Arb building wins green design award

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by David White in Biz/Tech

CHARMAINE KERRIDGE
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Humber’s Centre for Urban Ecology won an architectural award of excellence for the use of environmental technology elements promoting sustainability in its design.
On May 7, the Ontario Association of Architects will present the award to the architecture firms that collaborated with Humber to design the building located in the arboretum on the North Campus.
A panel of jurors chose the centre because of its environmentally sustainable features and its design aesthetics.
“This one was a real hit,” said Carl Knipfel, chair of the Honours and Awards Task Group. “What everybody loved about it is… [Continue reading]

Game design drawing few female students

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by David White in Biz/Tech

DAN BLACKWELL
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Despite growing numbers of women players, there are no female applicants for the fall video game programming course, co-ordinator Rob Robson said.
“Why don’t they want to come? It beats me,” said Robson.  “We’re quite happy to see them, but they don’t want to come.”
Only three of 95 Humber video game programming students are women despite a 2009 Entertainment Software Association of Canada survey found 39 per cent of Canadian gamers are female.
Computer programming instructor Lynda Hausman said the lack of women students is discouraging, but not unique to Humber.
“Not just computer… [Continue reading]

New credit card follows Sharia law

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by David White in Biz/Tech

JANE SPONAGLE
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Humber is happy to accept tuition payments from the iFreedom Plus MasterCard, the first prepaid credit card in Canada marketed to the Muslim community.
Sanjay Puri the director of financial services and planning said the card might even be better than regular credit cards.
As the card is prepaid, Puri said, “the chances of it ever going wrong are nil.”
Traditional credit cards violate Sharia law where it is prohibited to pay or accept interest fees attached to borrowing or lending money.
Clients can sign up online for the pre-paid card, said Sikander Hashmi, vice-president… [Continue reading]

High loonie means lower book prices

Posted on 19. Apr, 2010 by David White in Biz/Tech

GILLIAN GALINSKYBIZ/TECH REPORTERThe soaring value of the Canadian dollar could help save students money, economics professor Paul Pieper said.“Everything students need to buy for school would be cheaper if it was coming from the United States. This ranges from books to computers and software,” he said.Suzanne Iskander, a business professor, said students will see the effects of the rising dollar the most in the price of books.North Campus bookstore manager Debby Martin said when the loonie was above the value of the U.S. dollar a few years ago, the bookstore charged the lower U.S. prices… [Continue reading]

Event draws women to male-dominated trades

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

STEPH SPRENGER
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Young women and girls will get a chance to learn about trades and technical vocations at an event hosted by Humber’s North Campus next Tuesday.
“Construction trades like welder, electrician, framer, are still mostly men,” said Humber’s associate dean of trades Joe Tamona. “The stereotypes, while they are loosening up, are still there.”
Many of Humber’s trade and technical programs can count the number of female participants over the last 10 years on one hand.
“You can almost name them all,” says the plumbing program co-ordinator, Richard Snowdon.

Presentations by faculty in… [Continue reading]

USB 3.0 on the way

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

SANGEETA PATEL
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

Humber students can look forward to blazing fast data transfer with the advent of the USB 3.0, said Information Technology program co-ordinator Rob Robson.
“We are moving towards a digital lifestyle,” Robson said. “The size of the data we are dealing with is much larger than before.”
Robson said the USB’s 4.0 gigabytes per second transferring speed moves the technology towards a more reliable buffering system.
“What takes 33 minutes to transfer with USB 2.0 will take about three minutes with USB 3.0, and that’s time we can spend doing other things, rather than waiting… [Continue reading]

Campus deals abundant

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

JANE SPONAGLE
BIZ/TECH REPORTER
Cash-strapped students can pamper themselves, have a few pints and eat gourmet meals on campus if they know where to go.
The Humber Spa offers a number of services and better prices than what is available in downtown Toronto, said Antoinetta Perretta, Humber Spa manager.

The spa charges $40 for one facial session in a series of five sessions, compared to industry rates of $100 to $250 for the same session, said Perretta.
“When you’re comparing $40 times-five or $100 times-five, there’s definitely a huge savings for our clients,” Perretta said.
A manicure… [Continue reading]

Game design sees first grads

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

DAN BLACKWELL
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

This month the first graduating class of Humber’s videogame programming students could see their final projects land them a job at their favourite game developer.
The three-year program started in 2007 and to graduate, students must program a game on their own for a final capstone project.
“The idea is that you can take this out to an employer and say this is a thing I did entirely on my own, and the kind of thing I can do for you, so give me a job,” said program co-ordinator Rob Robson.

“There… [Continue reading]

Plan will make OSAP repayment easier for students

Posted on 07. Apr, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

CHARMAINE KERRIDGE
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

With the new Ontario Student Assistance Program repayment assistance plan announced by the Ministry of Training, College and Universities on March 29, student loan repayment will become more affordable for cash-strapped Humber grads.
The Ontario government aims to reduce monthly repayments to levels grads can “reasonably afford.”
“This new change has to do with the repayment of loans,” said Patrick O’Gorman, spokesperson for the ministry. “So whatever your debt is, you would not be paying more than 20 per cent of your family’s income.”
The plan comes into effect in May and replaces the interest… [Continue reading]

Prof investigates social media savvy

Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by juanantonio in Biz/Tech

STEPH SPRENGER
BIZ/TECH REPORTER

A Humber public relations instructor is researching student use of social media to improve the curriculum and make a name for Humber as a leader in social media teaching methods.
Instructor Andrea Tavchar will survey a sample of Humber’s public relations students and perform in-depth interviews to identify students’ comfort levels using social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
“Many of my colleagues at Humber are interested in my findings,” she said, adding her research is relevant in many disciplines because of the increasingly digital nature of most industries.

“This is… [Continue reading]