2 MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010 VARSITY NEWS [email protected] Two New Degrees Offered at U of T he Munk School and Computer Science bring more practical degrees to U of T Rajin Singh is that our graduates would be inno- vators who will take leadership posi- VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR tions in any of the three sectors.” The University of Toronto will be of- Across campus the Department of fering two new masters programs this Computer Science has established September. The Master of Global Af- the Master of Science in Applied fairs at the Munk School of Global Af- Computing, another new profession- fairs and the Master of Science in Ap- al degree. Known for being highly plied Computing at the Department of research-intensive at the postgradu- Computer Science come in response ate level, the department also saw a to a growing demand for professional strong student demand for profes- and applied postgraduate studies. sional experience as opposed to The MGA degree at the Munk purely research-based projects. School seeks to bridge the sectors of “After doing extensive outreach, government, business and NGO work we came to a programme that plays while addressing the changing land- to our particular strengths: research scape of global affairs. The program in aid of technology transfer to indus- is directed of Steven Bernstein, previ- try,” states M.Sc. of Applied Comput- ously director of the Master of Arts in ing program director Eugene Fiume. International Relations program. Along with taking the program spe- “We purposely called it a Master in cific graduate level courses students Global Affairs instead of Internation- in the program also take courses in al Relations not because states are communications and business. The irrelevant, but because we want peo- professional M.Sc. of Applied Com- ple to recognize that this old model puting also requires internships spe- is just one way the world is interact- cifically in transferring technology to ing,” says Bernstein. “It grew out of industry and the private sector. student demand for a degree where “Students will also do internships they could develop applied skills in in industry on well-defined projects addition to knowledge which would The Munk Centre aims to bridge government, business and NGO work with its new Masters program. DAVID PIKE/THE VARSITY that require the deployment of new launch their careers.” research results into industry,” notes The program seeks to bridge the Médicins Sans Frontières (Doctors gram’s inception, applicants have already working overseas, in gov- Dr. Fiume. “To my knowledge, there is sectors of government, business and Without Borders) and current cross- already expressed a high interest. ernment or are law, business, and no programme like this anywhere.” NGO work and features a mandatory appointed faculty at the Munk School. The selective program admits 40 engineering postgraduates. The program proved to be highly internship component, where over- “He told us that when he was in Rwan- students from among a large pool of “We were [...] happy to get MBA selective. Only six students were cho- seas placement is stressed. da as a medical professional, he didn’t applicants. According to Bernstein, grads who had terrific skills in man- sen from one hundred and twenty ap- “James Orbinski is one of the sto- understand the political forces lead- most applicants are undergraduates agement but not necessarily the cul- plicants in the inaugural year. Fiume ries of this degree,” says Bernstein, ing to the problems.” from a social sciences background, tural and political knowledge to act suggests that expanded enrollment referencing former president of In only two months after the pro- but around 10 per cent have been globally,” says Bernstein. “Our vision may be a possibility in the future. Help Conquer Cancer with your Computer U of T program allows anyone to use their computer to run medical calculations Cole Carruthers uploaded from the members’ com- age day the WC Grid calculates 288 puters back to the WC Grid server.” CPU-years of data. This is the same VARSITY CONTRIBUTOR HCC is part of the World Commu- amount of data a single computer Curing cancer can be added to the nity Grid, a distributed-computing running at full capacity would take list of ways to procrastinate come network funded by IBM that sup- 288 years to complete. September. U of T’s Help Conquer ports computer-intensive research The ability of grid computing to Cancer (HCC) project uses your projects. The WCG estimates that fight disease is not a new concept. computer’s spare processing cycles computer owners typically only In 2003 scientists used the technol- to understand the functions of can- use 10 to 15 per cent of their com- ogy to uncover 45 potential genes to cer-fighting proteins. puter’s power. fight smallpox. Other grid comput- The program works by asking vol- The collective computing power ing projects currently underway re- unteers to download a program that of grid computing far surpasses the late to HIV and muscular dystrophy. fetches data whenever their com- ability of any supercomputer. The WCG was founded in 2004 puter is turned on but not in use. “The numbers describing the with the mission of becoming the Anytime a screen-saver would nor- World Community Grid are crazy,” largest computer grid in the world. mally turn on, the program fetches says Cumbaa. “There are about HCC is funded by the Canada Foun- data to calculate. 520,000 members that contribute dation for Innovation, the Canada “A project’s data is divided into to the WC Grid, donating computer Research Chair Program, the Natu- work units and sent out to WC Grid time from 1,580,000 computers” ral Science and Engineering Re- members’ computers,” explains Sci- Since HCC launched in Novem- search Council of Canada, and IBM. entific Associate Chistian Cumbaa. ber 2007 the program has screened To learn more about HCC and use “Each work unit takes a few seconds over 12,000 proteins and generated your computer to fight cancer, visit U of T’s Help Conquer Cancer project helps understand cancer ighting proteins. to download [...] once complete, it is over 115,000,000 images. In an aver- www.worldcomputinggrid.org ALEX NURSALL/THE VARSITY THE EDITOR–IN–CHIEF FEATURES EDITOR ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS: Luke Savage Sean MacKay James Bradford [email protected] [email protected] Patrick Baud, Cole Carruthers, Kevin Draper, Angela PRODUCTION MANAGER ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS VARSITY Rogelio Briseño ONLINE EDITOR Domingo, Mersiha Gadzo, Bernada Gospic, Patrick Langille, Elizabeth Kagedan [email protected] Joe Howell Nick McKinlay, Tahsin Najam, Daniel Portoraro, Danielle [email protected] Dylan C. Robertson 21 Sussex Avenue, Suite 306 DESIGN EDITOR Robinson, Jordan Rivera, Omar Saeed, Semra Eylul Sevi, Toronto, ON M5S 1J6 Tom Cardoso SENIOR COPY EDITOR ASSOCIATE COMMENT EDITORS Natalie Sequeira, Rajin Singh, Pheobe Uguy, Eradj Yakabov [email protected] Laura Kathleen Maize Abdi Aidid AR PHOTO EDITOR [email protected] E V SIT H Y David Pike Maria Cichocz T [email protected] COPY EDITORS Amanda Marie-Quintino The Varsity Board of Directors NEWS EDITOR ASSOCIATE A&E EDITORS Andrew Rusk Dylan C. Robertson Brigit Katz CHAIR & CEO BOARD MEMBERS [email protected] Alex Ross Ariel Lewis Emily Sommers Dimitris Apostolopoulos (St. George) Natalie Sequeira [email protected] TH R COMMENT EDITOR Jessica Denyer (St. George) E PE STU SPA DENT NEW Alex Ross ILLUSTRATIONS EDITOR ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR Michael Di Leo (UTM) [email protected] CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Alex Nursall Elisabeth Laratta Adam Heller (ProFac) Ruichen Zhu Editorial: Advertising: SCIENCE EDITOR [email protected] Joe Howell (Masthead) [email protected] (416) 946-7600 (416) 946-7604 Erene Stergiopoulos ASSOCIATE SCIENCE EDITORS Ken Kuran (ProFac) [email protected] DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT & TRAINING Alexandra Irena Eremia Amanda Marie-Quintino (Staff) Amanda Marie-Quintino CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORS Charlotte Tombs Noah Mazereeuw (St. George) VARSITY PUBLICATIONS: Will Sloan & Emily Kellogg [email protected] Dimitris Apostolopoulos [email protected] Semra Eylul Sevi (Staff) LISTINGS EDITOR ASSOCIATE FEATURE EDITORS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Emily Sommers (St. George) SPORTS EDITOR General Manager Ad Designer Natalie Cooper Navi Lamba Luke Savage Ruichen Zhu (ProFac) Roberta Bell [email protected] David Levine Rogelio Briseño [email protected] Jenny Jin Hee Lee [email protected] Vacant (UTSC) [email protected] VARSITY NEWS MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2010 3 UTSC Dean of Student Affairs retires Tom Nowers retires ater 12 years with the university Natalie Sequeira dio theatre and more performance space are needed. He also suggests an VARSITY STAFF outdoor soccer and cricket pitch and Tom Nowers, dean of Student Affairs at least 700 more spaces in residence, at UTSC, has retired after 12 years of and has recommended to administra- managing an office that supports the tion that space be made — such as an academic and personal success of the atrium in one of the buildings — to university’s students. contain all student service offices. Nowers retires at a time when he When asked about a few things not still feels he is at the top of his game many people know about him, Now- rather than jaded or frustrated. “I ers mentioned his love for fine art and want more control of my life […] to re- painting, photography, and antique capture some interests I had before,” boats. He also dropped out of univer- he says. He still hopes to do some sity when neuroscience was not work- consulting as well as travelling and ing for him. spending more time with his family. “I travelled alone to Europe […] He also cited a more morbid rea- and flew to Nairobi.” He spent 13 son for his retirement. “I have had months moving through Europe and three people in my life die before 60, then West through Africa from Kenya all in high pressure jobs,” he said.