Windsor Needs Help

Windsor has lost 10,000 well-paying jobs in auto industry. Federal and provincial governments have poured in money to retain these jobs. Thus $ 150 million were given to GM so that jobs in Canada in the auto sector are not lost.

While these efforts are going on, a coalition of ICT businesses and researchers has been formed at Windsor to strengthen the software industry. This coalition is SOFTECH ALLIANCE.

This is a unique effort in that ICT professionals in the area have joined together to strengthen the ICT businesses through bootstrapping. Softech believes that it is possible to add new jobs in software sector and to make the region's economy vibrant again.

The amazing thing about what has transpired so far is that everything has been done on a volunteer basis.

• People giving up their personal time for the "greater good" knowing that the Alliance is the right thing ... the right idea ... the right direction ... the right future for our region.
• Small companies coming forward to sponsor different events.
• Softech Alliance - till now- having no other support, except the sponsorships for each program and the great support of the ICT community giving their time.

We have made a lot of progress, and we need to continue the momentum.

SHORTAGE OF PERSONNEL: The small units in Windsor are suffering from an acute shortage of software personnel. The small units are not able to pay as well as the larger companies of Toronto, Waterloo, Detroit or California. Hence Windsor's software businesses are not able to get even the local graduates of University of Windsor. Who would help?

Helping put locally trained personnel into local businesses, providing continuing training facilities to businesses are the kind of things, which a University can do, if it is suppoprted.

CYBER-SECURITY: Cross border security conferences at Windsor work on the physical security by bringing together experts from both sides of the border. Cyber security is important both for providing secure cyber infrastructure and also for maintaining secure communication. Whereas cross-border collaboration in physical security is encouraged through a full governmental support of such conferences at Windsor, the Federal government supports cyber security conference at Ottawa through Royal Mounties.

Why should Royal Mounties be asked to do this job? Why not ask School of Computer Science at University of Windsor to annually manage the conference by bringing in cross-border experts also? In fact establishing a CERT unit at the School may be the right thing to do.

INCUBATOR: Softech Alliance has established an Incubator Committee for mentoring new businesses in software. The School of Computer Science is willing that new entrepreneurs should develop their products in graduate research laboratory area where more than 100 doctoral and Master's students are researching. Informal inter-actions among researchers and entrepreneurs can lead to tomorrow's Hewlett-Packard or RIM.

Will the governments, who took large taxes from Windsor, when it had well-paying auto jobs, come forward to help?(Estimate: In 5 years: Every 100 auto sector jobs provided $ 37.5 million of salary. It meant $11.25 million of income tax @ 30%, $1 million of House tax @ $2,000 etc.)If the Governments give back a part of what they collected from the 10,000 jobs, which the city has lost, for developing the software sector, we can create well-paying jobs in software. It will not only make the city's economy vibrant again, it would give the city an excellent and improved quality of life. (It is well known that in intelligent cities, quality of life tends to be better. Or Software industry is attracted to those places, where quality of life is better.)

Intelligent Motor City

Creating Jobs in the Motor City

Akshai Aggarwal
School of Computer Science
University of Windsor

Windsor is located right on the shores of the largest market for software in the world. The economy of Windsor is suffering since the big three auto companies are in a mode of reducing the employment and benefits. Windsor needs a big source of new jobs. Software industry can be that big source.


Example of Needs for software being satisfied by distant sources:
AUTOs: Today’s autos contain 8-16 microprocessors, linked through a Real-time operating system. BOSCH, Germany is the supplier of such an OS. The Japanese government is funding a large project for development of such an OS.
There would be a need to develop such new OSs, and to add more features to the existing OS for every new car design.
AUTO 21 project may be interested in sponsoring such a research work and the associated software companies.
The School of Computer Science id offering one full course in Operating Systems and is going to offer a second project-based course in OS soon.


Health Management Software: Detroit is home to one of the largest concentration of hospitals and health care facilities in North America. All these facilities have needs for securing data, for easy availability of data to authorized personnel and for privacy.
Our faculty of Nursing has some projects in the area. We are working on a new Medical School on the campus. These would have an interest in joint research in this area.
Dr. Robert Kent of the School of Computer Science is associated with Dr Anne Snowdon in some of the Health Software Research Projects. One of our doctoral students has won a CHIR fellowship for such work.

Managing Server centers and managing servers remotely: Many of the large MNCs from USA have established large Server centers at Toronto, since it reduces the costs and since Toronto is well-connected with USA. Thus GM’s server center is located in Toronto.
Windsor can provide the server centers at even a lower cost. It is connected to US cities even better, through the Detroit airports.
The School of Computer Science has been managing a large set of servers successfully. It has trained technical personnel in the area. It is planning to offer short term courses in server management.
ITS at UoW also has a competence in this area.
Thus the University has the capability to help such an industry with expertise and training.

Managing Security: Besides requirements of securing data and businesses from hacking, legal requirements for such safeguards have been set up in every country. Business requirements for security services in businesses, government and at the border crossings continue to increase.
45 US Universities have developed full programs in Internet Security after 9/11, with the support of Homeland Security. Association with the well-funded universities in the area of security can be mutually beneficial to a Canadian Univ.
The School of Computer Science has been offering 1.5 graduate courses in Network Security and Privacy. About 10 graduate students in the HPGC Research Lab of the School are working in the area.
There is no CERT unit at a university in Canada. CERT at University of Carnegie-Mellon not only provides a 24/7 surveillance, it also leads the world in research in security issues. The School of Computer Science at University of Windsor is the right place to establish a University CERT in Canada, sinceits group of 15 graduate researchers in the HPGC Research Group is one of the largest such groups in Canada. Moreover Windsor is located at the border and on the path of the high speed optical link between Chicago and Toronto. CERT can provide regular up-date courses to RCMP and other Federal and provincial officers.

Electronic Games: British Columbia has established a good industry in this area. A small beginning has been made in Ontario.
Animation, Visualization and Multimedia are associated areas, which can help Games design. Each of these has many other applications.
The School of Computer Science is planning a special set of courses in game design.
The School has an honors program in Multimedia design.

Library and Information Science systems: These are large networked systems, which require a great deal of networking support.
The School of Computer Science has many networking courses at both undergraduate and at graduate level. Performance measurement of latge networks has been the research area in the High performance and Grid Computing Research lab.
CSCI, an organization created by the University of Windsor,has provided high speed connectivity to hospitals, schools, libraries and many other public facilities in Windsor-Essex county.

Software development for businesses, including web design and data ware-housing and data mining are the basic tools in all Computer Science schools. These are also the IT wheels on which the businesses of today run.
The School of Computer Science has many courses at both undergraduate and at graduate level in these areas and there are many recognized researchers on the faculty in all these areas.

To begin working in the area, one can suggest the following units at University of Windsor:
(i) Center for Education and Research in Internet Security (CERIS)
(ii) CENTER for DEVELOPMENT of SOFTWARE INDUSTRY at WINDSOR (CDSI)
(iii) CERT