Nick was interviewed by CKWS Television during the Creative Computing event, which was held April 5 at the Queen’s BioSciences Building. In the interview, he comments on computing in the modern era.
See Nick’s interview here.
Computer Science Transitions from Elective to Requirement – US News
Although many universities offer computer science as an option to satisfy science or math requirements, some schools are now making it a required course in order to graduate. For example, each of the nearly 2,000 freshmen entering the Georgia Institute of Technology each year must take a computer science course regardless of their major, says College of Computing Associate Dean Charles Isbell. In addition, every student at Montclair State University must complete a computer science course in order to graduate. Most Montclair students take “Introduction to Computer Applications: Being Fluent with Information Technology,” which is designed to teach students majoring in non-technical fields about network security, artificial intelligence, databases and e-commerce, says Computer Science Department Chairman Michael Oudshoorn. “It’s not aimed at making them experts; it’s aimed at making them aware,” Oudshoorn says. “They do live in a digital age … they have an obligation to know something about the technology.” University of California, Irvine professor Geoffrey Bowker says more schools should make computer science a requirement. “All aspects of our personal lives and our work lives are affected by computers,” he says. “We need to know about the tools that we’re working with.”
View the full article from US News here.
NSERC Discovery and RTI Results
We are delighted to announce that the Queen’s School of Computing has done very well at this year’s NSERC Discovery and RTI competitions.
Congratulations to Jim Cordy, Randy Ellis, Nick Graham, and James Stewart who have seen their Discovery Grants renewed, thus maintaining the QSC’s renewal success rate at 100%.
Congratulations to Kibum Kim on receiving his first Discovery Grant, along with an Early Career Researcher supplement.
Congratulations to Roel Vertegaal on receiving an RTI grant.
These grants represent a research income of over $834,000 for the School over the next five years. Well done!
Third 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!
Organizers for the event were Richard Linley, Doug Wightman and Lynda Moulton from the School of Computing, and Mr. Kerry Haight from the Limestone District School Board.
Vignettes of the event, as captured by Dave Dove, can be seen here: http://www.cs.queensu.ca/aboutus/highlights/put_item.php?year=2012&highlight=hsprogcontest.php
Thanks to all!
Can the U.S. Credit Card Hack Affect Canadians? David Skillicorn Weighs In
The School of Computing’s David Skillicorn was recently interviewed on the CTV News Network, CBC Radio and by the Toronto Star on the subject of the U.S. credit card hack and how it might affect Canadians.
David Skillicorn Weighs in on NDP Cyber Attack
David was interviewed about the cyber attack on the NDP leadership convention that used more than 10,000 computers, on Global TV National, Toronto Star, Edmonton Journal, Winnipeg Free Press, Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, CBC.ca and many other websites and newspapers across Canada.
What do the Canadian Highway Network and Slime Mold Have in Common? Selim Akl Provides Insight
The School of Computing’s Selim Akl has recently been much in the news as he posits the similarities between the design of the Canadian Highway Network and the behaviour of slime mold. Dr. Akl was featured in The National Post, Science Daily.com, Physorg.com, Scientific Canadian, PBS, the Queen’s News Centre, the Kingston Whig Standard and CKWS TV. Follow the links below to get the whole story.
PBS
Queen’s News Centre
The Kingston Whig Standard
October 22, 2012
This story just continues to gather steam. Popular Science has published an article in their November, 2012 edition on this fascinating topic. Read it below.
Nick Graham on BioWear “A Great Canadian Success Story”
The School of Computing’s Nick Graham commented on Edmonton video game developer BioWare, calling it “a great Canadian success story”, in the Globe and Mail and CTV.ca. Read the entire story here.
Roel Vertegaal Weighs in on Nokia’s Magnetic Tattoo
Roel was recently asked by the Toronto Star to comment on the pending patent for Nokia’s vibrating tattoo. Read the whole story here.
Nick Graham Talks About Liberi Live on The Sci Show
Watch Nick Graham comment on his interactive game Liberi Live on the Sci Show, and find out why it is fun for both players and designers (Nick’s segment begins at minute 3:15):