ORION Newsletter

December 2006 / January 2007

Ontario plan for innovation
Ontario has just released its awaited strategic plan to position the province as a global innovation leader. Premier and Minister of Research and Innovation Dalton McGuinty released the government's new strategic plan in the Legislature Dec. 11. Among the highlights, the plan sets several goals, including establishing Ontario as the preferred location to grow knowledge-based industries and attracting "the best and the brightest" scientists and innovators. Consultation sessions are scheduled throughout Ontario beginning in Sudbury Jan. 9, and wrapping up in Mississauga Jan 29. The plan, developed in consultation with researchers, industry, the private sector, academic institutions and other government ministries. Download the plan and learn more at www.ontario.ca/innovation .

North Bay-Peterborough link completed
ORION engineers are wrapping up the next phase of the ORION expansion, expecting to complete the new North Bay to Peterborough link before Christmas. The new link allows ORION to break out from the route to new communities, including Orillia, Lindsay and Huntsville. The next phase of the network expansion, with new fibre connecting St. Catharines to London, is expected to be completed in February, 2007. The upgrade brings greater resiliency and backup capabilities for the network. New, state-of-the-art routers are also being installed in the New Year, able to support next-generation Internet protocol technologies, such as IPv6, MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching and QoS (Quality of Service). The expansion is part of a broader initiative which includes a joint project with CANARIE to expand the network with new ROADM technology in Ontario.

NOSM and Stanford partner in 3-D iAnatomy collaboration

David MacLean, Associate Professor of Physiology at NOSM, teaches students how to use the 3-D iAnatomy technology.

ORION President/CEO Phil Baker joined with Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) officials in Sudbury last week, to officially launch the new 3-D iAnatomy collaboration with California's Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Parvati Dev, Director of Stanford University Medical Media and Information Technologies, travelled to Sudbury to speak at the event. The project, which makes use of ORION's multicast capabilities to link the northern school to Stanford's stereoscopic images of human anatomy, was profiled in the November edition of the ORION Research and Discovery News. Through ORION's advanced networking technology, NOSM students will be able to view and manipulate high-definition, three-dimensional anatomical representations from Stanford's vast collection of stereoscopic images of human anatomy. NOSM will use Dr. David Bassett's collection of images that he developed in the 1950s and 1960s in a process that involved cadaver dissections and photography at Stanford University. Medical schools like NOSM that do not use cadavers in their teaching programs, will now have access to this collection of labelled and annotated stereoscopic images of the human anatomy - considered by many to be the most comprehensive collection of medical images available. Other speakers included Dr. Robert A. Chase, Professor of Surgery and past Chair of the Department of Surgery and Anatomy at Stanford University School of Medicine, who presented via satellite from Berkeley, California; Ed Brown, President, Ontario Telemedicine Network; Dr. Roger Strasser, NOSM Founding Dean; and Dr. David Topps, NOSM Director of e-Learning. For more information, please visit www.normed.ca.

Royal Botanical Gardens launches virtual field trips for schools
The Royal Botanical Gardens is launching a new Virtual Field Trip program to bring nature into Ontario classrooms. Made possible by a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the program will use interactive videoconferencing and Internet technologies to engage students from across the province. Students will be able to interact with the Gardens educators and scientists to explore topics such as biodiversity, conservation, botany, plant ecology and the environment. The videoconferencing technology will also allow the Gardens' Science and Conservation staff to collaborate with scientists from around the globe, bring in international experts for its educational programs, and share its public programs with other partners. The eLearning program, set to launch in March 2007, will further the Gardens' mission of promoting public understanding of the relationship between humans, the plant world and the rest of nature. For more information, please visit www.rbg.ca/pages/evirtualfieldtrips.html.

World's first library VR studio opens in Timmins
December 1st marked the official opening of the Timmins Virtual Reality Studio, the world's first virtual reality facility in a public library. Housed in the newly-built Timmins Public Library, the Virtual Reality Studio will be an innovative tool for both businesses and high school students alike. The advanced technology was developed with the Northern Ontario mining industry in mind, to facilitate data analysis and fine-tune exploration programs. However, the advanced technology is also intended to help students undertake science projects and to inspire them to explore and pursue science and engineering careers. The Honourable Rick Bartolucci, Minister of Northern Development and Mines and Chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), was in attendance at the event and said the spin-off benefits of this technology are incredible. The facility is funded in part by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, within a $3.4 million project called the Northern Advanced Visualization Network (NAVNet), managed by Laurentian University's Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCO). For more information, please visit www.mndm.gov.on.ca/nohfc or www.mirarco.org.

Free networking resource i-Tutor connects students online
A free web-based networking resource is successfully connecting students in elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities with suitable, qualified university-educated tutors. Launched in 2004, i-Tutor recruits university students who are knowledgeable in many subject areas and seeking tutoring opportunities. Tutees register for free and have access to this network of tutors through the i-Tutor website. The resource is run by students for students and retains independent tutors from several Ontario universities, including the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University, McMaster University, Queen's University, University of Waterloo, University of Western Ontario, University of Guelph, Carleton University, University of Ottawa, Brock University, and Laurentian University. To learn more, please visit www.i-tutor.ca for more information.

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