Concordia Convocation Back 'Home' in Place Des Arts

Concordia's Vol. 2611 No. 6 Concordia convocation back 'home' in Place des Arts BY B ARB ARA BL ACK L'Heureux-Dube received an hon While the demands of her career at instructors in an impoverished for New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and orary degree at the ceremony. The a Hamilton hospital prevented PhD mer black township. Nine students Canadian nationalist Maude Barlow. fter two years at Molson Centre judge, whose liberal views on social in psychology Melissa Lieberman have now graduated from the pro Woodrow has just earned her PhD Abecause of a protracted labour justice sometimes make her a lone from attending to accept her gold gram, and six more are expected to with a thesis called Why Are They dispute, Concordia's convocation dissenting voice on the bench, told medal as top graduate, two master's graduate next spring. The program Laughing? The Re-Formulation of Iden ceremony moved back to the Salle graduates that "a call to arms for graduates made it all the way from was difficult to administer, however, tity in Canadian Stand-up Comedy, and Wilfrid Pelletier of Place des Arts on equality today is an investment in South Africa. and is not likely to be repeated. is currently working with Sociology Nov. 16 for the single fall ceremony tomorrow." Paseka Maboya and Mohapi Moha Professor William Reimer on a pro (five take place in June). Approxi She had herself faced discrimina ladi (above) strode across the stage, Social involvement ject that examines the changing rural mately 1,000 graduates were eligible tion, she said, and she urged them to their faces wreathed in smiles, as pre Valedictorian Anna Woodrow said economy in Canada. for diplomas and degrees, and most fight "isms" of all kinds. "Do what is senter Professor Bill Knitter explained that through education, graduates were on hand. right and fair, and affirmation will to the audience that they were part of can make crucial contributions to ■ More on convocation - see page i ■ Rura/EconomyP,r,jed - ,eepage9 Supreme Court Justice Claire come in due course." a special program for education society, and gave the examples of Leading aerospace partnership celebrates its first year The Concordia Institute for Aero Aerospace, Bell Helicopter Textron, .I. space Design and Innovation EMS Technologies, CAE, CMC Elec (ClADI) held a birthday party on tronics and Heroux Devtek. These Nov. 19 - a recognition ceremony partners also form the Institute's advi to acknowledge the accomplishments sory board, providing information on of the 26 students who are engaged the latest industry and government in research work on aerospace pro needs, and articulating the Institute's jects as part of this partnership. strategic planning. Here are the participating students: Seven aerospace companies Bombardier Aero space: Nahida The director of the Institute is Dr. Bchara, Tomer Curiel, Nader Faour, Hany Moustapha, senior fellow and Monalisa Larouche, Carl Petrone, Neil manager of Pratt & Whitney Canada Ristau and Pierre Said Technology. He said that CIADI rep Bell Helicopter Textron: Julie Fran resents the first time in Canada that coeur, Frarn;:ois Gignac, Tony Lentza seven major aerospace companies kis and Hany Sarhan have been brought together to CAE: Carmen Gonzales, Fadi Mansour enhance the education of undergrad and Halim Pagacz uate students by providing them with EMS Technologies: Paolo Babino real design and research projects. CMC Electronics: Nick Maglione and "CIADI is a model to follow , and The first class of CIADI students presented a commemorative plaque to CIADI Director Hany Moustapha and Paul Slack the first step towards establishing the Assistant to the Director Zineb Bencheikh (centre) to thank them for their dedication to the project. Heroux Devtek Wassim Bacha Montreal Aerospace Institute, a net Pratt &. Whitney Canada: Steven work of industries and interested uni opment of engineers through the pro than otherwise possible in the regular work environment, experience with Faltas, Nadia Foty, Anthony Jonkov, versities working together to promote vision of skills specific to the aero university program structure." real engineering projects, interaction Joelle Lewandowski, Tarek Mansour, the Canadian aerospace industry space industry. For students, the experience is between students and aerospace com Nancy Pallotti, Sandeep Singh and among the engineers of tomorrow." "Key strategies in this type of pro invaluable. Just listen to Julie Fran panies, and concern about the needs Martin Tremblay Bombardier Aerospace Vice-Presi gram are the tools provided to the coeur, a fourth-year aerospace under of engineering students - this is my dent of Engineering Franc;:ois Caza students combined with the access to graduate student collaborator with definition of CIADI." More on Engineering inside: said that the CIADI initiative makes a aerospace specialists, making the Bell Helicopter Textron: "Excellent The industry supporters are Pratt ■ Digital logic design - $el! page i significant contribution to the <level- learning curve of the students steeper computer facilities, a comfortable & Whitney Canada, Bombardier ■ D<lwsonagreement- ,eepa i MagicBlocks game teaches engineering students serious concepts BY ANNA BRATULIC boxes that can be stuck onto a board, or affinity towards digital logic or Kharma would like prospective of the student engineer from scratch. similar to Lego , and which contain programming," said Kharma, who engineering students to play with "Engineering is about building any an engineer got his or her simple circuitry enabling each block teaches programming methodology educational digital design "toys" things. If somebody goes into engi Mstart by building things out of to carry out one fundamental com and software engineering. before enrolling in university. Many neering and they're interested in the Lego blocks. Take Professor Nawwaf puting concept such as input, repeti "Our focus is on introducing seem to have only the most basic spirit of engineering, what he or she Khanna, of the Department of Elec tion, arithmetic or other logic building non-trivial digital circuitry knowledge of digital logic, if any, and would want to do is to build things trical and Computer Engineering. He operations. from basic blocks, so it's more like some have hardly done any program that work. still has a set he tinkers with at home The blocks can then be wired hardware design. Somebody that ming, he said. Given the amount of "The more stimulating the projects - just because it's a toy doesn't together and configured in different uses this would probably catch stuff information they will have to pick up [done in labs] are, the better, so why mean it isn't useful. ways to create devices such as PIN that that would be useful in digital rapidly in the four-year program, it not try to introduce some of this ear Khanna hopes that aspiring engi detectors, decoders/encoders, simple logic. would be useful to be able to start lier so that they come ready and neers will also want to play with calculators, and counters. "For example, the concept of dis them off on a more advanced footing. eager? The basic motivation is to MagicBlocks, a game he and some crete states; the concept of regular "It's like riding a bicycle ," he said. make engineering, generally, a more students are developing that exercises Augments logic clock; the concept of control. What "If you know how to ride a bicycle, exciting discipline. Very carefully basic concepts in digital logic, the 'Tm thinking of this MagicBlocks does control [in the engineering you can go and try a motorcycle. But built and tested games can help you foundation for any career in digital game as something to augment, sense] mean? Concepts from pro imagine you come here and we have do this. " design. either in a lab or independently at gramming that involve counting and to train you to ride a bicycle and, in a The idea for MagicBlocks came While still very much in its devel home, a comse that's taught to all repetition [are also covered], so this week, move you on to a motorcycle. from a graduate project that Khanna opmental stage, the game consists of pre-university students, or at least to is very useful. That's what we have to do with some was supervising. He provided the six "logic blocks" - literally, small clever students who have an interest "What we did is not one-tenth as students,.exactly that." specs for the project - the idea for much fun as this," said Kharma, the blocks and what he wanted each pointing to the Lego MindStorms Hands-on engineering one of them to do, and student Leon Web site, "but [the Lego robotics kit] At the same time, he says, games Caro has the challenge of physically has been optimized for fun. such as MagicBlocks would introduce getting it to work. Student Vivek Dawson agreement eases "To tell you the truth, if I was the essential hands-on aspect of engi Venkatesh of the Education Depart going to teach a robotics course, I neering at an earlier stage. University ment is also in on the development. entrance into engineering would want students to [build their labs with limited resources may not They are now trying to secure patent own play robot] five years earlier." be successful in cultivating that side rights. BY BARBARA BLAC K fficials of Concordia University and Dawson College signed an Rapid growth of Engineering and Computer Science Oagreement on Nov. 12 that should be of benefit especially to prospective engineering and computer science students. he Faculty of Engineering and Formerly, Ecole Polytechnique was research-based graduate programs, a The signatories were Rector 'Frederick Lowy, Dean Nabil Esmail and TComputer Science has seen its thought to be the largest. It had 5,134 historical high for Concordia.

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