Daily Bulletin

Money talks at the cashiers' office

Registrar Ken Lavigne said the shift of services from the registrar's counter to the cashiers' wickets is a foreshadowing of the Student Information Systems Project, which will see many things being done differently, with a new electronic system, starting in the spring term of 2001. (Other parts of SISP will be phased in gradually.)

Students should now go to the cashiers, not to the registrar, to discuss replacement fee statements and fee exemptions, for example.

A revised version of the flyers is being posted today, Lavigne said. An earlier version, which has been up for about a week, might have confused students into going to the cashiers for some things that are still handled by the registrar -- or even looking for their fee statements, which were mailed to home addresses last week.

The changes are giving the finance department, which includes the cashiers, more direct responsibility for the student assessment and billing process. This term, for the first time, it was the finance office that mailed fee statements to students' home addresses. And some adjustments to fees will be handled at the cashiers' office -- "rightly", says Lavigne. That's the place to go for exchange students who need a fee adjustment, for example, or for someone who should be exempt from paying the co-op fee.

But David Peters of the finance office -- which includes the cashiers -- warns that academic matters such as class schedules, program changes and course withdrawals will still be handled through the registrar's office. At the cashiers' wicket, "We can't authorize a student to drop a course! Our job is to bill, and to collect the money."

"The PeopleSoft financial system will be able to accommodate all these things that until now have required manual intervention," said Lavigne. As the new system is prepared and introduced, finance staff will deal with financial subtleties and exceptions for the next couple of terms, the registrar said. "In doing this exercise they'll understand the complexities" and make sure SISP can handle all the complications. "In April 2001," he said, "they have to have it right!"

One thing that isn't changed is how students who don't have special problems will pay their fees: by cheque, please, either through the mail or in the drop boxes that are available in Needles Hall. The payment deadline is August 29.

And Peters notes that, in spite of what the flyers say, there's no point in students coming to the cashiers' office to pick up their fee statements, which should be in the mailbox at home by now.

It's the last day of spring exams

The UW libraries will be open for their regular hours tomorrow (11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in Dana Porter, 11:00 to 11:00 in the Davis Centre) and closed entirely on Sunday. And for the ensuing four weeks, library hours will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday in both Porter and Davis, with the libraries closed on weekends.

Today's the last day for a while that swimmers can use the pool in the Physical Activities Complex. It will be closed August 14 through September 1 for regrouting, the plant operations department says.

The copy centre in Environmental Studies II (room 277) will close permanently as of September 1, says Colette Nevin, marketing manager for UW Graphics. "We are amalgamating our services for a more efficient operation," says Nevin. "We will release details about reallocation of services to our other centres later this month."

Winners in this year's national competition for doctoral fellowships awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada include 11 UW students who will all be continuing their studies at Waterloo. Among the 591 Canadian students awarded $16,620 per year for up to four years of study at the PhD level:

• Stephanie D. Bangarth, history
• Holly L. Crumpton, English literature
• Bruce A. Dadey, English literature
• Dan C. Dolderman, psychology
• Shannon M. Gifford, psychology
• Camilla M. Holmvall, psychology
• Erin E. MacDonald, English literature
• Susan M. Preston, urban and regional studies (environmental studies)
• Karen A. Rowa, psychology
• Charlene S. Shannon, interdisciplinary studies
• Katherine J. White, psychology

A chance to help the community: "The Food Bank of Waterloo Region needs a number of committed, enthusiastic volunteers to help with this year's Thanksgiving Food Drive. Food drive assistants are needed to provide administrative support to the marketing team by phoning past participants and updating records. . . . Volunteers who can do some heavy lifting are needed for warehouse leader positions to supervise other volunteers and help with food sorting operations. Volunteer leaders with strong communication and interpersonal skills are required to organize, assist with food sorting, packaging, and labelling, and supervise small groups of volunteers of all ages and abilities during sorting and bag folding." More information: the Volunteer Action Centre, 742-8610.

A crane hoists aloft slabs of concrete as construction continues on the new 320-bed residence, Mackenzie King Village. Located on the site of the former parking lot F, between Village I and Ron Eydt Village, the $15.6 million residence is expected to accommodate first-year students starting in September 2001.

And here come the new students

Parents are invited too, and altogether about 4,200 visitors are expected on Monday, says Melanie Hazelton, UW's first-year student life coordinator.

Says the web site for the event: "Your host for Student Life 101 is Becky Faist, a second year Recreation and Leisure Studies student and also the Director for Student Life 101. We know that coming to university can be a bit daunting. Student Life 101 is designed to make that move more comfortable. When you come in August, you will have an opportunity to meet other first year students, upper year students, faculty and staff. There will be seminars on topics such as co-op, living off-campus, getting off on the right foot, and much more.

"You'll get tours and find information on a wide variety of topics. You'll meet the Presidents of the Federation of Students and the University. . . . We can't wait to meet you!" Headquarters for the day will be Federation Hall, and campus tours run from 9:00 to 2:00.

Also at Student Life 101:

• Pick up WatCards, buy parking decals, shop for textbooks.
• Lunchtime barbecue in parking lot R.
• Club and service displays in Fed Hall and the SLC.
• Health services tent; library tours; co-op and counselling talks.
• Feature presentation in the PAC, 11:00.
• Chance to meet off-campus dons, for those not in residence.
• 2 p.m. information sessions for all faculties.
• Register for orientation (first week of September).

Teaching the computer to see like a human -- from the faculty of engineering annual report

David Clausi, a professor in systems design engineering with a special interest in computer vision, is involved in a project aimed at preventing such tragedies by giving search-and-rescue pilots the technology to navigate in low-visibility conditions.

The goal of the ESVS (Enhanced Synthetic Vision System) 2000 project is to develop a database of Canada's topography in 3D, using data from Digital Elevation Models and satellite images. Every forest, large hill, and power line will be included. In an emergency, a section of the database will be sent to the specially built cockpit of a rescue helicopter and into a virtual reality helmet. Wearing the helmet, the pilot will see the landscape synthetically and will be able to navigate despite fog, cloud, or darkness. A test flight is planned for 2000 or 2001.

With lives at risk, the database must be absolutely accurate. This is where Clausi enters the picture. In collaboration with researchers from York, Laval, and McGill universities, he is creating a program to extract images of landforms and turn them into data that accurately depict the images, "essentially trying to teach the computer how to recognize objects as humans do."

Clausi and his colleagues are creating computer models that partly mimic the way people see, based on the visual cortex in the brain. Because of the complexity of the human visual system and differences in the way computers and humans recognize objects, it's not an easy task. Success will depend on using the group's varied technical strengths -- Clausi, for example, contributes work on the computer vision interpretation of texture -- to attack the problem on several fronts at once.

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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