Major Contracts Signed by Wagdi Habashi

0 N C 0 R D I A,S ~PORT VOL. 2I NOVEMBE R 7, I996 N ° 5 Major contracts signed by Wagdi Habashi a gas turbine engine (for Pratt & tant to Pratt & Whitney for 19 BY SYLVAIN COMEAU Whitney). years, will develop software with the rofessor W agdi Habashi scored For CAE Electronics, Habashi following applications: in-flight icing P a research coup last month, will develop software with which the performance of engines, aero-elastic signing research contracts with the company can create a flight simula ity (combining the efforts of struc Montreal offices of two high-tech tor to train helicopter pilots to land tural and fluid engineers), conjugate giants. The contracts, with CAE on navy ships. heat transfer (for cooling blades and Electronics and Pratt & Whitney, "Landing on these ships can be other engine components), and aero provide . one-year funding of extremely dangerous," he explained. acoustics (for reducing the noise lev $100,000 and $155,000, respectively. "Helicopter pilots have to deal with els of engines). "It's quite a nice coincidence that winds blowing from varying direc "This program will be multidisci two projects, which were discussed tions at a range of speeds, causing plinary," he said. "Every time you and negotiated separately, were vortices to form behind the ships' change something in an engine, it signed on the same day," H abashi superstructures. They have difficulty affects something else. For example, said las t week. N egotiations for deciding when and how to land. if a blade is made to curve some way both had been carried on through That takes a lot of training." CAE to reduce the noise, that may affect C oncordia's Industrial Liaison will construct a simulator to fulfill a its strength, and it may break. We Unit, part of the Office of Research contract with the Royal Navy fo r are trying to create a computer pro Services. seven ship platforms. gram that can balance all the ele H abashi is a professor of Mechan The Pratt & Whitney contract ments - structure, noise, fluid >- 0: ical Engineering and the Director of may be renewed for an additional mechanics, and so on - and come :, ~ u. Concordia's Computational Fluid four years. It involves six separate but up with an optimal solution." 0 Dynamics (CFD) Laboratory. CFD inter-related projects, four of them The other two Pratt & Whitney "'z 5 is the science of calculating the flow with direct application in the design projects are in the area of algorithmic g0 -w 0. of fluids, whether around navy ships of gas turbine engines. research. One project will involve 0 "' (as with the CAE contract) or inside H abashi, who has been a consul- See Habashi, p. 11 Genocide scholar predicts evolution of international standards IN THIS ISSUE Who we a re Frank Chalk aids war crimes tribunal Ro n Rudin criticizes Quebe~ tected by the United Nations Geno in the case of the massacre of hun the fingerprints of a genocide," BY JE AN -FRAN<;: OIS BEG IN historians, and David Howes cide Convention. dreds of thousands of Tutsis in through field investigation by homi "One thing I've been finding in Rwanda in 1994, where propaganda cide detectives. This is one of the pores over U.S. and he prosecution of war criminals from Rwanda and former my research is that the definition of broadcast on private radio stations major problems facing the Tribunal, Canadi an song lyrics. T Yugoslavia could lead to new devel genocide is not written in stone," incited the Hutu population to vio he says, because the investigators Page 2 opments in international law as it Chalk said. "And that's probably a lence and contributed significantly to must not only find "who pulled the relates to genocide, according to good thing, because the UN's defini a murderous climate. trigger," but also uncover evidence History Professor Frank Chalk. tion excludes social and political The third area in which Chalk has that the victims were selected fo r A wards of Chalk and Sociology Professor groups from the protection of the been involved with the Tribunal has killing becaus_e they belonged to a Convention." This calls for change, particular group: Distinc tion Kurt Jonassohn wrote a classic text to do with what he calls "discovering book, The H istory and Sociology of he thinks, since the perpetrators of Chalk believes that the Tribunal Four Montrea lers are feted Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies, genocide frequently recast the defini has benefited from the expertise on tion of the group they seek to anni genocide that has been developed at for their leadership in business published in 1990. He has been hav ing discussions with the International hilate in order to avoid prosecution Concordia. "I'm sharing my knowl and the comm"urJity . Criminal Tribunal prosecutorial staff under the Convention. edge of the history of genocide, the P~ge 6 _ for the last two years, visiting the The Convention, adopted by the fingerprints of genocide, and the Tribunal in the spring of 1995 and UN in 1948 in the wake of the nature of the criminal mind which 1996 at The H ague, Netherlands. Nuremberg trials of Nazi war crimi commits genocide," he said. A wards for 'What we're talking about," Chalk nals, now protects only national, But the help does not only go said in an interview, "is the defini racial, ethnic and religious groups. one way. "I have also learned from .tion of genocide in international law, Chalk thinks that in the case of the lawyers at the T ribunal, and my and the meaning of that definition the former Yugoslavia, the Interna research is further ahead today when applied to the events in Rwan tional Tribunal is going to set more because of the prosecutors, who da, and, potentially, to some of the liberal standards. "For instance, they give me insights into the problems events in the former Yugoslavia." believe that an attempt to annihilate they face." Chalk, who is also co-director of most of the Muslim residents of a In December, Chalk is going back the Montreal Institute for Genocide Serbian village is an act of genocide, to the Netherlands, where he will do and Human Rights Studies, said his even though the victims represent research and give senior members of conversations with the Tribunal staff only a small fraction of the Muslims the prosecutorial staff a seminar on have generally fallen into three broad ofYugoslavia," he said. the history of genocide. He expects categories. The first is the definition Professor Chalk has also provided to meet the new Chief Prosecutor of of genocide itself, and particularly, material to the Tribunal with regard 2 the International Criminal Tribunal, the criteria that should be used to to the question of incitement to Montreal-born Ontario Court of determine whether a group is pro- genocide. T_his is especially relevant Appeal Justice Louise Arbour. Ron Rudin touches a nerve a111ong Quebec historians BY ALISON RAMSEY hink language is a touchy topic? TAsk History Professor Ron Rudin about recent historical writing on <21,iebec. Amazed, he watched turmoil erupt after an article he wrote, Iii called, "Revisionism and the Search "~ -w for a Normal Society: A critique of a: Clz Recent <21,iebec Historical Writing," <( was published in Canadian Historical Sociologist David Howes breathes fresh air into the identity debate Review in 1992. Now wary, he awaits a similar reaction to his fourth book, whose working title is Cultural clues in the pop charts Searchingfor the Past in 20th Century Quebec, scheduled for publication while the American song, We Are the studying constitutional law at BY PHOEBE DEY next fall. World, can be said to build on the McGill. He went to an exhibition by His first book was The Forgotten U.S. Declaration of Independence rofessor David Howes has an Canadian painter Alex Colville and Quebecers, a history of English <21,ie ("We, the People of the United Punusual take on Canadian iden experienced a kind of revelation of bec written at the suggestion of his States, in order to form a more per tity. He has analysed how musical justice, Canadian-style. publisher. The second, Banking en fect union," etc.). "Colville has said that he tries to Iii performances - from Glenn Gould Jranfais: The French Banks of Quebec, ~ "The American song asserts a playing Bach's Goldberg Variations to do the highest possible justice to grew out of his PhD dissertation. In ~ strong and undivided sense of who the Northern Lights singing Tears reality in his paintings, and I sought Whose Interest, a book on <21,iebec's ~ 'we' are," Howes explained, "whereas <( Are Not Enough - can reveal aspects to trace the connection between his caisse populaire movement, was a sort the Canadian song, Tears Are Not of the Canadian character. idea of justice and the structure of of sequel. Enough, reveals a fractured and high Howes, who is Chair of the the Canada constitution. The strik At that point, Rudin took a sab ly contingent sense of collective Department of Sociology and ing juxtapositions, as in [a famously batical to study another area of inter- · Rudin realized that historians felt identity." One line in the Canadian Anthropology, is consciously apply enigmatic Colville painting] Horse est, the Irish. Unexpectedly, his Irish he was challenging their integrity. song goes, "And if we should try, ing the social theory of Emile and Train, and the constant sense in readings led him to further appreci He explains that he was simply try together, you and I, maybe we could Durkheim, who held that the form Colville's painting of things hanging ate <21,iebec, in the sense of judging ing to debunk myths such as those understand the reasons why." of society's structures informs how 'in the balance,' spoke to me of the his home with heightened percep he read in the revisionist Histoire du Howes wrote a "constitutional individuals think and express them precarious balance between English tion.

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