Daily Bulletin

Skaters take their wheels off -- by Barbara Elve

In the newspapers this morning Student loan applicants will be subject to credit checks -- Canadian Press Skilled talent leaving Canada, Swiss study finds -- National Post Ottawa gives $147 million for health research -- Canadian Press

The event is being held in Kitchener July 21 to 25 as part of the Global Inline Hockey Festival, sponsored by the International Ice Hockey Federation and Canadian Hockey Inline. Consisting of a Can/Am tournament, a development clinic and the World Youth Inline Hockey Challenge, the festival is designed to bring the sport of inline hockey one step closer to international acceptance and Olympic accreditation, say organizers.

The Youth Challenge promises to be "the premier International Inline Hockey event in the world," with divisions for players under 20, under 18 and under 16 years of age attracting teams from Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.

They'll be billeted in an inline-free zone, however, and could be fined $25 if they set skate on UW property. Section 19 of the UW traffic and parking regulations prohibits use of roller blades on all campus roadways, pedestrian pathways and walkways.

And there will be no special dispensation made for the skaters, says manager of parking services Elaine Koolstra. "Those are the rules. We're not relaxing anything. Nothing changes."

Tax program offered half-time

The new option, an announcement says, is designed for prospective students who can't leave their jobs to take the program. They will take the 12 required courses over six academic terms (24 months). Classes will be held in Toronto and will meet one day each week.

"We want the MTax program to be as flexible as possible," says program director Jim Barnett, a tax professor in the school of accountancy. "By offering this option we can accommodate the needs of more people."

Students seeking an MTax degree are generally full-time professionals in accounting, business, law or other fields. With the degree, they can meet an increasing demand for high-level tax advisors who can develop tax minimization strategies, design business transactions, plan corporate structures and advise on compensation systems and other issues.

The program will continue to be available on a full-time basis as well. Both study options are open to practitioners in business, law, accounting or other fields. An undergraduate degree in accounting or employment in an accounting firm is not a prerequisite.

Water traces path of air pollution

"Physicists know," says the story by Barb Elve, "that water flowing slowly behaves much like air moving at higher speeds. Rob Macdonald, a UW mechanical engineering professor, is putting that principle into action in a giant flume filled with water where he will study the flow of air pollution.

"Because water is denser than air, the flume works like a slow-motion wind tunnel, allowing researchers to assess flow processes such as mixing and dispersion. Using a red dye, simulating pollution, dispersal through a model representing an urban environment can be charted."

Macdonald works with a 15-metre-long flume in the heavy fluids lab in Engineering III. A test section just over a metre high, a metre wide, and nearly two and a half metres long is encased in thick tempered glass panes to allow researchers a clear view of experimental models of cityscapes, industrial parks or other built-up sites where a chemical release might occur. An overhead water tank feeds the flume, with a pump recirculating the water through a system of underground trenches.

Although similar research has explored air flow around a single structure, Macdonald's flume will be one of the first to focus on the collection of buildings which characterize an urban setting. Macdonald's models will examine air movement in the lower levels of the boundary layer of the earth's atmosphere -- the area just above the ground where most human activity takes place. The models will also be scaled to include an area within about a kilometre of the toxic release, the range which poses most danger to human life, he said, "and the area for which the least amount of information is available in terms of usable air pollution models".

Newfoundland engineers in court

MUN's programs in mechanical, civil, ocean, electrical, and naval architectural engineering have received approval from the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers -- the same agency that approves engineering programs at UW and other engineering schools across Canada. The accreditation process had been held up last winter when the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland withdrew its "consent". MUN went to court and had the consent reinstated.

"Our students should never have been subjected to this," says MUN president Arthur May.

The original lawsuit between MUN and the two engineering organizations continues, with the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada supporting MUN in its claim that "software engineering" is an appropriate name for one of its programs, offered in the faculty of science rather than the faculty of engineering and applied science. Says the MUN Gazette:

The original dispute began a couple of years ago when Memorial's Senate approved the introduction of an honours program in software engineering in the Department of Computer Science. Despite the fact that several other Canadian universities offer similar programs, Newfoundland's professional engineering association, APEGN, and the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE) protested the move, claiming ownership of the word "engineering" and suggesting that it should not be used outside formal engineering programs.

The university had provided assurances about the delivery and description of the program, but APEGN, in conjunction with CCPE, sued Memorial over the issue. The case is before the federal court and is expected to be heard later this year. . . .

In a press release, the chair of CCPE, Bill Sutherland, stood behind APEGN's decision. "We firmly believe that APEGN has acted in the public interest, and that its actions are entirely appropriate given its legislated responsibility to protect the public," he said.

Happening on campus today

A recital by music students from the UW music department at Conrad Grebel College will start at 12:30 in Grebel's chapel. "A number of fine performances are anticipated," a flyer says, "including a wonderful recorder duet played by students Karen Yeats and Ellisa Crête, as well as a solo recorder work, Partita 5 by G. F. Telemann, also performed by Karen Yeats." Admission is free.

The blood donor clinic continues today (and tomorrow) in the Student Life Centre, 10:00 to 4:00.

And, the Second Company production of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" opens tonight in the Theatre of the Arts. The show runs now through August 7, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. A special midnight performance is scheduled for July 29. Tickets -- $16 general, $12 students and seniors -- are available from the Centre in the Square box office at 578-1570.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright © 1999 University of Waterloo