Departmental News Stories

Computer science graduate student Leanne Wu and electrical engineering undergraduate student Mila Gorobets were recently recognized as Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholars. Congratulations Leanne and Mila!

Google is committed to supporting the education of the future leaders and innovators in technology and business all over the world, including those who are historically underrepresented in these fields.

Google's scholarship programs are aimed especially at supporting students’ technical education, with an emphasis in computer science. For example, the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship - named in memory of Anita Borg who passionately envisioned increasing the number of women in computer science - is aimed at supporting the education of talented young women pursuing careers in computer science.

As published in UTODAY: http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/may10-2012/explore

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By Jennifer Sowa:

May 9 wasn’t a typical school day for about 650 girls in junior high school. The grade 9 girls stepped out of their classrooms and into the world of information technology. Calgary’s three largest post-secondary institutions partnered for Explore IT, an event to raise awareness among young women about information technology and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The University of Calgary, Mount Royal University and SAIT Polytechnic hosted interactive presentations and laboratory demonstrations throughout the day. At all three schools, girls heard words of wisdom and inspiration from keynote speaker Nicole Gerald, a systems engineer at Cisco Systems.

At the Schulich School of Engineering, students built and programmed search-and-rescue robots, hunted for treasure using GPS, built electronic circuit boards and met LINDSAY the Virtual Human, an interactive computer model.

At SAIT Polytechnic, students explored a state-of-the-art television studio and discovered the elements that go into producing a news program, including the roles of camera operators, computer graphic experts, lighting directors, and news anchors. They also created mobile applications for smart phones and got a peek inside the world of computer forensics by learning how to protect against viruses, Malware and Trojan Horses.

Mount Royal University featured a life-size aviation simulator and a session on cryptography examining how people throughout history have used codes to send secret information. Students also learned about information design by using technology to create their own postcard, and they explored the field of biomimicry, the study of sustainable design ideas found in nature.

Explore IT began 13 years ago and has exposed more than 5,000 female students in Calgary to the world of information technology and the range of career options. For more information, visit www.explore-it.ca.

As published in UTODAY: http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/may1-2012/display

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It’s one thing to see an exhibit in a museum, quite another to be an exhibit in a museum. Mariana Gavrilova’s image is the centrepiece of a Museum of Civilization’s Live Science exhibit that explores her work studying biometrics—the identification of humans by their characteristics or traits.

Gavrilova, who heads the Biometrics Technology lab in the computer science department—the first biometrics lab in the country and one of the best known in the world, is part of the Live Science exhibit that aims to put a human face on the scientific endeavours that help us understand our world.

Visitors to the exhibition can interact with her through a video interface, learn about her work and her inspirations. The exhibit is designed like a carnival, exploring science in a playful manner. The centre of the exhibit is called The Big Top where six scientists, including Gavrilova, appear on screen inviting people to explore their work.

“I wanted to explain biometrics to a broader audience,” says Gavrilova. “From the beginning, when we identified ourselves with our signature the technology has advanced so much and it’s such a big part of our lives.” Her exhibit explains biometrics, in part, through geometry and Voronoi diagrams—for example showing the similarities between the skin patterns of giraffes, the inside a beehive and of a crowd of people.

Gavrilova’s road to the Museum of Civilization was a long one. About six years ago, the museum put a call out to scientists asking them to describe how they would tell the story of their work. Gavrilova’s proposal was called “Power of Biometrics: From Science Fiction to Reality. Her proposal was one of eight chosen from across the country, the only one from the prairie provinces.

The exhibit is very personal and includes objects and work that have inspired Gavrilova through her life including a Matryoshka, a Russian nesting doll, which not only reminds Gavrilova of her home, but of why she is a scientist. “Every time you open a doll you go deeper and learn something new. Science is like that, every time you learn a new fact, you go deeper into the problem, you’re always learning.”

The exhibit runs at the Musee de la civilisation de Quebec until April 29. It then will begin to travel to other Canadian museums.

Congrats to Gerry Donaldson who has received a Google award from the Computer Science for High Schools (CS4HS) program. He will be running three workshops in June, each one day in duration, for Calgary high school CS teachers.

Teaching Assistants have important role for enhancing the quality of teaching in our department. To appreciate this role, the department awards the best TAs based on their performance on an annual basis. We are pleased to announce the value of this award has been increased to $500 this year. Winners of Fall 2011-Winter 2012 are:

Fall 2011

CPSC 203 – Mitchell Cabrera
1st year -  Atieh Sarraf Shirazi
2nd year – Andrew Kuipers
3rd year -  Ala Qabaja     
4th year – Jagoda Walny

Winter 2012

CPSC 203 – S.M. Didar, Alam
1st year – Amani Alali
2nd year -  Mohamad Al Baba
3rd year – Maryam Elahi
4th year – Mehrdad Nurolahzade

Congratulations to all of you for your excellent job!

Congratulations to Omair Shafiq who has been selected from a highly competitive pool of 204 nominees to be one of the recipients of the very prestigious NSERC Vanier scholarship. Omair ranked in the top 3% of the elite group of nominees country-wide. Omair is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Calgary; he joined the research group of Prof. Reda Alhajj since 2009 as MSc student and defended his thesis in 13 months. He has been holding alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship for two year. His research covers semantic web. data mining and social network analysis.

As published in UTODAY: http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/march12-2012/turing

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2012 marks the centenary of Alan Turing, often called the "father of computing.” Just out of university, he solved an important open problem in the foundations of mathematics—in the process, he came up with the now-standard definition of what "computation" means.

His mathematical genius also played an important role in world history, as Turing made central contributions to Britain's top-secret and successful effort to break the German Enigma code during WWII.  After the war, Turing combined his conceptual ideas about computing and his expertise with electronic machines to help design some of the first actual digital computers. He also made significant contributions to the philosophy of artificial intelligence, including the so-called Turing Test, and to mathematical biology.  Turing was openly gay at a time when homosexuality was criminalized. He suffered for his sexual orientation when he was convicted of "gross indecency" in 1952. He died two years later of cyanide poisoning. In 2009, the British government apologized for its treatment of Turing.

The faculties of arts and science is honouring Turing's legacy with a year-long series of events. The next event will be a screening of the BBC production of Breaking the Code, starring Derek Jacobi as Alan Turing, Wednesday, March 14, 5:30 p.m., in CHC 119.  On Tuesday, March 27, John Ferris (Department of History) will give a lecture on Alan Turing and Enigma (4 p.m., ENA 201)

Get more information at the Alan Turing Centenary website.

Join Andrew as he shares his experiences about how the University of Calgary helped him in his current role at DreamWorks Animation. A reception, hosted by this year's Class Ambassadors, will follow Andrew's talk and will celebrate the Class of 2012.

Date: Thurs., March 29, 2012
Time: 4:30-5:30 p.m., reception to follow at 5:30 p.m.
Location: MacEwan Hall, University of Calgary

This event is open to all students, faculty, staff and alumni. Click here to register.

Andrew Pearce remembers loading a cassette tape to back up the programs he wrote on his computer in the eighties. He might not have envisioned then holding a position as director of research and development for Dreamworks Animation and working on films that millions of people would watch. Now he leads a team that develops proprietary software to create animated films; their lighting and physics simulation software make the characters look life-like and objects move believably. At DreamWorks, Andrew has worked on such films as the Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and the Shrek series.

As published in UTODAY: http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/march5-2012/engage

Jalal Kawash focuses on decreasing lecture time and increasing interactive activities to engage students in his first-year computer science class. Photo by Riley Brandt

Story by Carly Moran

Jalal Kawash, an instructor in the Department of Computer Science, believes that small changes can have big impacts when it comes to teaching new concepts to students in his Introduction to Problem Solving class.

Kawash is involved in Project Engage, a two-year pilot program that provides selected faculty with the support and resources they need to improve the learning experiences of students in first-year arts and sciences courses.

This past fall, Kawash made changes to his first-year course by introducing interactive puzzles to students during lectures. The puzzles were designed to serve as bait for new subject matter and reinforce theories by emphasizing their wider application. Real world problems like scheduling aircrafts for courier deliveries and moving paving equipment efficiently through city streets served as examples of computer science theory in action.

“Today’s students are more practical and hands-on than in the past with the growth of social media,” says Kawash. “To be successful as educators, we need to mine students’ learning styles and help them reflect on how they learn by encouraging them to think about their approach to solving a problem and arriving at a solution.”

As an outcome of his participation in Project Engage, Kawash now reflects more formally on his teaching—writing notes and observations in a journal after every lecture. Self-reflections collected over a semester offer valuable insight as he builds the course outline for the following term’s class.

“Reflecting on what worked well and what needs improvement helps me sharpen my techniques for teaching the course’s big ideas,” says Kawash. “Large enrolment classes can be diverse in terms of student backgrounds and learning styles, and the traditional lecture format isn’t always effective or appropriate.”

For Kawash, another important discovery through Project Engage was the value of informal observation and discussion. He found that introducing interactive puzzles at different times during the lecture both motivated and reinforced learning. Puzzles introduced before a new concept helped to motivate and capture the attention of students, while puzzles introduced after a new concept provided evidence of learning.

“Students are our stakeholders,” says Kawash. “I’ve found that introducing puzzles based on concepts we hadn’t yet covered in class helped students make their own connections to the course’s key concepts. These interactive activities also provided a more tangible way to assess learning, and got students actively discussing problems and deriving potential solutions together.”

Learn more about Project Engage.

As published in UTODAY: http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/feb2012/nserc

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University of Calgary researchers who are international leaders in their fields are being recognized for their outstanding work at Canada's annual awards of excellence in science and engineering today.

Sheelagh Carpendale, a renowned leader in information visualization and interactive technologies in the Faculty of Science's Department of Computer Science, is one of six Canadian researchers to be awarded an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) at the council's awards ceremony at Rideau Hall this evening. Also attending the ceremony will be Glen Armstrong and Kenneth Ng, who will share the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering with colleagues from the University of Alberta for their ground-breaking work in glycobiology that is leading to the development of more effective vaccines, drug therapies and techniques to combat antibiotic resistance.

"Investing in science and technology has a direct impact on our quality of life," said the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology). "The accomplishments of these winners demonstrate how these investments benefit Canadians and our economy."

University of Calgary President Elizabeth Cannon congratulated Carpendale, Armstrong and Ng, saying the awards are fitting recognition of the impact their work is having on society.

"A Steacie Fellowship and the Brockhouse Prize are among the highest honours researchers in our country can receive," Cannon said. "Both these awards provide valuable support for the research projects led by these talented professors and fit squarely with the University of Calgary's strategic direction, Eyes High, to be among Canada's top five research universities by our 50th anniversary in 2016."

E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowships are awarded to university researchers who are earning strong international reputation for original research. Winners each receive grants of up to $250,000 over two years to support their work, while their university receives up to $90,000 per year to replace teaching and administrative duties during the fellowship. Carpendale's research team is one of the few in the world developing interactive tabletop display applications, which receive input through natural human actions rather than a mouse, keyboard or special input device. Her partnership with Calgary-based SMART Technologies has influenced the development of their interactive whiteboards, and has prompted SMART Technologies to include interactive tabletops as part of their multi-touch displays now being used in classrooms and offices around the world.

Carpendale said a Steacie Fellowship will help advance her research that promises to help people better manage information in today's society.

"While information is a crucial part of people's everyday lives, many people find today's technologies awkward, stressful to use, and overly intrusive in their lives," Carpendale said. "The problem is not with the information itself, but rather with its volume and the unwieldy ways currently provided for interacting with digital content. In my research I use a people-centric process to design, develop and evaluate interactive information visualizations so that they support people's everyday work and social practices. My goal is to promote information comprehension by creating appropriate tools that can help people negotiate the transformation of vast amounts of information into knowledge in their everyday lives."