Daily News

posted on Oct. 1: School of Business trading centre gets new name today

Described as a no-nonsense businessman whose favourite expression was "Do it now," the late Allen H. Gould would no doubt be pleased to know that effective today, Oct. 1, the Educational Trading Centre in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business will be known as the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor. A ceremony for the unveiling of the Allen H. Gould Trading Floor takes place today at 4 p.m. Tours of the trading floor will be provided. The trading centre will be officially renamed in recognition of the $500,000 gift from the Allen and Milli Gould Family Foundation. The trading floor is a unique teaching facility allowing students to acquire hands-on experience through the use of state-of-the-art systems that deliver real-time data from the financial markets of North America. The trading floor at McMaster is the only one of its kind in English-speaking Canada. Gould, an investor in the stock market, and his wife Milli are well known in Hamilton not just for their philanthropy but also for their successful retail operation, Milli's Boutique. Vishwanath Baba, dean of the School of Business said, "This generous gift from a prominent Hamilton family will help to maintain the high standards that we have worked so hard to achieve at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business. We are proud to have Mr. Gould's name on our trading centre -- it is a gift that will endure for generations to come." The 90-square-metre (1,000-square-foot) facility resembles an actual trading floor in a brokerage operation. It features 20 computer work stations and two large digital display boards that provide up-to-the-minute market data. Nicole Isava, a recent graduate of the honours commerce program said, "The experience I gained in the trading centre helped make a difference when I was looking for employment. Because I already knew how a trading floor operated I was more productive much earlier."

posted on Sept. 27: New e-commerce wing construction affects parking

Parking on the east side of campus will be altered beginning Monday to accommodate construction of the School of Business's new e-commerce wing. This construction is expected to take about eight months. In a message distributed Thursday afternoon to the McMaster community, Karen Belaire, vice-president administration, noted that Parking & Transit Services, the transportation committee and the Campus Plan committee are working to develop a comprehensive parking and traffic strategy for the McMaster community. She noted that everyone needs to be aware of the changes taking place because of new construction on campus. "In the short term we face some considerable challenges that will require the patience, understanding and flexibility of the campus community," she said. "Everyone, regardless of where you park, will need to allow extra time to get on and off campus." Click on Parking at McMaster to read the full message. About 50 parking spaces in Zone 2 will be lost when the fencing for the new e-commerce wing goes up beginning Monday. As well, the access road that runs in front of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Business building will be blocked. This will split Zone 2 parking in this area into two sections with the northern section only accessible from Stearn Drive, also known as the perimeter road. Traffic going to Zone 2 parking near the tennis courts or to Zone 1 parking will have to take the perimeter road.

posted on Sept. 27: Communication technology focus of state-of-the-art research centre

Collaboration. Convergence. These are the watchwords of the state-of-the-art Communication Technology Research Centre (CTRC) in the Faculty of Engineering. Some of the money the University recently received from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) includes $2.2 million for a centre. The CTRC will focus on three areas: communication systems, photonic devices and networks and optimization, modelling and computer-aided design. "The centre will complement the research and education in the broad area of communication technology," says Max Wong, the centre's director and chair holder of the Mitel-NSERC Professorship of Signal Processing, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. "The information age has made communication technology an essential propulsion force in the advancement of our society technologically, economically and socially. It has also imposed upon us a great demand for highly-qualified people in the field," he said. "We are trying to fulfil this demand by promoting the convergence of interdisciplinary and collaborative research, as well as by expanding our education and training program in this important area." Additional funding for the $5.5 million centre will come as matching funds from the Ontario Innovation Trust and from McMaster and private donations. The monies are being used for equipment procurement and upgrade, network upgrade for laboratories and offices and for the renovation of 12,560 sq. ft. of laboratory space. Photo: (back row, l to r) Jim Reilly, Alex Gershman, John Bandler, Tim Davidson, (front row, l to r) Peter Smith, Max Wong, Tom Luo