Jörg-R. Sack, LC Chair
Town Hall: U. of British Columbia
Establishing a National Organization
for Canadian CS Research
January12th, 2015
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Since its creation by NSERC in 2011, the NSERC Computer Science Liaison
Committee (LC) has been pleased to serve the CS community in Canada and to
interact with NSERC on matters relating to the community.
In addition to direct communication, NSERC interacts now with the community
through the LC.
LC
CS community
Please see our website: CS-NSERC.ca | CRSNG-Inf.ca
for mandate, activities, presentations, documents, news, etc.
Welcome News Documents About us
| Français
cs-nserc.ca crsng-inf.ca
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•
Jörg-Rüdiger Sack, Carleton (Chair) [2015]
Anne Condon, UBC, [2015]
• Marc Frappier, Sherbrooke [2015]
• Parvin Mousavi, Queen’s U. [2017]
• Mario Nascimento, U of A. [2017]
•
NSERC’s Representatives
•
NSERC representatives overseeing CS
Sarah Overington Team Leader, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy
Elizabeth Boston, Director – Mathematical, Environmental, Physical Sciences
Ex officio
•
Doina Precup, McGill [2016] CS Group Chair (current)
•
Atefeh Farzindar, NLP Tech. Inc. - Private sector (small enterprises) [2017]
Steven Woods, Google Inc. - Private sector (large enterprises) [2017]
•
We sincerely thank Mike Bauer, Greg Dudek, Samir Boughaba, and Evangelos Milios
for their significant contributions made during the first years!
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LC
Formal written responses:
• consultation on CCA
Consultation on the draft
• DG Program evaluation
Tri-Agency Open Access Policy
Consultation:
• Discovery Frontiers (VP Blain)
• DG evaluation
LC members:
• NSERC’s panel on follow-up
Capitalizing on Big Data: Toward
CCA report (M. Frappier)
a Policy Framework (J.-R. Sack)
• Chaired the NSERC-IBM
CFI Cyber-infrastructure
Fellowship Innovation Platform (J.-R. Sack)
(J.-R. Sack)
Meeting:
• NSERC senior management (incl. President, 2 VPs)
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Compiled
summary
Sent to
Heads & Chairs
Received
Developed
completed
Questionnaire Questionnaire
Sent
summary to
community
Received
feedback
Integrated
into report
(20 Departments)
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
Consultation
OST
report
Other
reliable
sources
Current strengths of CS research
in Canada
Challenges it faces, and
Recommendations for actions
Analysis Report
Report tabled e.g., to community,
CACS/AIC, Presidents of tri-council,
CFI, very well received.
OST report: commissioned jointly with CACS/AIC
(OST = Observatoire des sciences et des technologies)
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R6: With the support of its stakeholders and partners, including NSERC,
the Computer Science community must become better organized.
• Following up on R6, LC now engages the community with respect to critical
endeavour of establishing a national Organization that represents the Canadian
Computer Science research community.
• LC now calls on Canadian CS researchers from both academia and industry
to step up to lead efforts to strengthen research and advanced education in
CS and to build a cohesive Canadian CS research community.
• What Canada needs now, alongside, and in strong cooperation, with CACS
and CIPS, is a national organization representing its CS researchers.
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Objective: gather ideas from all members of the CS
community on the creation of a national CS
organization for research.
- Inform community of the LC’s ideas for a new organization
- Hear from guest speakers on the benefits and challenges of national
research organizations
- Hear from the community on:

A) Level of support for the creation of a new organization in principle

B) Possible mission/activities/scope/priorities of the organization
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Mission (early draft)
The mission of the organization is to help further strengthen
the Canadian computer science (CS) research community, and
to represent and effectively advocate its interests and goals to
relevant agencies and parties.
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Goals (draft)





Represent the broad-based interests of the CS research
community.
Facilitate the recruitment and involvement of women in
Computer Science at all levels of the field.
Advocate and promote the interests of CS research to relevant
parties including: governments, funding organizations,
industry and the general public.
Serve as a focal point for the government, industry, and policy
makers to interact on issues, strategic needs, priorities, relevant
to the CS research community.
Facilitate broad consultation with the research community on
critical issues.
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Activities (draft)




Organize panels, working groups or other activities of
interest to the Canadian CS research community.
Enable the organization of regular Long Range Plans for
the Canadian CS research community.
Create a network for its members.
Develop research/funding opportunities, and facilitate
large-scale collaborations.
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Activities (draft)



Provide mechanisms to share information and best
practices relating to research, e.g, for building and funding
international collaborations and facilitating high-impact
research collaborations.
Engage talented Canadian undergraduates in computing
research and interest them in graduate research.
Support and encourage the participation of
underrepresented groups in all levels of computing
research.
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Outcomes (anticipated)





A stronger voice for Canadian computing researchers in
shaping funding programs.
More opportunities for funding of research and graduate
education.
More highly-qualified graduate students.
Increased interaction and partnerships between academia and
industry.
Greater impact of CS research on industrial practice, public
policy, and advanced education.
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



In person individuals, LC, U. VIC, SFU and UBC
National web-cast to the CS community
NSERC participants
In person: Sarah Overington, Team Leader, Computer
Science, Physics and Astronomy

Remotely:




Pierre Charest VP, Research Grants and Scholarships
Elizabeth Boston, Director, Mathematical Environmental and Physical Sciences
Reeta Sooknah, Program Officer, Computer Science
Staff, Partnership division
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Team Leader, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy, NSERC
Previously:
Program Officer, Climate Change and Atmospheric Research
Researcher, McGill (Ph.D.)
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William Eric Leifur Grimson
Canadian-born, 21st CRA Board Chair
Chancellor for Academic Advancement
Bernard Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering
Professor of Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
17
Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution, CSEE
(involved in particular in the creation)
Director of the UBC Biodiversity Research Centre
Professor, Department of Zoology, UBC
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2008 - President of the Gesellschaft für Informatik E.V.
(Society
for Informatics)
Director of the Forschungszentrum Informatik, Branch Office,
Technical University of Berlin
Chairman of the supervisory board of
Leibniz Centre Computer Science, Schloss
Dagstuhl
© Jähnichen privat
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President of the Canadian Association of Computer Science/
Association d’informatique canadienne,
Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Calgary
Professor, Department of Computer Science
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Senior Engineering Director at Google Inc.
founded NeoEdge Networks and
served as VP of Voice Services for America Online/Time
Warner.
21
Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Engineering, U. of Victoria
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Principal investigator, NSERC Strategic Research Network for
Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure (SAVI).
22
Associate Dean (Research), Faculty of Mathematics
Professor, Database Research Group, David R. Cheriton School
of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
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
A clear vision of what the community wants is required

LC invites CACS to be a key partner

Bring the community together

Potential to shape Canadian CS for decades to come
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Compile
summary
Compile
Summary of
Town hall
Send message to
community
Send to
Heads & Chairs
of Depts.
request to hold
sessions inside
departments and
summarize
Send
summary
to
community
request
comments
and
feedback
Produce
Final
report
Another Town Hall
exclusively for discussions
is an option?
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on behalf of the entire CS-NSERC LC
 Speakers
 Participants: here and online
 Task Force:
 Ken Barker, Elizabeth Boston, Craig Boutilier, Anne
Condon (UBC), Atefeh Farzindar, Mark Giesbrecht,
Mario Nascimento,, Mary Jane Kucerak, Sarah
Overington, (Jörg-R. Sack)
 Audio Visual: Mark van Driel
 Financial: CACS, NSERC
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