If you haven't heard it from the GSA already, the age restriction on student bus passes has been removed. A "Thank you" goes out to all those students who helped make this possible.

Thanks to the participation of students from Carleton University and University of Ottawa the age restriction issue will be discussed during the City Council meeting on September 8th. There will also be a press conference organized by the WE RIDE coalition on September 8th at 9:00am at Ottawa City Hall. All students are encouraged to attend and have their voices hurt.

As you may know OC Transpo has added restrictions on the student bus pass. As of August 1st students over the age of 27 are no longer able to purchase a student bus pass.

This issue will be discussed at the OC Traspo councilors meeting on September 1st at 9:30 AM at City Hall. If you feel that the age restriction is unfair or discriminatory come out and have your say. The GSA will be holding a rally at the Ottawa City Hall starting at 9:00 AM to protest the restrictions.

The Distinguished Lecturer this year is Dr. V. Kumar Murty from the University of Toronto and he will give two talks, one for general audience and the other for more specialized people in mathematical sciences.

Dicrete logarithms, exponentil sums and data integrity.

We shall discuss a new approach to data integrity and show how tools from analytic number theory help us to analyze it.

The Distinguished Lecturer this year is Dr. V. Kumar Murty from the University of Toronto and he will give two talks, one for general audience and the other for more specialized people in mathematical sciences.

The mathematics of information technology: the road ahead.

Mathematics has been "unreasonably effective" in helping to model the physical universe. It has also been very effective in helping to address basic problems of information technology. In this general talk, we will review some of these and speculate on what the future might hold for the interaction between mathematics and information technology.

This talk will be given by Kevin Burr at TheCodeFactory, 246 Queen St., 2nd floor, Ottawa (between Bank and Kent, above the Green papaya Restaurant). The cost of admission is $10.00, free for members. To register send an e-mail to suggestions@osqa.org with a subject REGISTER FOR MARCH.

Abstract:

It is one of the sad lessons management and testers have had to learn, it takes far more time to automate a test than to do it by hand. Many groups have discovered test automation is untrustworthy, a time and money pit, or at best only usable in very limited circumstances.

The saddest thing is it isn't true... The speaker has had teams automate double the number of testcases they could execute by hand per week, to the extreme of a single tester creating and running hundreds of testcases on multiple testbeds simultaneously for performance testing. This is not tied to any specific tools, and these techniques have been used to:

• unit test tiny embedded systems
• functionally test web based GUIs (e.g. Software as a Service)
• and performance test multi-server distributed SOA frameworks.

Not only is it possible to create testcases faster, but these techniques make it easier to use other techniques to reduce the amount of testing that needs to be done, reducing time further. This talk will cover:

• automation strategies like data driven testing,
• generating tests from models,
• automated validation,
• using risk metrics to drive effectiveness,
• and realistic process improvement to make sure you succeed.

Due to the breadth of the talk it will be fairly high level, but with real examples and the opportunity to go deeper depending on the audience's interest.

Speaker's Bio:

Kevin Burr is a people and technology professional with 20 years software and 10 years management experience in: software quality and security risk analysis, test automation strategies, performance, interoperability, unit and usability testing. In the past he has managed Performance, Integration and System testing groups in Nortel, as well as having created the Test Acceleration consulting group within Nortel's Software Engineering Analysis Lab. Currently Kevin is in the Technology Innovation Management Program at Carleton University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

The Graduate Students' Association (GSA) is pleased to announce two weeks full of grad-oriented events! Events include the Grad BBQ, A 'Nite of Culture @ Mike's Place, campaigns and other workshops, Wine 'n Cheese with the Deans and much, much, more!

The GSA invites all new and returning grads to check out the Grad Welcome Weeks Event Schedule and go to www.gsacarleton.ca for any updates and information!

The School of Computer Science organized an end of term luncheon for Graduate Students on April 10th at 12:00 noon in Room 4351HP.

Many showed up and celebrated the end of term while enjoying the nice setup, the food and mainly the company.

Some of the attendees, shown in this picture seated from left to right:

• Bishnu Bhattacharyya
• Mansour Alsaleh
• Rokhsareh Sakhravi
• Masoud Taghinezhad Omran
• Kaveh Shahbaz
• David Barrera
• Cesar Astudillo

Standing from left to right:

• Hua Guo
• Mohammad Nikseresht
• Amirali Salehi-Abari
• John Houle

A special thanks for the organizers of the event.

A Toy Mountain is being built at Carleton University again this year. Sandy Herbert is collecting toys in 5302 Herzberg until December 14, 2007.

Please help put a smile on a child's face this Christmas and donate a new toy.

The Computer Science Graduate Society hosted a Holiday Pot-Luck on Monday, December 10th from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. in the Math Colloquium Room (MacPhail Room) 4351HP.

Many showed up, some brought appetizers or salads, others brought main courses or dessert, bottom line, there was a lot of food and it was a lot of fun, everyone was in the holiday spirit.

As for the winners of the candy vases:

• Paz, for the tall clear vase with a guess of 90 (held 93 candies)
• Gail, for the opaque vase with a guess of 90 (held 93 candies)

Congratulations! You may pick up your prize from Mrs. Claire Ryan.

We would like to thank all the volunteers that helped organize, set-up, decorate (clean-up) this event.

See the photos