Dear all,

The venue had changed (Mackintosh-Corry Hall) but the enthusiasm was as high as usual among School of Computing volunteers, as they participated in Part 2 of the 2010 Fall Preview held on Saturday, November 13. On your behalf, I would like to  express our gratitude to the following people for their creativity, their skill, their energy, their eloquence, and their courtesy, when welcoming our prospective students and their parents, showing the visitors what we do, and answering questions about our School and our programs:

Brian Butler

Sacha Robinson

Joey Pape

Audrey Girouard

Eril Berkok

Charlotte Blinston

Julia Canella

Melissa Trezise

Maryam Ahmed

Anson Herriotts

Daniel Basilio

Marie Matheson

Ben Hall

Dean McKeown

Irene LaFleche

Such is the loyalty among our alumni, that Tanya Wolff, B.Sc. (Hon.) ’95, M.Sc. ’97, now with IBM Ottawa, came especially to Kingston to help out with the event.  Thank you Tanya so much.

Best wishes,

Selim

Natalie Gruska, supervised by Pat Martin in the Database Systems Lab, won the Best Student Paper award at CASCON with her paper entitled “Integrating MapReduce and RDBMs”.

Xianrong Zhang’s poster, “Fair Bargaining in One-to-One Web Services Negotiation”, co-authored by Pat Martin, Kathryn Brohman (from the Queen’s School of Business) and Wendy Powley won the Technology Showcase People’s Choice Award.

Pat’s group had a tremendous showing at CASCON this year with 7 posters, 3 papers, a Vintage Demo (to celebrate 20 years of CASCON), as well as 2 workshop presentations.

Pat Martin was a panelist on the Twenty Years of Impact Panel which examined the impact that the IBM Center of Advanced Studies has had on innovation, research, business and people.

Hua (Michael) Xiao, Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Ying Zou at the School of Computing won  the IBM Centre for Advanced Studies

(CAS) Student of the Year award.   The award recognizes the student who

has shown outstanding insight and perspective that has contributed to IBM in a matter of great importance.  This award specifically recognizes the breadth of interactions that Michael has had with IBM and his valuable research contributions to the smart services research project with IBM CAS.

Congratulations to Michael and to his supervisor!

Selim

MARKHAM, ON and CASCON, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ – An IBM-led team (NYSE: IBM) of researchers has mapped out a smarter, more intuitive version of the Internet – one you can assign tasks to make your life easier, such as ordering taxis, managing social engagements or even paying bills.

The research was released today at the 20th annual CASCON, a software and computing conference showcasing research by IBM Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) in collaboration with academic and government research organizations. Representatives from IBM, Queen’s University, the University of Victoria, the University of Waterloo,   the University of Toronto and University of Maryland Baltimore County outlined the results of their Smart Internet research project.

As the world becomes more instrumented and interconnected, and cloud services and analytics become more advanced, the Internet will be able to automatically pull together data and services from a variety of online sources and integrate them in a way that provides context, and which can be used more easily, researchers said.

For example, the project work, which started in 2009, has determined how future iterations of the Internet will enable users to arrange to have taxis to and from the airport automatically ordered whenever they book a flight, and automatically notified if flights are delayed, or link RSVPs on a Facebook invitation with the reservation system at their favourite restaurant, to automatically reserve a table for the exact number of guests who accept.

“The project illustrated how the Internet will move beyond the present paradigm where people are responsible for the initiating and managing their own manual navigation of the Web, to a ‘personalized Web,’ functioning as a platform of services and resources that are dynamically and automatically configured to suit each person’s individual goals, tasks and concerns, in a way that person wants,” says Joanna Ng, master inventor and head of research at IBM’s Center for Advanced Studies.

Currently, a function such paying bills requires you be aware when bills are due and proactively initiate a payment transaction by visiting one, or more URLs. More often than not, this involves repeating many decisions that are the same or similar to decisions made in previous service requests – say last month, when the same bill was due.

The smarter Internet will know when bills are due, and on those dates, log on to your online bank account, process a payment, and even transfer additional funds to prevent overdraft – a series of events set in motion by your one-click “yes” response to an automatically generated question, “Do you want to pay this bill now?”

The research team has also determined how to integrate a behind-the-scene enabler to deliver information and services in way users want, and how to do that when it is most relevant and appropriate to the user’s task at hand or situation.

“If, for example, I’m a physician and use text alerts, a smart Internet would inform me only of messages that are emergencies or of immediate relevance to the patient I am attending to, until I am free. I don’t want to receive notifications about a sale on sporting goods while I’m with a patient!” explains Jim Cordy, Queen’s University professor.

Future research efforts will focus on commercialization of the technologies that support the smart Internet, and other scientific advancements to transform it into a ubiquitous tool that support people’s needs in a timely and personalized way, while still allowing them to maintain appropriate control over the tasks themselves.

About CAS Canada Research: This unit of IBM’s Centre for Advanced Studies Canada is responsible for applied research and accelerating the commercialization of advanced research into strategic products.

SOURCE IBM Canada Ltd

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ibm-outlines-vision-of-a-more-intuitive-internet-106616488.html

Dear all,

It was an amazing display that the School of Computing presented at the Annual Queen’s Fall Preview, on Saturday October 30, from 8:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Twenty members of the School where on hand to promote our undergraduate programs, and the discipline of computing in general. I am happy to report that their beautiful demos and eloquent presentations to high school students and their parents attracted a great deal of attention. There were approximately 2,400 visitors, and one could see a renewed interest in the excitement and wonder of computing, among female and male young people alike. (And if you missed the event on the weekend, you can make up for it by offering to help on the second occasion, on Saturday November 13.)

A big heartfelt thank you to the following wonderful volunteers:

Undergrads
————-

Maryam Ahmed
Eril Berkok
Charlotte Blinston
Michelle Brown
Julia Canella
Anson Herriotts
Yvette Zhao
Melissa Trezise (who showed up to serve despite not feeling well, and had to be pushed to go home and rest)

Grads
——

Andrew Dickinson
Cheryl Savery
Kelly Sinclair
Layan Nahlawi
Tamas Ungi
Doug Wightman

Staff
——

Irene LaFleche
Dean McKeown

Faculty
——–

Roger Browse
Brian Butler
David Rappaport
James Stewart

Selim

Dear Friends,

The Canadian Cardiovascular Congress (CCC) was held in Montreal, October 23-27, 2010. The largest annual gathering showcasing the best in cardiovascular research, innovation, and care in Canada, CCC attracted close to 4,000 professionals. One study reported at the Congress was highlighted this morning on the U.S. National Public Radio (low resting heart rate, that is, 58 or a little below, is a good thing).

This year, the Queen’s School of Computing, in collaboration with the Department of Medicine, the Kingston General Hospital, and colleagues from Ottawa and Montreal, had a strong representation with no fewer than eight podium presentations:

Complex Subharmonic Structures as a Predictor for ICD Therapy
S Gupta, JC Siu, H Abdollah, AM Baranchuk, CS Simpson, S Akl, DP Redfearn
Kingston, Ontario

Vagal Denervation is Not a Critical Factor For Successful Outcome After Circumferential Pulmonary Vein Isolation
GE Seaborn, JC Siu, AM Baranchuk, H Abdollah, CS Simpson, S Akl, DP Redfearn
Kingston, Ontario

The Right Ventricular Septum Provides The Optimal Pacing Site in A Heart Failure Population
JH Siu, M Moey, MA Maraschiello, GE Seaborn, AM Baranchuk, CS Simpson, H Abdollah, DP Redfearn
Kingston, Ontario

The Post-Pacing Interval After Failed Antitachycardia Pacing May Be A Useful Diagnostic Tool in Differentiating Atrial Fibrillation / Atrial Tachycardia from Ventricular Tachycardia
KA Michael, DP Redfearn, S Fair, R Miranda, H Abdollah, CS Simpson, AM Baranchuk
Kingston, Ontario

Interventional Electrophysiology-Neck and Back Breaking Work!
D Birnie, A Krahn, DP Redfearn, K Ahmad, E Crystal, Y Khaykin, V Chauhan, F Philippon, DV Exner, B Thibault, T Hruczkowski, J Healy
Ottawa, Ontario

Anticoagulation Management Pre and Post Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: A Survey Of Canadian Centres
V Essebag, D Birnie, P Guerra, DP Redfearn, G Becker, J Champagne, J Sapp, L Gula, R Parkash, L Macle, E Crystal, G O’Hara, Y Khaykin, M SSturmer, GD Veenhuyzen, T Hadjis, I Mangat, P Novak, J Roux, V Chauhan, I Greiss, CA Morillo, SK Tung, A Pantano, A Verma
Montreal, Quebec

Right Ventricular Septum is the Optimim Site for Maximal Electrical Separation (MES) In Resynchronization Therapy (CRT)
R Miranda, M Nault, KA Michael, H Abdollah, AM Baranchuk, CS Simpson, DP Redfearn
Kingston, Ontario

Paced Signal Averaged ECG Provides Mechanistic Insights Into Reduced Mortality In CRT Patients Through Late Potential Reduction
JC Siu, JS Cheng, KA Michael, H Abdollah, AM Baranchuk, CS Simpson, DP Redfearn
Kingston, Ontario
Congratulations to our students and colleagues for this impressive show.

Selim

Dear friends,

On behalf of the Queen’s School of Computing I extend warm congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the “Ontario Celebration of Women in Computing”, for a fabulous conference. The event, which took place this past weekend, was superbly organized and run. Its attendance exceeded all expectations, especially for a first-time edition. I would like to thank Wendy Powley, in particular, for her leadership, and the inspiration that she provided to all the volunteers who made this meeting the wonderful success that it was. More details about the proceedings can be found at: http://sites.cs.queensu.ca/wisc/ONCWIC/

I am also delighted to report that the conference is to become an annual event, and that the Queen’s School of Computing will play an important role in its future.

All the best,
Selim

School of Computing Director Selim Akl was one of the speakers at the launch of the Business Plan Competition for Prince Edward County and Lennox and Addington County, held in Goodes Hall on Wednesday October 20, 2010. Said Dr. Akl:”I am delighted that the Queen’s School of Computing has been invited to be a partner in organizing this important competition. The School of Computing is a dynamic and forward-looking organization. As the banner behind me says, the School fosters entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation. Indeed, my colleagues and I work with professionals from all disciplines, from physicians to physicists, from engineers to artists, creating and disseminating knowledge, and providing practical solutions to a multitude of problems. Today, all progress in science and technology rests on a firm computing foundation. There is no doubt, therefore, that information technology can play an important role in the economic development of our region.”

http://business.queensu.ca/centres/monieson/business_plan_competition.php
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