Page 9 - Eureka! Fall 2007

Faculty news Listen carefully Faculty news

n the summer of 2008, researchers at
als simultaneously will enable us to
ICarleton University will begin eaves-
dropping on up to 100 singing insects,
nents of fitness enhancing behav-
recording and analyzing their mating fully quantify the heritable compo-
iours and determine how variations
songs and signalling. This acoustic in the environment influence insect
voyeurism will help Assistant Professor reproductive systems.”
Susan Bertram answer a fundamental The Behavioural Acoustic Re-
question in evolutionary biology: what search Facility will be used to train
maintains the underlying variation in undergraduate and graduate stu- Brett Stevens uses algebra to solve the
traits that influence lifetime reproduc- dents, thereby increasing the pool of Rubik’s Cube. He’s also using math to
tive success and survival? highly qualified research personnel improve software testing.
With funding from the Canada in Canada, and the research on insect
Foundation for Innovation, Bertram’s reproduction will have applications
state-of-the-art Behavioural Acous- for pest management and conserva-
tic Research Facility is being estab- tion biology.
lished in the Nesbitt Biology Building.
an integrated approach, Bertram aims ! Fast fact... Research programs get a boost
Equipped with the tools necessary for
to reveal the mechanisms underlying
variation in insect acoustic signalling the ability to make calibrated acoustic
recordings of multiple field crickets
behaviour by examining bioacoustic, simultaneously is crucial to the research
genetic, behavioural, physiological and program. Microphones will record each uilding a research team of develop new mathematical Shelley Hepworth is
ecological factors. signal and software will analyze the signals Bgraduate students, post-doctoral methods that will improve discovering more about
“This level of data collection would in real time. Data acquisition hardware fellows and research associates, set- the speed and efficiency the genes responsible for
have been unheard of even two years and software will coordinate play-back ting up and equipping a laboratory, of software testing, is plant organs and how they
ago,” says Bertram. “Being able to experiments, and speakers will broadcast and conducting cutting-edge re- based on a covering array contribute to diversity
collect data on so many individu- sounds to which the insects will respond. search doesn’t happen overnight—or that samples the range in plants. The assistant
Susan Bertram is preparing to eavesdrop without money. of inputs and contexts a professor’s work will
on crickets.
Five promising researchers in the program might encounter. help people who cultivate
Faculty of Science got an infusion To bridge the mathemati- flowering and ornamental
Digging deeper of funds from the province’s Early cal theory to the software plants breed new varieties
tester, Stevens’ team is de-
Research Awards program, designed
and generate technology
veloping interface modules
to give promising, recently appointed
Ontario researchers a running start. that can plug into an open Steven Cooke transfer to Ontario’s agri-
cultural biotech sector.
hysicists are burrowing deeper ty, the SNOLAB collaboration involves For Brett Stevens, an associate source code project devel- Developing efficient sets
Pinto critical and fundamental a number of Canadian universities professor in the School of Mathemat- oped by colleagues at IBM Israel. of rules for solving problems in a fi-
questions behind the origin of the and international partners. By finding ics and Statistics, the award means “The students are building the nite number of steps called algorithms
universe and the nature of matter— new ways to view elusive dark matter he can expand his research team and modules and changing the covering can solve problems involving mas-
and deeper into the Earth. particles, SNOLAB researchers hope improve the financial support he pro- array in response to feedback from sive amounts of data. The algorithms
The Ontario Research Fund and to learn new information about what vides to his current students. the software people. The project of Pat Morin, associate professor in
the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund the universe is made of and what “I can support my master’s stu- becomes even more mathematically the School of Computer Science, will
allocated $8.73 million to expand holds it together. dents at the level they deserve,” he interesting as it becomes more practi- make it feasible to perform previously
SNOLAB, the permanent underground says. “I’ve also been able cal,” Stevens says. impossible analyses.
research facility being constructed to hire a post-doctoral The awards are also Steven Cooke, assistant professor in
two kilometres underground in CVRD ! Fast fact... fellow to bring more ex- supporting the work of the departments of Biology and Environ-
Inco’s Creighton Mine in Sudbury, ON. pertise to the team, and David Asner, an assis- mental Studies, is focusing on under-
The world’s foremost underground the sudbury Neutrino Observatory team I hope to recruit a PhD tant professor in the standing the fate of fish released by an-
lab for particle physics and astro- discovery in 2001 that solar neutrinos student.” Department of Phys- glers in order to develop strategies that
physics research will be expanded to change into other neutrino types on their For software and hard- ics, who is conducting reduce their injury, stress and death. His
include a cryopit: a large cavern to way to Earth was ranked the second most ware developers, bringing a feasibility study and ultimate goal is to ensure the sustain-
important scientific breakthrough in the
store the low-temperature liquids and world by the international journal Science. new products to the mar- conceptual design for ability of recreational fisheries.
gases needed to conduct large-scale sNOlAB researchers continue to search ketplace error-free is criti- a new high luminosity
cryogenic experiments for the next for previously undetected components of George Iwama, dean of Faculty of Science; cal to success; companies particle collider that Read more about the research of
generation of research into dark mat- the dark matter thought to make up about Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick spend a great deal of time will enable significant shelley hepworth (fall 2006), Pat Morin
ter particles. one-quarter of the universe, as well as new Bartolucci; and SNOLAB Director David Sinclair at and money on testing. Ste- advances in the area of (spring 2007) and steven cooke (spring
Administered by Carleton Universi- properties of neutrinos. the August cryopit announcement in Sudbury, ON. vens’ research project, to Shelley Hepworth particle physics. 2006) online at eureka.carleton.ca.

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