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July 2004
New Technical Committee to advise ORION
A new ORION Technical Committee has been established to advise ORION on network design and technology deployment, management and operations. Led by ORION’s Project Director Sam Mokbel, the new advisory group held its first meeting at the Ontario R&E Summit in Toronto June 14. The committee will initially meet a minimum of twice a year. Members may set up working groups to develop and implement working plans for applications and resources available across ORION, or may be asked to participate in product or vendor evaluation panels. They will also share their own user requirements with the rest of the committee and ORION’s Engineering team. Members include, from western region, Doug Payne from the University of Waterloo and Kent Percival of University of Guelph; from eastern region, Andy Hooper of Queen’s University, Gerry Pinkney from UOIT and Marc Lefebvre from the University of Ottawa; from northern region, Bill Sandblom of Sudbury’s Laurentian University; from southern region, Colin Wu of McMaster University in Hamilton and Casey Carvalho of Sheridan College; and from GTAnet, Bob Chambers from the University of Toronto, and Ken Woo from Ryerson University.
ORION first RAN to use UCLP
The ORION network became the first RAN to have control of its own CANARIE Lightpath on June 22, when CANARIE gave ORION access to its User Controlled Lightpath Program (UCLP) software to provision a lightpath. The lightpath was established between ORION’s router in Ottawa and CANARIE’s router in Montreal for a new peering session between ORION and CANARIE to supplement the existing Toronto peering session. “We are the first RAN to use the ULCP service to provision bandwidth on demand,” said Project Director Sam Mokbel. CANARIE’s new UCLP program and software is currently getting the attention of the advanced networking community. The software, co-funded by Cisco Systems Canada and CANARIE, allows users to access and manage optical networks without the help of a service provider. For example, says CANARIE, a community of high-energy physicists can create its own independent IP network (as a subset of a larger optical network) whose topology and architecture is optimized for their particular grid application needs and requirements. The networks can be dynamically reconfigured at any time without getting permission or signaling the optical network manager. CANARIE believes the technology can be used to accelerate research in such areas as medicine, high-energy physics and environmental sciences. The special software is not for sale, but is made available for free to the global networking community. Learn more about UCLP initiative at www.canarie.ca/canet4/uclp/uclp_software.html.
ALICE comes on stream
A new Latin American research and education network comes on stream on August 1, as the long-awaited ALICE Project (America Latina Interconectada Con Europa) rolls out a new Latin American backbone network and a direct trans-Atlantic link between Latin America and Europe. The ground-breaking network will provide direct connectivity of 155 Mbps, in a “ring” topology, linking the NRENs (National Research and Education Networks) of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Panama and Mexico. The new Latin American ring will be connected at 622 Mbps to the European research network GÉANT in Madrid, Spain. In addition, the Venezuelan NREN will be connected to the ring via a 45Mbps circuit between Caracas and Sao Paulo. Further connections linking the NRENs of Uruguay and Paraguay to the ring will follow soon afterwards. The new connections will provide a Latin American research networking backbone, enabling researchers in the region to collaborate directly for the first time in their work with one another and with their colleagues in European and global research projects. The new infrastructure will provide a significant boost to Latin American research by improving the data communication facilities available to researchers and supporting them in the global research race.
New leadership at CANARIE Board
Ted Dodds, Associate Vice President, Information Technology, University of British Columbia was appointed Chair of CANARIE, at the recent election of CANARIE's 2004-05 Board of Directors, replacing Walter Stewart. Lucille Pacey, Executive Director, Arts Umbrella, was appointed Vice-Chair; Gerald Brown, President, Association of Canadian Community Colleges was named Secretary-Treasurer; and Walter Stewart, Director, Business Development SGI Canada and Global Co-ordinator SGI Grid Strategy of Silicon Graphics Canada Inc. is Past-Chair. Newcomers to the board include Joseph Grech, President, Global Trading & Partner Solutions, TELUS Corporation; Ken Hewitt, President, Netera Alliance; Louise Proulx, Vice President, Research, McGill University and Louis Savoie, Regional Vice President, Enterprise Accounts (Sales), Bell Canada; and Mark Whitmore, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Manitoba. “I look forward to meeting the challenges of the next year so that CANARIE can continue to deliver the social, cultural and economic benefits of advanced networks to all Canadians,” said Dodds.
Tony Tilly new President of Fleming
Tony Tilly has been appointed President of Peterborough’s Fleming College, replacing retiring Brian Desbiens, effective August 30, 2004. Formerly Senior Vice-President of Seneca College, Dr. Tilly will bring an in-depth knowledge of the community college system and a passion for education to the position. “Dr. Tilly’s leadership skills are outstanding as is his collaborative work both as a consultant and at Seneca with key partners. We are fortunate to be able to welcome him to the college,” says College Board Chair Gary Lounsbury. As a consultant, Dr. Tilly has worked with a number of Ontario colleges, international agencies and the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario (ACAATO). “I’ve always been aware of Fleming’s outstanding reputation, especially its reputation for a great learning and working environment,” says Dr. Tilly. At Seneca, where he also served as Vice-President Academic, he developed support systems to improve student success and led partnership developments with York University. These included the development of the Seneca@York Campus and the joint Technology Enhanced Learning building. He replaces Brian Desbiens, who retired this summer, after serving Fleming College for 16 years. Brian Desbiens remains active as a member of the board of the Optical Regional Advanced Network of Ontario (ORANO), which owns and operates the ORION network.
Ottawa chemist collects $1M Ontario research award
University of Ottawa Chemist Juan Cesar “Tito” Scaiano has won the Premier’s Platinum Medal for Research Excellence, one of the largest single research awards in the world. “It’s a tremendous honour for me to have been selected,” said Scaiano, who has also won the Herzberg medal, Canada’s highest scientific honour. The award includes a platinum medal, citation and cash prize of $1 million to support the winner's research, either by way of covering his/her direct research costs or by the funding of a scholarship or chair in the recipient's name. “Professor Scaiano is clearly one of the top researchers in his field and a recognized leader in the scientific world. This award confirms his well-deserved reputation and serves as an inspiration to all researchers at the University of Ottawa,” said Gilles Patry, Rector of the University of Ottawa. Born in Argentina, Scaiano has been at the University of Ottawa since 1991, and was named Distinguished University Professor in 2000. He has authored or co-authored over 400 articles, and is one of only 218 chemists (and only 145 Canadians) to be on the ISI Most Highly Cited list.
$8.2M from CFI in hopes to stem “brain drain”
Ontario universities are sharing some $8.2 million for 62 research infrastructure projects, in the latest round of Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grants, which the CFI hopes will help address Canada’s “brain drain”. The investments are part of the $23.8 million in funding announced late June. A grant of just under $270,000, for the Creation of a High Performance Computational Facility for Quantum Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, is the single largest amount approved for an individual Ontario project in this round. The University of Toronto receives the biggest piece of the pie, with 14 approved projects totalling just under $2 million in funding. The CFI says its investments address the country’s “brain drain” and help keep Canada’s brightest research minds in the country. Investments made by the CFI mean that “institutions are able to attract and retain the world’s best researchers when just a decade ago, Canada was not seen as an attractive place for research and was faced with a major brain drain challenge.”
Vanier new CEO at RISQ
Michel Vanier has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Quebec RISQ R&E network, effective August 5. Vanier holds a Masters in computer science from Université de Montréal and a diploma in administration from the MBA program at HEC Montréal. Over the course of his career, he has held a half-dozen administrative positions within Université de Montréal’s IT and communication services. While there, Vanier coordinated a number of challenging projects, including the establishment of a broadband network linking the University and its affiliated hospitals, the transition to voice-over-IP and the design and implementation of the institution’s IT security policy. RISQ (Réseau d'informations scientifiques du Québec) is a non-profit organization providing next-generation very high bandwidth IP telecommunication services and infrastructure to Quebec’s institutions of research and education.
Extra $1M for research in New Media
ORION wants to hear from researchers that intend to submit a proposal under CANARIE’s Applied Research in New Media (ARIM) Program. CANARIE issued a Call for Proposals on July 22, 2004, looking for projects that are innovative, demonstrate a high level of collaboration among participating organizations, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, and focus on areas of advanced networking such as grid computing. The Department of Canadian Heritage through Canadian Culture Online is providing a $1 million extension to the program, which is administered by CANARIE. The program focuses on projects that increase innovation in Canada’s cultural and new media sector. Projects funded during the first phase included new ways of delivering rich multimedia experiences in musical education, innovative methods for linking digital libraries, video streaming technology that teaches teenagers about the dangers of Internet predators, and the development of speech recognition technology with automatic transcription. Applications should be sent in confidence via email to new-media@canarie.ca by August 12, 2004. Information about guidelines and criteria is available at www.canarie.ca/funding/arim/guidelines.html. ORION wants to hear from those who intend to submit a proposal for projects that would take place over the ORION network, as a potential partner. E-mail us at info@orano.on.ca.
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