November 8, 2002

Friday, November 8, 2002

Teams GOTO programming contest
Staff member notes 'second family'
The talk of the campus
The weekend, and looking ahead

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

At a university in Northern Ireland . . .

[Students]
Visitors on campus tomorrow
Future students and their parents will get a peek at Waterloo tomorrow as the annual You @ Waterloo Day happens across campus.
There are information sessions in the faculties at 9:30, 12:00 and 2:00, campus tours (starting from the Student Life Centre) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., special sessions about co-op, information booths and residence tours.
The day is a smaller-scale version of the Campus Day open house held each March, and organizers -- representing the undergraduate recruitment office as well as the faculties and colleges -- are encouraging would-be students to come back in the spring and see more of UW.

Teams GOTO programming contest -- from the UW news bureau

UW will seek to defend a reputation this weekend by sending two student teams to the East Central North America Regional competition of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.

UW's team will compete Saturday at Sheridan College in Oakville, one of four campuses where the event will be held as a "distributed contest". Other sites are contest are Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio; the University of Cincinnati; and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo.

The event, sponsored by IBM, draws students from colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, and Indiana. The top two or three teams from the region will advance to the ACM world finals, to be held March 22-23 in Beverly Hills, California, during Academy Awards week.

UW has advanced each season from 1993-94 through to 2001-2002. Waterloo teams have won the finals twice (1994-95 and 1998-99), and placed in the top 10 for each of the last 10 years. Last year, UW placed third in the world.

Competing in the event will be UW's "Black" team made up of Gordon Chiu (undergraduate, electrical and computer engineering), Denis Dmitriev (undergraduate, computer science), and Lars Hellsten (graduate, computer science).

Also in the contest will be UW's "Gold" team composed of computer science undergraduate students Bryan Chan and Neil Girdhar, plus graduate student Michael Laszlo.

"We have been practising since September," says Gordon Cormack, computer science professor and team coach. "Once again the UW teams are very competitive. But we are always aware that only two or three of the more than 100 teams advance to the finals, and a top-notch performance is required to be one of them."

In Saturday's contest, there are 132 teams from 71 schools for UW to overcome, including teams from universities with strong computer science programs such as the University of Toronto and Carnegie Mellon. The three-member teams are challenged to complete six or more "real-world" computer programming problems. The problems are drawn from high school and college mathematics and computing, as well as from everyday knowledge and problem solving.

The students rely on their programming skills and creativity during the five-hour battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. Students attempt to solve complex problems using available programming languages (C, C++, or Java).

[Fluttert]

Staff member notes 'second family'

A recent advertisement for UW's Keystone Campaign features one of its staff supporters, Pam Fluttert (left) of the information systems and technology department. Here's some of what it says:

Recognize the face? You could win $100 by matching Keystone "donor profile" faces to dates, in a contest announced in the new Keystone Fund newsletter, It's Your Waterloo.
"Just before her third co-op term, Pam Fluttert made a choice -- a choice that didn't seem important at the time -- that changed her life. A co-op Math student at UW, Fluttert made a last-minute decision to return to work at the University for her third co-op term. That decision turned out to lead to her current position with UW as a project leader with IST.

"In this position, Pam provides production support for the PeopleSoft HR/Payroll system which involves system analysis, design, development, and implementation. As a result, her BMath in Business Information Systems comes in handy every day.

"Pam lives in New Hamburg with her husband Willy, daughter Karlyssa, and their dog Bailey."

What do you like best about your job? "I enjoy working with a variety of people. I'm part of a team of diverse, skilled, and motivated professionals -- they're like my second family. And it certainly helps that I see a tangible payback after working hard on a project."

What do you value about UW? "I value the people and their commitment."

Why do you support the University through the Keystone Campaign? "I want to help the University provide the quality education that current and future students expect from us. I hope that my support helps UW to keep its outstanding reputation because it's a reputation that we all take pride in. I designate my gift to Ontario Graduate Scholarships in Science & Technology for Math students. My gift makes a greater impact because the province matches it 2:1."

The talk of the campus

Combinatorics and optimization professor Scott Vanstone -- who's also a founder of data encryption firm Certicom -- is in the news today. There's word that an array of computers guided by a Notre Dame University mathematician has managed, after 549 days of number-crunching, to break a Certicom encryption formula. The company had offered a $10,000 prize for that feat. The story is reported this morning in the Globe and Mail and on CNN.

Something new is coming to the Davis Centre library, says university librarian Murray Shepherd in a recent report to UW's senate: "In conjunction with the University's major fundraising effort, Campaign Waterloo: Building a Talent Trust, initial planning work has started on an Information Commons to be located in the Davis Centre Library. A team is developing plans for the Information Commons, including a Flexible Learning Laboratory similar to the one operating in the Dana Porter Library. The group will consider design and cost details and will take into account the broader Library goal of enhancing and modernizing the entire Davis Centre Library learning environment."

Speaking of the university librarian . . . an advisory committee is carrying out a search for a head of the library to succeed Shepherd when he retires next year. Gary Waller, associate provost (academic and student affairs) and chair of the committee, reports that the committee "is meeting regularly and invites comments from members of the university community. Particularly, the committee welcomes input on the following: What are the issues (opportunities, challenges) facing UW and the Library in the future, and what do these mean for the characteristics and qualities we should be seeking in the next University Librarian?" Comments can be directed to Waller or to any member of the committee.

Today is the suggested deadline day for submissions to the review of information technology at UW that's now in progress. Written comments should be sent to Anne Wagland in the office of the provost, Needles Hall. One person who has already accepted the invitation to comment is Simon Woodside, a recent computer science graduate who was involved with such organizations as 'uwstudent.org' and the Open CECS Online group. In his letter, which is posted online, he says he has found UW's information systems and technology department uninterested in working with students: "If the situation today is as I found it in 2000, then I hold it as a mark of shame on my degree."

The latest issue of the faculty association newsletter has a long letter from Roydon Fraser, of the mechanical engineering department, complaining about the Student Information Systems Project. The new requirements of the scheduling system, for instance, are driving people crazy, says Fraser, and yet faculty aren't protesting en masse. Why not? "They are adapting. Survival instincts, you might call it. For example, faculty are moving courses once the term starts without informing the university, and often without informing the department. Furthermore, I have been informed that it is 'official unofficial' policy that changes to course scheduling are permissible outside SISP because it is often too difficult to make the changes within SISP."

Two UW students will be competing tomorrow in the world triathlon championships in Cancún, Mexico. Both are in what Triathlon Canada calls the "age group" category, rather than the very small "elite" team. Caroline Amyot, a graduate student in civil engineering, won the "women 20-29" category in this summer's Blue water Triathlon in Sarnia and was second in her category in TriEdmonton. Meanwhile, environmental engineering student Kyle Guembel was first in his category in the Muskoka Triathlon and second in last year's Guelph Triathlon. Both have also competed for Warrior cross-country teams, while Amyot has also swum for UW and Guembel has been a member of the ski team. In Cancún tomorrow, they'll be called on to swim 1.5 kilometres, bike 40 km and run 10 km against some of the best athletes in the world.

Here's a note from Ann Barrett, manager of the English Language Proficiency Program: "We have been offering Essay Writing and Grammar Skills workshops this term. Although the final Essay Writing workshop of the term is full, there is still plenty of space in Grammar Skills, which will be held on Wednesday, November 13, from 9:30 to 11:00. Our instructor, Mark Spielmacher, is expert at making his subject entertaining, so for all those students or staff out there who don't know the difference between its and it's, or what a comma splice is, come and learn. Your professors/bosses will shed tears of joy when you hand in your grammatically perfect work." Anyone interested can register through counselling services, phone ext. 2797.

[Warrior Classic logo]
Sports this weekend
The men's volleyball Warriors host their "Classic Tournament" all weekend in the Physical Activities Complex. In other action, there's basketball against Ottawa tonight and Carleton tomorrow in the PAC; both days there are women's games at 6:00 and men's games at 8:00. Warriors swimmers have, a dual meet against York, tonight at 7:00 in the PAC pool. And the men's hockey Warriors host York at 2:00 Sunday afternoon at the Icefield.
Away from home, the badminton team is in a crossover tournament at Western, and the cross-country team is also at Western for national championship competition. The women's hockey team is at Toronto this afternoon and at Laurier on Sunday (3:30). The women's volleyball plays at Guelph tomorrow. And the men's rugby team is in the bronze medal game in OUA playoff action, facing Queen's tomorrow at 11 a.m. in London.

The weekend, and looking ahead

One of the most noted film directors from the former East Germany, Frank Beyer, will be a guest of UW's Germanic and Slavic department this Friday. Banned for a time in the late 1960s, Beyer became internationally known for his 1974 film "Jakob der Lügner" ("Jacob the Liar", right). Today at 2:30 he will read from his autobiography (in German, with questions welcome in either German or English), and at 6:00 he will introduce a showing of the film. More information about Beyer and the visit is available on the web.

Co-op students who were on work term in the spring can pick up their work reports -- those marked by co-op coordinators -- in Needles Hall today.

A one-hour training session and quiz about the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System, or WHMIS, is offered at 2:00 this afternoon in Davis Centre room 1304. It'll be repeated next Wednesday at 10 a.m., same location.

The "iWeb" group, meeting in the LT3 technology centre, has a session on Impatica for PowerPoint, today at 11 a.m. in Dana Porter Library room 329.

"An Auction and Celebration of Native Art" to support "Aboriginal initiatives" at St. Paul's United College -- including the recently announced plan to hire a counsellor for native students -- is scheduled for tonight at the college. Preview of the art begins at 5:30 (catalogues are already available) and the live auction begins at 7:00. A ticket price of $5 includes wine, finger food, live entertainment, "and an opportunity to meet local artists. Quality native art for 40% to 60% of retail. Help St. Paul's better serve the UW aboriginal community."

Also tonight: The Chinese Christian Fellowship presents Lifesong, "a night of music, drama and sharing about the perfect love of our God", starting at 7:00 in Arts Lecture Hall room 116. . . . Members of the Tamil Students Association are going rollerblading at the Phoenix tonight. . . . CIBC, the "Bank of Commerce", has the Humanities Theatre booked for a "customer appreciation" event. . . .

The East Asian Festival, based at Renison College, winds up Saturday with a Cultural Day celebration (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) at Cameron Heights Collegiate in Kitchener. Promised is "a fun-filled day for the family, complete with demonstrations of traditional dances, martial arts, music, costumes and crafts". Also, there will be East Asian food, cultural displays, bonsai demonstrations, origami and calligraphy workshops. In the afternoon, there will be performances by the Peking Opera and Yakudo traditional Japanese drummers. The festival concludes at 6:30 p.m. with a fund-raising dinner and silent auction at Federation Hall. A gourmet meal, with Chinese, Japanese and Korean food, will be featured. Performances of traditional Chinese folk music, Korean dancers and Yakudo drummers will keep guests entertained, and a silent auction is also on the menu.

Saturday night brings the engineering semi-formal.

Monday, being November 11, is Remembrance Day, and there will be two services on campus:

At St. Bede's Chapel, Renison College, starting at 10:45; the speaker is John Toews, president of Conrad Grebel University College.
In the foyer of Carl Pollock Hall, sponsored by the Engineering Society, starting at 10:50; student presentations are featured.

And along quite different lines, Monday will bring "a show-and-tell visit" from Sun Microsystems, starting at 9:30 in Davis Centre room 1304. The presentation will be repeated at 1 p.m. RSVPs are "appreciated, especially if you want there to be enough donuts', and go to Robyn Landers, rblanders@math.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
November 8, 1971: The Athletic Advisory Board meets to discuss the problem of spectators throwing bottles and otherwise being rowdy during Warrior football games. November 8, 1997: The Warriors win the Yates Cup, representing the Ontario football championship, for the first time ever.