UBC This Week 24-Jan-2013

 

Recent UBC Media Releases

Jan. 18 UBC campaign hits $1 billion
Jan. 21 UBC research: Forget about fair – it’s better when bosses pick favourites
Jan. 22 Master switch discovery could provide road map for treatment of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases
Jan. 24 Construction begins on Canada’s largest radio telescope
Jan. 24 Just for one day: UBC’s popular community courses on campus begin winter session

Upcoming Event Highlights

Jan. 24 Buddhist Rulers and Rulers of Buddhists: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Medieval China
Jan. 24 Robson Reading Series with Julie Devaney and Gary Geddes
Jan. 25 Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race
Jan. 25 Mark Balaguer (California State Uni) “Why the Debate Over Composition is Factually Empty”
Jan. 25 SPPH-OEH Seminars: Communicating radiation risk and the Internet: what can we learn from the Fukushima nuclear incident?
Jan. 26 Winter Market – Cycling Resource Centre
Jan. 26 UBC Thunderbirds Men’s Hockey vs. Mount Royal Cougars
Jan. 27 Opera Tea on the Stage
Jan. 28 Writing Your Science Fiction or Fantasy Screenplay (100% Online)
Jan. 28 Wall Scholars Café: Does our democracy need an update?
Jan. 29 Genomics in Primary Care: What’s Ready for Prime Time? Part A
Jan. 29 Zumba
Jan. 29 Beat the blues sale
Jan. 30 Practice your Presentation Skills Level 1
Jan. 30 Wednesday Noon Hours – Gamelan Gita Asmara
Jan. 31 Esther Birney Lecture: “Suffrage Literature: The Poetry of Alice Duer Miller”
Jan. 31 Avanade Employer Information Session
Find out what else is happening at UBC this week. For sports events, visit the UBC Athletics site at http://www.gothunderbirds.ca/calendar.aspx.

 

UBC People


UBC People

Exploring the barriers to midwifery care

A group co-led by Saraswathi Vedam, an associate professor in UBC Division of Midwifery, has received $160,000 from the Vancouver Foundation to identify the factors that prevent or facilitate women’s use of midwifery services in British Columbia.

Vedam, along with lead co-investigator Ganga Jolicoeur, the executive director of the Midwives Association of B.C., will use a series of forums and meetings, including focus groups, to determine why use of midwives is not equally distributed across the province. Those factors include patient experience, public awareness, and regional availability.

Findings from the study will be used to develop a plan aimed at improving access to high-quality maternity services, particularly among underserved and vulnerable women. Last year, the Province of B.C. allocated funds to double enrolment in the UBC Midwifery Education Program.

For more information, click here.

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UBC-developed test for predicting lung attacks moves toward the market

The PROOF Centre, a group of UBC scientists focused on developing biomarkers for chronic organ disease, has granted a U.S. company exclusive rights to commercialize gene expression blood tests to help predict which patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are more likely to experience frequent “lung attacks.” For more information, click here.

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Computer Science professors awarded over 5 million processor hours by Compute Canada

Professors of Computer Science Holger Hoos and Kevin Leyton-Brown and their empirical algorithmics group have been awarded 5,260,000 processor hours, valued at $315,569, in the nationwide 2013 Compute Canada resource allocation competition, for their research on “Programming by Optimization: Automated Configuration and Selection of Algorithms for Challenging Computational Problems”.

This research involves collaborations with IBM, Auctionomics Inc., and Actenum Corporation. For more information, click here.

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Former UBC astrophysics PhD earns U.S. rising star award

UBC alumnus Jason Kalirai has been awarded the 2013 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievement in observational astronomy by an astronomer under the age of 36. Kalirai received a PhD in Astrophysics from UBC in 2004. He is currently working at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland and serves as the deputy project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Data Privacy Day

Held around the world every year, Data Privacy Day empowers people to protect their privacy and the privacy of others. On January 28, 2013, members of the UBC community are encouraged to take a few minutes to learn about the privacy issues that affect them and what they can do to protect themselves and the data that they manage. Staff, faculty and researchers can take a privacy quiz and can be eligible to win one of three Blackberry Playbooks. Click here for more information.

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UNESCO Declaration focuses on digital assets

The protection of digital assets is the focus of the UNESCO / UBC Vancouver Declaration on Digitization and Preservation, released by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

The statement emerged from an international conference, held in Vancouver in September 2012 and organized by UNESCO in co-operation with UBC that focused on the preservation of digital documentary heritage. More than 500 participants from the public and private sectors – including Ingrid Parent, UBC’s University Librarian and Allan Bell, UBC Library’s Director of Digital Initiatives – discussed the protection of digital assets at the event. For more on UBC Library’s digital agenda, click here.

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2013 SCARP Student Symposium: Beyond Downtown and Outside the Box

The fifth annual School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) Student Symposium will focus on “Beyond Downtown and Outside the Box” – a current topic in community and regional planning of SCARP students’ choosing.

Date:  February 8, 2013
Time: 9 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Place: Graduate Student Society Building, 6371 Crescent Road
Info: Register here.

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UBC Visual Art holds art auction fundraiser

The UBC 2013 BFA/BA Visual Art Graduating class will host an art and musical event to promote and raise funds for this year’s graduating exhibition “Is it Happening?” which opens in April 2013. A silent art auction will feature works by the graduating class, faculty and staff members of UBC Visual Art. Live musical performances will be given by Gunshot Wounds and Stefana Fratila.

Date: January 26, 2013
Time:  7 – 11 p.m.
Place: CBC Studio 700, 700 Hamilton Street
Info:  Click here.

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UBC Finance Club presents: Pacific Venture Capitalist Conference & Competition

The UBC Finance Club presents Pacific Venture Capitalist Conference & Competition, a full-day event that will give students an opportunity to learn more about the entrepreneur and venture capitalist world. Students can register as an entrepreneur team and submit an authentic start-up idea or invention or register as a venture capitalist team and submit a valuation methodology and analyze various start-up projects submitted by other students.

Founded in 1989, the UBC Finance Club is one of Sauder School of Business’ largest and oldest student organizations.

Date: March 15, 2013
Time: TBA
Place: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street
Info: Click here.

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Giant Colon Tour comes to UBC

UBC will be hosting the Giant Colon Tour, a multimedia exhibition that will provide visitors with tools to help prevent colorectal cancer.

Date: February 5, 2013
Time: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Place: Life Sciences Centre, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
Info: Click here.

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Chocolate, Corn and Figurines: Mapping Archaeological Data Online

At this month’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Users Group, UBC Anthropology Prof. Michael Blake will talk about his innovative websites in a presentation titled “Chocolate, Corn and Figurines: Mapping Archaeological Data Online.” The event is free and open to the public.

Date:  January 30
Time:  3 – 4 p.m.
Place: Room 216, Koerner Library

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