weekend was the road trip to the Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing which was hosted by the Women in Computing at the University of Western Ontario. We left Kingston with 29 women on board a Franklin coach bus. In Toronto, we picked up 20 more women from U of T, Ryerson, York and Kuwait University (small detour to Kuwait).

The conference was absolutely fabulous, with some highlights including:

– a talk on communication tips by the NSERC Chair, Women in Science and Engineering
– an amazing keynote by Kelly Irwin from TD Bank on IT management and development in the financial industry
– very useful information from Morgan Stanley about resume writing and job interviews
– an interesting talk on the technology trends by IBM
– student posters and presentations (Queen’s was well represented with 6 posters)
– a cool social media contest that had attendees climbing under dessert tables, yelling random things and even proposing to the lone male attendee to win prizes
– the Morgan Stanley programming competition — with FIRST PRIZE being won by our very own LILI WANG! Congratulations, Lili — well done!
– a career/industrial fair with cool give-aways, on-site recruiting and tons of information
– great food and door prizes (including an i-pad!!!)
– and plenty of opportunity to connect and network with other technical women in Ontario

Queen’s was very well represented with 33 of the (approximately) 120 attendees being Queen’s people. We are definitely getting a reputation as the place for women in CS!

The conference was incredibly satisfying for those of us who began the very first ONCWIC in 2010. It is very exciting to watch the conference grow, mature and flourish. We are no longer worried about the continuity of the conference — Waterloo is committed for 2013 and there are 3 universities interested for 2014! No doubt ONCWIC will continue in years to come.

Our keynote speaker wrote a blog about the conference:
http://workingtechmom.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/tribute-to-great-women-in-computing/

We have posted some pictures here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/112357915862692463324/albums/5799240628020676321?authkey=CPDgs7DDiLfZag

A huge thank you to all who came out. And, for those of you who
missed out this time around, consider it for next year — it really is a
very inspiring event.

Congratulations to Gabor Fichtinger for his successful submission of “Intraoperative Registration of Ultrasound and Fluoroscopy (iRUF)” for Phase II funding under the NSERC Idea to Innovation program.

Phase II projects are the technology enhancement phase of product development. Gabor’s research leadership and innovative approach made the development of this invention possible.

Well done, Gabor!

David Skillicorn commented on a U.S. report that calls China’s Huawei Technologies a security threat and warns that care should be taken when doing business with Chinese companies, on CNBC.com, Reuters India, Global TV National, Newstalk 650 (Saskatoon radio), Orlando Sentinal, Hartford CourantCTV News Channel, Sun News Network, CBC Radio’s Ontario Today and in the National Post, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Ottawa Sun, Ottawa Citizen, RadioCanadaInternational.ca, the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Oman Tribune (Middle East), Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette and several other newspapers and websites from Canada and around the world.

The School of Graduate Studies has announced that our own Selim Akl has been chosen as one of two recipients of the Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision. This award recognizes two professors every year for their outstanding achievements as researchers and mentors to graduate students. Read the full Queen’s News Centre story here.

Congratulations, Selim, for this well-deserved honour!

In announcing the FedDev ARC Extension funding, the Government of
Canada’s press release selected to highlight only one success story from
the first round of ARC funding, namely the collaborative project between
David’s research group and Research Casting International.

Read the full story here.

A new course entitled “Looking Behind the Screen: The Mathematics of Information Technology” will be offered for the first time in the coming Winter, 2013 term. This course was developed and will be taught jointly by the School’s own Director, Selim Akl and Ram Murty, Head, Department of Mathematics and Statistics. For more on this exciting new development, read the story in the Queen’s News Centre here.

David spoke on CORUS Entertainment radio about fake websites set up by the Taliban with the purpose of recruiting.