Raymond Anderson, a marine natural product chemist with the Depts. of Chemistry and Earth and Ocean Sciences, has received the 2012 Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Medal. The CIC Medal is given annually to a researcher who has made an outstanding contribution to the science of chemistry in Canada.
For more information, visit http://science.ubc.ca/news/601
UBC’s Got Talent highlights singing, dancing, instrumental, theatre, spoken word and other performing talents from the UBC community. Students, alumni, faculty, staff and residents of the University Neighbourhoods Association are invited to audition (deadline for video submissions is midnight March 5). All levels of experience are welcome.
The UBC Bookstore is producing the event this year, raising funds for the United Way Campaign. For tickets, to watch last year’s finalists on YouTube, and to get more information about auditions, visit http://gottalent.ubc.ca/.
One of the largest private film collections in Canada, which provides fascinating documention of rural B.C., will be housed and preserved by UBC Library thanks to a generous donation from the Halleran family and the support of community partners including the Columbia Basin Trust.
The Halleran Collection, valued at $750,000, consists of about 250 nature-oriented video programs produced in British Columbia over the decades – first by Mike Halleran and then by his son Terry.
The shows, known collectively as the Westland series, were broadcast by the Knowledge Network from 1984 to 2007. They examine a broad range of issues associated with forestry, freshwater fishing, endangered species and ecosystem restoration.
For more information, visit http://about.library.ubc.ca/2012/02/21/film-collection-on-b-c-environment-to-be-preserved/.
The School of Nursing has renewed its partnership with the Canada India Education Society (CIES) to support the development of nursing education in the Indian state of Punjab.
The CIES and the School of Nursing began their partnership in 1998, with the goal of supporting the nursing education program at Guru Nanak College of Nursing in Punjab. Through visits, exchanges, and advocacy for nursing, the partnership has increased the profile and status of nursing as a profession – and through doing so has improved the health of citizens in more than 60 nearby villages, and helped many women and poorer families improve their lives through employment in a growing and necessary field.
For more information, visit blogs.apsc.ubc.ca
UBC Library is hosting an exhibition and conference to commemorate the March 11 disasters in Japan. Retell, Rethink, Recover, which began on Feb. 20 and runs through April, consists of three phases on display in different parts of the Library system.
The Retell section highlights disaster prints and historical maps. Rethink includes materials gathered from members of the UBC community who were in Japan during the disasters, or otherwise impacted. Recover highlights Japan’s history of recovering from adversity, and includes information on the support between Canada and Japan during times of crisis.
A complementary display features portraits of earthquake survivors, a project sponsored by the Japan Foundation and cosmetics company Shiseido.
On March 10, a free one-day conference co-sponsored by UBC’s Dept. of Asian Studies will feature talks from scholars on Japan, and personal accounts from UBC students, faculty and alumni.
To register and for more information, visit http://asian.library.ubc.ca/2012/02/14/retell-rethink-recover/.
Researchers at UBC have developed a voice synthesizer that allows people to speak by simply moving their hands. Johnty Wang, a master’s student in electrical and computer engineering, is part of a team creating the Digital Ventriloquist Actor, or DiVA – a pair of special gloves equipped with 3D sensors that use gestures to convey sounds.
Click here to watch the CTV News report. For more information, visit http://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201202/johnty-wang-creates-speech-using-hand-gestures.
A team of management students from UBC’s Okanagan campus claimed first prize at the Gathering of Accounting Associates, Professionals and Students (GAAPS).
Ciera Elliott, Maxime Walker and Eric Binotto traveled to the University of Manitoba for the competition earlier this month, where they bested nine other teams from across the country. All three students are in the accounting and finance specialization in the final year of the four-year Bachelor of Management program.
The GAAPS is an accounting business-case competition where teams were presented with a seven-page business problem scenario and had two hours to find a solution and present their solution to a panel of judges.
For more information, visit https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/02/20/accounting-students-calculate-first-place-finish/
Samuel Schaefer, a fourth-year School of Engineering student at UBC’s Okanagan campus, won first place at the OPTO Startup Challenge for his presentation of his research group’s product: a smart, compact microscope in the palm of your hand.
Schaefer developed the microscope with Kenneth Chau, assistant professor electrical engineering, and fellow undergraduate Stephen Boehm during a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) term over the summer of 2011.
The OPTO Startup Challenge, an international competition to pitch photonics business ideas, was held Jan. 25 at Photonics West, one of the largest optics and photonics conferences in the world. Competitors included students and professors from universities around the world. The prize was an all-expenses paid trip to attend a five-day course at the University of California at Davis Entrepreneurship Academy, courtesy of JENOPTIK, an optoelectronics group, to help further develop the business case.
For more information, visit: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/02/17/school-of-engineering-student-wins-opto-startup-challenge/
For the first time, UBC’s Okanagan campus entered a team of engineering students in the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race in Calgary. They won best new team, second-best performing toboggan and placed fifth overall out of 19 entries.
Sixteen engineers from various disciplines built a toboggan which required concrete running surfaces, a maximum weight of 300 pounds, a braking and steering system and the capacity to carry five people.
UBC tobogganer Brian Shewchuk says the team completed all three runs – which is quite a feat. “Most teams only did two runs. Some didn’t even make it down the hill,” says Shewchuk, who was in charge of design and fabrication.
The competition is judged by industry and academic professionals and is based on design and presentation of the concrete and reinforcement, superstructure, braking and steering as well as race-day performance.
For more information, visit: https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/02/15/great-sled-performance-from-ubcs-okanagan-campus-engineers/
The United Nations made 2011 the International Year of the Forests and UBC’s Faculty of Forestry has hosted a number of events to mark the occasion.
As a conclusion to the International Year of the Forests, UBC’s Faculty of Forestry is holding a graduate student research symposium, called “Future Forestry Leaders”. The symposium will conclude with a public lecture by Tiina Vähänen from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization titled “Safeguarding natural resources: Forestry in international debates.”
Date: Feb. 24
Time: 5 – 6 p.m.
Info: http://www.calendar.events.ubc.ca:80/s/3xv
The UBC community and the general public are invited to attend UBC’s second annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT™) competition where graduate students challenge themselves and each other to present their research in three minutes. This year more than 100 graduate students are participating in 16 faculty and department organized heats over four weeks of competition.
Semi-Finals
Date: Feb. 29
Time: 1:30 – 3 p.m. (semi-final 1)
3 – 4:30 p.m. (semi-final 2)
Final Round
Date: March 2
Time: 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Place: Graduate Student Centre Ballroom, Thea Koerner House, 6371 Crescent Road
Info: Limited seating. Seating will not be permitted during presentations.
http://3mt.grad.ubc.ca/
UBC is celebrating its status as Canada’s first Fair Trade campus with its first Fair Trade Week (March 5 – 9) to raise awareness of what Fair Trade is, what UBC’s role is and highlight what products are available on campus.
Activities and events include:
• Fair Trade Flash Mob dance organized by Common Energy UBC and goBeyond
• daily free Fair Trade coffee hours at participating Food Services locations
• campus-wide scavenger hunts
• a trade fair at the UBC Bookstore on March 7, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. with Fair Trade Vancouver, vendors and samples, including a lunch and learn presentation from Engineers Without Borders
• Fair Trade Fun Run on March 8 at 12:45 p.m.
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For more information, visit: http://www.food.ubc.ca/fair-trade-week.
UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture will host an exhibition of faculty research, writing, and design at Or Gallery in downtown Vancouver. A reception will be held Feb. 27 from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Date: Feb. 25 – March 15
Time: Gallery hours Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 5 p.m.
Place: Or Gallery, 555 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Info: www.sala.ubc.ca/rss.xml
Twice-weekly, Asia Pacific Memo (APM) series publishes short text memos or video interviews on current issues in Asia and across the Pacific.
• Feb. 22 – Becoming a Commercial Marriage Broker in Malaysia, by National University of Singapore researchers
• Feb. 16 – How Finnish, not East Asian Education Became a Global Reference, by University of New England Prof. Keita Takayama
• Feb. 14 – Beyond Censorship in China’s Media and Cyberspace, by SFU’s Prof. Yuezhi Zhao
• Feb. 9 – Government Policy in East Asia’s Digital Economy (video interview with Dr. Ken Coates at University of Waterloo)
To read the memos, visit: http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/
