August 19, 2002

Monday, August 19, 2002

Millions in Ontario matching grants
And from the OIT's Innovation Fund
Of cabbages and kings

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Millions in Ontario matching grants

Nine UW researchers and research teams have received grants from the Ontario Innovation Trust -- for a total of more than $14 million -- to match grants approved earlier by OIT's federal counterpart, the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Katarina Pintar of UW's research office said seven of the OIT grants were approved in April and two more just last week.

[With wires]
Heiner Jaksch of LEO Electron Microscopy gave a demonstration last week of the advanced use of the LEO Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope in Tong Leung's chemistry lab. Funded in an earlier round of support from CFI and OIT, this device will be used with electron beam lithography equipment that's coming thanks to the newest grant.
Three projects are being supported under the OIT "New Opportunities" program:

"Organic/Organometallic Chemistry Research Laboratory", headed by Eric Fillion of chemistry. A grant of $150,793 from CFI is being matched by the OIT. "This award will enable him to purchase the equipment to pursue research in organic and organometallic chemistry. With this equipment, he will broaden the scope of his current studies on the development of novel transition metal-catalyzed C-C bond formation reactions and the design of new synthetic strategies."

"Facility for Theoretical and Applied Research in Smart Actuators and Sensors (TARSAS)", headed by Robert Gorbet of electrical and computer engineering, with Dan Davison of E&CE and Eric Kubica of systems design engineering. A grant of $159,972 from CFI is now being matched by OIT. "This award will enable them to establish TARSAS, a multi-disciplinary facility for Theoretical and Applied Research in Smart Actuators and Sensors. Smart actuators and sensors are those which are based on so-called smart materials, or are hybridizations of more traditional transducers, made 'intelligent' through embedded processors and distributed control. . . . The facility will serve all stages of the design and development of smart actuators and sensors: high-precision smart material modelling and characterisation; computerised design and simulation; rapid prototyping; controller design, simulation, and verification; and prototype application and evaluation."

"Multi-Point Interactive Performance Research Facility", headed by Gerhard Hauck of drama and speech communication. A grant of $94,034 from CFI is being matched by OIT. "This award will enable him to employ videoconferencing technology to conduct multi-point interactive research with theatre practitioners in remote locations for the purpose of exploring people-to-people and people-to-technology interactions in the process of developing a theatrical production. The infrastructure purchased with the award will also enable him to study present uses and future applications of remote interactivity devices (such as the Internet) for both performance and research purposes."

And from the OIT's Innovation Fund

More grants from the Ontario Innovation Trust:

"Facility for Confined Complex Fluids and Polymers Characterisation", headed by James Forrest of chemistry -- the lead investigator of a team who have received infrastructure support of $762,719 from CFI, now being matched by OIT. Also involved are Stefan Idziak (physics), Pu Chen (chemical engineering), Jean Duhamel (chemistry), Lyndon Jones (optometry), Kari Dalnoki-Veress (McMaster), and John Dutcher (University of Guelph). "This award will enable Forrest and his research team to acquire equipment which will provide Waterloo with one of the world's finest facilities for the characterisation of confined soft materials (such as polymers, proteins, liquid crystals, and colloidal systems). The equipment will be used to investigate fundamental and applied problems ranging from the underlying physics governing the dynamics in glass-forming materials to characterising protein adsorption in biomaterials."

"A water initiative: integrated groundwater-surface water remediation and management", headed by James Barker of chemistry -- the lead investigator of a team who have received infrastructure support of $5,897,679 from CFI, now being matched by OIT. Also involved are David Blowes (earth sciences), John Cherry (earth sciences), Michael English (Wilfrid Laurier University), Shaun Frape (earth sciences), Vassili Karanassios (chemistry), David Rudolph (earth sciences), Ed Sudicky (earth sciences), Gary Parkin (University of Guelph), and Jack Trevors (Guelph). "This award will enable Dr. Barker and his co-investigators to establish five world-class field research facilities in SW Ontario to investigate water quality issues in watersheds. They will also equip two unique field demonstration facilities to develop and demonstrate, under controlled conditions, technologies to minimize, control and remediate impacts from agricultural and waste disposal practices, acid mine drainage, etc."

"Thin-film Materials Research Laboratory: Molecular engineering of biotechnological, environmental and strategic materials", headed by Tong Leung of chemistry, lead investigator of a team of researchers who have received infrastructure support of $2,776,608 from CFI and are now receiving matching funds from OIT. Also involved are Linda Nazar, John Honek, Susan Mikkelsen, Janusz Pawliszyn, and Jean Duhamel (all of chemistry), David Blowes (earth sciences), Lyndon Jones (optometry), Jan Kycia (physics), and Jacek Lipkowski (University of Guelph). "This award will enable Dr. Leung to establish new state-of-the-art nanofabrication and nanopatterning tools for the development of strategically important multifunctional hybrid materials at the University of Waterloo. Together with the existing materials characterization tools already in place at WATLabs, the new facility will provide a world-class multidisciplinary materials research centre for nanoanalytics and nanomanufacturing of bioorganic, polymer and other novel materials."

"Institute for Quantum Computing", headed by Raymond Laflamme of physics, as lead investigator of a team of researchers. The planned institute has already received infrastructure support of $2,993,715 from CFI, which OIT is now matching. Other researchers listed on the project include William Power (chemistry), James Martin, Robert Mann and Jan Kycia (all of physics), and Michele Mosca (combinatorics and optimization). "This award will enable the Institute for Quantum Computing to set up a theoretical and experimental program studying the implications of quantum mechanics for information processing. This will encompass theoretical investigation of quantum algorithms to laboratory realisation of quantum mechanical devices."

"Centre for Advanced Materials Joining Research", headed by Hugh Kerr of mechanical engineering. He is the lead investigator of a team of researchers who have received infrastructure support of $1,203,994 from CFI, which is now being matched by OIT. Also involved are Walter Duley, J. P. Huissoon, Norman Zhou, Stephen Corbin, Amir Khajepour and David Weckman, all of mechanical engineering. "This award will enable Dr. Kerr and his colleagues to purchase equipment to study advanced joining processes for many of materials and applications. The equipment includes a new type of high power diode laser, with possible application to automotive, aeronautical and other industries. This infrastructure will also include sophisticated analysis equipment for microjoining processes, which are crucial in microelectronics and in medical instruments."

"Facility for musculo-vascular research in physiology: Instrumentation for the independent and integrated study of exercise and environment on molecular, cellular and functional events", headed by Arend Bonen of kinesiology, leading a team of researchers who have received infrastructure support of $424,947 from CFI that's now being matched by OIT. Also involved are Howie Green, Rich Hughson and Jim Rush, all in the kin department. "This award will allow Drs. Bonen, Green, Hughson and Rush to examine adaptive responses of muscle and the vasculature in health and disease, ranging from the molecular level to the whole body level."

Of cabbages and kings

Everybody was talking about C# last week -- that's the new computer language that's going to be taught to first-year electrical and computer engineering students as part of UW's recent "alliance" with Microsoft Canada. Here's a practical note about C# from Carol Vogt, of UW's information systems and technology department: "C# is one component of Microsoft Visual Studio .Net, and is available free of charge to all students, because UW is a member of the Microsoft Developer's Network Academic Alliance. Students can obtain Visual Studio .Net by completing an online form and bringing it to the CHIP (Math and Computer room 1052). Also available to students at no cost as part of this program are Windows XP Pro, Visio 2002 Pro, and Visual Studio 6. Faculty may also obtain these products at no charge for instruction and research purposes by completing a form and bringing it to MC 2008 or MC 2016."

Incidentally, as I was writing about the Microsoft issue in Friday's Daily Bulletin I managed to write something about "high students" and the programming background that they need. No reflection on anybody's recreational tastes was intended; that should have said "high school students".

Both the elevators in Eby Hall, the west tower of UW Place, went out of service this morning and will be shut down until Wednesday night for servicing, the plant operations department says.

Heating and hot water will be turned off in all buildings inside the ring road from early Tuesday morning until midday on Thursday. Heating shouldn't be much of a problem this time of year, but building users will find that there's no hot water. Buildings outside the ring road, such as Optometry, Health Services and various residences, aren't affected. The shutdown is happening to allow for maintenance on the steam mains, says a memo from Rick Zalagenas in plant ops.

The Star reported last week that "a new national strategy to encourage people to embrace skills training and adult education" is on the federal government's agenda for this fall. But, said the report from reporter Les Whittington, the idea of RRSP-style "individual learning accounts", raised at the time of the last federal election, is dead. "The government became convinced RILAs were a flawed idea," the paper says. "It was felt that only upper-income Canadians would have had the surplus cash to take advantage of the program, and that RILAs fell short of being a quick fix to deliver more adult learning and skills training right away." Other measures can be expected instead -- "grants, loans, tax breaks for employers", for example.

I've had another bit of feedback about Wednesday's walk-around-the-campus Daily Bulletin, this time from Fred Martin, director of development at Conrad Grebel University College. He writes: "Summer is indeed a wonderful time to take a look around. I saw that you got some feedback about things you missed on your stroll. (Don't you hate that when you try to be comprehensive everyone remarks about what you missed.) Well, we on this side of the creek need to add our voices. There is lots of construction action over here. Renison continues with its project and at Grebel, we've been renovating our existing buildings as the first stage of our $4.1 million project. Project Ploughshares and the Network for Conflict Resolution have moved off campus as we renovate their office space for student lounge and student services. So, if you ever venture out looking for on-campus news again come on over!"

Maybe I'll do just that, when I get back to campus in a few days. I'll be away for the next week. In my absence, information to be considered for the Daily Bulletin can be sent to Avvey Peters, alpeters@uwaterloo.ca.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
August 19, 1962: Bill Tutte of the mathematics department is in Stockholm to give a talk on "The Enumeration of Planar Maps" at the International Mathematical Congress.