University innovators help change everything, including the B.C.
economy, according to UBC President Martha Piper and recent faculty
recruit Gregor Kiczales in an address made to Vancouver’s Board
of Trade today.
“UBC has no shortage of innovators, many of whom have made a global
impact,” says Piper. “Their breakthroughs and unique insights into
almost every area of science and the humanities help to improve
the quality of our lives here in B.C. and around the world.”
“University research and university spin-offs contribute to the
city’s high tech critical mass,” says Kiczales who aims to create
a Software Practices Lab at UBC that will be the best software engineering
research lab of its kind in the world.
Research momentum is key to success, says Kiczales, who also described
the benefits of academics working with the business community to
drive breakthrough research into important applications.
Kiczales–who holds the university’s first research chair in Software
Design–is a leading U.S. software researcher who left the Silicon
Valley to become a professor of Computer Science at UBC.
In a presentation called Changing Times: Innovators Change Everything,
Piper described how UBC innovators are contributing to the economy
through teaching, research and community activities, all part of
Trek 2000, the university’s vision statement.
Highlights include a new research resource for B.C.’s wine industry,
new facilities for high technology and biotechnology enterprises,
a new resource centre in the Downtown Eastside and new academic
programs such as a combined Arts and Applied Science bachelor’s
degree. In addition, researchers at UBC and its affiliated hospitals,
attracted $68 million of federal funding this year and were provided
with 160 new research positions.
For more information on UBC innovators check the Web site at www.ubc.ca/annualreport.
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