UBC This Week 07-Jun-2013

Matt Warburton, a print and digital designer for UBC Communications and Marketing, is the architect behind two new Canada Post stamps commemorating Canadian motorcycles that were released June 5. The stamp project ties together three life-long passions that Warburton inherited from his father: stamps, design and motorcycles.

Every year many Canadians suggest motorcycles as a stamp theme to Canada Post. When the project got the green light, Warburton decided to feature two produced in Canada motorcycles on the stamps: the 1908 Canadian Cycle and Motor Company (CCM) and the 1914 Indian. The design is clean, simple and graphic — highlighting the simplicity of the bikes and focusing on the view as seen by a rider.

For more information, visit http://news.ubc.ca/2013/06/06/going-postal/

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Fisheries Centre professor and director Rashid Sumaila has been selected as the recipient of this year’s Excellence in Public Outreach Award from the American Fisheries Society.

The award is presented to an individual whose dedication, creativity, and skill in disseminating information through popular media and in public forums has brought credit to the fisheries profession and contributes to the conservation and wise use of fishery resources. It will be presented at the Society’s 143rd Annual Meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas on Sept. 8-12.

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UBC mechanical engineering professor Elizabeth Croft is this year’s recipient of the YWCA Vancouver Women of Distinction Award in the category of Education, Training & Development.

Also honoured was UBC nursing graduate Sara Eftekhar (BSN ’13), who received the YWCA Vancouver’s Young Woman of Distinction award on the same day she received her degree.

The YWCA cited Sara’s volunteer work in nine countries, her representation of Canada at the World Youth Congress in Turkey and the UN University in Japan. It also mentions her work building homes in Ecuador, initiating health programs for women in Egypt, advocacy for global health in Ottawa, and work with marginalized populations in the Downtown Eastside. Sara has also initiated a mentorship program for youth in an Aboriginal community and is the BC youth ambassador for the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Over 1,100 guests attended the gala at the Westin Bayshore to honour all 83 nominees and to celebrate the 11 winners.

Croft will also be giving a talk on Transforming Human-Robot Interaction at 7 p.m. on June 13 at the H.R. Macmillan Space Centre. For more information, visit http://www.spacecentre.ca/women-in-science

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Computer science professor Gail Murphy and statistics researcher Davor Çubranić received the 2013 Most Influential Paper 10 Years Later Award at the 35th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) in May.

Other Computer Science members honoured in the past few weeks were:

• Anthony Winstanley who received the 2013 UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for outstanding service in enhancing, managing and supporting the department’s undergraduate teaching facilities; and

• PhD student and teaching assistant Julius Davies, who received the 2013 Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award for his contributions. The prize includes a certificate and $1,000 and is given out to only 16 TAs across UBC.

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UBC civil engineering professor Don Mavinic demonstrated for the first time a fourth-generation reactor that reclaims struvite (phosphorus and other nutrients) from wastewater.

The demonstration was held at Annacis Wastewater Centre in Delta, BC.

Mavinic is co-inventor of a process which reclaims phosphorus – an essential nutrient for plants and animals — from wastewater. Mined sources of high-quality phosphorus are expected to run out in the next 30 to 40 years, a depletion that is forecast to have a catastrophic effect on the world’s food supply and security.

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Municipal infrastructures such as water mains are at risk because they have been underground, unchecked, for decades, according to Solomon Tesfamariam, an associate professor of civil engineering at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

Many small municipalities in B.C. don’t have the resources to routinely monitor these systems, so they can only react when a system fails and residents are left without service.

Tesfamariam and fellow UBC professor Rehan Sadiq have developed a computer program that will act as a decision support tool for municipal staff responsible for planning infrastructure repairs or estimating longevity. It is now being tested by the Glenmore-Ellison Improvement District and the District of West Kelowna. Five UBC graduate students are working with municipal staff to assess the overall condition of underground water mains in the districts.

Further research may expand use into the oil and gas pipeline industry.

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Civil engineering professor Bernard Laval’s International CONCUR team landed in Kilpisjärvi, northern Finland, May 27 to study the transition from ice cover to summer in a high-latitude lake.

The team is taking measurements of the temperature, conductivity, pressure, pH, turbidity, redox, PAR and current from the surface of the water to the bottom of the lake.

Visit the team’s blog for more information on their research.

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It’s been a busy year for UBC Library, which has implemented a change management plan and completed the third year of its Strategic Plan.

The Library’s third annual Community Report reflects how changes have impacted our users, communities and staff, and highlights milestones that were achieved as part of a commitment to remain a top North American research library. The report, an online-only publication, also includes video introductions from David Farrar, Provost and VP Academic, and Ingrid Parent, University Librarian.

Browse the report, explore the infographics, watch the videos and enjoy. Questions or comments? Submit feedback to library.communications@ubc.ca.

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This summer, five students from the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur — Rinku Meena, Rahul Malav, Rajat Jain, Yogendra Goyal and Junaid Masood — will join the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. They will collaborate on projects from the Campus as a Living Lab (CLL) initiative.

The students met with faculty members in an informal welcome in late May. Two students will work with professors Sathish Gopalakrishnan and Jose Marti on improving energy consumptions in “smart buildings.” Two others will work with professors Karthik Pattabiraman and Marti to design cyber security for the smart grid. One student will join Prof. Marti in developing smart meters for power measurement.

For more, visit http://ow.ly/lK0rm

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The new version of UBC’s official app for prospective undergraduate student mobile app includes new features such as:

• Create your own photo message and share it with your friends
• View a curated gallery of the latest Instagram images hashtagged #UBC
• How to Apply to UBC in 5 Steps
• Video tips on the application steps
• Augmented reality feature that interacts with UBC publications

The app also includes existing features such as stunning photos from both campuses, videos for prospective students, UBC Infographics, and social integration of tweets and Facebook posts. The initial version of the app is available on the App Store now, and the Android version will follow in the near future.

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UBC Library celebrates Aboriginal scholarship, creativity and intellectual traditions with its second annual Aboriginal (Un)History Month, which takes place during June.

(Un)History month activities introduce ways that UBC Indigenous scholars are bridging communities and transforming academic spaces through Indigenous approaches to research, pedagogy and governance. Highlights include exhibits at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and Asian Library, and book displays at several Library branches.

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Eric Mazur, the Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Area Dean of Applied Physics, will be at UBC on June 7 to deliver a talk, The Tyranny of the Lecture.

In the early 1990s, Mazur realized that when he lectured, students only learned a small fraction of what he was trying to teach them. He developed the instructional methodology known as Peer Instruction which has been widely adopted and utilized across many countries, institutions and disciplines. Peer Instruction is a key technique to enhance student engagement and learning in large classes.

Date: Friday, June 7
Time: 2-4 p.m.
Place: Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Victoria Learning Theatre 182 (map)
For more information or to watch the live stream, visit http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca./events/view/2441

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Noted U.S. political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain will deliver the 2013 Milton K. Wong Lecture on June 13 at the Chan Centre, drawing on the examples of the U.S. and other countries to explore the politics of race, ethnicity, and gender identity. She will revisit the case she made 20 years ago in Democracy on Trial (originally broadcast as the 1993 Massey Lectures).

Elshtain is the author of award-winning books and a frequent journal contributor and public speaker. She is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago. In 2011, she was honoured with the Democracy Service Award, previously given to the Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, and Vaclav Havel, among others.

Date: Thursday, June 13
Time: 7-9 p.m.
Place: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (map)
Info: Free of charge. Register online or call 604 822 1444 to reserve a seat. Tickets at the door starting at 5pm on June 13.

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Readers of The Tyee had a sneak peek at the upcoming public space project “Upcycled Urbanism”.

“Upcycled” invites people of all backgrounds to re-imagine Vancouver’s public spaces using blocks made from recycled EPS (polystyrene). The teams will transform the 700 block of Granville Street between Georgia and Robson on Saturday, July 13.

The project is a partnership between the Museum of Vancouver and three design teams led by UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the Vancouver Public Space Network, Maker Faire Vancouver, and Spacing magazine.

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