Dalhousie Opens Computer Science Building

An ultramodern building on Halifax's University Avenue is now home to 700 computer science students, a major information technology research centre, and incubation facilities for new IT businesses.

Dalhousie University opened its $15-million Faculty of Computer Science Building today, backed by government and industry sponsors.

"This wonderful building will help the new faculty of computer science with its mandate of educating tomorrow's computer science graduates," said Dalhousie president Tom Traves. "Dalhousie is world leader with its unique multi-disciplinary e-commerce master's degree. We also are working with industry in applied research projects so we can all succeed in this new knowledge-based economy."

Dalhousie received $7.2 million from the provincial and federal governments' Information Economy Initiative to construct the building and outfit it with cutting-edge technology. This infrastructure will support the university's new Global Information Networking Institute, which occupies the building's third floor.

The Global Information Networking Institute marries the strengths of university and industry researchers. Research in the facility will concentrate on a number of strategic areas of information technology, including telemedicine, electronic commerce and software engineering. It will also act as a business incubator to help emerging IT companies grow in a supportive environment before moving out on their own into the business world.

Education Minister Jane Purves, speaking for her department and on behalf of Economic Development Minister Gordon Balser, highlighted the importance of specialized education for the new information economy: "This building is a great example of innovation at work. Here we see the complexities of high technology being directly transferred into opportunities for Nova Scotians to learn and prepare themselves for a new economy."

The Information Economy Initiative is funded through the Canada/Nova Scotia COOPERATION Agreement on Economic Diversification, managed by ACOA and Nova Scotia Economic Development. This agreement also joined a government and industry partnership that provided $7.8 million to the project. It matched a $3.12-million contribution from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and Aliant Telecommunications invested more than $1 million.

"The government of Canada is committed to making this country a world leader in technology, and the opening of this facility will accelerate the growth of a knowledge-based economy that will enable all parts of the region to compete globally," said Senator Bernie Boudreau, Leader of the Government in the Senate and Minister responsible for Nova Scotia, on behalf of George Baker, Secretary of State for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

"The Canada Foundation for Innovation is proud to be a partner in the establishment of the Global Information Networking Institute at Dalhousie University," said David Strangway, foundation president and CEO. The Canada Foundation for Innovation is an independent not-for-profit corporation established by the federal government that invests in research infrastructure at Canadian universities and research institutions.

"With the addition of this new facility, Dalhousie will continue to strengthen Canada's role and leadership in scientific research and technological innovation," said Mr. Strangway.

Colin Latham, president of Aliant, said: "We are proud to be part of this exciting development for network computing research and development in Atlantic Canada. Aliant is thoroughly committed to innovation and excellence in its role as a provider of networked computing services to the Atlantic Canadian market. Toward this goal, we expect that Dalhousie's new research centre will complement our existing capabilities in fields such as telemedicine, electronic commerce and hosted services, and will help us to explore new areas in computer science and engineering."

The faculty of computer science was created in 1997 with the amalgamation of Dalhousie and the Technical University of Nova Scotia. In the addition to state-of-the-art classrooms, the building features open-concept laboratories to further interaction between researchers.

"The faculty of computer science is committed to serving the region, the country and the international community in the rapidly developing fields of computer science and information technology," said Jacob Slonim, dean of computer science. "The opening of this building that will serve as our new home, along with this industry and government investment, means that we can move forward with our goals of educating more information technology experts in this province and helping Nova Scotia participate in the new global information economy."

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