Daily News

posted on June 4: Mediation talks resume today

Negotiators for the University and the McMaster University Staff Association resume mediation talks today (Monday, June 4). The parties are also scheduled to meet on Tuesday, June 5 and Wednesday, June 6. The talks are being held in Burlington with mediator George Adams, a retired judge and a former chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. When the groups met with Adams in May a structure and detailed process was developed for dealing with issues that are still outstanding. The parties are expected to discuss representation and dispute resolution, staffing, hours of work and money. (End of story)

posted on June 1: McMaster’s first software engineering class graduates today

The University will confer Bachelor of Engineering degrees today on 21 students who are the first graduates of McMaster's new and innovative software engineering program. The milestone is one that Paul Taylor, chair of the Department of Computing & Software, will celebrate for a variety of reasons. "We started this new degree program from scratch and have also maintained our strength in computer science. The graduation of these students is a defining moment for both the department and the Faculty. We've been able to demonstrate a synergy between the two disciplines and we're also setting the tone for the engineering profession and the computer science community in terms of how to bring these two sides - computer science, on the one hand, and software engineering, on the other - together." The goal of the McMaster program is to develop engineers who produce software with a warranty and not a disclaimer. "This is a program that prepares engineers with a specialty in safety-critical and mission-critical software," says Taylor. Chad McIntyre, one of the students graduating from the program, enjoyed his four years at McMaster. "It was definitely the right choice for me." McIntyre will begin working for IBM after graduation. Down the road, he sees himself starting his own software business and designing systems to help people with different computer needs. Sean Burak is also graduating today (June 1). "When I started at Mac, I wasn't sure what I wanted to specialize in so I took engineering. I looked at the course catalogue and the software program courses seemed to be custom designed for the Software Engineering Program. I'd done some programming in high school so I decided to do the software program and I'm glad I did."