Daily Bulletin

Order of Canada for retired prof

J. Wesley Graham came to UW in 1959 to teach mathematics. In 1962, when the "Computing Centre" was created, he became its first director. It was under his aegis that, over a hectic three months in the summer of 1965, four students wrote the original WATFOR (WATerloo FORtran) compiler for the IBM 7040. Shortly afterwards came WATFIV, soon to be marketed by the Computer Systems Group, which Graham headed for decades, and the spinoff Watcom Inc.

In 1973 he returned to teaching and research, but continued to be the eminence behind many computing developments at UW. In 1982 he was a key figure in negotiating a "partnership" deal that brought $17 million worth of IBM hardware to Waterloo, and from 1983 to 1988 he held the position of "dean of computing and communications", which was created for him and disappeared when he finished his term.

Among other distinctions, Graham is a Distinguished Teacher Award winner at UW, and was given one of the university's "25th Anniversary Medals" in 1982. The J. W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation is presented to a Waterloo alumnus each year in his honour.

Graham made his most recent appearance on campus two weeks ago, when he was guest of honour at a gathering marking the closing of the Red Room in the Math and Computer building. He spoke for a few minutes at that event, recalling the planning of Math and Computer (built in 1967) and the last-minute change that made the computer room "red" instead of yellow as originally intended.

It was a novelty, he reminded his audience, to put computers -- huge, unwieldy machines costing millions of dollars -- where the general public could see them. (For a time, UW's IBM 360/75 was the largest computer in Canada, boasting "500,000 characters of core memory". The console from that machine, turned off for the last time in 1980, is among those that make up a display of antique hardware that's now awaiting a new home after renovations in MC.)

Not only visitors to campus peered down into the Red Room from the second-floor windows on four sides of it, Graham recalled with a twinkle in his eye. In the late 1960s, he claimed, male students gathered outside the glass to ogle the pretty computer operators below.

Posture and gait conference

Aftab Patla and Jim Frank of UW's kinesiology department are co-chairs of the symposium, which continues through Thursday. Beverly Brooks of the kin department staff is holding things together as symposium coordinator.

Theme of this year's gathering is "Neurobiomechanical Bases for the Control of Posture and Gait", and technical sessions will deal with the likes of "hip proprioceptive reflexes" and "multidirectional surface translations" -- in other words, how people walk, especially on uneven ground, and how they stand. Frank, for example, has done extensive research on how and why elderly people fall, and how falls might be prevented.

The pioneer of gait research at UW is David Winter, now retired but still keenly interested in the field. He'll give the first of three keynote addresses for the ISPG symposium, speaking Saturday evening on "Identifying Motor Mechanisms and Strategies: Kinetics versus EMG". The other keynote speakers are Jean Massion of CNRS France (on Monday morning) and Richard Stein of the University of Alberta (Wednesday morning). Panelists during the conference come from such places as Brazil, Japan and the Netherlands, as well as Canada and the United States.

Sessions are mostly being held in the Davis Centre; there will be a chance for delegates to tour the UW gait laboratory in Matthews Hall, pictured at left.

'Urgent' need for scholarships

"Your gift does make a difference!" says one of the brochures sent to staff, faculty and retirees last week on behalf of the annual Keystone Fund appeal.

"It's a really urgent need," says Meredith McGinnis in the development office, the staff person who looks after the Fund, working with its volunteer co-chairs from the faculty, staff and retiree groups. The brochure amplifies what she's saying:

The cost of attending university is steadily increasing; also, UW has fewer awards than older institutions, but must compete for the best students. Increasingly, the deciding factor for an applicant is whether a scholarship or financial assistance is available, and Waterloo is already losing some of the most promising young scholars. Although UW now has more bursary funding, thanks to private contributions matched by the Ontario Student Opportunities Trust Fund (OSOTF), the university is still seriously short of scholarships in all faculties.

It quotes one donor to the Keystone Fund, Winston Cherry of UW's department of statistics and actuarial science: "Getting a good education is expensive. As an advisor, I have seen first-hand the effects of financial hardship on students. By contributing to UW scholarships each year, my wife and I know we can make a real difference for some excellent students."

The brochure goes into some detail about the "matching funds" system, by which money is available from the UW operating budget to match faculty, staff and retiree donations to many of the bursary and scholarship funds. "Over the past 10 years," it says, "the university match has averaged somewhere between 84 cents and one dollar. Therefore, your gift for scholarships and bursaries is worth almost twice as much with UW matching funds."

And by the way: "There is evidence that many graduates are taking longer to repay their student loans, which may add up to $25,000 at the time of graduation. Some individuals are unable to manage the accumulating debt, and may have to leave university before they finish their studies. . . . Please add your gift to encourage the best and brightest young students to attend Waterloo."

The rest of what's happening

The career development seminar series continues, with "Resume Writing" at 10:30 this morning and "Letter Writing" following at 11:30, both in Needles Hall room 1020.

Federation Hall presents Summerfest 2 this weekend -- "The world is your patio," the advertising says, both tonight and tomorrow. Tickets are available now, unless they've already sold out, at the Federation of Students office in the Student Life Centre; the price is $6 (or $8 for those who aren't fee-paying Federation undergraduates).

The badminton club holds its "Survival of the Fittest Badminton Tournament" today, tomorrow and Sunday at the Physical Activities Complex and the north campus gymnasium.

Arriving at the Ron Eydt Village conference centre this weekend are some 40 participants in a wheelchair sports camp, 200 students planning and training for September's orientation program, and the 400 participants in the International Symposium on Posture and Gait.

And off campus . . . there are a number of UW people, past and present, involved in this year's "Forward Into the Past" event, being held Saturday at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate Institute in Kitchener. It's a day of classes on things mediaeval, says one of the participants, Eric Praetzel of the electrical and computer engineering department. "There are a large assortment of classes that vary from lectures, hands-on practicums to cultural immersion (the teacher is in the persona of a historical figure)." It's a manifestation of the Society for Creative Anachronism, a mediaeval re-enactment society whose local branch is the Canton of Bryniau Tywynnog. Says Praetzel: "Stop by to attend the very cheap classes or just drop in (free) and learn about the SCA through our exhibits and members."

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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