Outstanding Performance winners named

The winners of the 2014 Outstanding Performance Award have been announced.

A memo from Vice-President, Academic & Provost Geoff McBoyle provides the context for the announcement:

"Effective May 1, 2005, in accordance with the 2003 Faculty Salary Settlement, the University of Waterloo established an Outstanding Performance Fund to reward faculty members for outstanding contribution in teaching and scholarship."

Broken down by Faculty, the 2014 winners are:

Applied Health Sciences - Clark Dickerson; Bryan Grimwood; John Hirdes; William McIlroy; and Paul Stolee.

Arts - Katherine Acheson; Andrew Cooper; Robert Danisch; Catherine Dubeau; Fraser Easton; Richard Eibach; Christopher Eliasmith; Ori Friedman; Sarah Gunz; Daniel Henstra; Suzan Ilcan; Doris Jakobsh; Grit Liebscher; Colin MacLeod; Christine McWebb; Ian Milligan; Elizabeth Nilsen; Francois Pare; Heather Smyth; Paul Thagard; James Thompson; and Alan Webb.

Engineering - Hany Aziz; Phillip Beesley; William Bishop; Catherine Burns; David Clausi; Xianshe Feng; Michael Fowler; Vincent Gaudet; Frank Gu; Eric Haldenby; Qi-Ming He; Hamidreza Jahedmotlagh; Danica Kulic; Kshirasagar Naik; Wayne Parker; Sean Peterson; Peter Teertstra; Neil Thomson; Mary Wells; and Michael Worswick.

Environment - Amelia Clarke; Peter Deadman; Dawn Parker; Derek Robinson; Ian Rowlands; and Olaf Weber.

Mathematics - Raouf Boutaba; Sue Ann Campbell; Charles Clarke; Richard Cook; Kenneth  Davidson; Steven Furino; Penelope Haxell; Brian Ingalls; David Landriault; Edward Lank; Alfred Menezes; Kirsten Morris; Pascal Poupart; Jeffrey Shallit; and Levent Tuncel.

Science - David Cory; Laura Deakin; Brian Dixon; Christine Dupont; Richard Epp; Mario Gauthier; Patricia Hrynchak; Michael Hudson; Brian Kendall; Shoufa Lin; Robert Mann; Graham Murphy; Eric Schneider; Heidi Swanson; and Andre Unger.

"I am very pleased to announce the award recipients for 2014," writes the provost, "and would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them for their outstanding contributions to the University of Waterloo."

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Co-op offers opportunities in 3 dimensions

by Kaitlyn Holbein.

The 3D Print Centre in Engineering 5 allows students to take advantage of and become familiar with 3D printing technology.

Peter Teertstra, director of the Sedra Student Design Centre, explains that the centre is especially accessible to undergraduate students for two reasons: because of the low prices and the constant presence of a co-op student.

A first-year co-op is hired every semester to be a point of contact for students coming in to work on projects. “They’ll train you, they’ll help you so it’s not a nameless, faceless email where you send your part off and hope they’ll print it correctly. It’s actually a person who loves 3D printing and wants to teach you,” explains Teertstra, a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor.

Genie Kim (a first-year mechatronics engineering student, pictured right) worked in the lab for her first co-op term in winter 2014. She found the experience both satisfying and exciting. Janet Metz, Genie’s student advisor at Co-operative Education & Career Action, says “For a first work term student she kept her eyes open and used her initiative to soak up everything she possibly could in this position rather than just doing what she thought was expected from her.  If more junior students would do this, their overall work term experience could be so much more.”   

From the get-go, Genie made the most of her co-op term. Sent to a week of training at Cimetrix, a large printing equipment vendor in Oshawa, Genie returned to the centre to fill the role of resident 3D print expert.

Using the knowledge gained at her week-long training, Genie helped the Waterloo community. “I was able to consult professors, graduate students, and upper-year students on what to do with the 3D printer, it was really exciting to both learn about their projects and actually have input,” she explains.

Genie aided many engineering students with the printing of parts for their third- or fourth-year design projects. At the end-of-year engineering symposium, where final projects are showcased, Teertstra estimates that about 40 to 50 of the projects contained parts that Genie helped to design or print. One of the projects that stood out to Genie was a mini submarine that tracks wildlife and divers. Genie made recommendations for the project in order to make the design waterproof.

Genie isn’t the only student who had the opportunity to spend a co-op term working in this new field. Every semester the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory on campus also takes on a co-op student. Evan Wheat, a third-year mechanical engineering student, is spending his second work term at the research lab, where he is involved in developing a new type of graphene based ink for some of the 3D printers there. Evan’s experiences led him to learn about the type of work that he wants to pursue in future.

While Evan’s early co-op experiences were in mechanical design, he now states, “I want to go into additive manufacturing, whether or not I’m doing mechanical design work, or whether I go into materials and developing materials for printers, it helped guide me toward that.”

Between the amazing services offered at the 3D Print Centre and the outstanding co-op opportunities available in 3D printing on campus, Waterloo students are uniquely positioned to learn about and work with this exciting new technology.

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Wednesday's notes

Denizens and visitors to Needles Hall should be reminded that Plant Operations will be making repairs to the east entrance stairs at Needles Hall facing the library from today until June 3. All other entrances will be open as the work is carried out.

As reported yesterday, the Federation of Students has organized a local candidate's debate today from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall. The University community will be able to hear from the candidates for the Kitchener-Waterloo riding.

Candidates Jamie Burton, Stacey Danckert, Catherine Fife and Tracey Weiler will be attending.

“It is extremely important that students cast a ballot in the election,” said Stephane Hamade, the federation's vice-president education. “We want them to make an informed decision, so these candidates will be giving their perspectives on a number of issues including post-secondary education. Hopefully, everyone who leaves the debate will feel more knowledgeable about the issues when they vote.”

Human Resources is reporting that retiree Raymond (Brian) Bradley died May 25. Bradley began working at the University in October 1977 in Police Services, holding the position of Patrol Officer, Sergeant and Chief Investigator before his retirement in February 2010. He is survived by his spouse, Elaine Bradley, also a Waterloo retiree.

The Waterloo Store will be having a Spring Clearance Sale on Tuesday, June 3 from 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. in the South Campus Hall concourse. Sale items include sweaters and Sherpa hoodies, sweatpants, golf shirts, crew necks and, I'm told, more.

Friends and colleagues of Neil Stewart in Plant Operations are invited to come out to a get-together to celebrate his upcoming retirement on Tuesday, June 10 at 4:30 p.m. at Wild Wing on 321 Weber Street North. Stewart's last day will be Thursday, June 12.

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