October 10, 2002

Thursday, October 10, 2002

Prof explains the meaning of life
Students answer 25 math questions
Givers frustrate Dr. Famine
Other notes and events today

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[Gotta wear shades]
Staff association leaders Steve Breen and Chris Henderson brandished balloons in UW colours yesterday as things got going for "staff appreciation day", held in gorgeous fall sunshine outside the Student Life Centre. The event included impromptu remarks by president David Johnston and provost Amit Chakma. Photo by Graphics Photo/Imaging.

Prof explains the meaning of life

James Kay, of UW's department of environment and resource studies, is the central figure in the cover story of this week's New Scientist magazine, and he doesn't think small.

[New Scientist] "The Meaning of Life" is the title of the article, by New York freelance writer JR Minkel, although the magazine's cover (right) refers to "The Exergy Machine" in big black type.

It's all about the second law of thermodynamics, a term familiar to engineers, chemists, economists and anyone who thinks about energy. The law says that from being concentrated, energy spreads and gets dissipated. It's called entropy.

"Life isn't a closed system," Minkel reminds readers of the British-published magazines, one of the world's top scientific periodicals. "It's sitting in a Universe that is already way out of equilibrium.

"In the early 1980s at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, systems engineer James Kay was wondering about this problem, looking for a way to incorporate thermodynamics into a general theory of biological systems. . . ."

The resulting research is based on Kay's 1984 PhD dissertation for the systems design engineering department, he explains. Its title: "Self-Organization in Living Systems". And he's been working on thermodynamics, complexity and ecosystems ever since -- in part with American biologist Eric Schneider, and also with Roydon Fraser of UW's mechanical engineering department, former visiting professor Jeffrey Luvall, and others. One of his papers with Schneider, published in 1994, "Life as a Manifestation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics", has been labeled "one of the 12 most important papers in ecology 1970-1999" for a new anthology.

Essentially, Minkel says, Kay and Schneider -- using the concept of "exergy", the amount of energy that's available for use -- argue that "exergy drives evolution" and explains the complexity and diversity of living things, from redwood forests to DNA. One colleague approvingly says they "are asking really important questions about the physical underpinnings of life at a time when looking for general principles of biology is frowned upon."

Teaching awards in engineering

Three "teaching excellence awards", given by the Sandford Fleming Foundation, were presented at last week's annual Engineering Dinner.
The awards are "in recognition of an exemplary record of outstanding teaching, concern for students and a commitment to the development and enrichment of engineering education at Waterloo". They're given annually.
This year's winners are Mark Pritzker of chemical engineering, Ajoy Opal of electrical and computer engineering, and Don Grierson of civil engineering.

Students answer 25 math questions -- from Ian VanderBurgh of the faculty of mathematics

This past Saturday, 85 excited first and second year students participated in the Second Annual Small c Mathematics Contest. The Contest itself was 1 hour long, and consisted of 25 multiple choice questions. The scores were immediately calculated, and winners announced after a tiebreaker question had been used.

The top three first year students were Kevin Ng, Feng Tian, and Kartikaya Gupta. The top three second year students were Lino Demasi, Gary Au, and Michael Huang. T-shirts and books were given out as prizes. Random draw prizes were awarded to Shaun Slipetz, James Martens, Clarence Chow, Ricky Tai, and Vinayak Ganeshan.

A question from this year's contest is: A 4 by 4 "antimagic" square is an arrangement of the numbers 1 to 16 inclusive in a square, so that the totals of the four rows and four columns and two main diagonals are ten consecutive numbers in some order. The diagram shows an incomplete antimagic square.

  4  5  7  14
  6 13  3   A
 11 12  9
 10

When it is completed, what number will replace the A?

Special thanks to co-organizer Peter Crippin, and to Lloyd Auckland, Christopher Small, Ruth Malinowski, Mark MacDonald, Graeme Kemkes, Bonnie Findlay, and Carolyn Jackson for all of their help.

[Posed with white balloon]
Givers at Renison: At the same time as the United Way campaign comes the Thanksgiving food drive in support of the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. Staff, faculty and students collected 282 pounds of nourishment last week for the drive. Celebrating are faculty member Dominique Hurley, Fred Lehman of the food bank (who also made a guest appearance in an English as a Second Language class), Renison principal John Crossley, staff member Joanne Bynoe and Korean exchange student Sung-gi Hwang.

Givers frustrate Dr. Famine

"Dr. Famine has created a force that weakens the human spirit of giving," staff in one of UW's departments have been warned.

And only the protection afforded them by anti-force balls -- which might resemble Timbits to the eyes of less perceptive observers -- is enabling the staff to fight back. That, and "anti-shielding antidote", available at $1 dose.

The money goes to the campus United Way campaign, in case you were wondering, and the battle against Dr. Famine is all part of the campaign as it's being waged in the distance and continuing education office at UW's "Kitchener campus" on Gage Avenue.

"Dr. Famine has made base in Waterloo," staff were warned by e-mail as the adventures started early this week. "He's out to destroy the act of giving and promote hunger and starvation to the underprivileged. We need you, Agent DCE, to defeat him. You are our only hope!"

Behind the excitement are a pair of United Way volunteers from the DCE office, Anuja Aggarwal and Megan Jack. "They have made donating to the United way campaign so much fun," one of their co-workers old me yesterday. "Last year they created a bingo card that we could purchase, it would appear on our computer screen and around noon hour at the sound of the music from Survivor, everyone in the office would stop for 10 minutes and play bingo with the letters called over the intercom system. We did this maybe two times a week.

"This year, Anuja, the mastermind, and Megan have gone all out. Everyone in DCE gets an email from headquarters, urging us agents to defeat the evil Dr. Famine. We have to wear disguises, wear our clothes inside out and pay a dollar to go through a machine that makes us invisible, purchase devices that will prevent Dr. Famine from weakening our spirit of giving -- we're also encouraged to eat anti-force balls available in the break room for extra protection.

"Hokey, for sure, but lots of fun!"

The United Way campaign is seeking to raise $150,000 in support of more than 80 social service and health care programs, offered by agencies ranging from the Victorian Order of Nurses to the Friendship Group for Seniors. As of yesterday, gifts and pledges from staff, faculty and retirees had reached $79,089.

Other notes and events today

"Students should," says a quick note from the registrar's office, "update their address, e-mail and telephone number through Quest." (Also brush their teeth and renew their drivers' licences, but I don't suppose the registrar's office cares about that.)

Today is job ranking day for students in chartered accountancy programs, the co-op department says, while interviews continue for students in other programs aiming for winter term jobs. Ah, how bittersweet it is to realize that this round of interviews will be the last one conducted in Needles Hall -- the new co-op and career services building should be ready this winter.

The career development seminar series continues, with "Letter Writing", "Resumé Writing", and "Making Polished Presentations" scheduled for today. The career resource centre in Needles Hall has details and sign-up sheets.

It's the last day for the Know the Score "responsible gambling" program: the booth will be open in the Student Life Centre from 11:00 to 2:00 and 5:00 to 7:00 today.

The bookstore says its "FX02 Future Expo" sale of computer books, in the Davis Centre lounge, has been held over for an extra day, namely today.

David Bellhouse of the University of Western Ontario will speak this afternoon on "Stillbirth of a Canadian Statistical Society in 19th Century Canada" (3:30 p.m., Math and Computer room 5158).

"Advanced Software for Engineers" is an evening seminar being offered tonight by the local chapter of engineering alumni. The event starts at 6:00 in Carl Pollock Hall and will make use of the new multimedia computing lab to tell engineers about Simulink Matlab, I-deas, LabView, Adams, Mathcad and Maple.

The local branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs has its first program of the season tonight. Graeme Simpson of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa is the speaker, at 7:30 at the former Seagram Museum, 57 Erb Street West -- soon to be the home of the new Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Peter Fulcher of the plant operations department reports that a work crew "will be closing a stairway in Carl Pollock Hall, on the first and second floor, for painting on Friday. The stairwell is located by the loading dock. The loading dock entrance will be open. Signs have been posted."

The staff association is looking for people to fill seats on its finance review committee, the joint health and safety committee and the nominating committee. Anne Jenson (jajenson@icr) is taking applications and can provide more information.

Advance note: next Wednesday, October 16, could be a day for planning the future. It brings both Professional and Post-Degree Day, with representatives from some 44 universities here to provide information about graduate and professional programs, and the annual MBA and law school fair at Wilfrid Laurier University. I'll give details on Tuesday.

And the volunteer creators of the "mywaterloo" web portal report that its popularity just keeps growing. There were 40,000 hits on the page last week, says Bruce Campbell of engineering computing, representing "about 6,391 unique users".

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
October 10, 1961: The university calls tenders for construction of the Arts building (later to be called Modern Languages).