UNews - Rocky Mountain

Computer programming group off to Russia

trevor.kenney — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 22:14:52 +0000

The recent winners of a spot in a prestigious international computer science and mathematics challenge competition are going to have to brush up on their Russian – and quickly.

A team of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge computer science and physics students, coached by Dr. Howard Cheng, placed second of 49 teams from western Canada and the northwestern United States at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Rocky Mountain competition at the end of October.

The team's success landed three members (Hugh Ramp, Chris Martin and Darcy Best) of the U of L group on the elite roster of competitors at the ICPC World Finals to be held in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 30 to July 4, 2013. It is the first time the U of L has qualified students for the world finals.

Front row (l to r) Hugh Ramp, fourth-year physics, Dr. Howard Cheng, team coach; Back row (l to r) Chris Martin, third-year computer science, Darcy Best, second-year mathematics.

"The team also won a warm-up event two weeks before the regional contest (the Alberta Collegiate Programming Contest) where we took the top spot in the province, and the students have put in a tremendous amount of training into this effort," says Cheng.

The events leading up to, and including, the St. Petersburg events are a gruelling series of problem-solving boot camps, competitions and drills designed to enhance the students' ability to work as a team under relentless pressure, the watchful eyes of the world's best judges and extremely strict working conditions.

"They trained for hours on weekends as well as a few evenings just before the regional contest. This is in addition to the years of practices they have had, including taking a course (CPSC 3200) that teaches many of the topics they had to know for this contest. Top IT employers such as IBM and Google value these contests and commonly test applicants with programming contest puzzles during interviews, so there is definitely a career-related aspect to knowing how these types of puzzles work."

St. Petersburg National Research ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO) hosts the ICPC World Finals. Only 115 of the top teams in the world make it to the final competition.

"This is an outstanding achievement for our students and their coaching and mentoring group," says Dr. Chris Nicol, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. "Howard has done an excellent job of building up the team's strength and developing its real-world experience in mathematics and computer science through these competitions. They have been consistently successful at regional competitions, and that success is now paying off. We wish them well in their future efforts at the world finals in Russia this summer."

At the ACM Rocky Mountain Regional Contest at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta in October, U of L teams placed second, 12th, 28th, and 34th of 49 groups.

The full U of L contingent features: Darcy Best, Chris Martin, Hugh Ramp, Rio Lowry, Chris Thomas, Kim Wikkerink, Mark Hunter, Ian Stewart, Fei Wang, Camara Lerner, Jason Racine and Vince Weiler.

This story first appeared in the December 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Sopko discovers passion for environment in classroom

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:47:07 +0000

When Courtnay Sopko was first learning about the origins of Greenpeace and the environmental movement, it ignited in her a passion for environmentalism. Less than a year later she was working for Greenpeace as part of a co-operative study opportunity through the Applied Studies and Co-operative Education office.

"I learned a lot about the origins of the environmental movement in my Introduction to Environmental History class, and how Greenpeace started it all," says Sopko, who then put her passion into practice. "Greenpeace gained widespread attention for environmental issues during the late 1960's and early 1970's. They were one of the first groups to take a stand for the environment and make a difference. It was because of this history class that I knew I had to get that internship."

Courtnay Sopko enjoyed a four-month internship opportunity with Greenpeace.

It wasn't always that clear for Sopko, who came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ from her Fernie, B.C. home looking to study in a humanities discipline but not really sure where she'd direct her focus.

"History stuck out to me as a major that was challenging and also a subject I could grasp," she says. "But beyond that I had no idea what I was going to do."

Dr. Christopher Burton's environmental history offering would prove to be just the spark Sopko was seeking. By the time she returned to Fernie the following summer, she had signed up for volunteer positions with local non-profit agencies Friends of the Flathead and Wildsight. It was through that work that she found the four-month Greenpeace internship opportunity.

Sopko applied and, after an intensive series of surveys and interviews, was one of 20 interns selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants.

"The internship gave me the experience necessary to run, organize and support environmental campaigns," says Sopko. "It felt great to work with Greenpeace. I was able to take what I'd learned in my history, geography, and environmental science classes and put it into action through a work experience."

From Sept. to Dec. 2009 Sopko worked for Greenpeace in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Japan. Her background as a history student served her well as she came to the job with a solid skill set of communications and writing experience. Being on the frontlines of the Greenpeace movement, especially when working as part of the International Day for Climate Change team, her knowledge was put to the test.

"We trained for months and had lots of information briefings so that we could answer all the questions that people might have about any campaign we were running," says Sopko. "Now I feel like I can talk to anyone. I am comfortable facing opposition views, and I know I can still get my message through."

She values the liberal arts background she gained by studying at the U of L.

"I got some pretty strange looks when I said I was a history major, because typically I was working with people who had environmental science backgrounds," she says. "I now know that any degree with a focus on communication and writing is very valuable in the work world. After all, a critical part of what we were doing with Greenpeace required effective communication skills.
"The U of L helped me develop a well rounded point-of-view for the different arguments within environmentalism. I can look at things from a historical perspective as well as a more traditional scientific background. It's a product of taking different classes from different fields and looking for ways to gain practical experience."

She's quick to add that she took advantage of the opportunities available to her and recommends students become engaged and take control of their educational experience.

"Take a diverse selection of courses," advises Sopko. "Volunteer and experience different things. Make sure that co-operative education and applied studies are a part of your ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ experience too, because you never know what you are passionate about until you actually do it."

GET THE FACTS

• Sopko, in her fourth year of studies, is set to graduate in June.

• Friends of the Flathead, with whom Sopko volunteered, works to protect and save the Flathead River Valley in British Columbia. Wildsight works to protect the Columbia and Rocky Mountain eco-regions in southern British Columbia.

• Sopko is looking to continue working with Greenpeace upon graduation. She is also seeking out new internship and fellowship opportunities.

For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Collaborating to advance water research

trevor.kenney — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:00:29 +0000

By studying water issues locally, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge water researchers are discovering fundamental principles about water systems and their management that bolster a global body of knowledge.

Lars Brinkmann, a PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Sciences, is the inaugural recipient of a $30,000 fellowship – the largest individual student award endowed at the U of L. The fellowship is made possible by energy company Nexen Inc. and their initial investment of $300,000 which, when matched through the Province of Alberta's Access to the Future Fund, will establish a $600,000 endowment for graduate scholarships and fellowships in water research at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

Brinkmann is exploring how mercury concentrations in fish are affected by the food web. He explains that even in seemingly pristine bodies of water, traces of mercury often threaten the health of humans and other animals in the ecosystem.

"Mercury is a serious problem because it's a very potent neurotoxin, and it has very adverse effects in human adults. What's even worse is that at very low concentrations, it still has a very bad effect on developing fetuses," Brinkmann explains.

The heavy metal is a byproduct of some industrial processes. Even water systems nowhere near a point of contamination can contain mercury, as it is transported by rain and wind.

Mercury becomes most concentrated at the top of the food web. Predatory fish can contain very toxic levels of mercury and can be dangerous for humans to consume. However, the concentration is affected by what those fish eat and how they allocate energy to survive (like spawning, movement and growth of the body), which makes concentrations in ecosystems quite variable.

Brinkmann hopes to find out why the food web is causing so much variation by studying the fish in the South Saskatchewan River Basin and determining how their energy budgets relate to mercury concentration. His work suggests that it's not the size of a fish that minimizes concentration, but rather its rate of growth; fish that grow quickly tend to have less mercury in their tissues.

Brinkmann's supervisor, Dr. Joseph Rasmussen, a professor in the U of L's Department of Biological Sciences and a Canada Research Chair (Aquatic Systems), explains that the doctoral student's research is filling an important gap in the literature. Most of the research on mercury toxicology hasn't dealt with food web interactions.

"It treats food web components as generic, but it's hugely variable from one system to another," Rasmussen says.

In recent years, emission controls have limited the amount of mercury that industry produces, but it continues to pose an environmental threat. It's becoming more important to find ways to manage the pollutant once it's in the system, Rasmussen explains.

"It's good to promote practices that reduce emissions, but you can't control it like a tap. However, you can manage the system on the other end and, say, manage our fisheries in such a way that we reduce mercury in fish."

When it comes to Alberta's spring systems – the points at which groundwater comes to the surface – even less is known. That's why a team of U of L researchers and partners is studying the natural springs as a strategy to learn more about groundwater and ensure the resource is used sustainably in the future. But at the moment, scientists don't understand the role springs play in local habitats.

"One might imagine that because springs are relatively scarce, their ecological value might be limited. Conversely, they provide unique environments, and it's likely that there may be some unique organisms that rely on them," explains Dr. Stewart Rood, a U of L Board of Governors Research Chair in Environmental Science and 2008 Killam Research Fellowship recipient.

Rood has been collaborating with Dr. Abe Springer, a professor with Northern Arizona ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, to better understand the province's springs. The Alberta Springs Project – modelled after Springer's and colleagues' Southwestern U.S. springs studies – was created when Springer visited the U of L as its first Fulbright Scholar in water research in 2007.

The Alberta Springs Project will investigate springs throughout southern Alberta, including those of the Porcupine Hills region, an outcrop of foothills that is not directly linked to the Rocky Mountain zones. In the areas with springs, the topographical conditions allow for groundwater to come to the surface and create a diverse array of springs.

The project is broad. In addition to inventorying the springs, researchers are studying their hydrology, water chemistry and aquatic and riparian ecology. They hope to find out, among other things, how springs are impacted by seasonal and climatic changes, how the type of spring affects the area's biology and how groundwater relates to surface water. The research initiative will also compare the spring systems in Alberta, Arizona and Wisconsin.

Eventually, the information will help Alberta plan for the future.

"As surface water resources become overextended in a region, the next source of water which is typically tapped is groundwater stored in aquifers," Springer says. "Alberta is in a unique position of not yet having significantly tapped the extensive groundwater resources of the province, so there is still time to plan for better management of them and minimize or mitigate any potential future impact to aquifers or springs from groundwater use."

The Alberta Springs Project has secured $200,000 in funding over four years from the Imperial Oil Foundation, and it has attracted researchers from across North America.

"One emphasis of this project is to bring together individuals with shared interests in order to better understand what we know and don't know and to develop a more systematic strategy for studying and inventorying springs," Rood says.

UNews - Rocky Mountain

Computer programming group off to Russia

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Sopko discovers passion for environment in classroom

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