Campus hosts March Open House on Saturday

High school students who have applied to the University of Waterloo will be among the 6,000 people expected at the March Open House at the Waterloo campus on Saturday, March 1.

"This campus-wide event gives applicants and parents the opportunity to visit campus, attend sessions, and participate in activities that will enable them to learn about Waterloo," said Andrea Santi, manager of the visitors centre at the Waterloo campus. "We hope that this day will help applicants make the most informed choice when selecting where to get their university education."

The event takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and visitors can tour Waterloo's main campus and affiliated university colleges, as well as campus residences. The 45-minute campus tours will start from the Student Life Centre. Full Faculty schedules are available online.

“I want students to see why I love Waterloo so much and at the end of the day, I hope they do too,” says Chanele Polenz, a fourth-year biochemistry student who will show some of the prospective students around campus. “There is so much more to Waterloo than just studying and I want them to see that.”

Students and parents are encouraged to attend presentations focused on individual programs and faculties. Visitors can also attend information sessions relating to co-operative education, residence life and financing an education.

Tours and information sessions will also take place at the Stratford Campus, the School of Pharmacy, and the School of Architecture in Cambridge.

Further information on the March Open House is available online.

 

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Celebrating success abroad and at home

Welcome to the end of the last full month of winter. You’ve made it!

I think the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi helped us all to power through. What a performance by Canada’s athletes! Our competitors brought home a lot of hardware – only one medal less than our total haul from the Vancouver Olympics. And it sure didn’t hurt that Canada dominated in our national sports of curling and hockey.

I am immensely proud that the University of Waterloo was so well represented at the Games. As I mentioned in our #SochiWarriors video, Waterloo students Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje competed in figure skating, and three of our alumni, Daria Gaiazova, Melanie Schwartz, and Heather Moyse all brought the Warrior spirit to the Games.

Sincere congratulations to all competitors for representing the University of Waterloo and Canada with such outstanding skill and sportsmanship.

As the Olympics were wrapping up, I was heading out – to Australia, alongside a significant Canadian delegation headed for the 2014 Canada-Australia Economic Leadership Forum in Sydney. The Canadian group included key federal policymakers such as Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz. The forum, which ran parallel the G20 summit, was a great opportunity to expand Waterloo’s presence and profile in an important country. Waterloo has several emerging partnerships in Australia, and it is a region where we need to continue to develop our potential.

Western University President Amit Chakma and I represented Canada’s research-intensive universities on the trip, as chair and vice-chair of the U15. I co-facilitated a discussion with my colleague Ed Byrne, president of Australia’s Monash University, on broad educational perspectives on Australia’s and Canada’s overall economy and society. We talked about the role of universities in developing what you might call the global currencies of talent and knowledge, and of how to help ensure that our talented graduates are primed for success in a competitive but tremendously exciting global marketplace.

Unlike Heather, I didn’t take home any medals, but this experience representing Waterloo and Canada abroad was very positive. I learned a lot about the perspectives and challenges facing our peer institutions around the world.

Closer to home this month and into March, I’ll continue to support the university’s efforts as a leader in the Waterloo region. I’m so proud of the work we’re doing to play a leading and positive role right here in our own community.

One highlight for me will be on March 7, when I’ll have the honour of speaking at the International Women’s Day dinner here on campus, to celebrate the enormous contributions of female scholars and leaders at the University of Waterloo and beyond. All are welcome to attend.

As we press forward to the Spring and Summer months, Waterloo’s momentum continues to build. I look forward to leading Waterloo’s delegation to the Technion University is Israel, where research teams from both universities will gather in March  to design research plans in the three core areas of our research partnership: quantum information science, nanotechnology, and water.

Stay tuned for more news about our international efforts on Waterloo’s behalf in the weeks and months ahead, building on our continuing research and innovation successes at the global level, including recent QS rankings achievements. I look forward to sharing the news of several new exciting developments with you, related both to the University of Waterloo specifically and Canada’s university community more broadly.

Until next time, thank you for all the work you do, and for keeping at your work and studies during such a long and cold winter. The next time I write to you Spring will have sprung!

Yours sincerely,

Feridun

 

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Students start cracking the CODE tonight

The University of Waterloo Stratford Campus is one of three hubs for this weekend's Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE).

CODE is the first national Open Data hackathon in Canada and is a 48-hour competition that starts at 5:00 p.m. today and runs through 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 2.

CODE is an app-coding scramble that will see participants develop applications using federal government data from its open data portal. The applications produced by participants will need to conform to a theme that will be announced just minutes before the event begins. The goal over the two-day time frame is for competitors to produce something that is both useful and user-friendly.

There are prizes of up to $30,000 and the opportunity for participants to meet and pitch ideas to tech-focused venture capitalists.

The competition is sponsored by XMG and supported by the Government of Canada.

Prior to the hackathon, Stratford is hosting the CODE Inspiration Day Program, which is open to all and takes place from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., in both Toronto and at the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus.

 

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Notes as February comes to a bitterly cold end

Today is payday for those of us on the monthly payroll. Employees paid biweekly were paid on February 21, and their next paycheques will be deposited March 7. The Human Resources website has the full 2014 schedule of pay dates. March's monthly payday is March 28.

Data scientist Hilary Mason will be visiting campus in Waterloo and Stratford today to talk about Big Data. Mason, Data Scientist in Residence at Accel Partners and formerly Chief Scientist of Bitly, was named one of Fast Company's Top 100 Creative Minds in Business for 2013. At 9:00 a.m. today, Mason will be at the Velocity Residence on Waterloo's main campus for a Master Class, which is being held as the precursor to a full weekend of CODE activities at the Stratford Campus. Later, she will address students in Stratford at 1:00 p.m. as part of the CODE Inspiration Day program.

Applications close today for this year's TEDxUW event, which will be held on Saturday, March 15 at the Tannery in Kitchener. TEDx events such as this one are local spin-offs of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, famous for its philosophy of sharing riveting ideas, for free, with the world.

 

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