0 N C 0 R D I A,S SDAY ~PORT VoL. 18 NOVEMBER 4, 1993 _ No. s Australian TV crew films experiment in action Leonardo Project gets boost from Down Under near Churchill, Man., to tape fea­ About eight musicians are cur­ BY KELLY WILTO N tures on the Leonardo Project and rently working with a team of psy­ Design Art Professor Greg Garvey's chologists and researchers. Analysts J\ Concordia project that helps light-hearted "automated confes­ film the subjects in performance, .r-1.artists aim for the stars will sional" installation, which has and study each movement and soon be known around the world, gained remarkable publicity here breath on a computer screen in thanks to an Australian television and abroad. The two Concordia another room. These and other show. projects were the only ones they musicians also take part in more The Leonardo Project, a collabo­ filmed in Montreal. formal research projects conducted ration between talented performers by the team, such as studies of and a team of research scientists, Attaining excellence memory and strategies of attention. musicians and performance analysts, The Leonardo Project is based on Music Professor Philip Cohen will be the subject of an Australian the premise that almost anyone can said the project questions the com­ science and technology TV show attain excellence. It studies human mon assumption that people have called Beyond 2000. potential, and how to increase the inborn talents. Many of the people A four-member crew was on the level of achievement. being studied have succeeded Loyola Campus last week to film A former biology laboratory in despite apparent handicaps such as the project, which has received a An Australian television crew moves in for a close-up on the keyboard Loyola's Drummond Science Build­ deafness and asthma. Seagram Award for Academic during a demonstration of the Psychology Department's Leonardo Project. ing has been transformed into a Segalowitz said the researchers Innovation in Research. Beyond research centre that resembles a have worked with a pianist who is up at the piano. "Now, when she Gloria Polcari, 27, an opera 2000, which explores the progress small concert hall. 'We wanted to double-jointed and has no strength puts her hands on the piano, her singer, said she got involved in the of science and technology, is broad­ create the atmosphere of a non­ in her fingers. When she tries to body weight adds support to her project last February because she cast in 82 countries. conventional lab," said Psychology play certain passages, her hands col­ hands on the keys, and she can play wants to realize her maximum The Australians, who were on a Professor Norman Segalowitz, the lapse on the keys. Cohen sat her on with a strength that used to elude potential as an artist. swing through North America, director of the ambitious project. a low chair so she would be looking her," Segalowitz said. arrived from filming polar bears Continued on page 9 1, 149 students graduating this fall Molson to be installed as new chancellor at convocation niversity representatives from Uacross the country will be on hand for the installation ceremony of Eric Molson, Concordia's newest Chancellor next Tuesday. The 55-year-old business execu­ tive began his five-year term of office on July 1. He succeeds the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauve, who died in January. Chairman of the Board of the Molson Companies Limited, Mol­ son has been active in community affairs for more than 30 years. rhe installation will take place at Concordia's fall convocation cere­ mony, which begins at 2 p.m. on November 9 in Place des Arts' Salle Wilfred-Pelletier. An estimated 500 students are expected to attend the convocation ceremony. A total of 1,149 under­ graduate and graduate students from the four Faculties will receive their degrees this fall. Sparks fly from the Tesla Coil, part of the entrancing Physics section of Concordia's Expo Science, held last For profiles this year's honorary weekend at Pointe Claire's Stewart Hall for the tenth consecutive year. Second-year Physics student Raymond of Harris demonstrates the dramatic device to visitors Richard Watt, 12, and Rohan Rosario, 10. For story on the doctorate recipients, please see page 7. science fair, see page 8. Hugh McOueen writes historical booklet on department Mechanical Engineering fetes 25th anniversary OF FF of first graduating class EDITED BY MICHAEL O RSINI BY SYLVAIN C OMEAU Offthe Cuff is a weekly column of opinion and insight into D ur years ago, Concordia's Fac­ major issues in the news. Ifyou are a Concordia faculty or staff r ulty of Engineering and Com­ member and have something to say ''off the cuff," puter Science celebrated its 25th anni\'.ersary. But, for Mechanical call CTR at 848-4882. Engineering professor Hugh McQieen, 1993 represents an even more significant milestone; 25 years ago, Engineering produced its first Fellini was graduating class. "The graduation of the first class to film what in 1968 is the first marked accom­ plishment, and more important Beatles than the year that the students were to entered the programme. It was the . first sign that the Department is music: fulfilling its purpose." McQyeen joined the Faculty's Losique Department of Mechanical Engi­ neering in 1968. To commemorate this year's anniversary, McQyeen has written a historical booklet, A Quarter Centu1y of Mechan ical Engi­ Serge l osique neering At Concordia University 1993 for the archives of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers. The film world mourned the passing this week of Federico Felli­ ni, who died at the age of 73 after suffering cardiac arrest. The Graph show progress Academy Award-winner created a number of critically acclaimed "They're trying to collect the histo­ films over almost half a century of film-making, including La ries of all the mechanical engineering Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and La Strada. His deeply personal films departments in Canada. I already focused on his preoccupation with relationships between men intended to write this for a while, Mechanical Engineering Professor Hugh McQueen and women, and between sex and love. but they motivated me to get it done. Off the Cuff spoke to Professor Serge Losique, Director of I decided to do it as a science paper, Concordia 's Conservatory of Cinematographic Art and President by collecting data and presenting it of the Montreal World Film Festival, about the Italian director's in the form of graphs and tables, August," said Hugh Lariviere, an Concordia, in some ways. Just legacy. Losique first met Fellini almost 25 years ago at the which clearly show the progress in alumni from the original class who because you graduate doesn't mean famed Cinecitta film studios in Italy, and remained friends with the department and faculty." organized the homecoming for his you leave it completely behind you." him throughout the years. Losique proudly noted that the former McQyeen's work shows, for former classmates. "But I convinced cartoonist agreed to design the poster for the 1991 film festival. example, that while the number of them that everything that needed to Although he never accepted an invitation to attend the festival, Master's and PhD graduates in the be said about it had been said, and he did participate in a press conference via satellite. When asked Faculty of Engineering has barely that it was time to move on." Stalemate by a journalist in 1986 if he would attend the 1987 festival, Fellini changed since 1970 (about 50 and agreed, but then added, 'Never forget that I'm the biggest liar in 10, respectively, in 1993), the num­ Iron ring continues in the world.' ber of Bachelor's students since the Lariviere, who now owns a consult­ Some of Fellini's films will be screened at the CCA this month original graduating class (' 43) ing firm in Montreal, shared recol­ Dhawan case and in December, as the CCA presents a series by Italian direc­ jumped to 260 in 1993. Research lections with ten other original tors. For more information, call 848-3878. funds to the Faculty have increased graduates. He recalls that the class J\ lmost four weeks to the day to $7 million in 1993 from $1 mil­ of '68 was referred to as the "engi­ flafter ending his well-publi­ lion in 1974. neering prototypes" in the Sir cized hunger strike, Marketing Pro­ What attracted people to Fellini's films? McQieen also charted the fluctu­ George Williams University year­ fess or K.C. Dhawan has issued "He expressed our hidden dreams. Cinema is mostly based on ations in the teaching staff of the book, and he still has the ring from another open letter to the our dreams and on love. Fellini expressed both of those themes Department of Mechanical Engi­ the ritual "iron ring" ceremony for Concordia community attacking his wonderfully well. He was to film what the Beatles were to neering, the aspect of greatest inter­ graduates. union, his Dean and other senior music. He appealed to the mainstream." est to the Society of Mechanical 'We were each given an iron ring University officials for failing to Engineering. to wear on the pinky of our working accede to his demand that they Do you have a favorite Fellini flick? "(They're collecting these histo­ hand, and we held on to an iron establish a special, "three-member "They're all great. La Dolce Vita (1960) propelled him internation­ ries) to see who has built the profes­ chain and made an oath that we will (or larger) distinguished Canadian ally.