ORION Newsletter

Summer 2009

ORION in the north
ORION's senior staff travelled to Sudbury and Thunder Bay this week to present at Contact North/Contact Nord's Emerging Technology Series. Participants learned about the future of high-speed research and education networks like ORION and how they are helping to transform research, education and providing new and innovative opportunities for collaboration and application development in the north. Participants heard from ORION President/CEO Phil Baker on the impact and direction of new and advanced technologies on research, teaching and learning, and on business, industry and our culture. Senior Director of Partnerships and Strategic Alliances David Koa gave an overview of new ORION services being introduced, with a live demonstration of ORION's new O3 collaboration and professional networking platform. Sam Mokbel, Senior Director of Engineering and Network Operations, linked in via ORION videoconference, reviewed the network's new capabilities to support advanced research and education applications and services. "Ontario is transforming its economy to a knowledge-based economy where research and education will be critical drivers of our future prosperity," said Baker. "High-speed networks like ORION have the capacity to radically change the way we do business in a host of fields, and we look forward to exploring collaboration and partnership opportunities with Northern Ontario stakeholders that will support the region's transformation to a knowledge-based economy." Twenty northern institutions and organizations are currently connected to the ORION network. The event was hosted by Contact North/Contact Nord, which provides distance education and learning services throughout Northern Ontario. Learn more at www.contactnorth.ca.

New digital media research centre at Sheridan
Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning was recently awarded a $2.3 million grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada's (NSERC) College and Community Innovation Program to establish a new research centre for screen-based industries. The mission of the Digital Media Centre for Real-time Production is to conduct world-class research into film, digital cinema and high definition imaging technologies in a wide variety of areas from capture to delivery and archiving. It was conceived and launched by Sheridan and will operate in partnership with creative industries and three levels of government. Sheridan will also be adding a film and digital media studies component, making the first such initiative to establish a permanent educational campus within a studio complex in the heart of Canada's filmmaking industry. This educational component will serve both full-time students and industry professionals through facilitating technology and knowledge transfers that foster improvements in creative collaboration and economic efficiency, innovation, and commercialization. By involving students in technology research, it will ensure that the next generation of digital media professionals is both technologically adept and able to respond proactively to the changing needs of industry. Read more at www.sheridaninstitute.ca.

Canada 3.0 calls for Action Plan
The seminal Canada 3.0 conference wrapped up in Stratford earlier this month, where delegates gathered to start shaping a national digital media action plan to ensure Canada not only competes, but also leads the world in the new digital economy. ORANO, among the event sponsors, helped develop the "Digital Shovels - Building Infrastructure" program stream. President/CEO Phil Baker addressed participants on critical infrastructure supporting research and innovation and he facilitated a roundtable discussion on digital infrastructure. Premier Dalton McGuinty and former Research and Innovation minister John Wilkinson both addressed the conference, as did federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement and Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology. The conference drew hundreds of participants from throughout the country. Guiding the action plan in the months ahead is the Stratford Declaration, which came out of the final plenary session, stating that:

We have the opportunity to lead the world in digital media and create a national advantage by commercializing innovation
To be a leader in digital media all Canadians should be connected to all Canadian content on a fair and transparent basis
All Canadians should have the opportunity to participate fully in the digital world - an increasingly mobile world; and
Success requires new business models that encourage national collaboration and co-operation.

"Delegates clearly showed that they are eager to see Canada commit quickly to the development of a coherent and consistent vision for our country's digital future," said Baker. Learn more at http://canada30.uwaterloo.ca.

CANARIE announces $3M Call for Proposals in green IT
CANARIE's recent $3 million Call for Proposals to hopes to fuel the development of advanced computing and networking technologies that reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions from the world's ICT infrastructure. The CANARIE Green IT Pilot Program will help Canadian innovators capitalize on emerging opportunities in Green ICT. CANARIE expects to award up to $2 million for major zero-carbon data center pilot projects and about $1 million for the development of business cases and smaller projects. Proposals will be announced in October 2009. Learn more at www.canarie.ca/funding/greenit.

Archive of ORION-ABEL webcasts
The ORION-ABEL Webcast Learning Series is an excellent resource for educators looking for demos of how to use new instructional technologies to enhance the student learning experience. Six webcasts are currently available on the topics of Second Life, Moodle, digital storytelling, digital literacy, podcasting, and smart boards. Learn more at http://abeldb.abel.yorku.ca/webcasts/default.aspx.

Previous ORION Award winner elected to UK Royal Society
Queen's University physics professor - and previous ORION Award winner - Dr. Art McDonald is one of three Canadians elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth. Founded in 1660, the Royal Society today has more than 1400 Fellows and Foreign Members worldwide, recognized for their exceptional contributions in the fields of science, engineering and medicine. Dr. McDonald was attracted to Queen's in 1989 to head up the university's new Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO), located in a northern Ontario nickel mine. Working in the world's deepest underground laboratory, the SNO team discovered that neutrinos (sub-atomic particles considered the basic building blocks of the universe) change from one type to another on their journey to Earth from the sun. This solved a 30-year-old scientific problem and confirmed that models of the energy generation in the sun are correct. The SNO measurements indicate that the basic laws of physics must be rewritten, and provide information that could lead to a more complete description of nature at the most microscopic level. The discovery was ranked the second most important scientific breakthrough in the world in 2001 by the international journal, Science. Read more at www.queensu.ca/news.

Lakehead VP Research receives award
Lakehead University Vice-President of Research Dr. Rui Wang is the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Canadian Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (CSPT) Pfizer Senior Scientist Award. Dr. Wang is recognized as an international leader in the research field of gaseous molecules. Last fall, a research team led by Dr. Wang discovered the regulation of blood pressure by hydrogen sulphide - groundbreaking work which may pave the way for new therapeutic approaches in treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The Pfizer Award is the highest award the CSPT gives to a basic research scientist in Canada, and is given for significant contributions to the advancement and extension of knowledge in the field. Read more at www.lakeheadu.ca/news.

Arbitrator okays Google Apps for Lakehead
An arbitrator has ruled in favour of allowing Lakehead University to continue to use Google Apps for Education in providing e-mail services on campus. Faculty complained that their data, transmitted over Google servers, would be subject to the provisions of the US Patriot Act. However, the arbitrator ruled that, while privacy may well be compromised, the university did not commit to providing private email communication services. The arbitrator's ruling is available at: www.canlii.org.

Register for ABEL Summer Institute
York University's Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) Program once again hosts its Summer Institute for the education community. ORION is among the sponsors of the conference, taking place August 24 to 26 at the University, and will be presenting its new web collaboration service, O3. This year's conference theme is "Social Innovation: Your Ideas, Your Inspiration, Your Community." Geared primarily to K-12 educators, the conference is a guided and self-directed exploration of 21st century educational tools and knowledge building approaches. Max Valiquette, founder and president of Youthography, will give the keynote address looking at how the technological tools of today and tomorrow play a role in changing the power dynamic in our culture. View the program and register at www.abelearn.ca.

Perimeter Institute hosts science festival
The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario will host its 10th anniversary science celebration, "Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future," October 15 - 25. The Festival commemorates the 10th anniversary of Perimeter Institute's creation, contributes to Canada's National Science and Technology Week activities, and will provide on-site and online destinations during this International Year of Astronomy. An extensive program will feature more than 50 events, including keynote presentations, panel discussions, exhibits, film screenings, world premieres and cultural events that will showcase a wide variety of fascinating topics such as new forms of quantum communication, scientific visualization, the future of robotics, green technologies, personal genetics, and the possibility of life on other planets. TVO, Ontario's public educational media organization, will be the official Presenting Media Partner for the Q2C Festival, with many lectures and panel discussions being recorded for later broadcast. The Festival will also incorporate live website streaming of most events to online audiences around the world. Learn more at www.q2cfestival.com.

Cybera/CANARIE Summit - keynotes announced
Organizers of the Cybera/CANARIE Summit recently announced a few of the keynote speakers who will present at the conference, October 13 - 15 in Banff, Alberta. Researcher and consultant Anthony Williams, co-author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything will join CANARIE Chief Research Officer, Bill St. Arnaud, and Edward Seidel, Director of the Office of Cyberinfrastructure at the National Science Foundation in the United States. Summit 09: Partnerships in CI Development is a week-long culmination of three events - Open Grid Forum 27, IEEE Grid 2009, and the Cybera/CANARIE Summit - that will explore the areas of cloud computing, high performance computing, grids, Web 2.0, business development, computational research, advanced networks, and other emerging cyberinfrastructures. To register, visit www.cyberacanariesummit.ca.

People News
In the recent Ontario Cabinet shuffle, former Minister of Research and Innovation John Wilkinson has been appointed Minister of Revenue, as John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, takes over his portfolio. Dr. Raphael Hofstein was recently appointed President and CEO of MaRS Innovation. Anne Sado, President of George Brown College and Vice-Chair of the ORANO board of directors, was recently elected Chair of the board of directors of Trillium Health Centre. Laurentian University recently appointed Dr. Patrice Sawyer as Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies, effective July 1. Internet2 has appointed Randy Frank, from Fidelity Investments Center for Applied Technology, as its new Chief Technology Officer. Frank replaces retiring Rick Summerhill. Dr. Mario Thomas has been appointed Managing Director of the Centre for Commercialization of Research (CCR), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence. Keith Parsonage has been appointed Managing Director of the Centre of Excellence for Communications and Information Technology, one of six centres within the OCE. Andrew Brigham recently became Manager of Converged Networks at Lakehead University. ORION's IP Network Engineer Mansoor Khan has accepted a position with Rogers Communications.

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