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.

Nov. 7, 2005

• New Associate Vice Presidents for International and Equity
• Joint UBC and BCIT Program to Make Wireless Computing More Secure
• IBM Names Three UBC Computer Science Profs as Canadian Pioneers in Computing
• UBC Students Win Awards at International Engineering Conference

Receive UBC News Digest via e-mail.

New Associate Vice Presidents for International and Equity

Craig Evan Klafter joins UBC as Associate Vice President, International and Tom Patch becomes Associate Vice President, Equity, effective October 2005.

Klafter comes to UBC having held faculty positions at the University of Manchester, the University of Southampton, and Boston University, as Assistant to the President of Boston University for international initiatives. Most recently, he founded Ingenia, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in helping universities with strategic planning, internationalization, and development.

Patch’s advocacy for human rights, equity and diversity began at UBC, where, as a graduate student he became aware of barriers faced by people with disabilities and the absence of laws to address the barriers. This led him to accept a position as an investigator with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. After completing his law degree at UBC, he was appointed a member of the BC Council of Human Rights, and subsequently appointed to the BC Human Rights Tribunal. Since his departure from the Tribunal, he has continued to pursue his interests in human rights and equity as an adjunct professor and graduate student in the Faculty of Law, at UBC.

to top

Joint UBC and BCIT Program to Make Wireless Computing More Secure

A new joint credential program launched by UBC’s Continuing Studies division and the British Columbia Institute of Technology will graduate IT professionals with top industry certifications who can increase security for the fast-growing but vulnerable wireless computing field.

The 10-month Network Administration and Security Professional certification program provides students with instructors, computer labs and support services from both BCIT High Tech Programs and UBC’s Continuing Studies Division of Applied Technology.

Graduates of the joint program will emerge with nine industry certifications, among them CompTIA Security and Microsoft Security. Two-month industry internships will allow students to gain hands-on experience in administering and securing a broad range of computer networks, including wireless.

to top

IBM Names Three UBC Computer Science Profs as Canadian Pioneers in Computing

UBC professors emeriti Richard Rosenberg, Jim Varah and Paul Gilmore joined a veritable “Who’s Who” in computing Oct. 19th when they were recognized by The IBM Centers for Advanced Studies (CAS) as part of a group of about 100 fellow academics considered to be instrumental in founding and developing the study of computing at Canadian universities.

The honorees from universities across the country were chosen by a committee of peers. The committee looked at those who had spent a substantial part of their lives at a Canadian university, who had made significant contributions to the development of computing education and research, and who were still current residents of Canada. They also had to have received their PhD degrees in 1972 or earlier, and as a result, could be considered academic pioneers in the field.

The Canadian Pioneers of Computing dinner took place in Markham Ontario and coincides with CASCON 2005, an annual international computer science and software engineering conference sponsored by IBM Toronto Lab in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada.

For more information on CASCON visit: www.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon.

to top

UBC Students Win Awards at International Engineering Conference

UBC graduate students Pin Yang and Christopher Brouse received awards for recent research papers at the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society held in September 2005 in Shanghai, China.

Their papers were "Adaptive Change Point Detection for Respiratory Variables", by P. Yang, G. Dumont, J. Lim and M. Ansermino, and "A Wavelet Approach to Detecting Electrocautery Noise in the ECG", by C. Brouse, G. Dumont, F. Herrmann and M. Ansermino.

Both Yang and Brouse are supervised by Guy Dumont, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and co-supervised by M. Ansermino, clinical assistant professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology & therapeutics.

to top