Are you ready for it?

The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) is an academic competition that assists current graduate students with fostering effective presentation and communication skills. Participants have just three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience. In 2011, over 43 universities from across Australia and New Zealand have participated in this fun, highly informative and very entertaining event. UBC is one of the first Universities in North America to host a 3MT competition.

Registration to participate in 3MT 2012 @ UBC started this week and the 3MT Coaching Sessions are now underway. These sessions cover presentation tips and techniques, demos and small group practice. More details about the3MT coaching sessions and how to participate are available at: http://3mt.grad.ubc.ca/.

Did you know?

The 2nd Place and People’s Choice Award in last year’s 3MT competition was Guang Yang in the Neuroscience program at UBC. Have a look at his thesis in the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 2008+ collection in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38155.

Above partial excerpt in italics and image is courtesy of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) website at The University of British Columbia.

Engineering Physics is a fully accredited engineering program under the jurisdiction of the Faculty of Applied Science and administered by the Department of Physics and Astronomy. All Engineering Physics students in their 4th and 5th year complete open-ended projects for faculty, industry, or as self-sponsored projects based on student ideas. Students are given access to prototyping facilities, technical resources, and development support throughout the department and across campus to complete these projects.

Here is just a quick sample of recently added Engineering Physics Projects to peruse:

Devising a recipe to synthesize indium antimonide single-nanowire field effect transistors with OHMIC contacts

View this project in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39330

Swimming cueing interface device

View this project in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33360

Parametrically-enhanced nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer prototype

View this project in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33362

Portable dog ball launcher (FetchIT)

View this project in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33366

Wavelength tunable femtosecond fiber laser : results and recommendations

View this project in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39368

For further information about the program and the projects, check out these links directly below:

http://www.engphys.ubc.ca/

http://projectlab.engphys.ubc.ca/

Did you know?

One of the Engineering Physics Projects’ took first place in the PHYS253 Mountain Equipment Ro-bot Competition 2011 back in August 2011. Find out more about this project by visiting cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/39327.

Pacific Affairs is a peer-reviewed, independent, and interdisciplinary scholarly journal with a focus on important current political, economic and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific. Each issue contains approximately five new articles and 60-70 book reviews. Published continuously since 1928 under the same name, Pacific Affairs has been located on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, since 1961.

You can read the latest Pacific Affairs’ book reviews in cIRcle (see directly below).

Collections in this cIRcle community:

• Book Reviews: Asia General

• Book Reviews: Australasia and the Pacific Region

• Book Reviews: China and Inner Asia

• Book Reviews: Northeast Asia

• Book Reviews: South Asia

• Book Reviews: Southeast Asia

Did You Know?

One Pacific Affairs’ book review in particular has been viewed from many countries around the world. Some countries include Austria, Germany, Russian Federation, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Take a moment to read this book review entitled, Japan’s Whaling: the Politics of Culture in Historical Perspective in cIRcle.

Above partial excerpt in italics and images are courtesy of Pacific Affairs website at The University of British Columbia.

Over 30,000 Retrospective Theses and Dissertations are now available in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository! Last April, this historical collection contained ‘over 25,000 titles and approximately 4.24 million digitized pages’.  The UBC Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Digitization Project is nearly complete with thanks to Chris Hives, University Archivist, and his amazing team!

Learn more about the UBC Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Digitization Project and its progress at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/831.

Above partial excerpt is courtesy of Chris Hives, University Archivist in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Above image is courtesy of UBC Library’s photostream on Flickr.

Did You Know?

To browse newly added UBC theses and dissertations, you can visit the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 2008+ collection in cIRcle.

Time is running out! So, don’t forget to send in your faculty, staff, or student nomination for the 2012 UBC Library Innovative Dissemination of Research Award.

About the Award:

@ honours UBC faculty, staff and students who are expanding the boundaries of research via new tools & technologies

@ focuses on new and innovative ways of communicating and disseminating knowledge

@ consists of a framed certificate of recognition and a $2,000 cash prize

Deadline for Applications: Monday, November 28, 2011, 5 p.m.

More details are available at: http://scholcomm.ubc.ca/events-awards/award/

Did you know?

Some of the previous award winners and honourable mentions are available in cIRcle at: https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/33850

Above text in italics is courtesy of the Scholarly Communications @ UBC website and image is courtesy of http://about.library.ubc.ca/2011/11/02/innovative-dissemination-of-research-award-2012/

Are you or your colleagues one of these UBC affiliations – Faculty, Investigator, Postdoctoral Fellow, or Graduate Student?

Then, you or your colleagues should attend our next workshop which builds upon the recent Scholarly rights & responsibilities workshops.

Our Increasing the Impact of Your Research workshop is happening this Thursday, November 17th at 1:00-2:00pm in Koerner Library Room 217. We will cover what you should know about publisher agreements, open access and how to use cIRcle, UBC’s information repository, to increase the impact of your research.

Pre-register for this free workshop at: http://elred.library.ubc.ca/libs/dashboard/view/2213

Above image is courtesy of Cepolina Photo website

*UPDATE* – The TMW 2011 conference proceedings are now available at:

https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/37211

If you are interested in mining, then you will want to see the conference proceedings of the upcoming Tailings and Mine Waste 2011 conference (TMW). These proceedings will be publicly available as of tomorrow (Friday, November 4th) in cIRcle, UBC’s institutional repository.

The conference will be held in Vancouver November 6 to 9, 2011. Organized by the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering at UBC, in conjunction with Colorado State University and the University of Alberta, the conference appeals to researchers, engineers, scientists and mining representatives interested in issues related to mining.

To learn more about the conference proceedings, be sure to visit: https://blogs.ubc.ca/library/category/circle/

Partial excerpt in italics above is courtesy of the UBC Library blog

Did you know?

You can view the BC Mine Reclamation Symposium proceedings (1977-2010) which are also publicly available in cIRcle.

Nominations are now open for the 2012 UBC Library Innovative Dissemination of Research Award. That means, you could be the next award winner!

Established by the Library in 2010, this Award focuses on new and innovative ways of communicating and disseminating knowledge. The Award honors UBC faculty, staff and students who are expanding the boundaries of research through the creative use of new tools and technologies that enhance the research findings being disseminated.

The award consists of a framed certificate of recognition and a $2,000 cash prize.

All UBC faculty, staff, and students may nominate themselves or others as candidates for the Library Innovative Dissemination of Research Award.

Deadline for Applications: Monday, November 28, 2011, 5 p.m.

More details are available at: http://scholcomm.ubc.ca/events-awards/award/

Did you know?

Previous award winners and honourable mentions include:

Wash With Care by Anne-Marie Nicol – available in cIRcle at: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/33872

Using theatre to disseminate research findings in education by George Belliveau

MOACAT and the Museum of Anthropology’s (MOA) collections online site by Nancy Bruegeman

Circos by Martin Krzywinski

Above text in italics is courtesy of the Scholarly Communications @ UBC website

Above image courtesy of UBC Library’s photostream on Flickr

Robert VanWynsberghe. Photo credit: Martin Dee

2010 Winter Olympics provided economic and cultural boost

British Columbia’s economy grew in 2010 with new businesses, jobs and an increase in visitor spending, all likely related to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, says a University of British Columbia study that measured the impact of the Games.

In addition to the economic benefits, the report also noted other positive outcomes including the development of sport and culture across Canada, the inclusion and participation of Aboriginal groups and minorities and a heightened recognition of persons with disabilities.

“Throughout the Olympics and in the weeks immediately following, there was a real sense of success and pride among British Columbians and Canadians,” says Rob VanWynsberghe, lead author of the study. “These feelings were well-founded, some real success stories came out of these Games.”

The three key findings of the UBC-OGI Games-time report were:

1. Socio-cultural impacts – Inclusion, Sport, Arts and Culture, and Housing

2. Economic impacts – Business, Real estate, Tourism, and Tax Revenue

3. Environmental impacts – Greenhouse gas emissions, Mode of travel, and Energy Consumption

To read the report mentioned above and other UBC-OGI findings, visit the UBC and the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Research collection in cIRcle. Currently, there are 48 items in this growing collection that are available for viewing, listening to or reading for your own scholarly research or general interests.

Did You Know?

The cIRcle 2010 Olympics Project aims to showcase and preserve UBC’s intellectual output related to the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Examples include research or teaching outputs, proceedings or webcasts of conferences and other events, as well as other material that is Olympic inspired and has long term value.

Above text in italics and image are courtesy of the UBC Public Affairs website

UBC is once again participating in the International Open Access Week event, where the research and academic community worldwide come together to share and learn about open access and other connected global open scholarship initiatives locally and worldwide. UBC’s own event – Open UBC – showcases four days of topical forums, lectures and workshops about open scholarship by invited Guest Lecturers and UBC’s own community of faculty, students & staff.

Highlights include:

• Opening Up Education – Creative Alternatives to Access Copyright – Keynote Speaker – By Paul Stacey, Director, Communications, Stakeholder & Academic Relations at BCcampus
• A Course on Reproducible Research in Computational and Data Science: What should it be? – By  Dr. Ian Mitchell & Dr. Dhavide Arulia
• Transitioning a journal to an open access business model: a Canadian perspective – By Lesley Andres, Professor, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia and Editor of Canadian Journal of Higher Education
• Open Access – What problems are we trying to fix? – Keynote Speaker – By Dr. David Rosenthal, Chief Scientist, LOCKSS
• Opening the Possibilities of the Internet: OpenMedia.ca’s Transformative Campaigns and the University Community – Keynote Speaker – By Reilly Yeo, Managing Director, OpenMedia.ca
• Publishers from Public Library of Science & Springer Publishing will talk about their Open Access Business models
• Opening Up Worldwide Access to key BC Historical Documents: Chinese Canadian Stories, BC Historical Newspapers and more
• UBC Faculty will share and exchange their innovative approaches to the dissemination of their research in a showcase and exchange of ideas event – By Dr. Anne-Marie Nicols, Dr. Paul Evans,  Dr. Rosie Redfield, Dr. Erin Michalak, Dr. Harry Brumer,  Dr. Wyeth W. Wasserman and  Dimas Yusuf

All of these events are FREE and open to the public, students, faculty, staff and schools. No registration necessary.

Location:  All events in Lillooet (301) Room in the Chapman Learning Commons, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, UBC Vancouver Campus unless indicated otherwise.

All of these events are FREE and open to the public, students, faculty, staff and schools.

For more information about the event contact: ubc-oaweek@interchange.ubc.ca