ORION Newsletter

January / February 2010

ORION moves offices
ORION is growing! To accommodate more staff and resources, ORION will be moving to a new office location next month. As of February 26, 2010, ORION will be located at 360 Bay Street, 7th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2V6. Phone and fax numbers will remain the same.

Call for more funding for applied research
The Ontario government should strive to better support applied research that helps strengthen the economy, Colleges Ontario president and CEO Linda Franklin said in response to the recent auditor general's report at Queen's Park. "There are opportunities to promote business growth and create new jobs," Franklin said. "Ontario should improve its allocation of funding for applied research that helps businesses develop new products with commercial value." Franklin's comments follow the release last month of Ontario auditor general Jim McCarter's annual report on government spending. Read more at www.collegesontario.ca.

U of T installs solar panels, spurred by student project
The largest solar panel project in the GTA to date, the University of Toronto recently installed 100 solar collector panels on the roof of its Athletic Centre, supplying nearly 25 per cent of the heat for the building's showers and laundry facilities during peak sunshine months. The initiative first took shape as a student project in 2006, when Faculty of Applied Sciences and Engineering undergraduate Ashley Taylor evaluated the feasibility of installing solar collector panels at the location. Now employed full-time by the University's sustainability office, Taylor worked with the facilities and services division on campus to see the project through to completion. The annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions are roughly equivalent to taking 11 cars permanently off the road, while the yearly energy savings would be enough to heat 11 average-sized detached homes in Canada. Read more at www.news.utoronto.ca.

New transatlantic polar network connections
NORDUnet, a joint collaboration by the five Nordic National Research and Education Networks, CANARIE, Canada's advanced research and innovation network, and the NSF GLORIAD Project, announced their new strategic partnership in the IceLink Project. IceLink will establish a high-capacity circuit in the northern polar regions through Iceland and Greenland, linking the US, Canada, and the five Nordic countries. IceLink will connect the CANARIE network to Europe through a new submarine cable traversing Greenland with a strategic connection point in Reykjavik, Iceland. The new capacity will provide CANARIE with a much-needed redundant path to Europe through a northern connection. CANARIE's contribution to IceLink is a dedicated lightpath from its equipment at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland to New York. The IceLink project is funded largely by NORDUnet with significant support from CANARIE and the NSF GLORIAD project. Read more at www.canarie.ca/news.

Contact North offers e-course development training
Contact North | Contact Nord is hosting an online training program about how to use emerging technologies to rapidly develop high quality, rich, interactive online courses and programs on a limited budget. Facilitated by Contact North | Contact Nord's Chief Innovation Officer, Dr. Stephen Murgatroyd, this service is being offered at no charge to its college and university partners. The first of the three training modules begins in February 2010. Learn more at www.contactnorth.ca.

CANHEIT call for papers
CANHEIT 2010 has issued a call for papers on any of the following themes: innovation technologies with a focus on green IT, cloud computing and mobile applications; academic and administrative systems with a focus on shared services; research and learning with a focus on cyberinfrastructure; security and infrastructure support with a focus on identity management; and IT management. The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 5. Read more at www.canheit.mun.ca.

New awards program recognize physics teachers
The CAP Award for Excellence in Teaching High School/CEGEP Physics, which is being introduced in 2010, is intended to recognize excellence in teaching physics in Canadian high schools or CEGEPs and to encourage and promote physics at the high school/CEGEP level in Canada. The awards honours physics teachers in Canadian high schools or CEGEPs who have a good understanding of their subject and who possess an exceptional ability to communicate their knowledge and understanding in such a way as to motivate their students to high academic achievement in physics. Awards will be given annually in each of five regions in Canada. The award is sponsored by the CAP, TRIUMF, Merlan Scientific, Perimeter Institute, BC Innovation Council, Nelson Education, and Vernier. The deadline for nominations is February 15. Learn more at www.cap.ca.

Workshop bridging HPC and the humanities
The University of Alberta with support from WestGrid and SHARCNET is hosting a one-week workshop on how to use HPC facilities and develop a prototype project that uses HPC techniques to address humanities questions. This workshop is designed to get a number of projects off the ground, to bridge the cultures of the humanities and HPC facilities, and to develop a community to support ongoing work at this intersection. SHARCNET will fund up to two teams of two people each to attend the workshop which will run the week of May 10. Proposal deadline is February 15. Learn more at www.sharcnet.ca.

People News
Scott Montreuil recently joined the ORION team as the new System Administrator, as former System Administrator Daniel Wang becomes IP Engineer. Dr. Tom Corr was recently appointed President and CEO of the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), effective March 1. George Hanus becomes President and Chief Operating Officer this month at the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance (GTMA). Dr. Michael Owen, Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design, will become Associate Provost, Research and Professor of Education at UOIT, effective April 1. Prof. Kostas Plataniotis becomes the new Director of KMDI at the University of Toronto, as Ron Baecker steps down from the position. Also joining KMDI is Adriana Ieraci in the role of Executive Director. Internet2 recently announced that after twelve years of service, president and CEO Douglas Van Houweling has asked the Board of Trustees to begin the process of identifying a successor. Van Houweling has agreed to continue to lead the organization as president and CEO until his successor is transitioned into the role. Cybera, the organization that manages Alberta’s advanced research network, recently appointed Robin Winsor as its new President and CEO. Dr. Jeff Zabudsky was recently appointed President and CEO of Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, effective February 1, as Dr. Robert Turner retires from the post.

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