UBC This Week 23-May-2013

Last fall, UBC announced an agreement with Coursera to provide free, publicly available non-credit courses to a worldwide audience. Courses delivered through the Coursera platform are structured after Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), an emerging delivery model predicated on providing free and open access to courses to large numbers of students.

UBC’s Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology (CTLT) will host a panel discussion on MOOCs as part of the 2013 CTLT Institute. In this panel, Coursera founder Daphne Koller, senior UBC officials and the instructors from UBC’s four-course MOOC pilot, will discuss the impacts of MOOCs as well as the faculty perspective on designing and teaching MOOCs that maximize learning. For more information, click here.

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UBC’s Faculty of Education is hosting “Research Careers that Matter,” a panel with indigenous alumni, as part of Research Day 2013. The panel, in the context of the Year of Indigenous Education, will celebrate three indigenous scholars whose experience will resonate with graduate students and faculty members who care about educational and social change. The panel will be followed by discussion period and a reception. For more information, click here.

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On July 20, the memory of Tyler Lewis will be honoured by friends who will kayak from Victoria’s inner harbour to downtown Vancouver. Lewis, a UBC PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, passed away in 2012 from a ski accident. Sean McBeath, along with racing friends Liam Fisher and Dion Maxwell, will attempt to complete the 135 km voyage in under 24 hours. The goal of their fundraising event titled “Rain City Central” is to raise $15,000 for the Tyler Lewis Clean Energy Research Foundation, which was established by Lewis’s parents to continue his vision of creating a more sustainable future through dedicated research. For more information, click here.

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School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA) graduating student Andy Guiry has received the 2013 Michael Evamy Scholarship. The $5,000 scholarship, established by DIALOG, supports architectural research projects in a field of study chosen by student applicants across Canada. Guiry’s proposal, titled “Drawing as Cultivation, Toward a Vital Architecture,” explores the ethics of architectural drawings and the power of drawings to fundamentally change our relationship with our environments. For more information, click here.

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Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Andreas Sotirakopoulos, Ildar Muslukhov and Konstantin Beznosov, in collaboration with Microsoft Research and University of California Berkeley, recently published “Does My Password Go up to Eleven? The Impact of Password Meters on Password Selection.”

Password meters tell users whether their passwords are “weak” or “strong.” In a laboratory experiment, by forcing users to change their current passwords, they found that having meters did have users selecting stronger passwords. In a follow-up field experiment for unimportant accounts, the authors found that the meters did not change the outcome of the users’ passwords. For more information, click here.

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During Research Open Day at Electrical and Computer Engineering, senior researchers will give short, high-level talks on their recent advances and graduate students will present their work in the atrium during networking sessions. Representatives from Applied Science Industry Partnerships, University-Industry Liaison Office, entrepreneurship@UBC and granting organization Mitacs will give talks on strategies for collaboration. Participants will have a chance to discuss research ideas, collaboration and commercialization during coffee breaks and provided lunch. For more information, click here.

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UBC Public Affairs is putting the final touches to a dynamic UBC NEWS portal that will go live on June 3. It will be your one source for the latest news, more often, and in more multimedia ways.

By subscribing ahead of time — by Friday, May 24 — to receive weekly news highlights, you will be entered for an early-bird prize draw on May 27 for a free night’s accommodation at UBC’s West Coast Suites, a brunch for two at Point Grill, and complimentary passes to the Museum of Anthropology, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Nitobe Memorial Garden and UBC Botanical Garden.

Everyone signing up to this new service before August 23 will also be eligible for a post-launch grand prize draw on August 26 of an iPad.

To learn more and subscribe today, click here.

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UBC Transportation Planning encourages all UBC faculty, staff, students and residents to get involved during Bike to Work Week (May 27 – June 2, 2013). The week will include a skills training workshop, activities across Vancouver, and a commuter station at UBC for free bike tune-up, snacks, and a chance to win prizes including a new bike. For more information on all events, click here.

UBC Celebration Station
Date: May 29
Time: 4 – 6 p.m.
Place: Pharmaceutical Sciences Building (Agronomy Road and Wesbrook Mall)
Info: Free refreshments, demos, giveaways, mechanic services by UBC Bike Kitchen. Enter to win prizes – including an Opus bike provided by Urban Racks.

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Theatre at UBC will host two events on May 25 for Alumni Weekend 2013.

• Theatre tours for the family (free)
Hands-on experience for kids (ages 8-15) to experiment with theatre lighting and sound. Tour UBC’s historic Frederic Wood theatre led by MFA directing alumnus Gerald Vanderwoude.

• Theatre shorts and party: Listen…Look Here!
An hour of theatre gems performed and directed by Theatre at UBC alumni, the troupe who brought last year’s Who’s There? Party at the lobby after the show. All proceeds go to student scholarships. Tickets $10; kids 12 and under free when accompanied by an adult.

For more information, click here.

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