Business analytics – the art and science of advanced statistical analysis popularized by the movie Moneyball and the bestselling book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning – is a tool increasingly used by businesses looking to gain a competitive edge.

Murat Kristal

“The Schulich Master of Science in Business Analytics will fast-track students with a background in engineering, computer science or math to leverage their skill sets for business,” says Murat Kristal, program director of Schulich's Master of Science in Business Analytics and a professor of Operations Management & Information Systems.

Ninety-seven per cent of companies with revenues of more of $100 million are now entering this new frontier, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Business analytics is also the fastest growing category of global IT software expenditure, according to a recent Forrester Research study, and a McKinsey & Company report forecasts a shortage of professionals in the field of business analytics by 2018.

“Business analytics is one of the most sought-after skill sets in the business world right now. It’s the new business frontier,” says Schulich alumnus Babar Chaudhry, vice-president, financial planning, marketing analytics & strategy at a major Canadian international bank. “Companies are capturing vast amounts of data on their customers, products and the environment, but they need more highly trained professionals to analyze and identify patterns and trends for value creation; value creation for their customers as well as their shareholders.”

Schulich’s intensive program will combine mathematical and statistical study with instruction in advanced computational and data analysis to ferret out the data that drives decision-making in business. During the final semester, students will be embedded within business operations to work on real-world, real-time data analysis projects.

Business analytics students will learn to identify patterns and trends; interpret and gain insight from vast quantities of structured and unstructured data; and communicate their findings in practical, useful terms, says Kristal.

Students will emerge from Schulich’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program with skills in forecasting, business intelligence and data mining, and optimization and simulation. Graduates will be qualified to apply for a wide variety of career positions as managers, consultants and analysts in the fields of strategy, research, marketing and sales.

For more information, visit the Schulish School of Business’ website or contact Schulich School of Business Professor Murat Kristal, program director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics, at ext. 44593 or mkristal@schulich.yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Please note that only resumes submitted through the described process will be considered.

The posting closes May 31, 2011.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

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Litoiu has won awards before, but these particular ones stem from his pioneering work in cloud computing, the next big evolution in computing technology. “It’s one of the hot topics in computing these days,” he says. Since cloud computing surfaced as a brilliant idea in 2007, he’s led much of the exploration into this new frontier.

Right: Marin Litoiu

Cloud computing will spell the end of desktop computers and institutional servers in five to 10 years, predicts Litoiu. Instead, hardware functions such as storage, memory and processing, and office and enterprise software will be provided and managed automatically from remote servers via the Internet (or “cloud”).

Through the Internet, off-site service providers will automatically update software, provide security and guarantee uninterrupted service. Software as a Service, as it’s called, will be cheaper, more convenient and more reliable, says Litoiu.

He compares it to the evolution of electricity delivery. In the early days, companies and institutions used their own generators to supply power. Now we all plug into a remote continental grid.

At 91ŃÇÉ«, a few cluster groups, including his own, already operate on clouds. Facebook and Google run on cloud computing systems, though they’re not completely automated, he says. Banks don’t yet, but “it’s just a matter of time before everything is run on virtual systems.”

Litoiu started his career as a computer science professor in Romania. He immigrated to Canada in 1996 and started a second PhD, this one in systems engineering. Within a year, IBM recruited him as a senior researcher at its Centre for Advanced Studies, where he led more than 30 research projects with academics and partners across the globe.

In 2007, when the idea of cloud computing began percolating in labs around the world, IBM created the Centre of Excellence for Research in Adaptive Systems () and appointed him director. “We were among the first in the world to create a centre to look at this very new concept of cloud computing,” says Litoiu.

Even after his return to academia in 2008, when he joined 91ŃÇɫ’s School of Information Technology, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Litoiu continues to collaborate with IBM on developing computing tools and infrastructure. “I’m a strong believer in collaborating with industry because it gives students industrial experience and a chance to apply their skills to real problems. I want their theses to be relevant.”

This year, IBM named him CAS (Centre for Advanced Studies) . The award recognizes Litoiu's leadership in cloud computing research, research that benefits IBM and industry at large, and Litoiu’s continuing efforts to share his research and knowledge with IBM developers.

Left: Marin Litoiu (left) accepts Faculty Fellow of the Year award from IBM's Bart Vashaw

Litoiu specializes in adaptive computing systems – in computers that take care of themselves. In naming him Faculty Fellow of the Year, IBM cited two of his collaborative research projects. One was “Real-time monitoring and simulations of business processes”, which aimed to pinpoint then shorten delays in automated functions, such as those used in finance and human resources applications. The other was developing a business-driven cloud optimization architecture, which resulted in several prototypes and papers. One paper won the at the 2010 Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on Applied Computing in Switzerland in March.

In 2009, Litoiu also won the IBM Project of the Year Award for building a two-layered cloud computing model for desktop virtualization: the first layer would provide storage and raw computation; the second, services such as software management (see YFile Dec. 18, 2008).

“These awards validate my assumption that the work we do is meaningful and has an impact not only on the academic community but also on industry, on one of the biggest players in the world in computing,” says Litoiu, of IBM. “The other important thing is that students involved in the research are directly or indirectly exposed to the industry and industrial technology and that their research is rewarded as well.”

At 91ŃÇÉ«, Litoiu leads a research team of 12 post-doc and graduate students. Soon they will be working in a new lab dedicated to cloud computing research. The Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada has just granted him $234,000, and IBM has made up the difference for a total of $500,000 to start a new project in cloud computing.

“We live in a pretty exciting world,” says Litoiu. “There are a lot of things to be done in computing. We’re not even halfway through this computer revolution.”

By Martha Tancock, YFile contributing writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Fifteen students will offer summaries of their research. The students come to the program from different backgrounds, including computer science, psychology, biology, and kinesiology & health science.

"This day marks the culmination of two years of intense neuroscience studies for our first group of students," says Professor Doug Crawford (left), and the program’s coordinator. "They are a wonderful group and I am extremely proud of them"

Today’s presentations cover a wide range of approaches to neuroscience, ranging from research on molecular and cellular mechanisms in nerve cells and the relationship between the elements of neural systems, to the study of behaviour of whole organisms.

Psychology Professors Shayna Rosenbaum and Kari Hoffman have been hard at work coordinating the Neuroscience Research Day. “We began a neuroscience graduate diploma program at 91ŃÇÉ« in 2008. It combines the interests of the psychology, biology, and kinesiology & health sciences program,” says Rosenbaum. “This is the end of the second year of the program, which is a two-year consecutive program that is done in conjunction with the graduate students’ home department and their degree. [They are given a diploma in addition to their degree.] While the Neuroscience Research Day program is focused on the students, the event is also a celebration of the wide range of research interests among our neuroscience research faculty.”

Above: The class of 2010 and neuroscience faculty

The graduating students will be presenting a range of projects, says Rosenbaum, that draw on different methodologies. Some students will be showcasing work done using a molecular approach, while others will be presenting research that looks at neuroscience from a systems focus. Other students, says Rosenbaum, have relied on neuroimaging methods and some have done their research with patient populations. The breadth of projects that will be presented during the research day, says Rosenbaum, mirrors the program faculty's multidisciplinary approach to neuroscience.

Left: Shayna Rosenbaum

The following is a snapshot of some of the 15 research projects that will be presented today:

David Cappadocia (BSc Spec. Hons. ’08), is a second-year master's student working with Crawford. Cappadocia will present on his research into how the brain remembers different features of an object, so that when it is time to act on the object, it can be discriminated from other similar objects.

Caitlin Mullin (MSc ’08), a PhD student, is studying how different parts of the brain form representations of the visual world around us. Mullin is using transcranial magnetic stimulation to apply a brief magnetic pulse to a specific part of the brain. This temporarily deactivates the brain region, allowing Mullin to determine how it functions. Mullin is supervised by 91ŃÇÉ« psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves.

PhD student Krista Kelly will present her research that looks into the effects of losing one eye early in life. Specifically, Kelly is researching how that loss affects brain organization and visual ability. Working under the supervision of Steeves, Kelly is using functional brain imaging to correlate findings with behavioural measures of performance.

Master's students Javaneh Tamiji (BSc Spec. Hons. ’08) and Shannon Lozinsky are working with kinesiology Professor Dorota Crawford. They will present their research on the causes of autism, a disorder of the brain. Using state-of-the-art equipment funded by the , Tamiji and Lozinsky are investigating how environmental agents, such as drugs taken during early pregnancy, affect function and communication of cells in the brain. The goal of their project is to achieve a better understanding of what is different or missing in the brains of individuals with autism.

91ŃÇÉ« PhD student Debi Stransky (BSc Spec. Hons. ’06, MSc ’08) is investigating stereoscopic depth perception across a large range of depth offsets under the supervision of 91ŃÇÉ« psychology Professor Laurie Wilcox. There is convincing evidence that there is a separate depth processing mechanism for images that cannot be fused into a single percept. Stransky is determining the quality of depth perceived from such stimuli and if these percepts are subserved from distinct neural mechanisms. Her work is funded by a postgraduate fellowship from the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

91ŃÇÉ« PhD student Inna Tsirlin (BSc Spec. Hons. ’04, MSc ’06) is studying depth perceptions from monocular occlusions. These are regions in a scene that are visible to one eye, but not to the other because they are occluded, for instance by objects in the foreground. For many years this information was considered noise. Tsirlin's work has shown that monocular occlusions help define the boundaries between objects and backgrounds, and can even provide quantitative depth information. Tsirlin is working under the supervision of Wilcox and her work is funded by a postgraduate fellowship from NSERC.

Left: Kari Hoffman

PhD student Stephanie Hornyak, who specializes in clinical neuropsychology, is investigating how brain regions communicate with each other to support spatial memory of well-known environments learned long ago. Under the supervision of 91ŃÇÉ« psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum, she has used an innovative method of combining functional MRI with multivariate statistics, which will help predict how brain networks may break down in patients who suffer from spatial disorientation.

91ŃÇÉ« master’s student Adrian Bartlett (BA Spec. Hons. ’08) is studying how the eye movements we use to scan the environment may shape the neural basis of object recognition. Using spectral analysis of neuronal population activity, his research has revealed that eye movements help coordinate the activity of neurons, leading to a stronger, more efficient code of what we’re viewing, Bartlett is the recipient of an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship and is supervised by psychology Professor Kari Hoffman.

“All the research being presented is very exciting and it is also an important year because 91ŃÇÉ« has acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology,” says Rosenbaum. “The day also offers students another forum for networking and will help them build future collaborations.”

Everyone in the University community is invited to attend the presentations. The deans of the , and Graduate Studies will also give presentations.

For more information, visit the Neuroscience Graduate Diploma Web site.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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But while moviegoers have flocked to recent 3-D offerings, film fans also have had mixed reviews about their experiences, with some reporting headaches, nausea, vision problems and motion sickness. With 3-D leaping to the small screen, clinical researchers and tech experts want to know whether the special effect might damage eyes in the process.

“The problem with 3-D displays is that unlike the real world, only a subset of the information that normally informs us about the 3-D structure of the world is present,” said , a computer science professor in 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering who specializes in 3-D vision and technology.

And processing that incomplete visual information does, in fact, impact our eyes.

Better technology is alleviating the problem.

Allison also noted that recent 3-D movies have gotten better at reducing eye strain by mimicking our natural stereoscopic vision. “People are becoming less gimmick-oriented in terms of 3-D content,” Allison explained. “There’s more emphasis on a comfortable viewing experience where stereopsis enriches the experience rather than defining it, and recent movies like Avatar or Up have been very easy on the eyes.”

The complete article is . For more information about visit the project's website.

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The Augmented Reality Lab in the Faculty of Fine Arts opens its doors to the 91ŃÇÉ« community March 10 for interactive demonstrations of augmented reality (AR) and GPS locative media research projects in development. From 11am to 3pm, visitors will have the opportunity to experience projections on FogScreen, immersive virtual environments and other innovative applications for AR technology.

Directed by film Professor Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture, 91ŃÇÉ«'s is at the forefront in working with both established and emerging technologies. As part of the , it is dedicated to producing innovative research methods, interfaces and content that challenge cinematic and literary conventions and aim to enhance how people interact with their physical environment and with each other.

Left: Caitlin Fisher

The lab offers artists and designers the opportunity to explore new screen technologies, approaches and techniques through production and theoretical study of this emerging medium. Lab participants work interactively and across disciplinary boundaries, particularly film and computer science.

A wide variety of projects will be on display at the open house.

Handheld City is an online streaming experience developed by the AR Lab for the city of Toronto’s virtual museum project, which launched March 6 (Toronto’s 176th birthday). Using AR as a storytelling device, the researchers organized and animated the digital objects in the museum collection and created an interesting way to interact with the objects and access the accompanying text.

Right: Handheld City was developed for Toronto's virtual museum project

The Amazing Cinemagician is an interactive "rfid" (radio frequency identification – like a barcode) video project for the FogScreen by Helen Papagiannis, a PhD student in communication & culture. Digitized film clips by cinematic special effects pioneer Georges Méliès are tied to a series of rfid objects that the viewer can scan to access the video.

Papagiannis made major waves in AR circles last fall with her presentation at the International Symposium for Mixed and Augmented Reality in Florida. A leading AR news blog, , dubbed her “the new ARtist in charge,” awarded her its Most Beautiful Demo award and put her on its top 10 list of forces currently shaping the industry.

CommCult master's student Justin Stephenson showcases a new "procedural animation" (a form of computer animation generated in real-time) using Quartz Composer.

Master of Fine Arts film student Simone Rapisarda presents the ladybike test project: the first film to come out of the lab using the Ladybug camera. This spherical digital video unit comprises multiple cameras and records more than 80 per cent of the full sphere. Rapisarda’s video, filmed with the camera set in a bicycle basket, shows the scenery approaching, speeding by and receding simultaneously.

Above: An image from Simone Rapisarda's ladybike test project

Also experimenting with the Ladybug camera is graduate film student Cameron Woykin, who has created a time-based video installation using footage of himself shot inside the lab. Edited into a spherical image, the video shows multiple views of the researcher as he moves around the space.

Right: The Ladybug camera in action

Wormholes is another experiment in spherical storytelling, created by Fisher and Andrew Roth, the lab’s technology manager. Using the lab’s Intersense IS900 Inertial/Sonic Tracking "virtual reality" grid, participants wearing a virtual reality headset can literally get inside and explore simultaneous realities through spherical video clips shot by Fisher and Roth on various locations on campus.

Several projects use SnapdragonAR software, an innovative "drag and drop" AR interface developed in the lab in collaboration with computer vision researchers Andrei Rotenstein and Mikhail Sizintsev, PhD candidates in computer science, and Dr. Mark Fiala. Snapdragon allows people without computer programming skills to easily build AR experiences. This software is now available for sale through Future Stories, a spin-off company 91ŃÇɫ’s AR Lab established to provide participants with the option of commercializing their lab developments.

The Snapdragon projects created in the lab by graduate students include Papagiannis' sound toy wonder turner; Boaz Berri’s Neighbours, which fills an image of an apartment complex with videos of life inside the building; Carter Bruce, Anne Koizumi and Claudia Sicondolfo’s The Underground Cave, which animates a model of an underground space; and a work-in-progress by Evelyn Tchakarov. Fisher will also be showing an AR tabletop theatre piece called Circle which was presented for the first time last December as part of the Digital Arts & Culture conference at the . Wallace Edwards, a Governor General's Literary Award-winning children’s book illustrator, will show some recent experiments with AR illustrations that come to life in your hands.

Above: A collection of images from the Snapdragon projects created in the lab by graduate students

Another computer program developed in-house is an iPhone GPS video-caching application created by Roth and Rotenstein. Akin to a technological Easter egg hunt, when the application is running, the iPhone will display a digital surprise – in this case a film clip – when it is physically located at a predetermined GPS coordinate. CommCult master's student Magda Olszanowski's Suivez Moi was built using the GPS software. An outdoor demo of her project is available now by appointment (call 416-736-2100 ext. 21077), but the lab hopes these locative film experiences will be available for download through the Apple app store in the near future.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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