Past Board member receives community leader award
Former ORANO Board member Dr. Brian Desbiens is the inaugural award recipient of the Trent University Community Leaders Award in the category of Education and Literature. Although renowned for his remarkable leadership within the field of education, Dr. Desbiens is celebrated with this award for his ability to translate his leadership across several sectors at the community, provincial and national levels. These contributions were most recently recognized by the Government of Ontario which awarded Dr. Desbiens the Order of Ontario for his service to postsecondary education and his many contributions to the community. In September, Trent University launched the Community Leaders Awards Program that recognizes and celebrates outstanding individuals from the Peterborough community who have made significant contributions toward the betterment of society. For more information, visit www.trentu.ca/communityleaders.

SHARCNET helps solve cosmological puzzle
A team of McMaster University scientists has solved a lingering riddle over what happened when the universe was born. Using the supercomputing capacity of the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network (SHARCNET) to create a richly detailed model of the first billion years of a dwarf galaxy, Sergey Mashchenko (lead author), James Wadsley and Dr. Hugh Couchman appear to have answered a persistent question about what has been happening inside galaxies since the Big Bang roughly 13 billion years ago. The result of their work, published recently in the journal Science, tied up a significant loose end in the prevailing model of how the universe evolved, a theory called cold dark matter cosmology. The new research demonstrates that space gas plays a much bigger role than previously believed in the distribution of dark matter. The new finding shows that when stars -- formed from dense gas clouds -- ultimately explode at the end of their lives, gas goes sloshing through a galaxy - "like water in a bathtub", says Mashchenko - pushing dark matter out of the centre as it moves. To learn more, click here.

SHARCNET signs MOU with Shanghai Supercomputer Center
A Memorandum of Agreement for Cooperation signing ceremony was recently held between the Shanghai Supercomputer Center (SSC) and SHARCNET. The cooperation between the two organizations -- and the "win/win" to be achieved through further collaboration and information sharing -- will improve the development of high-performance computing (HPC) and certain applications at the national level. For more information, visit www.sharcnet.ca.

CONII provides expertise to small businesses
Ten Ontario colleges have joined forces to create the Colleges Ontario Network for Industry Innovation (CONII), which will conduct research projects that give small- to mid-size businesses access to faculty expertise and provide hands-on, practical experience for students. The colleges are along the technology corridor between Ottawa and Windsor: Algonquin, Centennial, Conestoga, Fanshawe, George Brown, Humber, Niagara, St. Clair, Seneca and Sheridan. CONII is funded by a three-year, $3.5-million grant through the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, as well as funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence and other government programs. "With CONII, we're expanding that relationship to include applied research, development and commercialization services," says Katharine Janzen, chair of the CONII steering committee and VP of research and innovation at Seneca. Students and faculty from Algonquin College's applied research and innovation program, for instance, are currently working on a CONII-supported program to help Nepean's SeeWind Design Corp. develop environmentally-friendly technology that will keep office computer systems running in the event of power failure. CONII expects to complete 50 projects by the end of 2009. To learn more, visit www.conii.org.

U of Ottawa student develops image search technology
Kris Woodbeck, a master's student in the University of Ottawa's Computer Science program, has developed a revolutionary image search technology with the potential to outperform currently available image search engines. Through his research, Woodbeck saw a convergence between modern computer graphics hardware and how the brain itself processes visual information, and so began work on a high-speed, high-accuracy object recognition system based on the visual processing system of the brain. This technology, which could have a major impact on the visual search market, will be launched with a prototype search system that will establish user needs and enable the design and fine-tuning of the final architecture, to be embodied in a full-scale, commercial search engine that lets users search and browse the array of visual databases available on the Internet. The University's Technology Transfer and Business Enterprise (TTBE) office and Kris Woodbeck are working together to secure the intellectual property rights and establish the base for a successful start-up company in Ottawa. To learn more, visit www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom.

Virtual hub for francophone municipalities
Luc Lagrandeur, a professor at the Faculty of Management of Laurentian University, is part of GRECUS, a Canada-wide team of researchers working to help francophone and bilingual municipalities integrate information technology. Led by the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, the research group will work with francophone communities to identify the factors that encourage or inhibit the move towards the Internet or prevent the deployment of Internet services within various municipalities. The results will help enable them to develop strategies to expand Internet-based services. The Virtual Hub web portal will be launched in February 2008. For more information, click here.

Submission deadline nearing: FutureFlick Contest
A reminder to all students in Ontario K-12 schools, colleges and universities to submit their digital short films for the ORION FutureFlick Contest. Students are asked to tell us their vision of student life in the year 2020 through the medium of digital film, and are eligible to win up to $5,000 in prizes! We're calling on teachers and faculty to spread the word and get your students involved. Submissions will be received up until January 31, 2008 at midnight. Learn more at www.orion.on.ca/futureflick.

KMDI hosts Media Spaces for Learning seminar
KMDI hosts a seminar on "User Experience Research Challenges in Media Spaces for Learning", presented by Dr. Ron Baecker, U of T Professor of Computer Science and recipient of the 2007 ORION Leadership Award of Merit, on Tuesday, December 18. Dr. Baecker's talk will begin by reviewing past media space work on desktop videoconferencing, electronic classrooms, and meeting capture. The focus will be on webcasting as media space that has excellent potential for scalability across a large number of sites. Dr. Baecker will also introduce the ePresence Interactive Media system, the cross-platform media space that allows distributed groups of individuals to participate and interact in webcast events such as lectures, and describe some e-learning and medical education projects to which it has been applied. Registration and networking starts at 6:30 pm; presentation begins at 7 pm at the Bahen Centre for IT, 40 St. George Street, Room 2135. Visit www.kmdi.utoronto.ca for more information.

People News
The Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance recently appointed Lou Milrad, currently Board Chair, as the new CEO for the organization. Mr. Milrad will continue to serve as Chair of the Board and assume the additional responsibilities of CEO effective February 1, 2008. John Jung, currently serving as Interim President & CEO, will move into the role of President and Chief Operating Officer effective immediately. Terrence Verity steps down as CIO at Seneca College, to take on the role of Associate Vice President, Governance and Planning. Steve Charikar has been appointed CIO.