News

According to NetworkWorld:

The nation’s best undergraduate computer science programs are bracing for a record number of applications this fall, as more high school seniors are lured by plentiful jobs, six-figure starting salaries and a hipster image fostered by the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Early admissions are piling up at elite tech schools, including Carnegie Mellon University, Harvey Mudd College and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology – all of whose undergraduate computer science and engineering programs are rated tops by U.S. News & World Report, the de facto college ranking in the United States.

“It’s pretty clear that computer science is on the rise again,” says Mark Stehlik, assistant dean for undergraduate education at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. “Most of the U.S. economy is stagnant, but computer science grads are getting hired and at pretty good salaries. People also see the applications of technology, and they see that it’s pretty cool. Computing is much more powerful and much more pervasive than it was 10 years ago.”

David was interviewed widely about the top 25 worst/most common computer passwords in the Toronto Star and on the Sun News Network and 10 CBC Radio stations across Canada. You can watch an interview with David here:

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/featured/prime-time/867432237001/problematic-passwords/1290649480001

Congratulations to QSC Telecommunications Research Laboratory members:

Hossam Hassanein and Abd-Elhamid Taha on the publication of their new book (with Najah Abu Ali of UAE University):

LTE, LTE-Advanced and WiMax: Towards IMT-Advanced Networks (Wiley, December 2011).

Congratulations to our colleagues in the QSC Telecommunications Research Laboratory:
Fadi M. Al-Turjman, Hossam S. Hassanein, and Sharief M.A. Oteafy, who had their paper “Towards Augmenting Federated Wireless Sensor Networks” selected as Best Paper at the Second International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT-2011).

That’s right, save the date and make plans to attend Queen’s School of Computing’s Open House! Friday, December 9, from 10am – 2pm the School will open its doors to local and area high school students, their teachers, Queen’s students, faculty & staff and the Kingston community.

The day will be packed with information, hands-on demos and lab tours. This will be a terrific opportunity for everyone to see first-hand the exciting and ground-breaking research that is happening right here at Queen’s School of Computing, every day.

Come back to this site and visit our Facebook Page for further updates on the day’s planned events!

Our Open House is being presented as part of Computer Science Education Week. For more information on CSEd Week, visit their website.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to Queen’s School of Computing!

The 8th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology (ACE) was held in Lisbon, Portugal, November 8 – 11, 2011. Queen’s School of Computing graduate student Jason Kurczak won a Best Paper Silver Award at the conference for his paper:

Hearing is Believing: Evaluating Ambient Audio for Location-Based Games
Jason Kurczak, T.C. Nicholas Graham, Claire Joly and Regan L. Mandryk.

Jason conducts his M.Sc. research in the EQUIS lab under the supervision of  Dr. Nick Graham.
For more details, please visit the ACE 2011 website.

Every year in Kingston thousands of pounds of surplus food end up in the garbage. Mary McCollam feels strongly about food security and sustainability, so she volunteers with Loving Spoonful, a volunteer-driven organization that diverts some of those perishable items to local meal programs, shelters and other agencies. Ms McCollam’s involvement with Loving Spoonful has grown since 2008 and she currently serves as the chair of the board of directors.

“I wanted to make a contribution in a small way to important issues such as food security and sustainability. Loving Spoonful’s food reclamation program matched my interests because it enhances healthy food access for low income families while combating food waste and its adverse environmental effects,” says Ms McCollam, an adjunct associate professor in the School of Computing.

Ms McCollam and other volunteers collect surplus perishable food from restaurants, caterers, cafeterias, farmers, wholesalers and market vendors. Loving Spoonful has delivered over 12,500 pounds of this perishable food to local organizations so far this year. Several Queen’s establishments, including the Lazy Scholar, Leonard Hall cafeteria and the Donald Gordon Conference Centre, donate unused perishable items to this worthwhile initiative.

Queen’s students have volunteered to support many of the organization’s different programs. As well, Loving Spoonful hired a Queen’s Work Study student last summer to help with its Grow a Row program, which delivered over 7,000 pounds of locally grown produce to agencies this year. Grants from the United Way in 2010 and 2011 assisted with this and other programs.

The United Way serving Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFLA) has helped Loving Spoonful build capacity and work toward becoming a United Way agency. The directors attend board development sessions and workshops hosted by the United Way.

Queen’s faculty, staff, students and retirees are one of the biggest contributors to the United Way serving KFLA. Queen’s has raised $277,000 of its $320,000 goal to date. Pledge cards can be returned to the Human Resources department (Fleming Hall, Stewart-Pollock Wing) or sent through campus mail.

Visit the Loving Spoonful website to learn more about its programs.

Queen’s School of Computing’s Professor Nick Graham was in Toronto when COD: MW3 was released earlier this week. CBC news caught up with Nick and asked for his comments on this hugely popular FPS.

Read the CBC news story and see the video here.

Cascon, the IBM CAS international conference in computer science and software engineering, is the premiere annual conference in computer science and software engineering in Canada. It’s a selective conference, with an acceptance rate of about 25% from a field of about 100 submissions.

Every year Queen’s has more than its share of accepted papers at Cascon, and this year is no exception, with 15% (3 out of 22) of accepted papers coming from Queen’s.

However, there is something special about this year – all three Queen’s papers are authored by the same faculty member and his students and colleagues – Tom Dean.

Queen’s papers at Cascon 2011 :

Spy vs. Spy: Counter-intelligence Methods for Backtracking Malicious Intrusions
Jason S. Alexander, Thomas R. Dean and Scott Knight, Queen’s University and Royal Military College

Towards a Framework for Migrating Web Applications to Web Services
Asil A. Almonaies, Manar H. Alalfi, James R. Cordy, and Thomas R.Dean, Queen’s University

Towards the Profiling of Scientific Software for Accuracy
Nicholas J. Meng, Diane Kelly and Thomas R. Dean, Queen’s University and Royal Military College

Dear all,

Pride and passion were on display at the Queen’s School of Computing booth on Saturday October 29 during the Fall Preview at Queen’s. An impressive group of enthusiastic members of the School greeted visitors, showed demos, and spoke about our programs to prospective students and their parents.

For their courtesy, their skill, their eloquence, and above all their loyalty, we are grateful to the following wonderful people:

• Jennifer Andrea
• Irene Ayukawa
• Laura Bartha
• Andrew Dickinson
• Rachelle Farkas
• Simrin Nagpal
• Geoff Seaborn
• Thomas Vaughan
• Karolina Zurowska

• Roger Browse
• Robin Dawes
• Dave Dove (Thank you for the great photos)
• Randy Ellis
• Gabor Fichtinger
• Ben Hall (Thank you for the superb flyer)
• Irene LaFleche (Thank you for organizing our team)
• Mary McCollam
• David Rappaport

The second Fall Preview will take place on November 12.

Best wishes,
Selim