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Tuesday, August 15, 2000

  • Grad conference links disciplines
  • UW's polymer institute expands
  • IST announces September courses

[SL101]
Finding their way around campus, visitors to Student Life 101 Andrea Vandendool of Seaforth, and her parents Joan and Bert, get their bearings with some help from Catherine Fry, of the office of ethical behavour and human rights. Student Life 101 is an orientation program "designed by students for students" to help ease the transition to university life before the first few fast-paced weeks of classes.

Grad conference links disciplines

Sharing Discovery is the theme of the "first annual" UW Graduate Student Research Conference planned for April 4, 5, and 6, 2001, in the Davis Centre.

Sponsored by the graduate studies office and the Graduate Student Association in partnership with current master's and doctoral students, the conference will allow students to share their research with students from other faculties, learn about research in other departments, and gain experience in presenting professional-level talks and poster presentations.

Initiated by dean of graduate studies Jake Sivak, the conference is designed to encourage interdisciplinary contact within the university. "The most exciting developments are happening at the borders, between disciplines," says Sivak. "With researchers often working in somewhat isolated conditions, a grad conference is one way to encourage those contacts."

Grad students are invited to participate by presenting papers or posters -- with prizes offered for best presentations -- and by attending talks by special guest speakers.

An information session to help launch the conference will be held at noon, September 12, at the Grad House in conjunction with the Graduate Student Association Welcome Week and Meet the Executive Day. Grad students who wish to attend the session are asked to RSVP to GSA special projects coordinator Catharine Bonas at gsa-spc@gsa-serv.uwaterloo.ca.

Conference paper abstracts must be submitted by January 15, 2001, to Jim Frank, associate dean of graduate studies, at the grad office. For more information, contact Frank at ext. 5991, or Penny Pudifin, also in the grad office, at ext. 2845.

[20th birthday]
Aileen Proudfoot would have been 20 years old on Saturday, August 12. The first-year chemical engineering student drowned in an accident on the North Campus during a freak storm May 12. Her family and friends remembered her special day last weekend by placing bouquets at the maple tree planted at UW in her memory.

UW's polymer institute expands-- from the annual report of the faculty of engineering

The Institute for Polymer Research (IPR), an academic-industrial partnership based in Chemical Engineering, has been expanding in several directions. Industrial membership, which includes major companies like Dow Chemical, Exxon, BASF, DSM, ICI, 3M, Uniroyal, and Union Carbide, grew from 17 to 22 this year. IPR and the Chemical Institute of Canada are jointly offering a new Canada-wide scholarship to students working at the interfaces between polymer chemistry and polymer-reaction engineering. And a new third-year Chemical Engineering course in properties of materials with emphasis on polymers (was) offered in spring 2000, the first such course in any Canadian university.

What sets the Waterloo group apart is its scope, says Alex Penlidis, director of IPR and associate dean of graduate studies and research for the Faculty of Engineering. IPR members, many of them already internationally known, work on polymers to change the viscosity of oil, to impart "memory" to medical plastics so they will return to specific positions, to generate new specialized materials from common polyolefins, and to tailor polymers for special applications. IPR's new custom-built Analysis Fractionation machine, the only one in the world in academic circles, has generated new studies in polymer structure and behaviour at the molecular level, as well as several new collaborations with industry.

The most exciting research in polymers will happen at the interfaces with other fields, Penlidis says. At Waterloo this is already happening: researchers in Chemical Engineering are working with people in Electrical and Computer Engineering on microelectronics, in Optometry on biomedical materials, and in Civil Engineering on materials for trenchless technology.

IST announces September courses

Information systems and technology (IST) has announced its lineup of computing courses in September for UW faculty, staff and students. The following courses are part of the Skills for the Academic e-Workplace, and are offered to faculty, grad students, and staff with instructional responsibilities:

Click here to get more information about the courses and to access the course registration form. New courses will be taught every month, and advertised at this same Web location.

Standing corrected on co-op

"Employment is slightly ahead of last year," says Bruce Lumsden, director of co-operative education and career services, reporting in Monday's Daily Bulletin on the number of co-op students who have jobs for the fall term.

However, not all the figures listed confirmed that trend. The numbers given for architecture, science and teaching were actually those of students still without employment. The correct numbers of students with fall term work: engineering, 1,583; math, 1,106; arts, 241; science, 189; applied health sciences, 172; architecture, 87; environmental studies, 86; teaching, 27; accounting, 2.

Barbara Hallett
bhallett@uwaterloo.ca

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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