TORONTO – Ryerson University’s School of Radio and Television Arts won the ‘Learning Award’ Monday from the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) as it recognized Ontario researchers and innovators who are leveraging cutting-edge technologies to support research, education and discovery in Ontario and on the global stage.
Led by Professor Richard Grunberg, the school’s CNN-style network uses bidirectional high-definition video streaming technology broadcast over IP networks. With the intent of building a cost-effective news network of the university world, Ryerson’s School of Radio and Television Arts hopes to garner participants and connect university channels and digital signage systems around the globe, to build a Canada-wide cable TV and trans-media platform, and to connect related researchers everywhere.
Ryerson’s Ubiquitous Computing Group, led by Dr. Hossein Rahnama, won ORION’s ‘Innovation Award’. The group developed context-aware systems that make decisions and provide information based on multiple sources of information about users and from applications – acting as sensors – that gather data from users and their surroundings.
Other winners from 2011 ORION Awards include:
– Communitech president and CEO Iain Klugman won the ORION ‘Leadership Award’ for his commitment to supporting technology businesses. Under his leadership, Communitech pioneered Canada’s first executive-in-residence program at a not-for-profit organization; launched a youth outreach strategy to engage more than 20,000 secondary students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; left no stone unturned in the quest for talent to fill more than 2,000 open positions in the Waterloo region’s technology sector; launched a national digital media network; and built The Communitech Hub – a $100 million strategy dedicated to the growth and success of digital media and ICT companies in Ontario.
– The PrAgMatic project received the ORION ‘Discovery Award’. Developed by a collaboration of researchers from Niagara College, Brock University, the University of Guelph, Nova Scotia Community College, and Queens University, as well as partners from the Grape Growers of Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs and IBM Research, the PrAgMatic data management system enables vineyard owners and managers to take advantage of the latest remote sensing technology in an economically feasible way to address the challenges of modern day viticulture. For this project, each individual vine in each participating vineyard was GPS located, tagged and recorded into a database of the PrAgMatic system, allowing vineyard owners access real-time, remote-sensed data that allows them to better manage and control operations, inputs and yields.
"This year’s award recipients illustrate the power of being connected to ORION, Ontario’s backbone for research and innovation," said Dr. Darin Graham, ORION president and CEO, in the announcement. "Ontario is rich in research and leadership talent and the ORION Awards are our way of celebrating those key individuals and projects that are helping put Ontario on the map in fields such as technology, scientific discovery, teaching and learning."
