Daily Bulletin

Provost attends co-op conference

According to organizers, "This is a conference for educationists, employers, as well as representatives from governments and professional associations to investigate, foster and promote closer links between the world of education and the world of work. Employers can learn more about the tools and methods to recruit and develop future employees and meet potential partners for collaboration at this conference."

The theme of "The Industry and Academic Symbiosis: A Global Partnership" will be addressed by keynote speakers from China, Australia and Lebanon, and more than 80 presentations are scheduled to address the sub-themes of "Interactive Partnerships: Employers/Educationists/Students," "Challenges and New Trends," "Problems and Opportunities for Developing Economies," and "Management and Marketing Issues."

No one from the co-operative education and career services department will attend. "The issue of cost comes into it," says director Bruce Lumsden, "but it's important that the university has a presence at these conferences." With the world's largest co-op program, UW has links with more than 2,600 businesses around the world, including the Far East.

Bunking with buskers

Ringette staff training for 30 delegates was held on the weekend, the ministry of natural resources is booked for Sunday through Tuesday with 35 delegates, some 350 members of the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors are scheduled for Sunday to Wednesday, and 20-odd entertainers for the Waterloo Busker Carnival, from Wednesday to Saturday.

Do other delegates balk at bunking with buskers? Not in the least, says conference centre manager Dave Reynolds. "They're a delightful group."

Juggling facilities for such diverse groups is all in a day's work for conference centre staff. "It does present its challenges at times," admits Reynolds, "but nothing we can't deal with. We only say no to a group if there's insufficient space. We only have 1,000 beds, and only so many meeting rooms. It's first come, first served." To ensure warm UW hospitality -- and no mix-ups in accommodation -- six co-op students are employed to meet and greet conference centre guests. The rest of the work is handled by regular housing and food services staff.

Also sharing the conference centre space with the buskers will be 100 UW Warriors at football camp, convened by coach Chris Triantafilou from Wednesday through Friday. Arriving on the scene Friday are 75 residence life staff for their annual training camp, which runs until September 4, and last on the conference centre agenda this season is a high school field hockey camp with 40 participants, August 31 to September 2.

UW web site of the day

What is the largest prime number, why is there no Nobel Prize in mathematics, and has the notorious "four-colour map problem" ever been solved? Well, you've come to the right place: the Math FAQ, maintained by Alex Lopez-Ortiz and a team of volunteers.

"The Sci.Math FAQ contains tidbits of mathematical trivia which are of likely interest to math aficionados or professionals," says Lopez-Ortiz, who recently took up a post at the University of New Brunswick after finishing his PhD at UW. For example, "did you know that the decimal number composed of zero, decimal point, and an infinite sequence of nines (0.9999...) equals one? Some people find this fact quite odd and try to argue away why this is not the case. The FAQ provides a selected set of answers to these (and other) oft recurring questions."

He notes that "the use of math symbols on the Web has proved to be quite a challenge; to this date we still await the adoption of Mathml, which will simplify this task.

"Response from readers has been quite enthusiastic. In conferences, after reading my tag, often people give me that sideways glance of 'oh! I know who you are', which still throws me off. As an interesting aside, as a consequence of the math FAQ efforts I received a travel grant from NSF to attend a conference on electronic dissemination of Math Research in late 1994. During this conference we had a chance to see some interesting new technologies, including WebRunner, which was presented by its author, a Canadian fellow working in Silicon Valley. He said that while the name of the product might change, he believed we would eventually hear about this product. James Gosling was, of course, talking about Java."

Barbara Elve
bmelve@nh4.adm.uwaterloo.ca

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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