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Focuses on the research of Erik Demaine and coworkers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario on a method for recognizing when a creased sheet is foldable into a flat package. Details of his study with one- and two-dimensional cases of the folding problem; Interest of mathematicians in ways to systemize origami design to enable computers to calculate what sequence of creases in a square of paper will produce a desired figure.

The article offers information of the 40 universities in Canada relative to their environmental programs and environmentally focused degrees. Community involvement is a key component of coursework at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. At Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, the Environmental Studies program balances physical science and social science courses with fieldwork that culminates in a final year seminar. The environmental program at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario focuses on the socio-ecological aspects of tourism at local, national and international levels.

This article presents an overall view of the challenges faced by Canadian higher education, with the largest incoming class ever, and an unprecedented demand for quality. Picture this: it's a hot, muggy morning in Kingston, Ont., the day after Labour Day -- a day more summer than fall. Just the sort of morning when you could be forgiven for playing hooky down by Lake Ontario, watching the white sailboats meander on the horizon, reading a book under the trees. Certainly, if you were one of the thousands of first-year Queen's students who had just spent the long weekend cooped up in the family car, inching bumper-to-bumper along the 401, lugging your baggage -- emotional and physical -- into residence, you might be tempted. This year, all across the country, high-school students played the largest and most dramatic game of musical chairs in Canadian history. How tough was it to get in? It depended on the program and the university. By May, when the phone was ringing off the hook, McGill University posted an open letter on the Web, aimed at frantic Ontario families: the university, it said, had "agonized over many of the refusals" issued in recent weeks. Take the West Coast: this fall, no student whose average was less than 80 per cent would have found a seat in arts or science at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser or the University of Victoria. Along with Ontario and Alberta, B.C. is facing mega-demand from university-bound students -- and it's the province with the lowest number of university seats per capita. Preserving quality, preparing for the future, innovating at the same time -- it's a pretty tall order. These are the challenges keeping many gifted university leaders awake at night: attracting and keeping the right students, in the right numbers; attracting and keeping the right faculty, in the right numbers.

Contends that there is a connection between operating budget and excellence with regard to the future of Ontario's universities. Points out Ontario's record for the highest percentage cuts to postsecondary education in any jurisdiction in North America; Core funding that has plummeted by 34 per cent; Cuts in tenured faculty; Rising student tuition costs; Comments of Premier Mike Harris on the subject of the operating budget.