Accolades

Congratulations to Van Suong Hoa (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), who was presented with the NSERC Synergy Award at a gala in Winnipeg for his 18 years of work with Bell Helicopter in the field of composites for aerospace; specifically, the use of carbon-epoxy materials. Chair Martin Pugh calls it “a truly significant achievement, and a wonderful showcase of the work being done in our department.” In response, Hoa graciously thanked the faculty, staff and students who have helped him.

Dr. Hoa and his team are finalists for another major award, the Prix Partenariat given by ADRIQ (Association de la recherche industrielle du Québec), for their project “Survivability of Bonded Composite Wing Box.” Their partners are Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd., Delastek Inc., Ecole Polytechnique, the National Research Council and Defense Research and Development Canada (Valcartier). The recipient of more than $2 million in funding, this project allowed students to work with employees in the aerospace industry, and was one of the most extensive collaborations between companies and universities ever. The winner will be announced on Nov. 23.

Muthukumaran Packirisamy, who is a Concordia Research Chair in Mechanical Engineering, recently got a grant from the Canadian Institute of Photonic Innovations. He was kind enough to give the Journal’s article on June 1 (“Microchips Improve Medical Tools”) some of the credit, and believes he is the first in his department to get the grant.

Lynn Hughes (Studio Arts), Bart Simon (Sociology/Montreal GameCODE), Gary Boyd (Educational Technology) and a number of Concordia students were among 38 founding members of the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) who met at York University in Toronto recently. They exhibited their own work and discussed “the state of play” in the field. The association was established to share models, tools and methods, and draw in existing Canadian research networks on games, digital games and play. Some of the presentations will be on the CGSA web site in November.

File Photo

Congratulations to Hugh Hazelton (Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics) who is a finalist for a Governor-General’s Literary Award. Hazleton, who teaches Spanish, was nominated for a translation from French. Vetiver (Signature Editions), is the English translation of Vétiver, by Joël Des Rosiers (Les Éditions Triptyque). Here is what the citation said: “Hugh Hazelton’s creative and accurate translation renders the nuances of Joël Des Rosiers’ exotic narrative poetry. The English version faithfully reproduces the author’s historical and personal description of the beauty and harsh reality of life in his native Haiti.” The winners wil be announced Nov. 21.

Steven Appelbaum and Barbara Shapiro (Management) were quoted in a recent edition of Les Affaires Plus. The article was titled “Les Entreprises qui ont du coeur,” and was about how companies that exhibit strong social values earn the pride of their employees. Appelbaum said employees need to know that their company can evaluate its own social responsibility in a forthright way. Shapiro said, “When you’re proud of working for a company, you talk about it to your friends. A company can’t buy that kind of recruitment strategy.”

Joanna Berzowska (XS Labs / Design and Computation Arts) was on a panel recently at SAT, the digital art facility on lower St. Lawrence Blvd, called Au Coeur de la matière: Le noyau des interface. She talked about her wearable art.