Category Archives: Blog

The Impact of Technological Change on the Surgical Profession: Past, Present, Future

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You are invited to the upcoming workshop being held at the Bloomfield Lecture Hall of Lady Davis Institute – JGH on May 6th and May 7th 2015 titled: The Impact of Technological Change on the Surgical Profession: Past, Present, Future.

This issue influences the future of the surgical profession, surgical careers and training, and importantly the types of services and the quality of patient care people receive.

This opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with international speakers Roger Kneebone, David Jones, Peter Kernahan and Rachel Prentice is being organized by the Department of Social Studies of Medicine, the Department of Surgery as well as the Jewish General Hospital Foundation.

For more information, please visit the Event Page.

Apps from 2 big MOOC providers

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I have been waiting for this – edX mobile is finally here.

I’ve been taking courses from the two big names in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), edX and Coursera, and making good use of Coursera’s iOS app on my iPhone (also available for Android). What I like about having the apps is that I can download course videos and view them anytime, even offline.

I can now get on with the course I’ve signed up for from MITx: Design and Development of Games for Learning. The furthest I’ve got is through their pre-course tutorial videos on Gameblox. I designed my first game (don’t judge!).

Keep your eye on offerings from McGill on McGillx. You can now follow courses on your mobile (yay).

Short course at MIT

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MIT professional education is offering a short course “MODELING AND SIMULATION OF TRANSPORTATION NETWORKS” in July 27-31, 2015. The tuition fee is 3300 USD.

Please find more details here:

http://web.mit.edu/professional/short-programs/courses/simulation_transportation.html?utm_source=pe-alumni&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sp-2015-ent.

 

Take a paws from end-of-term stress!

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Blue Ribbon Therapy Dogs are coming to Schulich! Come visit Brandy, Whiskey & our other four-footed friends in the library on Wednesday, April 15th, from 1-3 pm.

Want to learn more about therapy dogs, cats, horses, birds and more? Discover the world of  animal-assisted therapy, and explore the human-animal bond, with titles available at the Library. Click ‘Continue Reading,’ below.

The Power of Wagging Tails, by Dawn A. Marcus (2011) – one of several titles on animal-assisted therapy available at McGill Library.

 

Can’t make it on Wednesday? Blue Ribbon Therapy Dogs will also be at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library from 1-3pm on Tuesday, April 14th.

Continue reading →

L’Oréal Canada For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowships,

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L’Oréal Canada For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowships,
with the Support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO – 2015-2016
 
L’Oréal Canada has announced the For Women in Science Research Excellence Fellowships, with the support of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which will give two (2) fellowships of $20,000 CAD each to female post-doctoral researchers in the field of Engineering/Pure and Applied Sciences. This fellowship is a part of the For Women in Science Program which recognizes the importance of the contributions of women in the progress of science. Applications will be reviewed by a panel of scientists, including representatives from the Canadian Commission for UNESCO and L’Oréal Canada. Candidates must conduct their research at a Canadian host institution or organization.
Value: $20,000 CAD each.
Place of Study: Host institution/organization in Canada.
Field of Study: For the 2015-2016 competition, fellowships are being offered for research in the Engineering/Pure and Applied Sciences. The fellowships offered alternate each year between the fields of Life Sciences and Engineering/Pure and Applied Sciences.
Deadline Date: Postmarked application packages must be sent to the AUCC on or before March 26, 2015.
Guidelines and Application Forms: Visit the AUCC website:  2015 L’Oréal Canada Research Excellence Fellowships

@mymom I’m back on Twitter!

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After a four year hiatus I am returning to Twitter (@tweetapril) and quickly realizing that I have really missed out. As a participant in a MOOC, Introduction to Learning Technologies, I was prompted to connect via their hashtag (#ilt_usask) on Twitter (in 140 characters or less at a time).

For anyone new to Twitter, course instructors pointed us to the very sweet and useful Mom This is How Twitter Works. It has some quick tips if you are a little rusty as well. For example, if you start a tweet with a username like @mymom it will limit who gets to see it, versus putting a period or other characters in front of it.

We were also directed to 10 Commandments of Twitter for Academics from The Chronicle for Higher Education, with some sage advice on using Twitter in your personal and professional lives. I will of course recommend that you follow McGill Library (@McGillLib) but please do not stop there. I’m following a lot of Montreal- sci-tech- library-oriented people and discovering new things everyday.

Here is one that I will leave you with: British Library’s #ShareMyThesis competition. First prize for this worldwide competition is a 15-inch MacBook pro. Take a look at how past and present PhD students have been sharing why their project is important #ShareMyThesis and consider contributing.

Bagels in space

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FairmountBagels

I have the pleasure of living right between Fairmount and St-Viateur Bagel and I refuse to pick a side, but here is one cool thing that I noticed on my bag of bagels from Fairmount: 1st bagel in space!

There has been some attention on Fairmount Bagel lately, since they were thought to have joined the world of Twitter but then the account turned out to be a fake.

The NASA mission to the International Space Station was STS 124 when Montreal-born astronaut, Greg Chamitoff, brought 18 sesame bagels with him. I don’t know how I missed this but you can read more about it in this 2008 article from CTV News.

Recommend a graphic novel

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IMG_Book_coverI checked this book out of the library to get myself thinking about graphic novels for the Schulich collection. Feynman, from our Education Curriculum Resources Centre, is juvenile literature and worth a read but there are other great ones out there written for adults.

I have been talking with librarians from other university science and engineering libraries that have been purchasing books in this format but I’d love to hear from you. Do you have any graphic novels to recommend that touch on science and technology?

A Course Showcase: Design and Analysis of Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods for Energy, Water and Food Independence

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Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design (TISED) is inviting you to register to attend the event below, taking place on December 16th, 2014 at the Faculty Club.

A Course Showcase: Design and Analysis of Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods for Energy, Water and Food Independence

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” – Buckminster Fuller. This advice has been the guiding light during this Fall TISED course: “Design and Analysis of Sustainable Urban Neighbourhoods for Energy, Water and Food Independence”.  Supported through a gift from Fondation 3E, this interdisciplinary class brought together students from Architecture, Urban Planning and Engineering to design this new model, i.e. this new paradigm for a living arrangement that would contribute towards rendering the many destructive aspects of today’s reality simply obsolete. While two groups explored the possibility of retrofitting an existing, conventional suburb on the Island of Montreal (in Dollard-des-Ormeaux) to make it autonomous in operational needs for energy, water and food, a third group explored the possibility of designing a brand new autonomous neighbourhood on a vacant, greenfield site (in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue). Professor Sevag Pogharian (Founder and President of MontrealZero) will provide us with his course’s context and student learning opportunities.
December 16th, 2014
5:30 pm – 7:15 pm (cocktail reception to follow)
McGill University’s Faculty Club, 3450 McTavish Street
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED – PLEASE SIGN UP NOW