![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Upside down in front of stage]](/images/2003/0827carousel.gif)
Dancers
from UW's
Carousel Dance Centre
are seen performing at the "Festival of Art and Spirit" at St. Jerome's
University in July. Carousel, which offers training for both adults and
children, will hold an open house tonight from 6 to 8 p.m., with a repeat
tomorrow and again September 4. Carousel makes its home in East Campus
Hall, off Phillip Street. Courses include ballet, modern and jazz dance,
for "ages 3-adult".
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Says their memo: "We know that working conditions were less comfortable than usual. Many of you kept lights off, worked without air conditioning, and powered down computers and other hardware in an effort to conserve.
"During the provincial state of emergency the Premier asked for cooperation by way of cutting energy consumption, and we gave it as power resources were drastically reduced throughout Ontario. In particular, we would like to salute the plant operations team for its hard work, which enabled the University to fulfill its pledge of cutting energy consumption by 50 percent.
"We have now returned to normal operations, but we should all continue to monitor energy consumption, and seek more efficient ways of operating. Your cooperation and your patience made a significant difference last week."
Rick Zalagenas of plant operations stresses that although the campus is back to 100 percent normal operation, his department works on a constant basis to try to conserve energy. He suggests people continue turning off lights and computer monitors that aren't in use, and generally try to be conscious of their energy consumption.
The Olympiad, an annual competition in the discipline of informatics (computing science) for senior high school students, was held at the University of Wisconsin (Parkside). It attracted 265 official competitors from about 75 countries. The competition gave the students an opportunity to test their ability in designing and understanding algorithms, as well as programming.
Matei Zaharia, of Jarvis Collegiate Institute (Toronto), won a silver medal for his 42nd place finish. Simon Parent, of Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate (Kitchener) placed 53rd and also received a silver medal. The other two team members, Sean Henderson of Woburn Collegiate Institute (Toronto) and Geoff Lywood of Archbishop Macdonald H.S. (Edmonton), also performed well, says Troy Vasiga, UW computer science lecturer and director of the Canadian Computing Competition.
"I was very proud of the effort put forth by the team," said Vasiga. "The contest was demanding, and our team put in a very strong performance." The Canadian team was sponsored by Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc.
In late May, 23 students from high schools across Canada competed at UW for a position on the four-member team as part of the second stage of the Canadian Computing Competition. They were selected from more than 1,000 students who took part in the first-stage competition in February.
The Canadian Computing Competition is an activity of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, based in UW's faculty of mathematics. The centre also runs the annual Canadian Mathematics Competition, which offers a series of math contests for students in grade 7 through the final year of high school.
This program is "highly popular", says Dean Perkins, program coordinator for continuing education, but he says there are "a few openings remaining" for the first session of the course, scheduled for September 3, 4 and 5. (It'll be offered again in mid-November.)
Says Perkins: "This three-day course is designed to give new project managers and project team members the essential tools they need to deliver successful projects. This course will benefit both people responsible for managing projects, as well as those active participants on a project team. The course conforms with the internationally recognized standards of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Participants will receive a complete course binder which parallels the course content and serves as an excellent project management resource tool after the course."
More information is available from the continuing ed office -- phone ext. 4002 -- or on its professional development website. Perkins adds: "Remember, permanent, full-time UW employees receive a a 50% discount."
The continuing education program for this fall includes other professional development courses (including a new one on "The Art of Influencing Difficult People"), courses in business communication and languages, many computing courses, and personal development courses with such titles as "Building Your Own Philosophy" and "Writing Popular Fiction".
Meanwhile, things are happening on campus. This afternoon, graduate student Greg Silsbe will be speaking on his work in high-tech learning: "Implementation of a Web-Based Model as a Learning Tool in Aquatic Ecology". The talk is, of course, sponsored by the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology. It starts at 1:00 in the Flex lab, Dana Porter Library room 329.
![[NASA photo]](http://www.solarviews.com/thumb/mgs/hapyface.jpg)
"Happy Face Crater", 215 km across, as seen by the Mars Orbiter in 1999 |
The mathematics undergraduate office is closed today and the rest of this week, as well as next Tuesday. . . . Results from the August 16 sitting of the English language proficiency exam are now available in undergraduate offices and posted at PAS (Psychology) building room 2082. . . . Students awaiting their spring term grades can expect to find them on the Quest computer system as of September 14. . . .
Maintenance work is happening at a feverish pace in various parts of campus. Chilled water will be shut off in much of the Physics building today, and steam and hot water will be shut off in South Campus Hall tomorrow.
CAR