The state of the Internet: 'continues to surge'

Daily Bulletin

Calligraphy of illustrated Bible texts, collected by Donald Knuth (this year's Pascal Lecturer at UW), is on display in the Modern Languages gallery through October 30 from Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on October 18 and 19 from 7 to 10 p.m.

More millions in research grants

Andrew Barker, who manages CFI and related funding in the office of the vice-president (university research), said the money will support 11 projects. CFI funding of about $9.4 million was approved in July, and matching grants from OIT got approval this week.

He pointed out that under CFI and OIT rules, each agency (one federal, one provincial) will pay a maximum of 40 per cent of the costs of a research project. So at least 20 per cent, and more in some cases, will be coming from industry or other sources to make up the total.

"Most of the funding," said Barker, "will go to purchase research infrastructure, renovate labs, and cover construction costs."

This time last year, UW was celebrating grants of a little more than $5 million from the CFI and a similar amount from the OIT.

The 11 projects funded in this latest round of CFI and OIT grants:

• "Integrated Centre for Visualization, Design and Manufacturing", Sanjeev Bedi (mechanical engineering) and Thomas Seebohm (architecture), $1,785,857 from CFI and the same amount from OIT.
• "Waterloo Atmospheric Observatory", Peter Bernath (chemistry), $547,246 from each agency.
• "Waterloo Centre for High Performance Computing", Alan George (computer science) and Bob Le Roy (chemistry), $373,842 from each agency.
• "Roads and Pavement Research", Ralph Haas and Susan Tighe (civil engineering), $2,400,000 from each agency.
• "Air Pollution Research Institute", Bob Hudgins (chemical engineering), $318,866 from each agency.
• "Industrially Focused Analytical Research Laboratory", Janusz Pawliszyn (chemistry), $300,000 from each agency.
• "500 MHz Micro-Magnetic Resonance Imager for Quantitative Multiscale Science of Porous Media", Mik Pintar (physics), $820,865 from each agency.
• "Testing and On-Line Quality Control for Advanced Polymeric Materials and Polymerization Processes", J. B. P. Soares (chemical engineering), $500,406 from each agency.
• "Live Fire Research Facility", Beth Weckman and Al Strong (mechanical engineering), $2,135,415 from each agency.
• "Software Technology for Embedded Control Programs", Grant Weddell (computer science), $282,025 from each agency.
• "Canadian Elections Database, 1867 to Present", John Wilson (political science), $84,200 from each agency.

Babies face issues of existence

"And researchers there are finding that babies -- as young as two months -- have already begun to wrestle with profound questions about life."

The article quotes psychology professor André Aguiar: "The perspective we take is that infants (ages two to 18 months) are active problem solvers who are constantly learning about how the world works and how their own actions can affect it." She is co-director of the Centre and head of its infant lab. Daniela O'Neill, the psychology professor who founded the Centre for Child Studies in 1995, serves as its co-director and runs the toddler and preschool lab. That lab studies how knowledge is acquired and conveyed in children ages 18 months to five years. (Aguiar and O'Neill are pictured at left.)

Research labs to study young children exist at most major universities in Canada, says O'Neill, and "although there are other infancy labs, Andréa's area is unique: reasoning about events in the physical world, what infants know and how they are figuring it out."

Parents and children volunteer to participate in the studies, which consist of simple, informal games. In the infant lab, children may watch a series of vignettes on a puppet stage, while toddlers and preschoolers may play a game with toys or find hidden objects. "The way in which children direct their visual attention, and use their gestures and language during these games can reveal to us very important aspects of their developing knowledge and ability to communicate," says O'Neill.

Aguiar began exploring the question of whether infants can think about something they can no longer see when she was working on her PhD at the University of Illinois. Studies there confirmed that, contrary to the theory of Swiss developmentalist Jean Piaget, babies as young as two months had this ability, she said. "Piaget thought that for babies, hidden objects no longer exist -- what's out of sight is out of mind -- up to eight or eight and a half months of age. Our data suggests babies do have this knowledge -- that they share these beliefs with adults very early on, within the first few months of life," she says. "The problem is their inability to use one object to achieve a goal involving a second object in the problem."

Her hypothesis was that babies weren't solving certain means/ends problems, such as attaining an object out of reach or hidden -- not because they didn't understand the means/ends relationships, but because they didn't have enough experience or manual dexterity.

"What we're doing," she says now, "is creating a situation in which two objects are physically linked, with the interesting or coveted object hidden, requiring the infant to manipulate the section hiding the object." For example, a toy might be attached to and hidden by a piece of fabric. "The findings are really, really encouraging," she adds, suggesting that babies about six months old have that ability. "It's quite remarkable."

The article in today's Gazette goes on to describe other research being done at the centre -- including a study of how children decide whether to use words or gestures to make their wants known.

Meetings on benefits Today and Thursday bring three public meetings that will air possible changes to UW's extended health care and dental benefits. "Ultimately the University pays for each claim submitted," said a memo from the committee issued a few days ago. "Unfortunately, University revenues are increasing much more slowly than benefit costs!" So the committee is considering changes that affect prescription dispensing fees, semi-private hospital rooms and dental recall exams. Meetings will be held today at 3 p.m. in Physics room 145; today at 9 p.m. in Arts Lecture room 116; and Thursday at 9 a.m. in Davis Centre room 1302.

Tell me what's a-happening

And today brings Career Fair 2000 at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, sponsored by Conestoga College, the University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University and UW. The event is billed as the largest post-secondary career fair in Canada, and runs from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Admission to students and alumni is free (bring WatCard), and there will be free shuttle buses running from UW's Student Life Centre starting at 9:30.

The bookstore's Hurt Book Sale continues in South Campus Hall, ending Friday. Extra books are added to the sale each day, says Jason MacIntyre in retail services. "We wanted to maintain a great selection of books over the course of the week for customers who couldn't make it to the sale on Monday. We've got a huge selection of math and physics titles from Springer-Verlag, all priced at $15, Harper-Collins fiction and non-fiction titles, discounted to $5, clearance-priced computer books, and many other fiction titles priced as low as $1.99."

"An international expert on muscle excitation processes" is visiting UW's department of kinesiology and will give a special lecture today. He's Torben Clausen, of the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Clausen's talk on the sodium-potassium pump in skeletal muscle will be given at 4:30 this afternoon in Matthews Hall room 1035.

The baseball Warriors will host the McMaster Marauders at 6:00 this evening at Jack Couch Park in Kitchener.

The 40-minute video "Light in the Darkness", about the work of Amnesty International, will be shown at 6:30 tonight in Student Life Centre room 2139, the home of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group. "There will also be a talk about the history, principles and mandate of Amnesty, so we should be done by 8 p.m.," says a note from WPIRG.

The career development workshop series is continuing, with "Interview Skills: The Basics" at 10:30 tomorrow morning and "Interview Skills: Preparing for Questions" following at 11:30. The career resource centre in Needles Hall has more information. For those who want "the whole kit 'n' kaboodle" in one dose, career services will pack at least half a dozen of its workshops into a single day this Saturday. As a special feature, "McKinsey & Company will provide an employer perspective of the interview process (including the dreaded case interview) in the morning." Advance registration is at the career resource centre, phone ext. 4047.

Alternatively, this Saturday will bring a training session for BUDS, a UW-based group that provides free tutoring and encouragement to high school students. "If you'd enjoy helping local youth, designing Web pages or posters, or being part of an organizational team, please consider joining," says volunteer Su Morton. More information: 747-8113.

People from Ontario's various faculties of education will be at UW shortly to talk about a career in teaching and the process for applying to teachers' college, which as of a few days ago can be all-electronic. The career resource centre has published a schedule that shows speakers from Ottawa on Tuesday, October 3; from Brock, Lakehead, Windsor and Toronto on Thursday, October 5; and from Western, Nipissing, OISE, Queen's and York on Wednesday, October 11.

Two pairs of brown-bag lunch sessions have been announced by the Employee Assistance Program. This Friday, following up on October 6, Christine Purdon will talk about "Thwarting the Worry Process"; October 25 and November 1, Tom Ruttan will speak on "Enhancing Self-Esteem". Green flyers with the details and an RSVP form have been distributed to faculty and staff members, or Johan Reis in health services can provide more information.

Here's an advance note that the Third Annual Environmental Studies Lecture is set for Wednesday, October 4. Pierre Filion, of UW's school of planning, will speak that evening (7:30, Theatre of the Arts) on the topic of "Planning in a Post-Modern World: The Weight of Tradition and the Need for Innovation".

This year's Ontario Engineering Competition will be held in the last week of February 2001 at the University of Guelph, and it's time for UW student teams to be putting their projects together, says Fakhri Karray of the department of systems design engineering. He's the UW organizer for the OEC (and the Canadian Engineering Competition, which follows in March in Victoria). "The Dean of Engineering will sponsor two official UW teams for each category, with (ideally) one team coming from each of the two streams," Karray writes. The categories: entrepreneurial design, corporate design, editorial communication, explanatory communication, parliamentary debate, team design. More information is available on his web page.

And a note from the local Volunteer Action Centre: "K-W Seniors Day Program has several rewarding volunteer opportunities. Hands-on assistance is required in this social/recreational program that includes games, music, crafts, special events, and much more. Lots of staff support is provided and volunteers gain a tremendous sense of accomplishment by spending time with special seniors. A treasurer and board members are also needed. Call 893-1609."

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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