Issue B, B@AF The magazine of Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario queensu.ca/alumnireview Queen’ALU MN IREVIsEW The techno-ethicist The future (of coding) is female Nature computes Living in the future The technology issue Sage Prestige is a brand new luxury sageprestige.com student condominium in the heart of Kingston offering a hands-off investment opportunity. LUXURY 1, 2 & 3 BED CONDOS SMART, EASY STARTING FROM $189,900 IN8 Developments is the innovator behind AND SIMPLIFIED investor driven luxury student condos. To date, IN8 has rapidly sold out 10 condo projects and has earned a reputation for completing projects on time. IN8 identifi es under-served student INVESTING housing markets and is excited to launch their newest project near Queen’s University. A TURN KEY INVESTMENT WITH: • 2 YEAR FREE LEASE GUARANTEE • 2 YEAR FREE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT • FREE FURNITURE PACKAGE PR INC ES S Register: sageprestige.com ST. Contact: [email protected] 48((1·6 ST. 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Sales Offi ce Now Open at 652 Princess Street contents Issue w, wuv|, Volume ~v, Number w Serving the Queen’s community since v~w| queensu.ca/alumnireview m Queen’ALU MN IREVIsEW Editor’s notebook n Letters to the editor COVER STORY p From the principal t Living in q the future Quid novi In the Human Media Lab News from campus at Queen’s , researchers are creating prototypes for mn technology that will hit the k Assistive and r a l market decades from now. adaptive technologies c D r a n r e B mo Ex libris Elan Mastai’s novel FEATURE STORY All Our Wrong Todays plus books from The techno- ls faculty and alumni ethicist Who decides what n decisions are made by e s n driverless cars – or a h - G autonomous weapons? e w D e G D Jason Millar explores r , o n m o the moral dilemmas in e s n e i i t the brave new world of m a j e n deep learning. i t s i r oo h c The last word: The future (of coding) is female Nature computes In which Selim Akl, Head, School of Computing, makes the case that the bit, the smallest unit of information and computation, is the key k r to unlocking the a l c mysteries of the universe. D r a n r lo lq e B Digital dreams: Sudo: empowering building a coding women to code community for with Wendy women in Kingston ON Prototypes of BitDrones hover around Human Media Lab Powley, School THE researchers Calvin Rubens, Roel Vertegaal, Xujing Zhang, COVER of Computing and Sean Braley. The creation of BitDrones is the first step toward building interactive self-levitating programmable matter. Photo: BernarD clark The futuristic Aileron font used on the cover and throughout this issue is designed by Adilson Gonzales de Oliveira Jr. behance.net/agonz ed ito rs NO TEBOO’K Imagine the future… recently had the chance to interact with some BitDrones in the Volume HA, No. B, B@AF IHuman Media Lab. Imagine a formation of buzzing mini-drones [email protected] hovering around you. You can pick one up and examine it, then let it queensu.ca/alumnireview @queensureview go, only to see it move back to its designated spot mid-air. It is easy to Queen’s Alumni Review imagine the possibilities of future BitDrones, able to change their (circ. vw|,uuu) is published shape or colour, enabling users to build x T architectural or molecular by Queen’s University Relations models. But before that scenario becomes a reality, innovators like (comprising Communications, Marketing and Government Relations). Roel Vertegaal and the graduate students at his lab need to build Queen’s is a member of the Council for prototypes to see how they fit in with the the Advancement and Support of human experience. Education and the Canadian Council for the Advancment of Education. User error is a big part of that experience. Subscriptions are free to alumni, Case in point: what did I do when a BitDrone $wz ST\ /year for others. Opinions came buzzing toward me during the photo expressed in the Review are not necessarily those of Queen’s University shoot? I instinctively swatted it away, sending it or of the _cRR . spinning off-course into a corner of the room. Xaa\ #u}yx-}uy} At that moment, my mind was thinking “very Queen’s University large mosquito in my personal space!” not Principal and Vice-Chancellor Daniel R. Woolf, Artsci’}u “innovative building block of the future.” V-P University Relations Luckily, the BitDrone was unharmed, and my Michael Fraser dignity remained (somewhat) intact. But situa - Executive Director Marketing tions like this help innovators anticipate how Helena Debnam Editor k r humans can use – or abuse – technology. a Andrea Gunn, [^R ’u| l c Looking at human-robot interaction from Copy Editor D r a Wade Guyitt, Artsci’uy, [R ’uz n a different angle, Queen’s engineering and r e Contributors B philosophy graduate Jason Millar tackles the d`XbU`a : Meredith Dault, [R ’vv, big ethical questions in technology. This article Kirsteen MacLeod, Mark Witten, started out as a vzuu-word assignment, which then grew to v}uu Alison Migneault words. When writer Mark Witten presented it to me at wwuu words XZZcab`Rb]`a : Tine Modewag-Hansen, Christine Jamieson, `VT with the request to trim it as I saw fit, I couldn’t do it. This is another ^W]b]V`R^WU`a : Bernard Clark, great story that explores complex ideas in the world of technology. Garrett Elliott I think it’s worth making space to explore big ideas in this magazine. Art Director Larry Harris, University Marketing I hope you agree. Associate Designer (KIT) Let me know what you think. Wilma van Wyngaarden Advertising/Sponsorship Officer Peter Gillespie, Artsci’uv Phone: {vx.zxx.{uuu ext. |zy{y Andrea Gunn Email: [email protected] Editor B@AE –B@AG Queen’s University [email protected] Alumni Association President Sue Bates, Artsci’~v {vx.zxx.{uuu ext. ||uv{ Canada Post publications mail permit JCA@GH@AF Queen’s University ~~ University Avenue Kingston, ]\ Y|Z x\{ Phone: {vx.zxx.{uuu ext. ||uv{ Paper or digital? Your choice. To update your address or to sign up for the digital magazine, email: Until we have flexible phones that combine the tactile reading [email protected] experience of paper with the efficiencies of a wholly digital or call v.}uu.w{|.|}x| platform (another invention dreamed up at the human media (toll-free in Canada and U.S.) lab), we have just two options for your Review subscription: paper or digital? email [email protected] if you want to change your subscription preference or your address. and if you are getting multiple copies of the magazine, or copies addressed to a previous occupant, please let us know that, too. Queen’s University is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. m issue 2, 2017 | queensu.ca/alumnireview le TttersO THE EDITOR Wartime work On Boo Hoo and Boo Supplemental to the wartime work of Bea Grant I saw the article on Boo Hoo the Bear (later Corbett), Arts’yy, [R ’~z, recognized by the (Issue ?, =;<@, p. =@) . When I entered Review (Issue <, =;<A, p. >@) for her secret d`S\ s Queen’s in the fall of v~z}, I brought work at Gordon Head, Vancouver Island, I wish to with me a small black teddy bear for draw readers’ attention to a January wuv| which my father had knitted a sweater pamphlet, “Canada’s Bletchley Park: The in Queen’s colours. I called him my Examination Unit in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill, v~yv – Boo Bear. During my four years at v~yz,” researched and written by Diana Pepall. Queen’s , I played the flute and piccolo Diana Pepall is a graduate of the Master of in the Queen’s Bands. On occasion, Library Science program at Dalhousie University. my Boo Bear rode on the top of the Here’s Joy with Boo Bear! (Her husband is historian Cameron Pulsifer, bass drum. Boo Bear has travelled a [R ’|u, PhD’~w.) She spent the greater part of her lot as my husband, Neil Johnstone, Sc’{v, was in career as a librarian and manager at the Ottawa the military. Boo Bear accompanied us on Neil’s Public Library ( ]^Z ). postings to England, Germany, and several This illustrated pamphlet is #vuu in the Bytown Canadian provinces. Boo Bear started to show his Pamphlet series published by The Historical age and needed some tender loving care. Our son Society of Ottawa, ^.]. Box zwx, Station B, Ottawa, Mike and daughter-in-law Karen took Boo Bear ]\ , Yv^ z^{. It is available from the Society at from us at Christmas and sent it to a teddy bear $z.uu a copy plus postage. Email: hospital in Vancouver where it got reshuffled and [email protected]. repaired. When it came back from the hospital it George A. Neville , arts’59, msc’61, PhD’66, past was quickly reunited with its Queen’s sweater and president, the historical society of ottawa now has a place of honour in our house. Joy (Smith) Johnstone , arts’62 issue 2, 2017 | queensu.ca/alumnireview n Queen’s University Volume III –: Testing Tradition By Dr. Duncan McDowall, Arts’1., MA’1/, Queen’s University Historian and recipient of a National Business Book Award. “The question is: how did this university, where tradition is genetically encoded, dance with the blasts of change that swept through it between ,0/, and -++.? Duncan McDowall investigates the challenges Queen’s faced during what he would call a ‘yeasty’ time.