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Where did you get that hat? From the University of Southern California, actually; that's where kinesiology professor Jim Frank earned his PhD. He posed with a hatless Mike Sharratt, dean of applied health sciences, before Wednesday's convocation ceremony, at which Frank was receiving one of UW's distinguished teaching awards.

Convocation continues with science

Booth -- who actually received his PhD last fall -- wrote his thesis in the field of gravitational physics, supervised by UW professor Robert Mann. He's now working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta.

He's the best of a very good lot, says Jim Frank, associate dean of graduate studies: "The selection was made from a group of nominees with superb intellectual achievement and international reputation established while they were students." Booth is already the author of seven published papers, including one in Physical Review Letters, the premier journal in his discipline, Frank said.

Today's convocation -- starting at 2:00 in the Physical Activities Complex -- will see the awarding of 540 degrees and diplomas. Will Leckie, whose BSc is in honours physics, will speak as the valedictorian on behalf of those new graduates.

Also scheduled today:

• An honorary degree to Takeshi Oka, University of Chicago chemist and astronomer, who is considered a leader in the study of astrochemistry and a pioneer in the field of high resolution laser spectroscopy in the infrared region on the electromagnetic spectrum. He will give the convocation address.
• Awarding of the Dean of Science Awards for high-ranking MSc students and W. B. Pearson Medals for the top-ranking PhD students, including Booth.
• The alumni association gold medal for the highest standing in the undergraduate program, to Brian Nieman, graduating in physics.

Convocation on the web Perhaps inevitably, there were some technical problems with the convocation webcast yesterday, but I'm told that the plan is to have them all fixed by this afternoon. The live webcast of each ceremony can only be seen with Windows Media Player; past ceremonies are also available, and a wider range of video software will work. The webcast page has brief instructions for both Windows and Macintosh users.

Tomorrow, math and engineering

In the morning -- starting at 10:00 -- convocation is for the faculty of mathematics, and will feature the installation of Jim Kalbfleisch as UW's first-ever Provost Emeritus. A professor of statistics at UW for almost forty years, he served as dean of mathematics (1986-89) and as vice-president (academic) and provost from 1993 until his retirement at the end of 2000.

Terry Stepien, winner of the Graham medal this year, will give a seminar this afternoon at 2:30 in Davis Centre room 1302. Topic: "Go Mobile, Get Wireless: The m-Business Revolution".

Also scheduled at the math convocation is the presentation of this year's J. W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation. The medal winner is Terry Stepien, president of iAnywhere Solutions, who in fact was a protégé of computer science professor Wes Graham, for whom the medal is named.

Mathematics students will receive a total of 539 degrees and diplomas -- BMath, MMath, PhD, and one post-degree diploma in actuarial sciences. Richard Hoshino, graduating with a degree in combinatorics and optimization (teaching option), will give the valedictory address on behalf of graduates -- and has put his text on the web for the benefit of those who can't be there:

Instead of saying goodbye in a somber way, let us take comfort in knowing that the experiences and memories we have created with one another will last us for the rest of our lives. That is something that nothing, not even time, can ever take away. . . .

Also being presented are the alumni association gold medal, for the highest standing in the BMath program, to Joel Kamnitzer (applied math and pure math), and the Samuel Eckler Medal, for the highest standing in actuarial science, to Ryan Ho.

And there will be a Governor-General's silver medal for Eran Guendelman, receiving a degree in computer science and pure mathematics. This medal represents the highest standing in an undergraduate program, and UW awards two of them each year, one in the engineering, math or science and one in arts, AHS or ES. The winner of the other silver medal (which I managed to call gold in yesterday's Bulletin) was Lauralee Haas (geography, St. Jerome's).

The program for Saturday afternoon's convocation, oriented to the faculty of engineering, was still being printed as of midday yesterday, so I don't have full details for that one. I do know that a total of 726 degrees and diplomas are being presented.

The honorary graduate and speaker for Saturday afternoon's ceremony is Duncan Dowson, engineering professor at England's University of Leeds. Dowson was instrumental in establishing the Leeds-Waterloo exchange program, which has been in operation since 1988 and has involved about 160 students.

Finally, a correction to yesterday's Bulletin: I (and Renison College) misspelled the name of the winner of the academic achievement award in social development studies for this year. She is Gayle Frisa.

Systems design prof is doubly proud

The winners are the team behind Hexplorer 2000, "a six-legged walking robot" that's the successor to several previous Hexies over the past five years. (An early version, dubbed Hexotica, was named "Cool Robot of the Week" in the spring of 1997.) Team members this year have been fourth-year students Chris Collins, David Orr and Chad Schmitke. Their web site tells more:

Walking robots have many potential applications in areas where uneven terrain prohibits access by wheeled vehicles. Fuelled by recent technological endeavors such as the Mars Pathfinder, Hexplorer is an on-going project in the Systems Design Engineering Department to develop a small, six-leg, autonomous walking robot. This project involves many facets of design including motor control systems, sensory apparatus, walking gait algorithms, PCB design and mechanical design.

The current version of Hexplorer has a circular body configuration with six legs mounted at equal intervals around its circumference. Each leg has a full three degrees of freedom, facilitated by three independent motor-controlled joints. The mechanical design has been recently prototyped by ATS Automation Tooling Systems.

Hexplorer has been designed using the Texas Instruments C2000 series DSP platform. Seven DSPs have been incorporated into the design. One DSP acts as a central brain, sending and receiving instructions to the six other DSPs, each controlling one leg. Each leg represents a self-contained system, relying on positional data from the brain to establish a trajectory for motion.

The Hexplorer program has taken full advantage of the Digital Motor Control Software Library provided by Texas Instruments.

A final note in the congratulatory memo from TI says that a local representative will be dropping in soon "to confirm the existence and basic functionality" of the robot.

Meanwhile, McPhee has a second reason for pride this week. "I found out," he writes, "that I won the I. W. Smith Award from the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers for 'outstanding achievement in creative mechanical engineering within 10 years of graduation' from my PhD program." The award was announced last week at the CSME's annual banquet, held in St. John's -- and McPhee is chagrined that this is the one year he didn't make it to the CSME convention.

A weekend under the sultry sun

It's the last day of the co-op interview period for most students, and the day when architecture students travel to Toronto en masse for an interview blitz with firms there. (Surprise: Toronto is under a smog advisory too.)

One summer activity that I haven't mentioned in the Bulletin yet this year is the NMR Summer School sponsored by UW's physics department. NMR is nuclear magnetic resonance, and the school brings about 80 people, mostly young scientists, to campus for a week "for discussion of NMR and applications at all levels, in both a lecture and informal setting". This year's school winds up tomorrow.

Tonight brings the annual general meeting -- and potluck dinner -- of the Women's Association of UW. The meal starts at 6 p.m. Gloria Pageau in the finance office (phone ext. 2135, e-mail gapageau@uwaterloo.ca) can provide more information.

A natural gas shutdown that had been scheduled for all day tomorrow in several science and engineering buildings -- to make preparations for utilities on the CEIT construction site -- has been cancelled, the plant operations department reports.

Sports of a sort this weekend:

• Wheelchair basketball, sponsored by the Engineering Society.
• One-day soccer tournament on the north campus tomorrow afternoon, sponsored by the International Student Association
• Picnic tomorrow at Kelso Conservation Area in Guelph for people from the Waterloo Tamil Students Association and other Tamil groups from the surrounding area, with "swimming, boating, hiking, biking, games" and food.

The Contemporary School of Dance has the Humanities Theatre booked for the weekend, with performances Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

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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