Partnering with Boeing Evangelos Milios and Axel Soto Work with Their Team Using Visual Analytics to Improve Aircraft Manufacturing Safety

2 3 RedefiningRedefining the the realms realms SpringWInter 2011 2012 Computer Scienceof possibilityof possibility

Partnering with Boeing Evangelos Milios and Axel Soto work with their team using visual analytics to improve aircraft manufacturing safety

Risk Taking An Alumna Success Digitizing Headaches

Faculty of Computer Science cs.dal.ca 2 Computer Science

We live in a global economy and Canadian universities are not immune from this Visual Analytics Researchin Computer Science phenomenon. In response, Dalhou- sie has placed a new emphasis on A major project is underway collaboration with international insti- in the Faculty of Computer tutions. So, where does the Faculty of Science in Visual Analytics, Computer Science fit in all of this? funded by the Boeing In the past year, the Faculty of Company. The project, Computer Science has signed a 2+2 started in October 2010, is MOU with one Chinese university and led by principal investigator has three more such agreements in Evangelos Milios and con- the final stages of negotiations. A sists of two parts, Visual 2+2 means that the students take Text Analytics (over 5 years) their first two years at their home and Mobile Graphics (over university and come to us for their 3 years). final two years, receiving their BCSc or BINF from Dalhousie. Visual Text Analytics We have just signed an MOU Visual text analytics aims with King Saud University (KSU) in to advance the state of Riyadh for their graduates to come the art in sense-making of to us for Masters, PhD and Post- large document corpora. Doctoral studies. The search paradigm for Dalhousie is also part of the CAL- finding information of DO consortium (Dalhousie, Alberta, interest in text collections Laval, and Ottawa), signing agree- is well established, and ments with the governments of Brazil exemplified by the success Example of visual analytics: GeoTime provides an integrated and Chile to bring graduate students of Web search engines. The view for analysis of a combination of temporal and geospatial to CALDO member universities. next frontier is the support data. (From “Illuminating the path” by Thomas & Cook) Dalhousie is working to provide of sense-making out of an infrastructure to support these medium to large scale text analytics to the mining of aviation students, with new ESL and learning text corpora by the domain expert and safety related corpora aiming to improve skills programs, as well as summer analyst, who is trying to untap the tacit all aspects of safety in aircraft manu- institutes so students can immerse knowledge hidden in the text. facturing, operation and maintenance. themselves in Dal, Nova Scotian and Visual text analytics brings together This is the main driver of the proposed Canadian cultures. text mining, text visualization and hu- project. Additional domains that will These are not one-way agreements. man computer interaction to create be addressed, to broaden the scope of All allow for our students to spend computer tools to support this activity. the research, and the generality of the time away at the partner universities Key challenges include: support for real- proposed methodologies, include: help and for collaboration between our time visualization and interaction, novel desk application (trouble ticket mining); researchers. It is important that our text visualization techniques (possibly community question-answering forum students take advantage of these op- domain dependent) and interaction tech- mining; research literature and patent portunities to travel and study abroad niques that permit the domain analyst mining; financial report and time series because, as I said at the beginning, to fine tune the text mining, without mining. The project will train a new we live in a global economy. becoming a text mining expert themself. generation of students, who will bridge the areas of text mining, text visualiza- Michael Shepherd The Boeing and Aeroinfo tion and human computer interaction, to Dean Systems Projects support current and future needs of this Boeing and one of its Canadian affili- growing Canadian industry sector. ates, Aeroinfo Systems, have a major The project involves several faculty interest in the application of visual members, including Vlado Keselj, Mike Computer Science 3

Visual Analytics Researchin Computer Science

Shepherd, Stephen Brooks, Kirstie Hawkey tion, of course, leads to unwieldy paper Bonnie MacKay. Several graduate and Raza Abidi, and two postdoctoral printouts and/or multiple interruptions to students working on the project started researchers, Axel Soto and Aminul Islam. work flow. The ruggedized laptops are too their degrees in September 2011, includ- A strong team of graduate students, cumbersome in many situations, such as ing PhD student Raghav Sampangi, both at the PhD level (Magda Jankowska, on a ladder or in a confined space. The and Master’s students Xiaoyu Yu, Ankur Armin Sajadi, Raheleh Makki Niri) and introduction of newer smaller mobile de- Sharma and Matt MacDonald. Two under- at the Master’s level (Shali Liu, Tomasz vices, while appealing, has constraints graduate students worked on setting up Niewiarowski) started their degrees on screen size, interaction techniques, the lab facilities for the Mobile Graphics in September 2011, and are already and complexity of mental model. project in the summer of 2011. The lab is producing some interesting work through The project investigates differ- equipped with large screen displays and projects in their directed study on Visual ent aspects of the overall problem of an assortment of mobile devices. Text Analytics this fall. Undergraduate supporting aircraft mechanics during If all goes as expected with matching student Ryan Kiros worked on the project information retrieval tasks in complex funds from Federal Government through under an NSERC USRA in the summer information spaces that include text, 2D jointly funded NSERC collaborative of 2011. The project has acquired six and 3D images. As the mechanics also research and development projects, MI- desktop computers running Linux, tied must orient themselves in physical space TACS internships and NSERC Industrial together into a Hadoop cluster by PhD and integrate the digital realm with Postgraduate scholarships, the faculty student Marek Lipczak. The project has real-world parts, augmented reality (AR), hopes to double the number of students access to the Compute Canada AceNet including 3D vision and an RFID system, in the coming year, establishing high-performance computing facility, may aid them in their tasks. The project Dalhousie Computer Science as a hub of and a powerful computing cluster in the involves faculty members Kirstie Hawkey, Visual Analytics in Eastern Canada. Faculty of Computer Science. Derek Reilly, Qigang Gao, Carolyn Watters, Stephen Brooks, Dirk Arnold and Srini Mobile Graphics Sampalli, and postdoctoral researcher The Mobile Graphics part of the project aims to support airplane mechanics, who work in a very complex physical and digital world whether they are in the factory assembling planes or conduct- ing maintenance work at airports. Their digital workspace is accessed through multiple devices, including printouts. At the start of each shift on the factory floor, mechanics view the instructions and drawings of the aircraft that they will be working on during that shift. There is a stationary workstation on the shop floor where they can print paper engineering drawings and specs in order to take both the appropriate tools and proper protocols to the aircraft. Once at the aircraft, they have two options to access the information on site: using a stationary display terminal and printer at the assembly station outside the aircraft or sign out a laptop computer for use Part of the student and faculty team working hard on the Boeing project on the aircraft. The stationary worksta- 4 Computer Science

Dr John A. Stasko and inset Dr. Daniel Keim

Dr. Daniel Keim is head of the Information Visualization and Data Analysis Research Group at the University of Konstanz in Germany and has been actively involved in information visualization and data analysis research for about 20 years. Dr Keim developed a number of novel visual analysis techniques for very large data sets with applications to a wide range of application areas including financial analysis, network analysis, geo-spatial analysis, as well as text and multimedia analysis. His research resulted in two recent books “Solving problems with Waving, not drowning Visual Analytics” and “Interactive Data Visualization” both of which he co- Guest lecturers paint a fascinating picture authored. Dr. Keim spoke to an audience at the Scotiabank Auditorium at the end We are in danger of drowning in data. ognizing patterns or making exploratory of October on the title of “Visual Problem How rapidly we have moved from judgements in trying to find out where Solving: How humans and computers kilobytes to megabytes, gigabytes, tera, the patterns might lie in a complex data cooperate best”. peta and on up to zetta and yotta. All set. Visual Analytics is an emerging Dr. John A. Stasko delivered the this data, generated research discipline second Killam Lecture in November. He by health systems, Although computers are very which tries to is a Professor and Associate Chair of communication tools, develop technologies good at performing well defined the School of Interactive Computing at media, security, net- which appropri- the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. working, commercial searches, queries and automated ately combine the Stasko directs the Information Interfaces activity and general strengths of intel- data analysis, they are not as Research Group and is an internation- record keeping, is too ligent automatic ally recognized researcher in the area much for human be- good as humans at recognizing data analysis with of human-computer interaction, with a ings to read through the visual percep- patterns or making exploratory specific focus on information visualiza- and analyze. tion and analysis tion and visual analytics. His research One of our most judgements… capabilities of the group develops ways to help people and important chal- human user. organizations explore, analyze, under- lenges today is to find a way to utilize This year’s Killam Lectures at Dalhou- stand and make sense of data in order this immense wealth of data, find the sie University were hosted by the Faculty to solve problems. Dr. Stasko’s lecture patterns contained within it and derive of Computer Science and were devoted in Ondaatje Hall, was titled “Visual the benefits that such knowledge can to the theme of “Visualizing Information: Analytics for Investigative Analysis and bring. Although computers are very good finding knowledge in massive data”. Two Exploration of Documents and Data.” at performing well defined searches, leading researchers from Germany and queries and automated data analysis, the United States presented at the 2011 they are not as good as humans at rec- Killam Lecture Series, sponsored by the Killam Trusts, which illuminated this field of research through real examples of its applications. Computer Science 5 Sometimes the best plan is being willing to risk changing your plan.

“I have fallen into the right things at the right time,” concedes Carrie Gates, Ph.D. (Computer Science), 2006. Carrie began at Dalhousie in 1989 as a biology major with a plan to pursue medical research. Never one to allow a good plan to get in the way of a great opportunity, she is now a Distinguished En- gineer and works at CA Labs identifying opportunities for research relationships, focusing on enterprise-level security. So how did she get there? “Finding computer science was complete luck”, she says. Dalhousie Computer Science alumna Carrie Gates travels a lot – so far her work has Carrie lived at home during her first taken her to 26 countries year of university. Subject to her parent’s travel schedule, she found her cozy day- with the Faculty of Computer Science. – an opportunity from which she, herself, time home in the Math/Stats/Computing Motivated by colleagues, Carrie decided has clearly benefited. Carrie’s research Science lounge in the Chase Building at to start her PhD. projects have resulted in 23 publications, Dal, making friends with students within She connected with Mark Kellner 19 invited talks, eight panel participa- computing science. These students, she from Carnegie Mellon University’s Com- tions, four patent applications and over recalls, spoke enthusiastically about puter Emergency Response Team in 2003 $800,000 in external funding awards. their programme and actually made and began six months of thesis work on Carrie laughs as she looks back money while attending school via co-op the Detection of Coordinated Port Scans. at her life since that very first day at placements. She heard of the discover- These six months turned into three Dalhousie University. ies they were making and the networking years of full-time work. Carrie returned “I always heard people make refer- they were doing through computers. For to Dalhousie in 2006 to complete the ence to the glass ceiling for women in Carrie, it was a hook. final pieces of her thesis, ‘Coordinated technology fields, but I never actually She sought guidance on how she too Port Scans: A Model, A Detector and An encountered it. Faculty, staff and stu- could explore these possibilities. Follow- Evaluation Methodology.’ dents have always been incredibly sup- ing a first year computing science elec- Upon graduation, Carrie began as portive of me being a female in computer tive, Carrie knew she’d found a better fit. Vice President & Research Staff Member science,” she says. It was Dr. Carolyn Watters who at CA Technologies, one of the largest Her support network along the way encouraged Carrie to pursue graduate independent software corporations has really led to some unique opportuni- work in Computing Science. In 1995, she in the world. In April 2011, she was ties that have enabled her to create this completed a Masters of Science, in Com- promoted to Senior Vice President and successful career path for herself. puter Science, with her thesis on ‘The Distinguished Engineer – something she There is a lot more to Carrie’s story Application of Neural Networks to the calls “a great honour.” than just luck and timing. Presented op- Prediction of the Conductivity of Water’. From Kenya to Estonia, Australia to portunities put Carrie on a path she hadn’t This lead her to an interesting career, India, this unplanned career path has even known existed, but her many years of which included a stint as Summer led Carrie to work and travel to 26 dif- hard work, dedication and positive support Scholar at Scotland’s University of ferent countries. Representing CA, Carrie got her to where she is now: working in her Edinburgh, Manager (Technical Services) is invited to talks, conferences and com- dream job and living her dream life. at Alliance For Marine Remote Sensing mittees within the academic community. and Software Engineer at Chebucto Her company is one of the few in the in- To look into one of Carrie’s current Community Net. In 1997, Carrie returned dustry that liaises with universities (and research projects, look up ‘Insider Threat to Dalhousie as a Systems Manager graduate students) on research projects Detection from CA Labs’ on YouTube. 6 Computer Science

Meet Dr. Norbert Zeh – Tier II Canada Research Chair

“The most exciting frontier is the development of algorithms for large directed graphs, an area with major open problems. My grad students and I have developed heuristic approaches for some graph problems that work really well in practice.”

The Faculty of Computer Science is How did you get interested in that? developed some novel ideas that may pleased to announce the renewal of two Serendipity. During my undergrad, I lead to the first non-trivial theoretical Tier II Canada Research Chairs, held started to read research papers on algo- results for directed graphs. by Dr. Rob Beiko and Dr. Norbert Zeh. rithms, automatic code parallelization The Canada Research Chairs Program in compilers and in other areas. I chose Who else is involved in this work? is funded by the federal government algorithms in the end simply because I My graduate students have made, and and forms part of a strategy to make liked the professor who taught it best. continue to make, significant contribu- Canada one of the world’s top countries Algorithms for massive data sets caught tions to my work. Within the Faculty, my in research and development. This issue my attention during my time at Carleton closest collaborator is Rob Beiko. We we talk to Norbert Zeh. University because most existing algo- combine our complementary expertise rithmic techniques were completely use- to attack some really hard problems in What is your line of research? less on massive data sets. Completely bioinformatics. Outside the university, I Processing massive data sets requires new ideas were needed. have long-standing collaborations with parallel algorithms that utilize the com- colleagues in Denmark, Germany, Ottawa puter’s cache memory, but most existing What do you hope to achieve in the and Waterloo. algorithms are sequential and exhibit next 5 years? poor cache locality. My research aims to Many things, from developing algorithms What attracts your interest outside of develop cache-efficient algorithms and for massive graphs and cache-efficient your research? data structures that can handle massive geometric data structures to efficient Playing with my two sons, Luca and amounts of data. Application areas that methods for building phylogenetic su- Mateo, certainly gives me a lot of joy. A are sources of particularly interesting pertrees. The most exciting frontier is the major passion of mine is road cycling. problems are geographic information development of algorithms for large di- I enjoy reading anything from novels systems and bioinformatics. rected graphs, an area with major open to books about contemporary politics. problems. My grad students and I have Computers have always been my hobby – developed heuristic approaches for some that’s why I became a computer scientist graph problems that work really well in — and I continue to write programs practice. I will continue to improve these unrelated to my research and contribute techniques. More excitingly, Bardia Sadri to open-source projects. from University of Toronto and I have Computer Science 7

Michael Porter and Kathryn Dunphy are developing new tools and software to investigate the biodiversity data collected from Wood Buffalo National Park.

Biomonitoring 2.0 DNA sequencing changes the way we study ecosystem health

Canada is a country of unparalleled species that can be manipulated and for quick recognition and response for natural resources and unique wildlife: distinguished under a light microscope. emerging threats to important habitats. First Nations peoples and later arrivals Larval forms, seeds and bacteria cannot The Bio2.0 team includes scientists were drawn here by the promise of fish, be typed at all using these techniques. from the Canadian government who furs, forests and precious metals. In Bacteria are particularly important in are collecting samples from a pilot 2012 Canada remains heavily dependent the bigger picture because they can be project site in Wood Buffalo National on resource revenues, but technological extremely sensitive indicators of changes Park, molecular biologists to isolate advances allowing resource exploitation in habitat conditions. They are also the and sequence DNA and bioinformatics on a massive scale have the potential to primary producers that support every- researchers including Rob Beiko from do catastrophic and irreversible damage thing else in the ecosystem, both directly the Faculty of Computer Science who are to the environment. Prevention and and indirectly. tasked with making sense of a huge pool protection are essential components of The DNA sequencing revolution that of DNA. Important computational chal- environmental preservation, but another gave us a complete map of the human lenges include determining which DNA important component is monitoring, genome has now made its way into the sequence came from which organism, which allows us to track changes in the environment: “metagenomic” projects finding new ways to quantify the biodi- environment over time. Biomonitoring in- aim to describe habitats, from the hu- versity at our different sample locations volves the collection of living organisms man gut to soil, in terms of the microbes and using GIS applications developed in from a habitat of concern, based on the that live there and the key tasks they the Beiko lab to relate biodiversity back idea that some species are sensitive to perform. A project recently funded by Ge- to geographic and habitat information. environmental conditions and can serve nome Canada, with strong support from After a small study at two locations in as early indicators of change. Parks Canada, Environment Canada and 2010, work covers sixteen locations in “Traditional” biomonitoring has been other stakeholders, aims to bring these Wood Buffalo, including eight locations carried out for many decades across techniques into the wild where they can in Alberta near the Athabasca Oil Sands Canada and around the world. In this revolutionize biomonitoring. Instead of and eight sensitive whooping crane process, samples of water, soil and laborious identification of a subset of the nesting sites. Sequencing of a wide airborne insects are collected from the organisms in a particular habitat, the range of samples from these sites is now wild and brought back to the lab for sequencing of DNA “marker genes” can underway. Soon, this will provide the first identification. This identification process quickly determine the presence and rela- full snapshot of biodiversity in Canada’s is labour-intensive and time consuming tive abundance of bacteria, other single- largest protected area. In the longer because each specimen from a sample celled organisms, plants, animals and term, the samples collected in the com- must be examined under the microscope fungi. This “Biomonitoring 2.0” (Bio2.0 ing years will constitute a DNA-based to identify the key features that distin- for short) approach will revolutionize the early warning system for Canada’s most guish, say, caddisfly A from caddisfly B. way we keep track of ecosystem health important natural habitats. Identification is laborious, error-prone and will ultimately allow us to monitor and can be imprecise; furthermore, more sites more often. Most importantly, these protocols can only be applied to the rapid turnaround time will allow 8 Computer Science

Graced by a conference Leah Brown recently had the opportunity to talk with one of our Ph.D. students, Ozge Yeloglu, about her experience at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (GHC). GHC is the biggest gathering of women in Computer Science in North America, with around 3000 bright women in attendance this year. Arriving at the conference, Ozge was contemplating quitting her Ph.D., discouraged and feeling she would never be able to finish it. The support and boost of confidence Ozge received while at GHC has completely changed her decision. She is now aiming to finish her degree. Her story is a true testament to why support from alumni and those who have been through what students are going through is so valuable.

invited me to the private Facebook Sounds like you got a lot out of going to breakfast happening during one of the conference! the conference days. At the break- Yes I did! Initially going into it, I had fast, I met Sheryl Sandberg, Chief very few expectations. I thought I was Operating Officer of Facebook. Sheryl already perfectly secure being a female was taking questions, so I asked her if in IT. As the conference progressed, she had ever thought of quitting due to I found myself attending panels and Ozge Yeloglu frustrations with what she was doing or talks focused mostly on raising self Leah Brown she just didn’t think she was successful confidence. The conference was a life enough. She answered that, for a brief changing experience for me and it felt You said that you period of time, she actually did quit and so good to know that other women in IT considered quitting your Ph.D. took some professional cooking classes went through exactly what I was going Can you tell me more about that? (which ironically, was also my plan!). through. It is not often, in computer I am in the fifth year of my Ph.D. and After some time, she got back into it and science, that we have the opportunity over the past several months things had has successfully moved on to work for to open up about insecurities around so been going downhill for me. Although big companies like Google and Facebook. many fellow females. my supervisors, friends and family The other instance was during a panel I also met a woman from Google have been encouraging me to finish my discussion featuring several women who told me about a position designed degree, I didn’t think I was good enough from Google, Next Century, Penn State especially for new grads. The position, to do it. I figured I would finish the fall University and i-SW. They each talked associate product manager, is exactly term and then stop. about tough periods in their lives. One what I want in a job. My CV has actually panellist told us of when she was in her been forwarded on to recruiters and I am And then you went to GHC… fourth year of her Ph.D. and wanted to in the midst of doing some interviews! Yes, I went to the Grace Hopper Confer- quit. She was even encouraged by her ence. Most of the students present were supervisor to do so. She decided to find So you have decided to finish your Ph.D.? sponsored by companies such as Google, a new research topic and supervisor and Yes. No matter what it takes, I will finish it. Facebook and Microsoft. It was a three finished her Ph.D. in only two years. When day conference featuring technical talks, it was time for the Q&A session, I was up Leah is in her third year of panels and workshops. I was able to talk there, telling everyone about my situation completing her Bachelor to a lot of women who had been in the and my desire to leave it all behind. of Computer Science same situation as I have found myself in. Without hesitation, everyone told me to degree with co-op. Leah keep going – that I was so close, I really is a Sexton Scholar, has Are there any specific instances from the could and should finish it. It would be received an NSERC Undergraduate conference that stand out in your mind? very hard, they said it could take months Student Research Award, as well as There are two main instances for me. On to make my mind up and get back to the General Dynamic Scholarship and my flight to the conference, I happened it, but I could do it. Once I sat down, I Seymour Schulich Scholarship. She to be sitting by a Facebook recruiter had several other women I didn’t know currently holds the position of secretary going to GHC. We got talking and she approach to encourage me. It was a very within the Women in Technology Society emotional experience for me. By the time at Dalhousie. I got home, I had made up my mind that I would stick with it. Computer Science 9 Digitizing Headaches Pounding headache? The next time you reach for the Aspirin, reach for your iPhone too. headaches and when they go away” is a big step toward becoming aware of how habits can be changed to prevent them. “Head- ache sufferers are often given painkillers without knowing the cause of the pain,” Dalhousie informatics student, Mike he adds. Wheaton, has been working with the IWK’s Centre for Research and Family Support group Health to create an iPhone application Mr. Wheaton is eager for severe headache sufferers. The app to continue develop- is part of a project targeted at young ing the app’s social adults aged 14-28, who have regular network because debilitating headaches. “the social aspect is helpful for younger Dear diary people who need to Referred to as Wireless Headache Inter- know there are others vention, the app allows users to keep who suffer the same an electronic diary of their headaches, symptoms,” he says. tracking data such as sleep patterns, Those working on the diet, external conditions, and headache study hope to expand duration. The app does not require a the online resources, minimum input of information, offering offering step-by-step meditation and Anyone interested in participating in the maximum flexibility for the wide range of relaxation treatments, as well as study and trying out the app can visit users. “Headaches are very individual,” explanatory material about the science crfh.ca/whi says Mr. Wheaton. of headaches. All data is stored confidentially on a Mr. Wheaton joined the headache app central database at the IWK, but the in- project for one of his three co-op terms, formation is gathered as an incentive for originally working with co-op student people to keep track of their headaches, Joseph Howse who is now a Dal alumnus. rather than for analytical purposes. Working on an iPhone app was a new The IWK is currently looking for 100- experience for Mr. Wheaton, who says it 200 people to participate in a headache was a “great hands-on experience” that study. The goal is not to find a perma- required practice in producing a user- nent cure, but to see how using a jour- friendly system. Mr. Wheaton is still work- nal lowers the recurrence of headaches. ing with the IWK part-time and is entering Mr. Wheaton explains that “recognizing his fourth year of study at Dalhousie. 10 Computer Science

“Students perceive “This is a class where students have computer science as gotcha moments,” says Mr. Connor. “It’s working all alone on hard to see how technology like robots programming,” says Prof. really operate in the real world. In the Alex Brodsky, one of the real world, sensors don’t always report professors who created the right values or the motor gets weak. the course. “We wanted They have to overcome these problems.” to show a better image The robot battle takes place at the of computer science and Robot Olympics, a contest that tests the show students what our skills of the students and their robots. faculty is all about.” Teams compete in three categories with The structure of the varying levels of difficulty. Each year course is a little different there is a sumo wrestling competition. from the usual lecture- Last year students competed in The Pipe based course. Students Runner, a race along a curved line and spend more time in the lab. The Slalom Maze, where the robots went In the past, 30 students through a maze made out of books. would meet in the lab for “They learn about using the scientific two hours, three days a method and how to investigate motors week for instruction and and sensors,” says Dr. Brodsky. “They hands-on experience. work in small independent groups so Starting in January, the they learn on their own what works.” course is taught with a The second part of the course focuses regular lecture and three on game design with students learning lab sections that meet the basics of programming. Their final twice per week. The new project involves creating a video game structure accommodates using Adobe Flash Player. Killer Robots 90 students. “It’s more than programming,” says Animated computing teaches students Students go through Dr. Brodsky. “You learn about art design, the basics of computer science two modules: Robotics and user issues and what happens behind Game Design. The Lego the screen. You use other skills like risk Students are locked in a fierce wrestling Mindstorm NXT robots have sensors and management to finish the project.” battle. No, this isn’t gym class. Their motors that can be programmed using a Class began in January, which means Lego robots are fighting to stay on their simple, picture-based software program. another competition. While this year’s wheels and beat their opponents. Patrick Connor, a Computer Science Ph.D events are being kept secret, there will be Students will go into battle once student and co-creator of the class, says sumo wrestling again this year. “Students again. The Animated Computing course that the class also introduces students to in the past focused too much on brawn,” taught in the Faculty of Computer other concepts like artificial intelligence. says Dr. Brodsky. “It’s all about brains.” Science teaches students about the basics of computer science. The course is offered during the winter term, as an introductory course to all undergraduate students. The class began two years ago when a group of professors decided to offer a course designed for non-computer science majors to get acquainted with the Faculty of Computer Science. Computer Science 11

CS to welcome more Saudi students Memorandum of understanding agreement with King Saud University

Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer developing partnerships with Science looks to welcome more key universities in the Middle graduate students from Saudi East and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, thanks to a new memo- Arabia in particular,” notes randum of understanding signed Alain Boutet, executive director with King Saud University. of international relations at “We do have a fair number Dalhousie. “The presence of of students from Saudi Arabia Saudi students on our campus already,” explains Phil Cox, is significant and the Faculty of professor and director of inter- Computer Science offers many national programs in the faculty. opportunities for students and “But what this agreement with faculty from the KSA. King Saud University allows is for “Also, in the context of the more fully-funded graduate stu- new agreement between the dents to study here at Dalhousie. FCS at Dal and the College of We don’t yet know how many, but Computer and Information Sci- there’s a lot of potential.” Back, l to r: Michael Shepherd and Alain Boutet; ences at King Saud University, The agreement was sparked Front l to r: Hussam Ramadan and Carolyn Watters we have identified an area like from a series of meetings Health Informatics where we could last spring. as part of her trip, she met Professor contribute significantly to capacity “At the invitation of the Saudi Gov- Hussam Ramadan, Dean of the College building in the KSA.” ernment, VP Research Martha Crago and of Computer and Information Sciences Dr. Cox notes that the agreement’s the deans from Computer Science, Sci- at King Saud University. Dr. Watters initi- potential extends beyond graduate stu- ence, Engineering and Medicine visited ated the MOU that we have just signed.” dents; he’s aware, for example, that King a number of universities in the Kingdom Earlier this month, Professor Rama- Saud University is interested in having of Saudi Arabia, including King Saud dan travelled to Dalhousie, where the some of its faculty spend their research University,” explains Michael Shepherd, MOU was signed. sabbaticals in Canada. dean of the Faculty of Computer Science. “That’s why these direct relationships “A few weeks later, VP Academic Expanding key partnerships with a particular institution are valu- Carolyn Watters followed up with a “The agreement with King Saud able – they can inspire other research or subsequent visit to Saudi Arabia, and University is part of our strategy for collaboration opportunities.”

Elsevier WebApp Concept Design Competition Students from across Dalhousie gathered Gruzd, assistant professor and head of to make their pitches for prospective web the Social Media Lab. applications for international scholastic In small teams of two-to-four people, publisher, Elsevier. The occasion was students were asked to develop a web the Elsevier WebApp Concept Design application for Elsevier’s immense, Competition, hosted by the School of searchable database of journals, articles Information Management. and other academic data. An innovative and groundbreaking way Raheleh Makki, Axel Soto, and Ozge for students to showcase their program- Yeloglu — all from computer science ming skills and help contribute to more — emerged from the dense array of efficient scholastic research methods, the intricate and extensive applications to L to r: Raheleh Makki, Axel Soto, competition was the brainchild of Anatoliy nab first place with their geometrically and Ozge Yeloglu monikered application, “BlobCube.” Computer Science

New members of the Faculty of Computer Science

Dr. Derek Reilly returns to Dalhousie Dr. Meng He has joined the Faculty James Fleming is an instructor with following a faculty post in Digital from the Cheriton School of Computer the Faculty, specializing in teaching Futures at OCAD University (Toronto) and Science at the University of Waterloo. written and oral communications in the postdoctoral research at Georgia Tech’s BCS and BInf degrees. GVU Center. The Arthur Sedgwick Lecture in Computer Science Contributors On October 14th, the annual Computer David Langstroth, Leah Brown, Allison Science Lecture, an element of the Science Kincade, Katherine Wooler, Ryan McNutt, Atlantic Mathematics, Statistics, and Julie Sobowale, Nick Laugher, Evangelos Computer Science Conference was held. Milios, Norbert Zeh, Robert Beiko, In combination with the marking of Michael Shepherd the 50th anniversary of Science Atlantic/ Principle Photography: Danny Abriel and APICS, the Science Atlantic Committee Nick Pearce honoured retired Dal computer science Design: Design Services professor, Arthur Sedgwick, by re-naming the annual lectures to “The Arthur Sedg- Class Notes Allison Kincade is the Faculty of wick Lecture in Computer Science.” Please send in any news (achievements, Computer Science’s new Alumni & This honour to Dr. Sedgwick follows the promotions, new business ventures, Communications Officer. Prior to joining the 32 Years of Service award he received marriages, births, etc) to: Faculty, Allison was most recently working in 2010. [email protected]. as the Career Events Coordinator for the We would love to hear from you! Career Services Centre at Dalhousie.

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: 42101015 Alumni & Donor Relations Officer Faculty of Computer Science Dalhousie University PO Box 15000 Halifax NS B3H 4R2 Canada