Seminars 2011-2012 Upcoming @FIZZ + Physsoc NEW: Check Fizz out at http://www.youtube.com/user/FizzUBC?feature=mhee Look out for the next seminar series in 2012-2013!  Seminar #11: Dr. Paul Hickson, UBC PHAS >> The Thirty Meter Telescope  When: Thursday, March 29, 5-6:30PM Where: HENN 202 Scientists and engineers in five nations are working to design an ambitious advanced-technology optical telescope. Employing active and adaptive optics, powerful lasers, and sophisticated instruments, the Thirty Meter Telescope is expected to reveal the very first galaxies forming some 13 billion years ago. It will open many new scientific frontiers, including the exploration of exoplanets, the physics of star and planet formation, and the evolution of galaxies and massive black holes across cosmic time. I will give an overview of the project and describe some of the amazing technologies that make it possible. Seminar #10: Dr. Sathish Gopalakrishnan, UBC EECE >> Research in Cyber-Physical Systems 
When: Tuesday, March 27 5-6:30PM Where: HENN 201 A BMW is now a network of computers! We have sensors everywhere! How do we build computing systems that interact correctly with the real world? (How) can we build systems that interface between the cyber world and the physical world? Ideally, with predictable, or at least adaptable behaviour. The challenges are numerous: Where do we draw boundaries between the real world and the cyber world? Complex systems are often unpredictable. I will highlight some of the exciting opportunities for research in cyber-physical systems. Seminar #9: Dr. Gary Hinshaw, UBC PHAS >> Taking the Measure of the Universe  When: Thursday, March 8, 4PM Where: ANGU 343 The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is the oldest light in the universe - it is literally the remnant heat left over from the Big Bang. This fossil relic has survived largely intact and it provides us with a unique probe of conditions in the early universe, long before any stars or galaxies had formed. NASA has now flown two satellites devoted to studying the CMB: "COBE" and "WMAP". In this lecture I will describe what we have learned from these missions including: evidence for the Big Bang itself; new measurements of the age, shape, and content of the universe; and new evidence that all structure in the universe emerged from microscopic quantum fluctuations in the primordial soup. Seminar #8: Dr. Ian D'Souza, COMDEV/CSA >> Physicists in Industry When: Friday, Fe  Where: HENN 202 This informal presentation/talk will focus on the 20+ yrs experience of one theorist in an industrial / commercial job market. Physicists face particular challenges when trying to transition into the private sector directly from academia, or when emerging freshly out of a degree program. Being armed with the general problem solving skills that training in physics gives, is unfortunately not enough to make it obvious to recruiters that physics graduates are the right choice. A few tips on how to help the doors open will be presented. Seminar #7: eatART >> eatART @ UBC  When: Monday, February 6, 5-6PM Where: HENN 201 eatART is an educational charity with a mandate to use art to raise awareness about energy. This talk will focus on eatART's two current works in progress - Titanoboa and Prosthesis. It will also be an opportunity to hear about eatART's message, how we function as an organization and how you can get involved. At left, Titanoboa in the early early stages. From http://titanoboa.ca/media. Seminar #6: Dan Gelbart, Founder of Creo >> Building Prototypes  Where: HENN 200 In two hours you'll learn how to build professional looking prototypes in metal, plastics and ceramics. Much of the methodology takes advantage of the unique capabilities of water jet cutting, available to UBC students. The ability to build prototypes in hours instead of days is critical to many industries to research. Note that this seminar is 2 hours long! Twice the length, twice the awesomeness! Seminar #5: Dr. Sheldon Green, UBC Mechanical Engineering >> Applied Fluid Mechanics: Paper, Sprays, Kayaks Where: ANGUS 296 Professor Green will describe the two major foci of his research – paper machine forming section fluid mechanics and industrial sprays. In reference to paper machine fluid mechanics, the single phase flow through a forming fabric will be discussed, and simulations of the flow will be compared with experiments. The interaction of a single pulp fibre with the fabric will also be described. Kelsan Technologies, a manufacturer of a liquid friction modifying agent that is applied to railroad tracks, is sponsor of the industrial sprays research. That research has focused on the interaction of a high speed liquid jet with a moving surface. The splash of the liquid column is shown to be a function of the liquid Reynolds number, liquid impingement angle, the surrounding air pressure, and several other variables. Interspersed through the technical presentations, Dr. Green will show images of his kayaking expeditions in the Pacific Northwest. Seminar #4: Dr. Jaymie Matthews, UBC Physics and Astronomy >> A Brief History of the End of Time The end is near. It seems the end is ALWAYS near. And the end is always being brought about by hadron-crazy particle physicists, or predicted by ancient Mayans, or the result of betrayal by our trusted friend, the Sun, erupting in a temper tantrum of a solar superstorm. Will time itself end in 2012? What's science and what's science fiction? And what's sometimes both at the same time? How do astronomers think the Universe might end? The closing chapters in the Big Bang Theory used to be either an infinitely long slide towards absolute zero or a "Big Crunch". Now, why are some cosmologists talking about "The Big Rip"? Set your calendar for Wednesday, 16 November, to learn some of answers. If the world ends before then, the talk is cancelled. No refunds. (No charge for admission, either.) Seminar # 3: Dr. Janis McKenna, UBC Physics and Astronomy >> "Something's the Matter with Anti-Matter: Charge-Parity Violation and the Babar Experiment"  When: Wednesday, October 26, 5PM Where: Hebb 10 About 13.7 billion years ago, our Universe was born in a Big Bang. That early universe was a big steaming stew of radiation and exactly equal numbers of particles and antiparticles. But somehow, a symmetry was broken, and a lopsided-ness arose, leaving a very small excess of matter over antimatter. And by the time the universe was less than a second old, essentially all the antimatter had annihilated with matter in bursts of light/energy, leaving a small residual excess of matter - which is all the matter we see in our universe; the matter we're all made of. Understanding Charge-Parity (CP) violation and its origins is a key element in understanding this matter-antimatter asymmetry. The Standard Model of Particle Physics has been a triumph of particle physics - but it has a shortcoming: it accommodates CP violation, but at a level orders of magnitude too small to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of our universe. Charge Parity violation, was first observed 47 years ago in the neutral kaon system, and in 2001 using the BaBar Experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, we were the first to observe CP violation in another system: the B meson system. In the 1970's three theoreticians proposed a model to explain how the universe is dominantly matter and not anti-matter, but it was not until recently that our group and another finally confirmed their theory, earning them their 2009 Nobel Prize. (we earned a mention in their Nobel citation!) I'll review our 15 year experimental program, studying the decays of hundreds of millions of B mesons, examining CP violation and testing the Standard Model of Particle Physics to great precision. An overview of the experiment and results will be presented. Seminar # 2: Dr. Andre Ivanov ,UBC Electrical Engineering Department >> 50+ years from Integrated Circuits to Systems of Systems on Chip: How did and will IC Test Technology keep up?  When: Wednesday, October 19, 5PM Where: TBA This presentation will highlight 50+ years of technology development and breakthroughs pertaining to the test and design for test of ICs, Systems on a Chip (SoCs) and Systems of SoCs. Some highlights of the major challenges faced by the research communities and by the industry will be presented. Highlights of emerging trends and solutions will also be presented. Seminar # 1: Dr. Martin Laforest Manager, Scientific Outreach for Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo Quantum Information Processing When: Wednesday, October 5 @ 4:00PM Where: CHBE 103 Dr.
Martin Laforest from the Institute of Quantum Computing at Waterloo
will be back with another seminar! Refreshments are provided. WooHoo! |
Seminar Series |