Helping judges in Palestine better understand forensics evidence so that they don’t undermine the claims of women who are victims of violence is just one of the many positive results to come out of a major project to bring a greater awareness of human dignity to courtrooms in the occupied territories.

“There are a number of female judges working with forensics experts and other judges to make sure they’re interpreting evidence properly,” said Reem Bahdi, a professor in the university’s Faculty of Law, who co-directs KARAMAH – The Project on Judicial Independence and Human Dignity.

A multi-million dollar initiative, KARAMAH – the Palestinian word for dignity – aims to support access to justice in Palestine through research, continuing judicial education and directed civil society engagement. Over the last seven years, partners in the project have been helping lawyers and judges develop a greater understanding of human rights and dignity and how those concepts can be incorporated into the decisions that are made in courtrooms in the occupied territories.

“Human dignity is a very important concept, but how do you take that and institutionalize it in the instruments of the state,” said Bahdi, who travels to Palestine several times a year to work on the project.

One of the reasons the project is so important is because for many years, average Palestinians have viewed the courts as a system of oppression that supported and regulated the occupations. However, that misconception is beginning to change, thanks to the KARAMAH program, Bahdi said.

Bahdi will appear today on Research Matters, a weekly talk show that focuses on the work of University of Windsor researchers and airs every Thursday at 4:30 p.m. on CJAM 99.1 FM.

The University of Windsor is bringing student service to a new level with a mobile app to help students do everything from check their grades to find a place to eat on campus – all in the palm of their hands.

Compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry and Android technology, the myUWindsor app provides mobile access to all the web-based services and information students would typically access on the University’s home page, through the student portal and the Collaboration and Learning Environment Windsor (CLEW) learning management system.

The app will enjoy a formal launch during the opening of Campus Technology Day, today — Thursday, May 17 — in the CAW Student Centre.

Among the services and information students will now be able to access through their phones are:

• capability to review courses, schedules, grades and exams
• update financial information on their accounts, including their UWinCARDS and meal plans
• ability to receive direct messages from professors and course instructors
• a campus map which will allow them to search for specific buildings
• check out menus and daily specials at the Market Place Cafe
• get updates on Lancer sports
• gain access to such social media sites as the UWindsor’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and Twitter feed
• ability to listen to CJAM, the University’s campus radio station

“It is a priority for the University of Windsor to enhance the student experience with a wide variety of convenient services,” said UWindsor president Alan Wildeman. “Our IT and Public Affairs and Communications departments have been hard at work over the past several months working on the development and launch of this new tool that gives you access to many campus services right in the palm of your hand. It's a powerful way of keeping our students, staff, faculty, visitors and alumni in touch with all the exciting things happening at their university.”

A free download, the new app was created with a great deal of feedback from students, who were involved in focus groups to test it out as it was being developed, according to John Powell, director of Web communications.

“We asked students how they used their phones and about what kinds of services we could offer them, so the app is really a response to their wants and needs,” he said.

Powell has scheduled sessions to introduce members of the faculty and staff to the app as well.

“Although it isn’t intended for them, they will need to understand how it works so they can address any concerns brought to them,” he said. “We’ll also discuss ways they can communicate with the student users and populate this new interface with their departmental information, news and events.”

No pre-registration is required for the three sessions:

• Tuesday, May 22, 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in room 1121, Education Building
• Wednesday, May 23, 10 a.m. in room 1123, Education Building

Download the new app at www.uwindsor.ca/app.

Read a review at BlurbTech.com.

Watch a video about the app's development:

Rupp Carriveau feels like a torchbearer for UWindsor’s research community.

“We have so many people doing such incredible things and that’s what really makes me proud,” said Dr. Carriveau. An associate professor in civil and environmental engineering, he’s participating in a province-wide awareness campaign aimed at convincing the general public about the importance of university research.

Earlier this week, the Council of Ontario Universities launched “Research Matters,” a campaign that illustrates how university research ultimately impacts everyone’s life.  One of its key components is a content-rich web site that contains video, photos, blogs and stories about university researchers and their work.

Each of Ontario’s 21 universities was asked to submit a list of five candidates to represent their institution and Dr. Carriveau was selected from that list to represent UWindsor.

“I feel like I’m representing all of the outstanding work of my colleagues from all across campus,” he said. “It’s actually very humbling in a way.”

Carriveau went to Toronto last month to record his segments for the video and had the chance to meet with top researchers participating in the campaign.

“It’s a really amazing community to be a part of,” he said. “We’ve got incredible universities in this province. Every university is such a high calibre institution, and you really get a sense of that when you take part in an initiative like this.”

Ontarians invest in the work that university researchers do, and this campaign gives them an opportunity to see first-hand the return on their investment, said Patchen Barss, the campaign’s managing editor.

“Ontarians deserve the opportunity to connect directly with the wealth of university research in this province,” he said. “This campaign gives them those opportunities.”

The campaign was launched Monday in Toronto at the Ontario Centres of Excellence Discovery conference, an annual event to showcase top academic-industrial partnerships in the province and to encourage innovation, commercialization and job creation by bringing together mentors, venture capitalists and people with great new ideas.

On Tuesday, Minister of Economic Development and Innovation Brad Duguid made a special announcement to acknowledge some of the top new ideas in the province and one of them was a project that has consumed a fair bit of Carriveau’s time over the last few years.

Along with his team, Carriveau has been testing the validity of an energy storage system for a Toronto-based company called Hydrostor Inc. The system involves storing energy generated by wind turbines during off-peak hours by converting it into compressed air, storing it in large underwater bags moored to the bottom of the lake, and releasing it through tubes to the surface and regenerating electricity when demand is higher. Carriveau’s story is included on the Research Matters web site.

Check out the campaign web site.

Follow the campaign on Twitter. Join the community on Facebook.

An artistic streak and a keen awareness of the importance of making complex information understandable translated into a first place province-wide video contest finish this week for an engineering student and amateur filmmaker.

“It was something creative,” Brian Cheung said of making the video that explains the operation of an underwater compressed air energy storage system he works on as a master’s student in civil and environmental engineering. “It was a nice break from research and calculations.”

On Tuesday, Cheung was at the OCE Discovery conference in Toronto, where it was announced that his video won first place in a student competition. The innovation conference showcases some of the top academic-industrial partnerships in the province and students were asked to produce short films describing their projects.

Along with friend and classmate Jamie Smith, Cheung produced a 2:51 minute video that explains a system that stores energy generated by wind turbines during off-peak hours by converting it into compressed air, pumping it in to large underwater bags, and releasing it through tubes to the surface to regenerate electricity when demand is higher.

Contest winners were announced at the conference on Tuesday by Ontario Economic Development and Innovation Minister Brad Duguid, who was on-hand to showcase several “smart-grid” projects. One of those was Cheung’s project, which he works on under the tutelage of associate professor Rupp Carriveau. For the last several years Dr. Carriveau has been testing the system for Hydrostor Inc., the Toronto-based company that owns the technology.

“I’m involved with system design, so basically we’re trying to figure out how to get the thing working,” said Cheung, a graduate of Vincent Massey Secondary School. “There are so many challenges associated with this project in order to make it work, but that’s what makes it so exciting.”

The fact that the victory was announced on such a high-profile stage wasn’t lost on Cheung.

The conference is designed to encourage innovation, commercialization and job creation by bringing together some of the top mentors, venture capitalists and people with great new ideas in Ontario.

“I’m grateful just to be associated with this project,” he said.

Cheung, who has been creating web sites since high school, said he’s always been interested in creative pursuits and is very cognizant of how complex information is best presented.

“You have to do the content justice and make sure your audience is seeing the right things,” he said. “When I describe to my friends what I do, they usually say ‘That’s pretty cool,’ but showing the video is a really effective tool.”

The pair collected a $2,500 cash prize for winning the contest.

Watch the video:

Although achieving top grades in high school was a lot of work, it never felt like a burden, says Chelsea Bastien, “I just like learning and improving myself.”

A senior at Belle River District High School, she was among a select group of high school students whose accomplishments were celebrated Tuesday at the Presidential Scholars reception.

Bastien plans to study social work and disability studies at the University of Windsor in September. Her parents Brenda and Phil Bastien joined her for the May 15 reception in the CAW Student Centre, which welcomed dozens of the region’s highest-achieving graduating students to meet and greet faculty members in their preferred programs.

“Chelsea has been on the honour roll all the way through high school,” said her mother. “She has worked very hard and will get a lot of support from her family at home. We’re all pulling for her to continue to succeed.”

Emilia Iacobelli, a grade 12 students at LaSalle’s St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School, said she was “honoured and excited” to receive an invitation to the reception.

She plans a career in physiotherapy and will begin studies toward a concurrent degree in chemistry and education at UWindsor this fall. The program also qualifies her for an Outstanding Scholars award.

“It’s an excellent opportunity,” she said. “I am really looking forward to getting to campus.”

Assumption student Daniella Pallisco hasn’t decided on her university yet. She said the campus atmosphere will be a factor in her decision, and that Tuesday’s reception — like her experience as a debater in Odette's Richard Peddie High School Debate Competition earlier this semester — was a point in Windsor’s favour.

“It speaks volumes about the university that they are willing to go out of their way to make us feel appreciated,” she said.

That’s the whole idea, says Dave Bussière, assistant vice-president for admissions.

“We want to attract the top students to our programs,” he said. “This evening, which gives them a chance for informal interaction with professors, deans, and even the university president, shows how much we care.”

The guests had a chance to hear formal presentations from president Alan Wildeman as well as former Presidential Scholar Jessica Smith, a graduand in arts and sciences preparing for medical school, and Derek Lanoue, a chemistry student and star player with the Lancer hockey team.

Watch a video from the event:

Helping a history professor examine U.S. public opinion in the 1930s and ’40s using old surveys required him to turn archaeologist, says Dan Edelstein, an academic data specialist in the Leddy Library.

He will discuss the experience in a free public lecture, “The Data Consultant as Archaeologist: Digging for meaning in World War II era U.S. public opinion surveys,” Friday, May 18, at 11 a.m. in room 302, West Leddy Library.

His presentation will discuss techniques for making undocumented data usable. Through creative use of other, documented variables and some contextual knowledge, the intrepid researcher was able to figure out which code represented which religion in a 1941 survey, and identify Black respondents in a 1940 survey using a variable labelled economic — among other feats.

As a bonus, learn how Roper wanted 1946 interviewers to handle stupid-looking respondents. Edelstein’s lecture is part of the Librarian Research Series.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is inviting nominations and applications until May 30 for the position of its associate dean, academic and student affairs.

The appointment will be effective July 1, 2012, for a term of three to five years, and candidates must hold a tenured appointment in the faculty. For more information, please see the online posting of the internal search.

The University of Windsor has declared a BlackBerry Curve model #8310 for sale by bid as Disposal File 872. Please click here for details.

Campus flags were lowered Wednesday in memory of mathematics professor emeritus Chi Song Wong, who died May 5 in China.

Dr. Wong joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics as an assistant professor in 1971, was promoted to associate professor in 1975 and to professor in 1977, a position he held until retirement in 2003. Funeral arrangements were incomplete at the DailyNews publication deadline.

The following union position is available to internal bargaining unit members only. Bargaining unit members interested in this position are requested to apply in writing by completing an 'Application for Transfer' form and forwarding it to: Department of Human Resources or employment@uwindsor.caon or before 4 p.m. on the posting closing date. Please note: Union positions are covered by the union collective agreement, therefore, please be aware that we must allow our qualified unionized staff the first opportunity for transfer or promotion to these positions. This opportunity is not available to external applicants.

CAW 2458 Full Time

#2012-FT-11 Co-op Secretary (employer focus) ‘6’ in the Centre for Career Education
The following posting closes May 23, 2012, at 4 p.m.

This secretarial position is one of a number of positions that contribute to the overall effectiveness of the Centre for Career Education. The Secretary is a key member of the frontline service team that ensures continuity, consistency, and quality of service with a focus on servicing co-op employers and supporting the Employer Relations Co-op Coordinators. The incumbent also provides information to all students regarding office services.