New CANARIE President and CEO
The Board of Directors of CANARIE Inc. recently announced the appointment of Guy Bujold as President and CEO of CANARIE, effective October 1, 2008. Current President and CEO, Andrew Bjerring, will step down September 30. Guy Bujold is currently President of the Canadian Space Agency and has held senior executive positions in a number of federal government departments and agencies, including Industry Canada, Finance Canada, Health Canada, the Canadian Coast Guard, and Infrastructure Canada. CANARIE Board Chair David Steeves welcomed Mr. Bujold "as a new leader who will bring to CANARIE substantial experience in strategic planning and tactical implementation as well as strong interpersonal skills that will be critical for a successful transition and to continue to strengthen Canada's Science and Technology platform." Read more at www.canarie.ca.

$115M investment in Ontario research
The Ontario Government is investing nearly $115-million to support 19 research projects at nine Ontario universities, institutes and hospitals. Funding will be matched by 107 major industry and other partners participating in the projects. For example, $17.9 million will go to Queen's University astrophysics professor and lead researcher Dr. Anthony Noble, Canada Research Chair in Particle Astrophysics, to fund ongoing research in SNOLAB, the world's deepest underground laboratory near Sudbury. The funding will ensure that research teams will have the tools and resources they need to continue their globally significant work that aims to expand our understanding of the Universe. For more information on the and other funded projects, visit www.mri.gov.on.ca.

$18M for North Bay e-learning centre
The Hon. John Milloy, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, recently announced an Ontario government investment of $18-million in a new student learning centre at Nippissing University and Canadore College in North Bay. The E-Learning Resource Centre, to be shared by students of Nipissing and Canadore, will feature state-of-the-art technology and provide students with access to a range of digital resources. The 56,000 square foot building will more than double the size of the existing library and provide greater connectivity with regional campuses as well as increased accessibility to the rapidly growing digital resources around the world. The library design also includes a Silver LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standard. The joint project builds upon the ongoing collaboration between the two institutions that promotes sharing of buildings and learning resources, and will allow both institutions to better accommodate enrolment growth. Read more at www.edu.gov.on.ca.

Rock Fracture Dynamics lab
A new facility at the University of Toronto will help researchers understand and predict how rocks will react to different types of stress, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, mining and radioactive waste. The new Rock Fracture Dynamics Laboratory is the only lab in the world where rock samples can be tested under true earth-like stress and temperature conditions while imaging deformation. A key part of the facility is the high-performance computing cluster enabling near-real time processes and displays results from 400 megabytes of data being collected from geophysical acquisition computers. As well as experimental data processing for imaging, it will allow much larger and higher resolution models. The lab is made possible through $5-million in funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and the U.S. Keck Foundation, as well as commercial partner contributions. Learn more at www.news.utoronto.ca.

Researchers simulate world's largest heart model
Researchers at the Universite de Montreal (UdM) recently ran the largest mathematical simulation of a heart ever assembled -- a 2 billion element model -- on a high-performance computing system from SGI. The new UdM model is up to 1,000 times more detailed than previous models, enabling new scientific discoveries that would never be possible via observation alone. Until recently, the largest heart models in the world had at most a few million elements. Over the last nine months, Dr. Mark Potse and Dr. Alain Vinet, both affiliated with the Research Centre of Sacre-Coeur Hospital and the Biomedical Engineering department at UdM, began running 100 to 120 million-point models as part of their heart disease research on an SGI Altix 4700 system, believed to be the largest shared memory computing system in Canada. They regularly use 60 of the 768 Intel Itanium 2 processors running on the SGI Altix which, as part of the Quebec Network for High-Performance Computing (RQCHP), is shared by many researchers from across Canada. Learn more here.

Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering
The new collaborative Centre for Research in Healthcare Engineering (CRHE) recently opened at the University of Toronto, which will advance the expertise and knowledge in solutions that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare service delivery. Under the direction of Prof. Michael W. Carter of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, the centre will also provide relevant education for health care workers, as well as preparing future engineers for the healthcare industry. Learn more at www.mie.utoronto.ca/crhe.

MaRS Experience!Tech 2008
MaRS Experience!Tech 2008 brings together two events under one roof: plenary sessions and keynotes live from IDC's annual Directions Conference in Boston, combined with MaRS Master Class panel sessions in Toronto. The event takes place on Wednesday, March 19 at the MaRS Centre in Toronto. Highlights include leading technology analysts from IDC - a leading market analysis consulting firm, and business leaders on market trends, technologies and business models. Participatns will also have the opportunity to interact with some of the tech community's most successful players. For more information, visit www.marsdd.com/exptech08.

OCAD seeks to lower carbon footprint
The Ontario College of Art & Design is one of the organizations signing on to the new Zerofootprint Web 2.0 portal to encourage students and staff to cut down on their emissions. Zerofootprint Inc. recently launched its Toronto-specific Web site, which contains an emissions calculator and other social networking tools such as forums, groups, a marketplace, and an events calendar. Users can tweak their emissions calculations to such city-specific information as how often they ride various forms of public transit, and how far away their food comes from. Zerofootprint is training managers at OCAD and an on-campus event will help introduce the online calculator and it will be used to generate competitions between student groups. Learn more at www.toronto.zerofootprint.net.

2008 ORION Awards
The submission deadline for the fourth annual ORION Awards is June 16, 2008. These are the fourth annual awards, which recognize Ontario champions of advanced technologies in scientific research, teaching and learning. Judges with representation from ORION stakeholder communities, will review submissions and select winners. The awards will be announced at a reception and ceremony during the joint ORION-CANARIE Summit, November 3-4, 2008, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. To submit a nomination and learn more about the Awards, visit www.orion.on.ca/2008awards.

Contenu français en ligne
La version française du site web d’ORION est maintenant en ligne. ORION a tout récemment révisé son site web et le contenu français, y compris plusieurs téléchargements, publications et documentation d’admissibilité. Questions fréquemment posées et communiqués sont aussi disponibles. Le lien pour accéder la section française est visible au haut de la page. Vous pouvez la visiter au www.orion.on.ca/indexFR.html.

People News
Alan Wildeman, Vice-President (Research) at the University of Guelph, has been appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Windsor, effective July 1, 2008. Current president (and founding chair of ORANO) Dr. Ross Paul retires after 10 years in the position. Professor Vivek Goel steps down from his post as Vice-President and Provost of the University of Toronto on June 30, 2008, to become the Founding President and Chief Executive Officer of an important new health-related organization. Guelph University Chief Information Officer Michael Ridley has been honoured with the Ontario Library Association's (OLA) Larry Moore Distinguished Service Award for his visionary work in establishing the innovative Knowledge Ontario digital library. Elio Benincasa steps down from his position as Director, Technical Services at UOIT and Durham College to become director of technical services at a financial services institution in Toronto. Moving on from ORION is Nadeem Junejo, Manager of Network Technologies, after more than five years. He played a critical role in deploying the network's state-of-the-art IP and optical infrastructure. Joining the ORION team are Chris Baxter, Senior Financial Analyst; Daniel Wang, System Administrator; and Alison Brett, Corporate Affairs Coordinator.