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Special Edition - April 2008
ORION celebrates 5 years of success
Helps Ontario "punch above its weight class"
After five years, ORION has become the key research infrastructure that is helping Ontario "punch above its weight class" in the global research community, Ontario Research and Innovation Minister John Wilkinson told the nearly 160 people gathered to celebrate ORION's fifth anniversary milestone this week.
Minister Wilkinson was keynote speaker at the reception, hosted at the MaRS Collaboration Centre on March 31, which gathered numerous representatives of Ontario's research and education community. Also in attendance were members of the Ontario Legislature, senior government officials, as well as regional, community and private sector partners.
From left to right: ORANO Board Chair Maxim Jean-Louis, the Hon. John Wilkinson, and ORION President/CEO Phil Baker.
ORION passed the milestone five years after the first ORION connection was completed and tested between Laurentian University in Sudbury and York University in Toronto.
The event featured several interactive exhibits and displays, showcasing some of Ontario's most innovative advanced technologies, such as the SHARCNET distributed high performance computing consortium, and the Advanced Broadband Enabled learning (ABEL) program, among others.
ORANO Board Chair Maxim Jean-Louis paid tribute to Phil Baker, who founded the network and who has led the organization from its beginnings. "ORION exists today thanks to Phil's determination and his vision that Ontario should have a world-class advanced research network."
The critical support and investment from partners was acknowledged, namely the Government of Ontario, CANARIE, local partnerships with colleges and universities, and the private sector partners, Bell Canada, Hydro One Telecom, Nortel Networks and Cisco Systems, which made significant contributions to this network.
One of the highlights of the celebration was the announcement of the winners of the ORION FutureFlick student digital short video contest, including presentations of $5,000 in prizes. The clips were premiered at the event, which also brought together students, family members and friends.
CANARIE President and CEO, Andrew K. Bjerring, speaks from the podium.
Following welcoming remarks from MaRS CEO Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CANARIE President and CEO Andrew K. Bjerring spoke about the importance of advanced research and education networks and ORION's continuing partnership with CANARIE. Dr. Todd Sands, Chair of the Regional Networks of Ontario and Executive Director of the Centre for Smart Community Innovation at the University of Windsor, praised ORION's role in supporting the regional networks. Dr. Roger Strasser, Founding Dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, one of the first institutions to take advantage of ORION's advanced technology capabilities, spoke of the importance of the network to the success of NOSM, and of ORION's ability to support applications, such as the school's iAnatomy collaboration with California's Stanford University.
Dr. Roger Strasser, Founding Dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, addresses the audience.
Chair of the Regional Networks of Ontario, Dr. Todd Sands.
Several ORANO board members were on hand, including President of George Brown College and board Vice-Chair Anne Sado, the president of the Ontario College of Art and Design Sara Diamond, past Bell Canada Executive Vice President Terry Mosey, CEO of TVOntario Lisa De Wilde, and Apple Canada education consultant Robert Kennedy.
ORANO board member and CEO of TVOntario Lisa De Wilde speaks with Dr. Roger Strasser.
Among the statistics highlighted at the event was the 600% growth in ORION usage among connected institutions in recent years. With over 75 institutions and organizations now connected to the network, ORION has met many significant milestones. All universities, most colleges and several school boards, research institutes and teaching and research hospitals are now connected. Over 1.3 million Ontario students now have access to ORION, as do more than 75,000 researchers, faculty and teachers.
ORION FutureFlick Contest second place winner Arpad Szoke (right) chats with ORANO board member Terry Mosey (left).
"Major research initiatives such as SHARCNET, HPCVL at Queen's University, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Ontario's participation in the ATLAS global particle physics project, all rely on ORION," said Baker.
He noted that teaching and learning are also becoming more dependent on the network, as advanced videoconference classrooms become commonplace, as experts are brought in to classrooms from remote locations, and as students increasingly participate in real-time, virtual events.
"The building work is done," said Jean-Louis. "Now, it is all about ORION's next phase and maximizing the value-add for researchers, educators and students using ORION. It's about the new opportunities for collaboration that the people using ORION now have available."
"There are exciting times ahead for ORION. We know that research and innovation are crucial to our province's economic future and to the health and wellbeing of Ontario families, and we look forward to working with all of you as we continue to build Ontario's research and education network to keep Ontario on the leading edge of the knowledge economy," he said.
View photos and streams of the event.
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