UBC News Digest

Apr 16, 2004

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

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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.