UBC News Digest

The UBC News Digest is a weekly summary of news stories about UBC people, research, learning, community, and internationalization initiatives. News Digest past issues are also available on-line.

Apr. 16, 2004

• Faculty of Education appoints associate dean
• International Student Advisor receives innovation award
• UBC database specialists receive Best Paper Award
• Anthropology and sociology students honour outstanding teachers
• Tibetan Lama Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche speaks at Chan May 7

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Faculty of Education appoints associate dean

Deborah Butler has been appointed associate dean for graduate programs and research in the Faculty of Education for a four-year term. Butler is an associate professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education and is the Chris Spencer Professor in Dyslexia. She has been serving as the director of The Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry in Education (CCFI).

Graeme Chalmers will become the director of The Centre for Cross-Faculty Inquiry for the interim. Professor Chalmers is an art educator from the Department of Curriculum Studies. He is a Distinguished University Scholar and presently holds the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. Butler and Chalmers will work together in the coming year to maintain continuity in the development of CCFI.

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International Student Advisor receives innovation award

The British Columbia Centre for International Education (BCCIE) has recognized Allison Dunnet, International Student Advisor and Student Development Officer at UBC, for her pioneering work on the International Student Orientation (ISO) program. Dunnet has received a 2003 Internationalization Innovation Award for her contributions.

ISO, UBC’s long-standing first-year orientation program for international students, has always consisted of activities and events that introduce students to the campus, UBC’s academic expectations, student services and the city of Vancouver. Under Dunnet’s leadership, the program underwent significant changes aimed at easing the transition to UBC, addressing the needs of international students, and bridging the gap between UBC’s international community and the rest of campus.

Following these improvements, ISO has grown from 516 students in 2001 (52 per cent of total first-year enrolment) to 922 participants in 2003 (70 per cent of total first-year enrolment).

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UBC database specialists receive Best Paper Award

Professor Raymond Ng and master’s student Yuhan Cai have received the Best Paper Award for their submission to the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Management of Data (ACM SIGMOD) Conference, to be held in Paris, June 13-18th this year. Their paper is titled Indexing Spatio-Temporal Trajectories with Chebyshev Polynomials. Only 69 of 431 submissions were accepted. The "Best Paper" is deemed to be the best out of the entire 431 submissions.

Ng specializes in data mining and analysis, analysis of bioinformatics data and multimedia data management. Cai will be starting a PhD in the Fall at the University of Washington.

For more information about ACM SIGMOD: http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/irin/SIGMODPODS04/

To view Raymond Ng's website go to: http://www.cs.ubc.ca/people/profiles/rng.html

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Anthropology and sociology students honour outstanding teachers

Anthropology and sociology professors Alexia Bloch and Patrick Moore are the first recipients of that department’s student-driven Outstanding Teaching Award.

“Their students adore them,” says Nafeesa Karim, a fourth-year anthropology major and president of the AnSo Undergraduate Society. “They not only provide a really good classroom experience, but they provide insight into the field in general. The thing that Pat and Alexia have in common is that they both have a good idea of what mentoring is.”

To win the award, the recipients must place emphasis on undergraduate teaching and learning, use innovative and engaging teaching methods, establish a good rapport with students, demonstrate involvement and initiative outside of classes, and make an extraordinary effort to be available and approachable.

For more info: http://www.arts.ubc.ca/index.php?id=433&backPID=4&tt_news=234

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Tibetan Lama Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche speaks at Chan May 7

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama, meditation master, marathoner, artist and poet, will speak on "Turning the Mind into an Ally" at the Chan Centre May 7. Deemed one of the most influential among the new generation of Tibetan teachers inspired by the Dalai Lama, his talk will highlight how meditation can break patterns of fear, indecision and negativity.

Tickets available at Ticketmaster www.ticketmaster.ca, Banyen Books, and at the Chan box office or call 604-874-8420.

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