Daily Bulletin

Here's how to get more A's -- reported by Barbara Elve

That's the conclusion of David Kinahan and Harry Heft in On Your Mark: Getting Better Grades Without Working Harder or Being Smarter, a tongue-in-cheek, or just plain cheeky, guide for university students intent on maximizing the returns for their labours.

While there's a nod to common sense -- attend lectures, ask questions -- most of the authors' advice falls into the "subtle manipulation" category. "Sucking up" and "schmoozing your professor outside the class" are recommended, in a way that is "artful but never reveal(s) the artifice."

Back to campus My thanks to Barbara Elve, who looked after this Bulletin while I was gazing over the waters of Lake Muskoka for a few days last week. So I get back to campus and find that the presidential nominating committee has come up with a "Position Profile" that's demanding, to say the least. I also have e-mail about it from a faculty member who's perhaps just a little bit too cynical. "Wow!" he writes. "Two things the Committee forgot were to ask for walking on water and resuscitating the dead!"

A multiple-choice quiz, "Are you an annoying student?" provides an opportunity for self-analysis with such questions as: What would you do if you ran into a professor at the movies? "Be very quiet and when the lights go down begin a measured but relentless attack with jujubes" is not the right answer. Nor, if you notice your professor's fly is open in class, should you "undo your own fly as a sign of solidarity."

Complete with a section on how to "play" your TA, the text is touted by one reviewer as perhaps "one of the most important books on a student's cluttered desk."

As for Kinahan and Heft, both were once "employed as part-time or limited-duties faculty members" at the Unversity of Western Ontario, "likely when they were graduate students or recent graduates. They are currently not employed at Western," according to a spokesperson from the UWO department of communications and public affairs.

Prof studies sensor technology -- from the UW news bureau

Sensors can convert an optical signal (or anything that is radiant, e.g., visible light) into an electrical signal that can be recognized, stored in a computer and later, transmitted. They take information from the analog world and make it computer compatible. Thus sensors can serve as key components of information technology.

The technology includes electronic devices that can tell us things we simply can't see with our eyes; for example, they can tell us where or in which position an object is in the dark (using infrared that can't be seen by human eyes); they can also follow, and record in great detail, things that move too quickly for the human eye.

Much of Nathan's research involves developing new "imaging" technologies; for example, optical imaging that can be used with document scanners, digital copiers, fax machines, position and motion detectors, or X-ray imaging that can be used in space telescopes, for digital image capture in biomedical applications, as well as materials and structures testing . . . including the non-destructive testing of materials such as an aircraft wing, for signs of fatigue and corrosion.

Over the past 10 years, Nathan has been particularly concerned with "amorphous silicon technology" used in liquid crystal displays such as in laptop computers. "There could be promising additional applications for amorphous silicon technology besides large area displays, including high-definition television," he said. News release in full. . . .

Student math conference, and more

The graduate studies office sends words of reduced hours for the next two weeks: "From July 20 to July 31 inclusive, the office will be closed over the lunch hour. Hours of operation during this period will be 10:00 to 12:00 and 1:00 to 4:00."

The Graduate Student Association will be holding its annual golf tournament on Thursday afternoon at Merryhill. Price: $26 for golf, $35 for golf and a buffet barbecue to follow, back at the Graduate House. All are welcome, "golf experience not necessary", an announcement says. Today's the day to sign up, at the Grad House.

Also on Thursday: a summer luncheon for mature students -- the euphemism for those who are older than the typical student age. Information and reservations: the mature student services office, phone ext. 2429 or drop by in the Modern Languages building.

A note from Cheryl Kieswetter of the library staff provides more information about the downtime for Trellis, the tri-library computer system, that's scheduled for this week. A new version of the software is being installed, and the upgrade means Trellis will be down for "approximately two days", she says, beginning Wednesday morning, July 22. While the new system is out of operation, she's suggesting that library addicts use WatCat, the old system, and bear in mind that the Telnet data base dats back to last February. "The current status information was frozen at that time and will be inaccurate -- check the stacks for item availability."

UW web site of the day

Very likely it's the only web page anywhere that provides a picture of nineteenth-century "electro-galvanic spectacles", alleged to be a cure for "everything from weak eyes to insomnia". They are among the treasures and novelties in UW's optometry museum, which is briefly introduced on this site.

"I created it a year ago or so," says David Williams of the optometry school, "and haven't had much time to update it since (a common problem, I'm sure)." So the page admits to being "under construction", and beyond the spectacle of the galvanic spectacles, and some basic information about where the museum is and when it's open, there's only one major section: "the difference between spectacles and eyeglasses". Varoius pince-nez and other early frames are pictured.

"I wanted to raise the profile of the Museum of Vision Science and Optometry on the Web," says Williams. "We have an extensive collection of material related to vision and to the development of the profession of optometry, and I wanted some of this to be available to interested parties. . . . This could include opticians, optometrists, and ophthalmologists, as well as people with historical interests (what sort of eye care was available in 1867, for example? what sort of eyewear was available in those days?)."

He says a number of people have checked in with queries about dating old spectacles and such matters.

CAR

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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