For Jennifer Porat, summer camp isn’t about s’mores and canoe trips. It’s about creating a runway collection and learning about the fashion industry.
This August, Jennifer, 13, and her younger sister are returning to a two-week day camp called CraftyCouture in Thornhill, Ont. Last summer, one of Jennifer’s favourite projects was creating a clothing collection inspired by a fashion icon.
“We came up with a new fashion revolution: Harry Potter fashions, stylish Quidditch trends and a completely new take on the classic robe, skirt and button-down that makes up the Hogwarts uniform,” the Thornhill teen says in an e-mail.
CraftyCouture, which ran its first camp in 2005, is one of a growing number of specialty camps tapping into children’s increasingly sophisticated aspirations. The past five years have seen a spike in camps that offer a glimpse of a future career.
“Kids are really excited by them,” says Agnes Stawicki, the managing editor of Our Kids Go to Camp magazine. And if they haven’t already committed to a summer camp, this is the month to make a selection.
Parents can choose from camps where kids can watch veterinary surgery, make a claymation movie, program their own video game, or milk a cow.
So you wanna be a…
If a summer camp in the woods isn’t your kid’s thing this year, here are a few programs that will let him or her try on a day job for size.
Engineer
Da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP), University of Toronto
www.outreach.engineering.utoronto.capx
Click here to read the full article at The Globe and Mail.
Professor Cristina Amon, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, was named one of the 2011 YWCA Women of Distinction Award winners today in Toronto.
The YWCA Women of Distinction awards recognize the contributions of women who have improved the lives of girls and women. Amon, who is being recognized in the category of science and engineering, and six other women will receive the awards at the 31st Annual YWCA Women of Distinction Awards dinner on May 18.
Dean Amon was recognized for breaking glass ceilings and gender barriers in science and engineering. Other recipients were honoured for providing comfort to the homeless, working to end violence against women, improving women’s access to health care, and advancing women’s rights and economic security internationally.
Throughout her career, Dean Amon has been a tireless advocate for increasing diversity in the engineering profession. Earlier in her career, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, she developed two major engineering outreach programs for under-represented groups: “Moving 4th Into Engineering,” an outreach program for female and minority fourth-grade students, and “Engineering Your Future,” a program for female students from Pittsburgh’s inner-city high schools.
As a young woman growing up in South America, Dean Amon aspired to pursue a career as a teacher, after having been inspired by one of her own teachers. She quickly recognized the positive influence that strong female role models can have on young women. As a result, she has spent her career giving generously of her time and experience to mentor female students and academics.
As the first female Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto, she has demonstrated her commitment to closing the gender gap among faculty and student populations and has successfully created a supportive environment in which women, in increasing numbers, have been able to thrive in leadership roles. Her leadership in this area has had a tremendous and enduring effect on the landscape of the Faculty and the engineering community.
Dean Amon’s engagement as a role model and a leader in attracting more women to the profession does not end at the University of Toronto. For example, in 2009, she arranged for the University of Toronto to host the National Conference for Women in Engineering where she delivered the welcoming address.
“Professor Cristina Amon has made pioneering contributions to the advancement of women in engineering and science,” said David Naylor, President of the University of Toronto. “In particular, through her example as Dean of the Faculty and her commitment to mentorship, she has encouraged girls and young women to consider engineering as a profession.
“We are proud of this outstanding recognition. It is a tribute to the innovative and passionate leadership Dean Amon has brought to the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.”
The other six 2011 YWCA Women of Distinction are Sherry Cooper (Corporate Leadership); Vivian Del Valle (Community Support); Elizabeth Goldberg (Law and Justice); Sophia Gran-Ruaz (Young Woman of Distinction); Joan Lesmond (Health Leadership); Karen Takacs (Development and Advocacy).
YWCA Toronto works with thousands of women and girls who face numerous barriers to making their dreams come true. The Women of Distinction event raises critical funds for the YWCA, supporting its programs across Toronto that offer women and girls counselling, resources and the self-confidence to achieve their dreams.
Compute Canada, a national platform of advanced computing resources across the country, has announced the largest ever awards of supercomputing resources to researchers working in areas from biomedicine and brain function to aircraft and aviation fuel design. These competitively-awarded grants will help scientists across Canada better understand our world, and move towards developing tools and products to improve the lives of Canadians.
“High performance computing is transforming research in Canadian universities, hospitals and industry,” said Susan Baldwin, executive director of Compute Canada. “Advances in information and communications technologies have revolutionized virtually every field. Our scientists are creating entirely new ways of conducting research, accelerating innovation and discovery across Canada.”
“Our SciNet allocation is transforming the landscape of combustion and air pollution research in Canada,” said Professor Seth Dworkin, a researcher at the University of Toronto’s Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department. Dworkin studies the combustion of biofuels, aiming to make them into clean-burning substitutes for current aviation fuels.
“The expertise and computational resources at SciNet are helping us tackle problems of combustion-generated emissions using simulations of unprecedented size and accuracy. We’re learning more and more about the formation and nanostructure of atmospheric pollutants and are now able to apply that knowledge to the design of engines and alternative fuels.”
SciNet is one of seven regional consortia of universities and colleges across Canada with mandates to provide High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources to both their own academic researchers as well as other users across the country and international collaborations. SciNet was funded by the National Platform Fund (NPF) of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and by the Province of Ontario as well as the University of Toronto’s Faculties of Arts and Science, Applied Science & Engineering, and Medicine.
Follow the link to read the full news release on Canada NewsWire.
A few years ago Vincent Cheung, a doctoral candidate in ECE, created a software program called Shape Collage that automatically generates photo collages of any size and shape, starting it “as just a fun side project.”
Today, Shape Collage has three employees and annual revenues of approximately $750,000 — and Cheung has picked up a few awards along the way. In a recent article on BNET — CBS’s Interactive Business Network — Cheung explains why he’s chosen “a frugal, steady organic growth model” over venture capital.
The 2011 Acta Biomaterialia Gold Medal has been awarded to Professor Michael Sefton (IBBME, ChemE). The award recognizes excellence and leadership in biomaterials research and practical applications.
Professor Sefton is regarded as a pioneer in tissue engineering and a leader in biomaterials, biomedical engineering and regenerative medicine.
He is the first to recognize the importance of combining living cells with synthetic polymers to create “artificial” organs and tissues. Professor Sefton’s lab was also one of the first in the world that succeeded in micro-encapsulating live cells – with a view to creating an artificial pancreas and other tissues, that could then evade the patient’s immune system through the barrier properties of the encapsulating membrane.
Professor Sefton has published extensively in the world’s leading journals and international conference proceedings, and is the holder of several U.S. and international patents. He has delivered more than 400 invited lectures, seminars and keynote speeches at high-profile meetings in more than 20 countries. In addition, he has served on the editorial board of several professional journals.
“On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate Professor Michael Sefton on this tremendous achievement,” said Dean Cristina Amon. “He continues to redefine the forefront of tissue engineering research, and we are delighted that Acta Biomaterialia is honouring Professor Sefton for his remarkable innovation and contributions in this crucial field.”
He will receive the Acta Biomateriala Gold Medal Award at a plenary session of the Society for Biomaterials’ annual meeting in April 2011 in Orlando, Fla.
For more information, please visit: www.elsevier.com/locate/actabiomat
Thousands of Canadian trucking companies violated U.S. road safety rules in the last two years, failing to keep proper records and driving longer than officials south of the border deem safe, according to U.S. data.
A CBC analysis of the data from the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shows some 4,800 Canadian carriers violated key parts of the hours of service and logbook rules in 2009 and 2010. Hundreds of carriers, based in every province but Newfoundland and Labrador, violated rules related to driver fatigue.
Canada and the U.S. have different trucking regulations and enforcement mechanisms, and Canada does not have a similar database on how carriers are faring in this country. Michael Arpin, a Winnipeg-based trucker, said truck drivers often face pressure to violate hours-of-service rules.
Alison Smiley (MIE), a Toronto university professor and an expert on driver fatigue, said “just-in-time delivery” means many truckers are driving all night.
A range of factors play into deadly truck accidents, but Smiley said lack of sleep is a major concern — one that is often overlooked.
“We don’t have a fatigue-alyzer the way we have a breathalyzer,” she said, adding that some police forms don’t even have a space to check off fatigue as a possible contributing factor in an accident.
“We’re sacrificing people on the roads to have our strawberries on time and to not have to pay too much for them,” Smiley said.
Read the full article at CBC.ca and watch the report on CBC’s The National.