York’s Vice-President Research and Innovation Stan Shapson has been appointed as Chair of the Optical Regional Advanced Network of Ontario (ORANO). Over the past three years, ORANO and its private-sector partners have established a world-leading research and advanced education network across Ontario, with links to innovators across Canada and around the world.
Right: Stan Shapson
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION), which ORANO owns and operates, consists of 4,200 kms of fibre optic cable and sophisticated electronic equipment that links the main campuses of all of Ontario's universities, several teaching hospitals, 19 colleges of applied arts and technologies, and other research and learning facilities.
Shapson is one Canada's foremost authorities in research in the use of technology in the field of learning. He has published widely and served as lead researcher for several large-scale national and provincial research projects. Most recently, he led the launch of the Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning (ABEL) program, a CANARIE-funded broadband initiative, which facilitates professional development in the use of broadband networks as teaching tools. Through videoconferencing and online discussions with experts in the use of broadband technologies in the classroom, the ABEL project will use CANARIE's CA*net 4 research network to develop a model for an innovative, collaborative means of online professional development for teachers. ABEL is hosted at York University.
Shapson has chaired provincial working groups on Information Technology and co-chaired federal committees on technology and professional development. He is a member of the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Chair of the council's Research Support Committee. He is also a member of the executive of the Ontario Council on University Research (OCUR).