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Accolades 

May was a capital month for members of Concordia's Department of Education to be in Ottawa. On May 10, Professor Gary Boyd received the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education (CNIE) Leadership award at the CNIE's annual conference. At the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) Conference (part of the 2009 Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at Carleton University May 23 to 26), Distinguished Professor Emeritus Harold Entwistle was celebrated with a session honouring his longtime contributions to the discipline of education. Also at the CSSE conference, Professor David Waddington was the New Scholar Fellowship Awardee for 2008.

On May 28, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering announced the winners of their 2008-09 capstone awards (see Journal, April 23, 2009). For the 490 class, receiving first place was Laser Wall Hockey, the project of Shirag Bereijikian, Anastasios Kalligianakis, Roberto Mucci, Po-Che Su and Marko Vlahovic. Second went to the Multi-Touch Surface Using Computer Vision team of Issa Al-Fanek, Sam Sadighi, and Eric Louis. Third place was given to the Home Security System from Morati Newton, Moabi Pusumane, Samkol Chea and Quang Binh Vo. See the ECE site for photos and full recap of winners.

Three Concordia students have been awarded scholarships from the Quebec Black Medical Association (QBMA). First-year biology masters student Peter Quashie, third-year cell and molecular undergrad Andrea Clark and third-year behavioral neuroscience undergrad Mytsumi Louis-Foster. For 18 years, the QBMA has supported Black students interested in the medical-related sciences. This year, there were 21 scholarships awarded.

Computer Science and Software Engineering Professor Nancy Acemian was the winner of the 2009 Engineering and Computer Science Teaching Excellence Award to recognize her sustained commitment to the improvement of teaching and creativity in the development of teaching materials and approaches.

JMSB PhD student Diego Cueto is this year's winner of the Joe Kelly Graduate Award. His thesis "Corporate Governance and Ownership Structure in Emerging Markets: Evidence of Latin America" will be recognized for its quality and originality at convocation on June 8.

The work of design student Muhammed Haidar was prominent on the cover of the May 30 Weekend Life section of The Gazette. His tin-can ChANdelier was featured at the Montreal International Interior Design Show at the Place Bonaventure. As well, dance alumna Ame Henderson's group Public Recordings was previewed in an article in the Culture section ahead of their performances at Festivale Transamérique June 3 to 6.

Congratulations to fine arts students taking home awards this spring. Jessica Campbell, Laura Findlay, Matthieu Guillemette, Lise Latreille and Slava Mladenova were among the winners of this year’s Stanley Mills Prize. Established in 1994 to acknowledge outstanding fine arts students, the prize was created in honour of Mills who taught Canadian History and had a passion for the arts. The Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation announced photography MFA student Karen Zalamea is the first recipient of their Award for Emerging Visual Artists. The Foundation also acknowledged MFA student Meghan Price, who was among the three top finalists.

On May 23, a group of our students won at the annual OCTAS, the IT competition recognizing the achievement of excellence in Quebec's information technology industry. The winning project, "Security Evaluation and Hardening of Free and Open Source Software: A Synergy between Aspect Orientation and Security Hardening Patterns" was the work of CIISE students Marc-André Laverdière, Nadia Belblidia, Syrine Tlili, Dima Alhadidi, Aiman Hanna, Xiaochun Yang, Mourad Azzam, Zhenrong Yang, Amine Boukhetouta, Rachid Hadjidj, Hakim Idrissi Kaitouni and Hai Zhou Ling.