ß-News
  02/03/14 Over the past months, the lab has been so busy that nobody found time for updating the webpages. Our facilities are now fully operational. The CFI/BCKDF grant of 202,000 CAD that has been approved late last year will allow major additions and upgrades to our computational infrastructure. The workstations in the lab have been upgraded recently (thanks to our adjunct faculty member Tim Menzies for his generous support!); we now also provide wireless networking (thanks to Mark McCann for his initiative!). Our fileserver has just arrived and should be operational within two weeks. (For details, check the Facilities Page.) The lock in our lab door will soon be changed; as a result, everyone will need to use the lock system (key tag or card) in the future (this system has backup power and will continue to work up to four hours in the case of a power outage).
  01/04/13 Four new workstations and one additional compute server have been ordered and will arrive shortly. We expect the new machines to be up and running within the next two weeks. Evaluation of the LSF software has been completed and it has been decided to purchase LSF. We are currently optimising the LSF configuration and expect to have a brief introduction to LSF available online within the next few weeks. Our coffee table (for the informal meeting area) is scheduled to arrive at the lab next week.

Announcements:
- Join us for our ß-Lab Open House next Thursday, April 19, at 13:00 in the lab (CICSR 153); members of the lab will demonstrate and explain some of their lates research in theoretical computer science, algorithm design and analysis, and bioinformatics. (Details can be found here.)

- The CPSC536A Bioinformatics Mini-Workshop will be held next Wednesday, April 18, 9:30-16:30 in CICSR 288 (the boardroom); students from Anne's and Holger's bioinformatics course will present their course projects, covering a wide range of bioinformatics topics. (Details can be found here.)

  01/03/13 Over the last few months, we got almost all of our new furniture, including workbenches, office chairs, and club chairs. While we are still waiting for the coffee table that will complete the informal meeting area, and some more chairs for the meeting table, the lab is now fully functional. The next phase of machine acquisition has also been initiated, and we are currently preparing to get four more workstations, and a second compute server. Over the next weeks and months, we expect to see increased machine usage for bioinformatics and empirical algorithmics projects. Our evaluation of the LSF load distribution software has suffered from significant delays due to technical problems and a general overload situation of the technical staff, but has entered its final phase now.

Finally, the ß-Lab The BETA-Lab will receive $101,000 in CFI New Opportunities Funding. This money will fund a significant extension and upgrade of our computational infrastructure and is expected to be matched with another $101,000 by the BC Knowledge Development Fund. (See also the official news release.)

Announcements:
- The next ß-Colloquium will be held Thursday, March 15, at 13:00 in the CICSR Boardroom (CICSR 288); Dr. Nadrian C. Seeman will talk about DNA Nanotechnology (see abstract).

  00/11/08 The meeting table and three reading/writing desks have arrived. This makes our meeting area functional, and from now on ß-Seminars, ß-Lab Meetings and meetings of the Bioinformatics Reading group will be held in the lab. Until our own overhead projector arrives, we can get borrow the one from LCI on a case-by-case basis (same for the nice LCI projector they have). If you need any of these projectors, contact Holger or Luc. Our new workbenches (computer tables) are scheduled to arrive around Nov 20, and Steph and Holger are working on getting the furniture for the informal meeting area.

Announcements:
- The next ß-Lab Meeting will be held Wednesday, Nov 15, at 13:00 in the lab.
- The next ß-Seminar will be held on Thursday, Nov 16 at 14:00 in the lab.

  00/11/04 The projection screen has been installed and we are currently testing six samples of the chairs we consider buying for the lab. An overhead projector is ordered and should arrive soon; the first installment of furniture (our big meeting table and three rectangular working tables) will be delivered and installed early next week. This will make our meeting area functional, so that future ß-Seminars and other meetings can be held in the lab. Furthermore, we are now in the middle of the evaluation of the LSF software (see Facilities Page, FAQ Page). If you have compute-intensive jobs to run, please contact Luc or Holger to participate in the LSF evaluation. Our new website has been officially released and the lab has been added to the Department's list of Research Groups and Projects.
  00/10/03 The whiteboards are installed and the pop pool is up and running (right now, only drinks, candy bars will come very soon). Most of the furniture is currently being built by UBC Plant Ops. 6 office chairs are ordered and should arrive within the next two weeks - we'll try them out and if they are OK, we'll get about 18 more. The external CD-Writer has arrived and is ready to use - it can be plugged into any of the lab machines. If you have questions regarding the CD-Writer, please contact Luc. Two more machines are currently in the lab; these will be used for computer music projects and will leave the lab probably very soon.

  00/09/22

The first six workstations (milos, naxos, andros, rhodes, patmos, and kos) are now up and running, including LCD screens. The compute server (crete) has been moved to the server room and is also up and running. Please feel free to start using these computing facilities - they're all yours! (Any questions regarding lab access should be directed to Holger or Anne, any technical problems to Luc.) Furthermore, the fridge has arrived, and we expect to open the pop pool next week.

  00/09/07

The lab (Room 153) has been carpeted and we got the official sign at the door. We have some furniture in there, which we will use until the nice furniture we are ordering from Plant Ops and other sources has arrived (this might take until the end of October). An LCD screen that has recently arrived has been evaluated and checked out OK - this finalises our machine configuration. The prototype machine, delos, is now in Holger's office, 6 more workstations and the compute server are on order and will arrive within the next 10 days. The printer has also arrived and will be installed within the next few days. Overall, we expect that people can start working in the lab in about 10-14 days. The lab should be fully furnished and operational by the middle of the term.

  00/08/09

The ß-Lab homepage (www.cs.ubc.ca/labs/beta) goes online. The first machine (delos) has arrived and been evaluated by Luc and Holger. We are still waiting for the LCD screen, once we've seen this and made sure it is what we want, we'll order the first batch of machines. For the Lab, we are waiting for the carpet to be put in, before we order the furniture.