October 22, 2002

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

New engineering dean is named
Innovation funding for two projects
St. Jerome's chef cooks for the Queen
Marking Waste Reduction Week
Today's events and other notes

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

International Stuttering Awareness Day

New engineering dean is named

UW's new dean of engineering -- starting July 1, 2003 -- will be Adel Sedra (left), an internationally known electrical engineer who completed nine years as vice-president and provost at the University of Toronto earlier this year.

David Johnston, president of UW, announced the appointment as soon as the board of governors gave final approval at a special meeting last night. "I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Sedra into our UW family," says Johnston in a memo announcing the news. "He brings to Waterloo the wisdom, commitment and energy to make our excellent Faculty of Engineering one of the best in the world, and will be an integral member of UW's senior administrative team."

Sedra will take over from Sujeet Chaudhuri, also an electrical engineer, who declined to be considered for a second term as dean.

The new dean was chosen by a nominating committee that included faculty, students and staff and was chaired by provost Amit Chakma, himself a professor of chemical engineering.

Sedra held the number two position at U of T during a difficult time in that university's life, Johnston points out in his memo. "During this period he oversaw the development of a reliable long-term budget strategy that helped the University maintain its commitment to excellence and to selectively grow during a period of tremendous fiscal challenges."

Even during his years as provost at U of T, Sedra continued to work actively in his field of engineering. Since ending his term he has been a full-time professor of electrical and computer engineering at Toronto, where he first joined the faculty in 1969. He will come to Waterloo as a tenured professor in E&CE.

He is a well-known engineering educator who specializes in the areas of microelectronics, focusing on the theory and design of circuits for communication and instrumentation systems. His work has resulted in about 150 published articles and the publication of a textbook, now in its fourth edition, that has been translated into nine languages and is used in hundreds of universities around the world. He also holds three patents.

Sedra is the recipient of various awards and honours including the 1988 Frederick Emmons Terman Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, the 1996 Education Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Third Millennium Medal of the IEEE.

Born in Egypt, he holds a BSc from Cairo University and an MASc and PhD from Toronto. He is a Professional Engineer.

[Mostly green]
From above: Chris Hughes of Graphics photo-imaging caught this view from the roof of the Dana Porter Library in mid-September. Roughly clockwise: the Graduate House, the Doug Wright Engineering Building, one tower of UW Place, and South Campus Hall. Along the horizon are city landmarks including the Marsland Centre and Clarica.

Innovation funding for two projects -- from the UW news bureau

Paul Guild, vice-president (university research), has welcomed an investment of $349,038 in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation that will provide infrastructure support to five newly recruited faculty members. The announcement brings to 1,513 the number of recipients of the New Opportunities Fund awards nation-wide since the inception of the program in 1997.

At UW, there are two projects supported by the funding. One is for a laboratory for research in programmable hardware for pervasive computing, with $252,654 in funding. This will involve professors Mark Aagard, Paul Ward, Pin-Han Ho and Krzysztof Czarnecki, all of electrical and computer engineering.

The other is for the Waterloo Spatial Decision Support Lab for advanced Geographic Information System (GIS) software for multi-party participation in land use planning and resource management, $96,384. The researcher is Robert Feick of the school of planning.

"Attracting and retaining such high-calibre researchers to our universities is absolutely vital to enhancing Canada's ability to compete in a knowledge-based global economy and will help us achieve our goal of making Canada one of the world's most innovative nations," said industry minister Allan Rock as part of the CFI announcement.

The latest CFI announcement of more than $22 million provides funding to 27 universities and research institutions across Canada. "The CFI Board of Directors has recognized the important role state-of-the-art equipment plays in attracting and retaining the best minds at a time when there is great demand all over the world," said CFI president David Strangway. "They fully appreciate the impact the New Opportunities Fund is having in enabling institutions to plan strategically and to be able to act quickly and flexibly according to needs and priorities. This new allocation will support longer-term institutional planning and recognize institutional differences in the timing of hiring until 2010."

St. Jerome's chef cooks for the Queen -- by Barbara Elve

Gerry Langis (right) is back in the St. Jerome's University kitchen, preparing for lunch, but he can't step outside the cafeteria without being accosted. "Did you really cook for the Queen?" he's asked at least 10 times a day.

The rumours are true, he admits, pulling out the security badge he wore on October 10 to prove it. But he's still surprised at his new status as a celebrity chef.

"The way I cook for the students is the reason I was asked to cook for the Queen," he says simply. "I try to give students the best," explains the St. Jerome's food service manager, who's been serving up his version of "home cooking" at the school since 1988.

His achievements have not gone unnoticed, and when the Queen and her royal entourage scheduled a stop at Sheridan College on her visit to Toronto, Langis was invited to help prepare the luncheon. As an employee of Chartwells catering service (formerly Beaver Foods) -- which also runs the kitchen at Sheridan -- Langis was among six of the company's top chefs chosen to cook for the occasion.

On the menu for the Queen and some 280 guests was Shrimp Cocktail, Ontario Beef Tournedos Rossini with Madeira Sauce, Potatoes Duchess, Array of Green and Yellow Beans, Fresh Apple Dumpling with Muskoka Maple Syrup, and an assortment of Ontario wines to complement the dishes. "It was a very simple meal," he says, "not something we were challenged to do. But it had to be presented well, as fresh and pleasing to the eye as possible."

Staging a meal for 280 is no mean feat, but it went off without a hitch. "We all had our hands in everything. It was like poetry in action."

Although the culinary team received "a lot of good feedback", they didn't catch a glimpse of the Queen. With four security forces on duty, including Scotland Yard, "we couldn't even get close."

Langis says he "was honoured" to be asked to prepare a royal lunch, but is pleased to be back in his own kitchen. Since he received his chef's papers from George Brown College, he's worked at restaurants in Stratford and served a stint at Conestoga College, but his heart is at St. Jerome's.

He enjoys the diversity of experience -- from cooking for students to preparing elaborate banquets for special events, weddings and conferences.

Marking Waste Reduction Week

Here's your chance to talk trash: it's National Waste Reduction Week, and to celebrate the occasion, a Waste Management Open House will be held in the great hall of the Student Life Centre today, from 10:00 to 4:30. It's sponsored by the student-run Sustainability Project with support from the waste management office.

"There will be information booths on waste reduction, recycling; on campus and at home, composting and much more," says waste management coordinator Patti Cook. "I'll have a booth and be there to answer questions too."

Topics for presentations include "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" (10:30 and again at 2:30), "Composting and Vermicomposting" (11:30), "Provincial Facts on Waste Management" (12:30), "Idling is Wasting Fuel" (1:30), and "Waste Management & Sustainability" (3:30).

"Please come," says Cook, "and pick up the latest information on how you can help reduce waste!"

Waste Reduction Week also features off-campus events, including tours of the Waterloo Region landfill site on Erb Street West. "Find out how we are doing in our expanded blue box program," an invitation says, "and how to make Black Gold! Seating is limited. Reservations are required." Tours are this Saturday; the number to call for reservations is 883-5100.

Today's events and other notes

The International Conference on Quality and Innovation, hosted by UW's Institute for Improvement in Quality and Productivity, gets going today at the Waterloo Inn. Keynote speakers at the two-day event will include Paul Guild, UW's vice-president (university research) and Mike Lazaridis of the high-glamour spinoff company Research In Motion. A feature of the conference will be the presentation of the Partners in Quality Award, given by the American Society for Quality, and guess who this year's winners are: the University of Waterloo, and Dennis Beecroft, managing director of IIQP.

[Roll Up Your Sleeves] A blood donor clinic, organized of course by Canadian Blood Services, continues in the Student Life Centre today, tomorrow Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. "This clinic is by appointment," a memo notes. "The sign-up sheet is located at the turnkey desk (or at the donor clinic when it is running). Call 1-888-2DONATE for more information."

The teaching resources and continuing education office presents a workshop on "Teaching Dossiers" at 9:30 this morning (Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 106). The event, intended for teaching assistants and other instructors who want to document and demonstrate what they've done by way of teaching, will be repeated on the afternoon of October 30.

The University Committee on Student Appeals meets at 1:30 this afternoon (Needles Hall room 3001).

A pair of open house events today will give people, both on campus and off, a look at plans for the "environmental reserve" that will sit next to the research and technology park on UW's north campus. The event is focused on the Environmental Assessment for the reserve area. The on-campus open house will run from 2 to 4 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1301. A community open house is scheduled for Albert McCormick Arena on Parkside Drive, just north of the north campus, from 6 to 8 p.m. Staff and consultants will be hand to answer questions and explain the project.

Fed Flicks tonight -- cheap Tuesday movies and popcorn -- include "The 6th Day" at 7:00 and "Minority Report" at 9:00. Tickets are $5 at the door of Federation Hall.

A discussion of "Water Quality and Safety" tonight involves two civil engineering graduate students working in the field, Sarah Dorner and Onita Basu. They'll talk starting at 8 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1302, and there will be "some juice and snacks", provided by the Canadian Water Resources Association.

Tomorrow, the next talk in the English department's "Second Year Lecture Series" will be given by faculty member Sarah Tolmie. Her topic involves a lesser-known mediaeval writer: "The Invisible Man: Thomas Hoccleve". The talk starts at 12:30 tomorrow in Arts Lecture Hall room 124.

The annual general meeting of the Federation of Students will be held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the great hall of the Student Life Centre.

Thursday, the drama and speech communication department hosts the third annual Silversides Theatre Artists Series, this year featuring writer-actor Adam Pettle and actor-director Jordan Pettle, two brothers who trained at the National Theatre School. Adam's recent play (in which his brother starred), "Zadie's Shoes," was a major success when it premiered at Toronto's Factory Theatre last year. The event starts at noon at the UW bookstore in South Campus Hall.

And in case anybody had forgotten: UW's Eighty-fifth Convocation will be held Saturday in two sessions -- 10 a.m. for applied health sciences, arts and social work, 2 p.m. for other programs.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
October 22, 1970: UW's senate refuses a request to cancel classes for a day for a program of workshops and talks about the Vietnam war.