Photonics News & Events

Click on the following link to read more about Algonquin College’s Cyber-Security Day event held on October 3, 2014.

Ottawa cyber-security panel pulls back curtain on battle against hackers

Join Algonquin College and its partners from the education, high technology and government sectors on October 3 in a free, one-day conference to share ideas about the hottest topics in cyber security, data privacy, ‘dark actor’ tactics, identity theft, the future of cyber security careers, and much more.
In support of International Cyber Security Month, events include a program of presentations and discussions led by leading players from Canada’s cyber security-rich community held in Algonquin’s beautiful new 700-person theatre, plus a trade show fair featuring industry vendors, activities, and technology prize giveaways.

For more information
www.algonquincollege.com/infosec/ac-cyber-security-day or to register for tickets for this event click here.
Contact Event Organizer
Craig Delmage, CISSP
tel: 613.727.4723 / email: craig.delmage@algonquincollege.com

It’s common when shopping at stores these days to get an invitation to go to a website, enter some long string of numbers, and fill out a survey for a chance to win some great prize.

But it won’t be common for much longer.

MicroMetrics, an Ottawa based company, aims to replace those surveys with in-store tablet displays that let retail companies collect the data instantly and act on it – in some cases, before the customer leaves the store.

This project, supported by students Nahed Abu Hadba; Alexander Butt-Piercey; Mark Collantes; Ian Durkin; Nigel Elton; Mila Hutchison; Matt MacLeod; Cristha Sinden-Masson; and led by Principal Investigator Eric McQuiggan, took first place at Applied Research Day 12.1, held today at Algonquin College. First prize earns the team $500! How’s that for feedback?

Second place, and $250, went to L8RCall, an app that allows you to record cellphone messages for later delivery. Keep an eye on these guys – you might be hearing about them later!

Third place went to GYMTRACK – students created a mobile app that syncs with GYMTRACK’s automated tracking system and personal trainer. The system can now provide audio feedback during your workouts – thankfully, you can adjust the volume so no one else can hear.

Applied Research Day is held every four months at Algonquin College and highlights applied research projects being done at the College. Applied Research unites students, faculty, and industry partners to solve everyday personal and business challenges.

Alcatel-Lucent has joined forces with Algonquin College and Carleton University to train network engineers of the future in the latest IP networking technologies. The two higher education authorities have incorporated courses from the Alcatel-Lucent Service Routing Certification (SRC) program into their Bachelor of Information Technology (BiT) degree. The first set of students have just completed their training. Read more here.

At the beginning of June, Stan Larose and his coach, professor Stan Wierzbowski will be making their way to Toronto to compete in the Automotive Service Technician competition as part of the prestigious Skills Canada National Competition. Stan Larose earned his place at this competition by winning a gold medal in the Ontario Technological Skills Competition in early May 2014. Great job on winning the Gold medal at the Provincial competition and best of luck at the National Competition!

About the Skills Canada National Competition – The Skills Canada National Competition (SCNC) is the only national, multi-trade and technology competition for students and apprentices in the country. Every year, more than 550 young people from all regions of Canada come to SCNC to participate in over 40 skilled trade and technology contests. Skills/Compétences Canada expects 15,000 people to visit the over 500,000 square feet of event space at SCNC 2014. By providing a forum where Canadian youth can compete against each another at the national level, SCNC provides hands-on work experience related to skilled trades and technology careers. Through these competitions, Skills/Compétences Canada also seeks to raise awareness about skilled trades and technology sectors to all Canadian youth and their influencers

Earlier this month, thirteen Algonquin College students attended the Ontario Technological Skills Competition, and we are pleased to announce three winners! Congratulations to Stan Larose who took Gold in the Automotive Service Technician competition, Spencer Livingston who took Silver in Truck and Coach, and Brennan Lane who took Bronze in Cabinetmaking. The Ontario Technological Skills Competition is the largest skilled trades’ competition in Canada and has been compared to the “Olympics of Skilled Trades”. For more information on this competition please visit – http://www.skillsontario.com/index.php/en/competitions/otsc

For the second time in a little over two years, an Algonquin Bachelor of Information Technology – Network Technology (BIT-NET) student has placed in the Top Three for Cisco’s annual “NetRiders Competition”.

Cisco’s Academy Networking program has over one million registered users spread across the globe. Each year, to foster students taking their courses, Cisco sponsors a “NetRiders” competition. The globe is split into Four Zones, with the top four competitors in each zone earning a one week all-expenses-paid trip to corporate HQ in San Jose.

Our top student this year is Phil Vatcher, a 3rd year BIT-NET student.

Having earned his place during the elimination round in March against over 1700 competitors, Phil advanced and competed against 102 other finalists from North America during the second round on Thu May 2. After four hours and two grueling exams, Phil won second place in Canada and third in North America. He’ll be heading to San Jose in Jan 2015, to meet Cisco engineers and top executives, tour the Cisco campus, and enjoy numerous other sight-seeing trips in the area. Another of our BIT-Net students advanced to Round Two, but was unable to participate due to other commitments. Jacob Stec. also a 3rd yr BIT-NET was the other student who was successful in Round One and gained a spot among the 102 students in Round Two.

Our congratulations go to Phil, and the faculty in the BIT-Net Program for their role in producing and supporting our top-notch, globally acclaimed students.

General info on the NetRiders competition: http://www.academynetriders.com/index.php

Info on the trip to Cisco corporate HQ: http://www.academynetriders.com/file.php/1/netriders_info/study.html

Listing of 2014 Winners: http://www.academynetriders.com/file.php/1/netriders_info/pdfs/Results_2014_NetRiders_USCAN_CCNA_R2.pdf

Funding will result in new User Experience Lab, 3D laser scanner for buildings, upgrades to the College’s Ciena Optophotonics Lab, and a digital microscope for wood identification.

Determine the second a user lost interest in your smartphone app. Scan a building, manipulate it digitally, and then 3D print a model. Experience what it’s like to be a network technician at one of the big phone carriers. And figure out what kind of wood you’re looking at before starting a restoration project and without cutting a piece out of it.

Thanks to over $360,000 in research funding through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program, Algonquin College’s Office of Applied Research and Innovation will now be able to acquire:

• A User Experience Research Lab that would allow for detailed testing of tablet, computer, smartphone, and interactive multimedia user interfaces. The lab will include gesture controllers, a self-tracking video camera, video and audio recording for tracking of detailed user feedback, 3D Oculus Rift goggles, and a table and wall you can project your computer onto and then interact with as if they were giant touch screens. This lab is a collaboration between the College’s Health and Wellness Research Centre and the College’s Design Centre. It will be used to assist the Health and Wellness Research Centre in working with clients in the healthcare industry to refine and improve user interfaces for health applications. It will also enable the Design Centre to conduct usability testing for projects focused on user experience (UX) design using state of the art multimedia technologies.
• A survey-grade 3D laser scanner with a range of 120 metres that can be used to create 3D digital models of buildings, structures, or other spaces. Students will now be able to capture buildings digitally, manipulate them using software, and then 3D print the building model for further analysis, as just one example of how this over $140,000 device (and other existing equipment) could be used. Other uses include surveying, forensic science, heritage and museum studies, game development, architecture, interior design, and building energy modelling.
• Over $140,000 in equipment to upgrade the College’s Ciena Optophotonics lab. The lab contains a microcosm of the hardware and software infrastructure that makes modern telecommunications happen. This includes optical fiber communications at industry standard transmission rates counted in tens of Gigabits per second. “The equipment includes sophisticated electronics systems that will act as a live ‘window’ into the network to enable precise, real-time display of data flows and network performance” says Prof. Wahab Almuhtadi. With connections to several research networks, the equipment will enhance the applied research activities at the College by allowing faculty, students, and partners to test new equipment and to perform ‘data engineering’ studies aimed at improving the quality-of-service of their optical communications networks.
• A digital microscope, and accompanying workstation and software, that identifies wood types. The microscope will allow students taking the Heritage Carpentry program in Perth to identify what type of wood they are working with when completing restorative work – no need to cut a sample from the piece! No other companies or organizations in Eastern or Southern Ontario have this microscope.

This equipment will be used to further the leading applied research being done at the College. Applied research unites students, employees, and real world clients to create products and solutions that address everyday challenges and result in new and innovative products and ideas. The equipment will arrive over the course of the summer and is expected to be ready to use during the fall term.

“This funding recognizes the strong opportunities for hands-on learning and the economic benefits provided by Applied Research at Algonquin College,” says Dr. Mark Hoddenbagh, Director, Applied Research and Innovation. “Our students, our employees, and our partners in the business community will benefit tremendously from the new research we can now carry out thanks to this new, cutting edge equipment. It will especially benefit our students by giving them hands-on exposure with the latest equipment in their fields of study. We are proud to be able to offer access to this leading edge equipment to our researchers and our faculty to enhance the learning outcomes for our students.”

The funding was recently announced by Ed Holder, Minister of State (Science and Technology), as part of several million dollars’ worth of funding given out to colleges across Canada under the College and Community Innovation (CCI) Program. The CCI Program is managed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), in collaboration with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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For more information, please contact:

Phil Gaudreau Communications Officer, Algonquin College 613-220-7796 Email: gaudrep@algonquincollege.com

About Algonquin College – www.algonquincollege.com:

The mission of Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is to transform hopes and dreams into skills and knowledge, leading to lifelong career success. Algonquin College does this by offering hands-on, digitally connected applied learning in over 185 programs. Based in Canada’s capital, the Ottawa Valley, and Saudi Arabia, Algonquin College is the largest polytechnic institute in Eastern Ontario with 18,000 full-time and 43,000 part-time and online registrants.

On April 4th, for the third year in a row, Algonquin College students and Carleton University students teamed up to design and produce a crash test dummy being used in bicycle / automobile collisions.

Students from the Mechanical Technician – Toolmaking program started work on this project two years’ ago when they machined all the parts for the crash test dummy and then enhanced the dummy last year. This year students from the three-year Mechanical Engineering Technology program worked on some additional improvements to the dummy as well as the track on which the bicycle is propelled in the test with Faculty from both the Mechanical Technician-Toolmaking and Mechanical Engineering Technology programs.

“This year’s test went better than anyone involved on the project would have imagined. As late as the day before the official launch on Friday, both the dummy and the track were not cooperating (as is often the case with these types of projects) and there was talk that perhaps the media should be called off but they worked really hard fixing the problems and the crash test went off extremely well. I had two teams of students that were working on the project: the Biomechanics team was involved with making improvements to the dummy and the other, the Simulation/Emulation team, worked on simulating the crash conditions. The Biomechanics team re-designed many of the dummy’s body parts to better simulate the movement of an actual person’s joints which resulted in more accurate test data from the sensor’s implanted in those areas of the dummy. The Simulation/Emulation team helped design the track that drove the bicycle toward the crash and ultimately launched the dummy. They were solely responsible for designing the braking system on the track.” Stated Mechanical Engineering Technology professor Sandra Brancatelli.

The Members of the two Algonquin College teams are:

Biomechanics: Jason Pell, Micheal Hii and Andrei Potapov

Simulation/Emulation: Kitiphong Norasith, Scott Hall, Neil Fevrier and Ali Khalladi

Sandra went on to say, “I am very proud of what both of these teams have achieved. We joined Carleton University on this project in September well after it had begun and yet not only did these students quickly become fully contributing members of the team, in many cases they took on leadership roles. This has been an excellent learning experience for our students and we are looking forward to continuing this collaboration with Carleton University next year.”

Read more and view video of the test in an article published in the Ottawa Sun here.

Car Craft magazine’s June 2014 edition will feature a short article and photo of the Algonquin College 2001 Firebird race car. Eager to promote the well known student race car project, Jason Glennon, Coordinator for the Motive Power Technician program at Algonquin College sent the magazine a photo and information on the project which they will feature in their upcoming print and digital magazine. Click here to link to the Car Craft website.