Daily Bulletin

Almost 100 gigabytes per day

The total traffic is up by about 50 per cent from last year's figure of 65.7 gigabytes -- considerably less than the 100 per cent increase between 1998 and 1999.

Roger Watt of IST explains: "For one week in the middle of March (the peak month of the peak term), we collect protocol-layer statistics on the traffic entering and leaving the campus network via UW's external connection."

Downloading from the World Wide Web makes up about 55 per cent of the traffic, based on this year's sample. E-mail is just 3 per cent.

"The 'other' category in the graph and the tables," Watt notes, "is the collection of all protocols other than WWW, news, FTP, login, mail, and domain. It has grown steadily larger each year as a consequence of applications that communicate via arbitrary TCP/UDP port numbers."

Research office introduces web site

The site, at www.research.uwaterloo.ca, has -- at last count -- 915 pages, 3,465 internal links and 1,273 external links.

Cathy Hale of the research office sends this further description of what's now on-line:

The new graphic look includes colorful graphics and watermarks as well as thematic icons representing each area of the Office of Research. Don't forget to check out the "About the icons section!" Bright page headers, page footers and easy-to-navigate menus complete the new look.

The new site layout consists of sections for each of the eight areas in the Office of Research: VP Research, Contracts Research, Research Finance, International Programs, Technology Transfer and Licensing Office, Office of Research Ethics, Industrial Grants, and Research Grants. These sections can be found by clicking on the icons found on the OR home page or in the footer of any page inside the site. Information common to all eight areas of the OR is found under the links: People, Policies/Procedures, Forms, Funding Programs, Community of Science, Links/Resources and Centres, Institutions and Groups (CIRG). These links are available from the OR home page as well as from the header of each page within the site.

One of the main new features under the Office of Research Ethics (ORE) section is a new online version of Form 101, the form necessary for all students and faculty to complete when applying for ethics clearance from the ORE for conducting research involving human participants. The new online version of Form 101 eases the application process by allowing applicants to work on their application from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Applicants can cut and paste information from prior documents into the form, as well as reusing previous online Form 101 applications by creating editable copies right on the site. Each applicant uses their UW login ID and a password to return to the site to edit his/her saved applications. Once an applicant is satisfied with the completed form, and all mandatory questions have been answered in the correct manner, the applicant can submit the form to the ORE with the click of a button. Meanwhile, the ORE administrators have access to the applications in order to commence the review process. They no longer have to type them into a database for storage!

A few other notes today

Electronic polls open this morning in the election of a student representative to the board of governors. That on-line election continues through April 17 at 5 p.m. Meanwhile, the vote for a staff representative to the board is continuing; voting for that position ends April 12.

The executive committee of UW's senate will meet at 3:30 this afternoon in Needles Hall room 3004.

The bookstore has a sale under way: "Save up to 70 per cent off Springer-Verlag math, computer science and physics titles during the months of April and May."

The Right Angle Café, otherwise known as the Math Coffee and Doughnut outlet on the third floor of the Math and Computer building, will be open all through April, says manager Jeff Stewart. Hours are Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with even longer service while exams are in progress: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., plus Saturdays 8:30 to 3:00.

A "university-wide presentation on undergraduate education" will be held at Wilfrid Laurier University this afternoon. "The presentation," says a news release, "will explore how colleges and universities can find better ways to put the intellectual work of faculty and students at the center of their educational concerns. The event features guest speaker James Slevin of Georgetown University. Ian Clark, president and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities, and David Layton-Brown, executive director of the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies, will also attend to discuss related issues." The event takes place in WLU's Paul Martain centre starting at 3:30 p.m.

The library has announced the speaker for this year's Authors Event, scheduled for May 10 and sponsored by the Friends of the Library. He is John Hepburn, chair of UW's chemistry department and leader of the synthetic and biosynthetic materials research facility that recently received some $2.8 million in federal and provincial infrastructure grants. Hepburn's talk, to be given at noon that day in the Theatre of the Arts, will be titled "Scientific Explorations: Follow the Chart or Random Walk?"

There are two candidates to succeed Fred McCourt of chemistry as president of the UW faculty association, the elections committee has announced. They are Len Guelke of the geography department (who was president 1988-91) and John Wilson of political science. Ballots have been sent to association members, and are due back by 12 noon tomorrow. At the same time, members are choosing among six candidates to fill five seats on the association's board of directors.

An Easter bunny -- stuffed, not real -- is the prize offered in the UWShop's Easter draw. Ballots for the bunny are available with purchase, and the shop promises "a great selection of Easter gifts."

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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