Collaborations

The mission of the Alberta Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) is to attract and grow a critical mass of exceptional researchers in the field of informatics. iCORE not only attracts world-class researchers to raise the standard of research and education at Alberta universities, but also supports the growth of knowledge-based industries through:

The Industry Chair Program

Developing Entrepreneurial Talent

Showcasing Alberta Research

Supporting Innovative Communities

1. Industry Chair Program
University-industry collaboration is becoming more popular in Canada as more businesses recognize the importance of developing close ties to highly qualified people and intellectual property. iCORE’s supports university-industry collaboration primarily though the Industrial Chair program. This program provides matching funding to support five-year relationships between an industry partner and a university-based research team. For information on Industrial Chair Establishment grants click here.

Current Industry Chairs include:

Dr Sheelagh Carpendale – Interactive Technologies
iCORE/Smart Technologies

Dr Saul Greenberg– Interactive Technologies
iCORE/Smart Technologies

Dr Wolfgang Tittel – Quantum Cryptography
iCORE/General Dynamics

Dr Anup Basu – Multimedia
iCORE/Castle Rock Research

Dr Hong Zhang– Intelligent Sensing Systems
iCORE/NSERC/Syncrude/Matrikon

Dr Sirish Shah – Computer Process Control
iCORE/NSERC/Suncor/Matrikon

Dr Pierre Boulanger – Collaborative Virtual Environments
iCORE/TRLabs

Dr Christoph Sensen – Applied Bioinformatics
iCORE/Sun Microsystems

Dr Jim Haslett – Wireless Science and Technology
iCORE/NSERC/TRLabs

Dr Michael Brett – Thin Film Engineering / Nanoengineered ICT devices
iCORE/NSERC/Micralyne

Dr Carey Williamson – Wireless Traffic Modeling
iCORE/NSERC/Telus Mobility

2. Developing Entrepreneurial Talent
iCORE supports the development of Alberta’s ICT industry through supporting programs aimed at developing entrepreneurial talent particularly with students.

Such programs include:

Collegiate Computer Programming Contests – iCORE supports regional contests, teams attending international contests and Alberta’s bid to host the International Collegiate Programming Contest in 2008

Science to Society (THECIS)– Entrepreneurial training workshop for graduate students and junior faculty

Shad Valley Summer Internship Program (NRC) – Entrepreneurship training camp for exceptional grade 11-12 students

Student Technology Innovation Challenge (STIC) – A business plan competition for students with technology-based ventures

Dragon’s Den Workshop – Entrepreneurship workshop for students and the public

3. Showcasing Alberta Research
iCORE supports international events which showcase Alberta to both academics and industry.

Some examples include:

20th Anniversary Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference (CSCW2006) , Banff, Alberta, November 2006

ACM SIGMETRICS '05 Conference, Banff, Alberta, June 2005

IEEE Conference of Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2005), Edmonton, Alberta, 2005

21st International Conference on Machine Learning, Banff, Alberta, July 2004

American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Edmonton, Alberta, 2002

4. Supporting Innovative Communities
iCORE supports the development of innovative communities within Alberta that enable people and organizations to leverage each others strengths in multidisciplinary and creative work.

Some examples include:

Recruiting researchers such as Dr Stuart Kauffman, Dr Christoph Sensen, and Dr Gane Ka-shu Wong, who work on the application of ICT to understanding biological systems.

Active leadership in promoting and developing Cyberinfrastrucutre in Alberta and Canada.

Support of and leadership in the Alberta Science & Technology Leadership Foundation (ASTech Awards).

Supporting creative workshops at the Banff Centre, the PIMS Graduate Mathematics Modeling Camp (2005) and Alberta’s Robot Soccer Team 2005.