Canadian university says no to Wi-Fi over health concerns

In recent years, laptops have increasingly become the computer of choice for college and graduate students. The advantages are obvious: you can take notes in class or work on a term paper in the library. Best of all, you can usually surf, chat, and check e-mail from just about anywhere on campus, thanks to nearly ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks. That is, unless you're a student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

Citing the possibility of health risks associated with the usage of Wi-Fi networks, Lakehead University president Fred Gilbert refuses to sign off on their campus-wide installation.

Noting a California Public Utilities Commission study which said that the possible risk of tumors and other diseases due to exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) needs to be further investigated, Gilbert says he's going to hold off on the installation of a campus-wide Wi-Fi network.

Currently, Lakehead has a handful of Wi-Fi access points, but those are only installed at places where there is no wired access.

Read the full story by PC enthusiast Eric Bangeman here http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060222-6235.html

University of Windsor goes wide with wireless

When the University of Windsor decided to make its entire campus wireless, help was needed to actually get the network up and running.

The university partnered with Bell Canada last August to manage the project. There was an urgency to quickly set up the wireless network and a lack of in-house IT staff to quickly do it themselves.

Why the rush?

"The university had a strategic imperative to make the campus a learning centre geared toward the students and wireless fitted that theme," said Roger Lauzon, University of Windsor's executive director of information and technology services.

Marketing also played a part, he said.

"You want to attract and retain students because they are coming in looking for wireless (connectivity) and asking, bDo you have wireless access and how much access do you have?'" Lauzon said.

Initially, the university planned to roll out its wireless network over three years, but that new requirements demanded that it be done much sooner b within five months, according to Lauzon.

Read the full story by IT World Canada's Vanessa Ho here http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?id=idgml-b8a19dbf-631e-423f

Mitel, University of Ottawa bridging nation's past to its present

Press Release

Herndon, Virginia-based Mitel, the University of Ottawa and other top universities have teamed up to complete a task that has as much to do with history as it is historic itself.

The Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI), a five-year pan-Canadian initiative, will employ Mitel IP communications to enable researchers from seven universities across Canada to collaborate in an effort to address an as yet unanswered question: What characteristics, processes and circumstances explain the making of modern Canada?

Centrally administered at the University of Ottawa under the direction of team leader Dr. Chad Gaffield, the goal of the project is to build databases from documentary records and manuscript census reports for the period of 1911 to 1951. The periods of 1871 to 1911, as well as 1971 to 2001 have already been placed in databases, leaving a mysterious gap in the unfinished bridge to the nation's past.

To enable the diverse group of colleagues to work together on the project while being geographically scattered, the team called on Mitel to connect them in a fashion that until recently would have been very difficult.

The result enables researchers at the University of Victoria; York University; the University of Toronto; the UniversitC) du QuC)bec C Trois-RiviC(res; UniversitC) Laval; and Memorial University of Newfoundland to collaborate with the University of Ottawa through conference calls between all the parties, a vast improvement from e-mail exchanges and biannual meetings.

Constant timely discussion is needed to reach consensus on important issues.

Before the implementation, only Ottawa could initiate a conference call, and that had to be through a costly conferencing service.