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Marking a decade of research innovation 

By Karen Herland

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Speeches, a tour and an award ceremony marked a decade of partnership with the Canada Foundation for Innovation on Oct. 29.

Eliot Phillipson, president and CEO of CFI, spoke at the tenth anniversary event, remarking that the $24 million accorded Concordia over the years has funded 55 different projects that “span the spectrum of disciplines.” Phillipson spoke at the end of a tour that physically and virtually demonstrated the results of that partnership.

He underscored how funding through CFI continues to support the work of researchers. He likened them to alchemists, “because they are turning ideas into products and services, not mercury into silver.”

The event, organized by the Office of Research, brought together government officials, industry partners and university administrators.

CFI funding allows for the purchase of highly specialized equipment. Although such equipment is usually associated with pure sciences and engineering, Concordia researchers are also benefiting from support for the humanities (the Centre for Oral and Digital History) and fine arts (Hexagram). Researchers in both fields were featured in a video virtual tour presented in the York Amphitheatre.

Adrian Tsang’s lab for structural and functional genomics was one of the first recipients of CFI funding. The lab’s work was featured in the video and demonstrated how researchers continue to use CFI-funded equipment to harness the enzymes used by fungi to decompose matter for applications as varied as whitening paper and removing stains.

However, the EV Building where the reception took place is also the home of some of the most sophisticated engineering and research/creation labs available, thanks to CFI support.

Phillipson and Manon Harvey of the CFI toured with Vice-President Louise Dandurand, government representatives and distinguished partners from industry.

They learned about Suong Van Hoa’s research into developing composites for aerospace and transportation applications. They also visited Sudhir Mudur’s virtual reality labs, in which experiments are underway to improve engineers’ decision-making by applying models to real-time virtual applications.

Osama Moselhi showed them the super-computing facilities recently established in the EV Building. The computer coordinates 480 CPUs managing 3.5 terabytes of memory. It can accomplish in months what previous technology would take years to compute.

The computer is also a demonstration of the potential for CFI-financed equipment to encourage industry partnerships. The computer system is entirely produced by Hewlett- Packard. Daniel Mercier, regional vice-president, was able to demonstrate the potential of the project with HP systems and congratulated Concordia for being the first Canadian university to employ a completely HP-based super-computing system.

After the tours, speeches and awards were given to the eight projects currently funded by CFI, the guests were treated to a reception.