August 2006
2006 ORION Discovery Award winner
SNO and "Supernova Watch" - innovative use of ORION
SNO Director Dr. Art McDonald
The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory uses the ORION network to facilitate high-speed communication for many initiatives including "Supernova Watch." Under this program, SNO members, located throughout the world, monitor events that could arise from neutrinos created in a supernova (a star collapsing through gravity) in our galaxy. In the case of such an event, a dozen scientists from around the world would receive a neutrino signal up to two hours before the light could be observed in telescopes. The team would then inspect the data on-site over the network and participate in a discussion of whether the astronomical community should be alerted. SNO's response time for establishing this discussion, typically 10 minutes, would be impossible without the high-speed connectivity provided by ORION. The success of Supernova Watch and other underground experimental techniques was a major factor in the award of almost $40 million from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to create a permanent, world-class facility for underground science research. Read more here.
2006 ORION Learning Award winner
ABEL - bringing the world into Ontario classrooms
ABEL Program Manager Janet Murphy
The Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program, using multiple video screens powered by broadband technology, enhances learning by radically changing how knowledge flows in the classroom. For example, using ABEL, David Boucher, a Canadian novelist in British Columbia, was recently able to connect with a grade 12 English class in Toronto and answer students' questions about his work. In another example, former National Revenue Minister John McCallum, while a recent visit to a York Region secondary school, virtually 'visited' two other schools at the same time. Through ABEL, drama students in Calgary have received theatrical direction from experts at York University, and a Supreme Court judge in Ottawa 'attended' a mock trial held at York University. Read more here.
2006 ORION Leadership Award winner
SHARCNET - leveraging massive computational power
SHARCNET Scientific Director Dr. Hugh Couchman
The Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network - a consortium of academic and research organizations in Ontario now spans 12 universities and two colleges and is broadening out to include Toronto's Ontario College of Art and Design and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo. Researchers are using this massive power to advance their work in multiple disciplines - from modeling the movement of pollution and creating more efficient electronics, to achieving greater understanding of the outbreak of disease like SARS. Led by Scientific Director Dr. Hugh Couchman at McMaster University and Principal Investigator Dr. Mike Bauer at the University of Western Ontario, SHARCNET is already transforming the way researchers access and use high-performance computing, and will form the core of future collaboration and visualization facilities among the member institutions creating a virtual research infrastructure. Read more here.
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