News archive for May 2010

Job Description:

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Heat Island Group
Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering Department
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada

Position Description:

The Heat Island Group studies ways to save energy, improve air quality, and slow global warming by passively cooling cities in summer. Summer heat islands can be mitigated through by installing cool roofs, cool pavements, and urban vegetation. With guidance and supervision from Principal Investigator, the candidate will participate in projects to develop cool roofs, cool pavements, and to analyze their benefits. The immediate duties will include: 1) Assisting to start up a cool materials laboratory, 2) Helping in developing a web page for the group, and 3) Obtaining and installing several buildings energy use models, climate and urban airshed models at Concordia. This is a full-time, one-year appointment with the possibility of renewal based upon performance and continuation of funding.

Essentials:

·         Help to install a cool materials laboratory to characterize the radiative properties of pigmented coatings, roofing materials, paving materials using spectrophotometer, pyranometer, emissometer and other techniques

·         Help to develop a web page for the group

·         Help to obtain and install several buildings energy use models, climate and urban airshed models at Concordia

·         Participate in development of novel cool and durable roofing, paving, and coating materials

·         Apply heat transfer analysis, building energy simulation and/or meteorological modeling to analyze the influence of cool surfaces on building and urban environment

·         Analyze and present results in the form reports; make presentations at scientific meetings

·         Carry out collaborative research with other researchers with frequent meetings and discussions

 

Marginal:

Collaborate in the development of research proposals and new scientific initiatives

 

Qualifications:

·         A recent Ph.D. in building sciences, materials science, physics, engineering or a closely related field

·         Demonstrated familiarity with laboratory and field instruments used to measure radiative properties

·         Demonstrated history of high quality laboratory work

·         Exceptionally good written and oral communication skills 

·         The ability to work as an independent researcher with a high level of scientific judgment and initiative 

·         Demonstrated history of participation in collaborative efforts as a member of a diverse research team

 

Contact:

Professor Hashem Akbari, HAkbari@ENCS.Concordia.CA

Yinon Yavor may now be studying halfway around in the globe at Israel's Technion Aerospace Institute but his ties to Concordia remain strong.

In September 2004, Yavor received the prestigious Goldie and Joe Raymer Award, which sponsored a year of study at Concordia University. The award was established through an endowment by the Raymer family to support exchange visits of students between Concordia's Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The Raymer Family has long-standing associations with both institutions, and believes that learning, scholarship, respect for diversity and leadership in promoting peace and understanding can be fostered through international exchanges. The scholarship started in 2001, and allows alternating yearlong visits between Concordia and the Technion by covering flight, tuition, and living expenses.

While here at Concordia, Yavor took mechanical and aerospace engineering courses as well as several French courses and a modern physics reading course. On his time in Montreal, he says he enjoyed the city "very much. The city is beautiful and welcoming. I stayed at the dorms in Loyola Campus, and made many friends there, including other exchange students like myself."

Having completed his year at Concordia in May 2005, Yavor is now back at the Technion, where he is continuing his impressive track record. This year he received one of two prestigious Ilan Ramon Scholarships granted by the Israel Ministry of Science. The award was presented at the opening of the Ramon Space Conference (pictured above), which featured a keynote address by NASA CEO, Charles Bolden. This new scholarship will allow Yavor to extend his research and to examine the exciting field of aerospace research more thoroughly and with greater detail. He goes on to note that "the scholarship is granted to two students only, therefore receiving it was a great honour and source for pride."

His research currently deals in the Improvement of Aluminum Combustion in Solid Propellants. Through his work, he hopes to eventually increase combustion efficiency and performance, thereby saving fuel and reducing weight in missions to outer space.

When asked what his future holds, Yavor says that he plans to apply for a Post Doctoral position next year and hopes to find a position at a university in North America, noting that Concordia could well be an option. 

Concordia's own Engineer (and reporter) in Residence, Dominic Ng, recently filed the following report from the frontlines of Formula SAE Michigan.

The Concordia chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has long been an active and vibrant part of ENCS. The group recently attended the largest annual student competition in automotive engineering in North America, Formula SAE Michigan.

Team Photo - [back row] Alberto Diaz, Andris Kannis, Alex , Mike Rembacz, Jamie Dennick, Garrett Morgan, Claudio Mucciacciaro, Michael Bianco, Andrew Stewart, Matt Frazao, Steve Brathwaite, Kayan Lau. [front row] Chris Renaud, Bianca Cormier, Hubert Berezowski, Lauren Bould, Jimmy Stabio, Dominic Ng

Teams from Austria, Germany, Japan, India, Malaysia, Brazil and Venezuela attended this year's gathering of the world's top talents in engineering for the chance to push the limits of their undergraduate engineering experience.  Top American colleges such as Cornell, Duke, Columbia and Brown participated.  Alongside Concordia, the rest of Canada's best (including Queen's, Waterloo, Toronto, and McGill) were also present.  Panels of judges included experts, engineers and executives from automotive giants such as GM, Ford and Toyota.  

The prerequisites for the competition are rigorous and scoring is broken down into both static and dynamic events. With a battery of challenges spread over 2 days such as acceleration, skidpad, autocross and endurance, less than 35% of teams survive all events and complete the endurance event. 5% fail to survive the rigorous 4 part, 50+ point technical inspections (known simply as "Tech") required to participate in the dynamic events.


This year, Concordia made it through Tech in its first effort and far ahead of its competitors.  It managed to be one of the first cars to start its engine in the paddock.  Acceleration, skidpad and autocross were completed with relative ease.  But on Saturday morning at 11:00 am, after 14 laps - exactly one half of the endurance event - there was a disappointing setback.
During the 3 minute driver change, the vehicle failed to restart.  The team did its best to troubleshoot, but at this stage, no additional tools are permitted and only 3 people including the driver are allowed on the track. With sadness, the team was forced to return to the paddock.

The car would restart with relative ease within 20 minutes.  According to Mike Rembacz, team leader, "at this level, every action is critical." Further investigation revealed that with a slight change in shut down and startup sequence the vehicle should have started without difficulty.  Another important lesson in this Everest of events and another key experience gained.
Saddened but wiser, the team regrouped to consider their failures and accomplishments thus far.  With great maturity and determination they have already begun planning improvements and refinements necessary to perform at their next event, Formula SAE Callifornia, in Fontana California.


"We're more than happy with our accomplishments thus far and with everything we've learnt we are eager to further our successes this June in California" says Jimmy Stabio.

With only 3 short weeks to prepare, it will be both a pleasure and honor to participate once more as part of such a disciplined, determined and driven effort.  So stay tuned, race fans, for the report from California where we look forward to what might be Concordia's greatest performance ever!

The Computer Security Laboratory at the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering (CIISE) hosted the 3rd Annual Information Systems Security Colloquium on Tuesday, May 4, 2010.

This year the event was also co-sponsored by the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA Canada). The theme of this year's event was Botnets: Detection, Analysis and Prevention. This year's Organizing Committee, comprised of Dr. Francois Cosquer, Alcatel Lucent and Adjunct Professor within CIISE, Ms. Lynne Perrault, Director NCFTA Canada and Forensic Investigator, Competition Bureau, Drs. Benjamin Fung, Mourad Debbabi, Lingyu Wang, Amr Youssef, and Bo Zhu, all faculty members within CIISE, invited leading Botnet Security experts from industry, government and academia to share their knowledge and insight on this important topic.

The Institute's Director Dr. Mourad Debbabi, gave the opening remarks to approximately 90 attendees from industry, government and academia. The Colloquium began with a talk by Dr. Patrick Traynor from the Georgia Institute of Technology on the "Disruptive Potential of Malware in Cellular Networks." Then, the Acting Director of Capability Development for Public Safety Canada's National Cyber Security Directorate, Mr. Adam Hatfield, delivered a talk entitled "Cyber Security: A Strategic Perspective for Canada."

The afternoon session featured a talk by Dr. Andrew L. Vallerand, Director, Science & Technology Public Security, from the Center for Security Sciences, Canadian National Defence on "Whole of Government e-Security." Dr. Wenke Lee from the Georgia Institute of Technology then spoke about "Invariants of Botnets." Mr. Thomas B. Reddington from Bell Labs, gave a talk entitled "Did you know that your network is showing?" Finally, Arbor Networks', Dr. Jose Nazario, wrapped up the colloquium with a talk entitled "Tracking Rogue Networks".

Closing remarks were presented by Ms. Lynne Perrault, the Director of NCFTA Canada, who was very pleased to see the great interest that this year's Colloquium had sparked.

Please visit the CIISE website for more information on the colloquium, as well as detailed abstracts for each talk.