A Western research team has won the university’s first-ever Samsung Global Research Outreach award, an academic research collaboration platform, held annually with a call for proposals open to the world’s leading universities.
Abdallah Shami from Western Engineering’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Hanan Lutfiyya from the Faculty of Science’s Department of Computer Science were among 74 winning proposals in 57 subjects under 14 broad research themes. Their proposal, Robust Energy-Efficient Data Center Resource Provisioning in an SDN environment, was the only Canadian winner in the ‘Big Data and Network’ theme and one of only three Canadian proposals to receive an award.
The Western-led resource management project explores energy-efficient operating options to mitigate the ever-increasing overload on cloud computing systems otherwise underutilized outside of peak demand times.
NEWS AND NOTES
- Alain Goldschläger, professor of French Studies at Western was recently awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Order of Academic Palms) for his work with the International Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research.
The Ordre des Palmes Académiques is an Order of Chivalry of France for academics and cultural and educational figures. Originally, it was a decoration founded by Emperor Napoléon to honour eminent members of the University of Paris. In 1866, the scope of the award was widened to include major contributions to French national education and culture made by anyone, including foreigners.
“It is very satisfying to have received the order for my involvement in creating and animating a francophone group of five countries within the International Task Force on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research,” said Goldschläger, director of the Holocaust Literature Research Institute, an institute he founded at Western in 1992. “I felt the francophone voice was absent from this important group, but now, through the strong leadership of Canada, francophones are a recognized and lively presence.
“It is quite an honour to have helped defend French culture and perception of the world.” - Dr. Janet Pope, chair/chief of Western’s Division of Rheumatology, recently received a $6,500 grant from the London Knights Hockey Club to go toward the Arthritis Centre. The grant came from proceeds of a 50/50 raffle at a Knight game last season. Geoff Hare, director of marketing, London Knights Hockey Club, and Renee Farmer, Arthritis Society volunteer, presented the cheque at an on-campus ceremony last week.
- In support of ReForest London’s Million Tree Challenge, Western will be selling indigenous trees and shrubs from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 24 in the courtyard across from the Social Science Centre. Western University has pledged to plant 75 trees every year to meet a total pledge of 500 trees toward the challenge. The university has already logged 194 trees in the count to a million since 2011.
- The world will be coming to Western as the university plays host to the 3rd biennial International Symposium for Collaboration in Research, Teaching and Exchange, the North American installment of the tri-universities event, Sept. 18-22, in the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Health Sciences Building.
The four-day program promotes collaboration between Western, the German Sports University (GSU) in Cologne, Germany, and the School of Sport and Exercise Science and the Institute of Sport Exercise and Active Living at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. Topics include exercise physiology, active living, neuroscience, sport management, sport psychology, Olympic studies/sport history and sport coaching.
On Friday, Sept. 20, scholars from GSU and Victoria University will deliver lectures to selected graduate and undergraduate classes in the School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences.
On Saturday, Sept. 21, the Western 2013 Academic Symposium, chaired by Earl Noble, School of Kinesiology director, will feature presentations by international scholars, Western faculty and Kinesiology graduate students. Western Kinesiology professor Kevin Shoemaker, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Physiology of Exercise and Health, will deliver a keynote lecture, Exercise and Brain Health, at 11:30 a.m. in HSB 9; Canadian Olympic Committee member Gordon Peterson will deliver a second keynote lecture, Issues Facing the Modern Olympic Movement, at 3:45 p.m. in HSB 35.
There is no registration fee for the symposium; the university community is invited to attend this free event.
The International Symposium for Collaboration in Research, Teaching and Exchange is sponsored by the Kinesiology Student Levy Fund, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Kinesiology, Visiting University Scholars Program and a grant from the Office of the Vice- President (Research).