The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) and The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Library are pleased to announce their collaboration on a project to preserve, archive and diffuse the lecture videos from BIRS’ weekly workshops at UBC Library’s digital repository, cIRcle.

BIRS is a place where the imperatives of collaborative and cross-disciplinary research in the mathematical sciences are addressed. Another one of its unique features is that it provides a fully-automated live video broadcasting and recording system for most of its scientific activities. On average, researchers record 20 lectures per week for 48 weeks of the year, totaling 1,000 files per year – all of which are freely available on the BIRS website.

BIRS’ collaboration with cIRcle provides robust and long-term preservation for these videos, as well an enhanced accessibility for scholarly researchers worldwide through UBC’s online library service. Their digital archival system will guarantee the content is discoverable and indexed in popular search engines, thus helping to increase the global reputation of BIRS.

“BIRS is delighted to have its lecture recordings at UBC’s digital repository. The UBC Library has the resources and expertise for proper long-term archiving and preservation of BIRS’s extensive scholarly output, so this is a big win for the world’s mathematical science community!” remarked BIRS’ Director and UBC professor, Dr. Nassif Ghoussoub.

The end result is the first large-scale project to digitally preserve and disseminate mathematical science research output in video format. BIRS is one of the world’s most prominent mathematical science research institutions. It maintains strong ties with UBC’s most prominent mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists– its Board includes UBC President Arvind Gupta. Every year, about 2100 researchers representing 400 institutions from more than 60 countries, participate in BIRS’ scientific programs, creating a content-rich framework for sharing research, knowledge and information.

“This partnership represents an exciting opportunity to develop the kind of unique collections in cIRcle which showcase UBC’s research strengths and global profile,” says Bronwen Sprout, Digital Initiatives Coordinator for UBC Library. “In this instance, cIRcle is the destination for high quality mathematical peer reviewed research.”

The BIRS videos launched in cIRcle this summer and already boast more than 3,500 downloads. New videos continue to be digitally preserved and uploaded.

To view the current inventory of BIRS videos in cIRcle, visit https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/47157

For more information on UBC Library’s cIRcle visit https://circle.ubc.ca/

For more information on BIRS, visit https://www.birs.ca/

On June 11, the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) announced the selection of Math Team Canada 2014 – a team of six exemplary Canadian high school students – who will compete at the 55th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) from July 3 to 13, 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.

From June 22 to July 5, the members of Math Team Canada 2014, along with their leaders, will attend BIRS’ 12th Summer IMO Training Camp, to participate in a two-week-long intensive training camp that will provide them the opportunity to practice Olympiad level problems under the guidance of some of Canada’s best IMO trainers and former medal recipients.

The IMO is the world championship high school mathematics competition, at which Math Team Canada can expect to be competing against the world’s best students from over 100 countries. Team Canada has been extremely successful in the past number of years and in 2012, the team received an outstanding six medals (three gold, one silver and two bronze), an impressive overall standing of fifth place overall in the world and an unprecedented achievement for Canada.

2014 Team Canada:

• Michael Chow, Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute (Toronto, ON)
• Caleb Ji, The Bear Creek School (Redmond, WA)
• Antonio Molina Lovett, École Sainte-Anne (Fredericton, NB)
• Qi Qi, Burnaby North S.S., (Burnaby, BC)
• ZhuoQun (Alex) Song, Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter, NH)
• Kevin Sun, Naperville Central High School (Exeter, NH)
• Alexander Whatley, North Houston School of Science and Mathematics (Houston,TX)
• Yang Rui Zhang, University Hill S.S., (Vancouver, BC)

Adult leaders of Math Team Canada 2014:

• Team Leader, Dr. David Arthur, gold medal winner as a Canadian contestant in IMO 2000
• Deputy Leader, Dr. Dorette Pronk, leader or deputy leader of successful Canadian IMO teams in 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2011
• Deputy Observer, Matthew Brennan, gold medal winner as a Canadian contestant in IMO 2012.

La version française suit ci-dessous. La versión española sigue abajo.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is now accepting proposals for its 2016 program. BIRS will again be hosting a 48-week scientific program at its station in Banff. BIRS is also hoping to run an additional 20-25 workshops at its developing new station in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The mandate of BIRS is to provide an environment for creative interaction and the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the mathematical, statistical, and computing sciences, and with related disciplines and industrial sectors. Each week, the station hosts either a full workshop (42 people for 5 days) or two half-workshops (each with 21 people for 5 days). As usual, BIRS provides full accommodation, board, and research facilities at no cost to the invited participants, in a setting conducive to research and collaboration.

Full information, guidelines, and online forms are available at the BIRS website: http://www.birs.ca

The deadline for 5-day Workshop and Summer School proposals is Tuesday September 30, 2014.

In addition BIRS will operate its Research in Teams and Focused Research Groups programs, which allow smaller groups of researchers to get together for several weeks of uninterrupted work at the station. September 30, 2014 is also the preferred date to apply for these programs. However, proposals for projects involving Research in Teams or Focused Research Groups can be submitted at any time – subject to availability – they must be received at least 4 months before their requested start date.

Proposal submissions should be made using the online submission form. Please use: https://www.birs.ca/proposals

Nassif Ghoussoub,
Scientific Director, The Banff International Research Station

Arvind Gupta, current chief executive officer and scientific director of Mitacs and member of the BIRS Scientific Advisory Board has been appointment the 13^th President and Vice Chancellor of the University of British Columbia (UBC). Gupta will become president on July 1 for a five-year term, while retaining his position at UBC as professor of computer science.

Gupta is a renowned expert in research and innovation policy whose relentless efforts toward ground-breaking initiatives and research lead toward a goal of building Canada’s capacity and reputation as a world leader and a major international hub for research excellence, experiential learning, advanced training, and knowledge-based innovation.

In collaboration with Nassif Ghoussoub, BIRS Director, and others, Gupta was instrumental in the founding of the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), on the launch of the MITACS Network of Centers of Excellence (now Mprime), and on the creation of BIRS. These three highly acclaimed institutions reflect Gupta’s dedication to enhancing the research and learning capacity of Canadian universities.

“UBC has chosen to appoint a man of vision… [and] action, with considerable experience in conceiving, implementing and delivering innovative programs for advanced research, university-industry synergies, academic training, and job placement for university graduates.” says Ghoussoub.

Read more at www.ubc.ca/newpresident

Read the A Piece of Mind blogpost by Nassif Ghoussoub entitled, UBC appoints a doer as its 13th President

UNAM press release

Casa Matemática Oaxaca (CMO)

What the Mexican national press is saying about the BIRS-CMO partnership:

El Universal

Inician construcción de la Casa Matemática para impulsar la ciencia

El Economista

Casa Matemática Oaxaca, con apoyo del arte y Canadá

Investigación y desarrollo

Comienzan construcción de la Casa Matemática Oaxaca

La Jornada

Francisco Toledo pone la primera piedra para unir ciencia y arte

Radio Fórmula

Registra Oaxaca bajos niveles en desarrollo científico y tecnológico: Conacyt

What the regional press in Oaxaca is saying

Diario Oaxaca

Apoya Francisco Toledo formación de docents p
aquí y acá Inicia la construcción del más importante Centro de Investigación Matemática en México

este enlace

En Oaxaca, el más importante Centro de Investigación Matemática de México