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Wednesday, December 10, 2003

  • Preparing for R&T park's next building
  • Hockey stars face national team
  • From all corners of the campus
Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

World Summit on the Information Society


[Steel arches]

Betty Breen and colleagues in the design section of UW Graphics turned these steel arches on the north campus . . .

Preparing for R&T park's next building

Work on the north campus research and technology park takes another step today, as a "request for expressions of interest" is sent out to developers and builders.

They're being asked to submit proposals for the park's second building, a multi-tenant structure that includes an "accelerator centre" for tiny businesses on their way to bigger success. An information meeting is scheduled for January 7, and proposals are due by the end of January, says Carol Stewart, recently hired as manager of business development for the UW-owned park.

[R and T park logo]

. . . into this logo for the Research and Technology Park.

The first building, a home for Sybase subsidiary iAnywhere Solutions, is under construction now near the highest point in the park, at the traffic circle where Hagey Boulevard (running up from Columbia Street) crosses Wes Graham Way. Stewart, representing UW and the other public and private partners in the R&T park, is working on other businesses to make a similar move.

Publicity material is promoting the park with phrases like "radical innovation . . . aggressive research . . . unprecedented access". Companies are told that a location right on UW's land, a short walk from the main campus, will also bring them easy access to faculty research, employable students (on co-op terms and after graduation), and enthusiastic alumni with marketable ideas.

"We have an explicit commitment from a select complement of our faculty," one briefing says, "to welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the Research Park's tenants. . . . A leadership team of alumni is explicitly committed to offering its expertise. . . . Tenants will be given Access Program coordination resources to assist them with multiple types of activities focused at the student body to raise their own profile among this key audience."

Today's "request for expressions of interest" is aimed at finding "a Development Team to design, finance, construct, own and lease out a Class A multi-tenant office facility" for small companies and the accelerator centre, on a Hagey Boulevard site just above Columbia Street. UW will own the land, the Region of Waterloo will own the building -- to be up to 100,000 square feet, as big as Chemistry II -- and the developer will lease them both.

An important tenant is the accelerator centre. Documents being issued to possible developers explain that it'll be operated by a special non-profit corporation, with funds from federal, provincial and regional governments. It says: "The Accelerator Centre will encourage the growth of high-tech firms and act as a catalyst for the creation of new products and services. It will provide a fertile environment to commercialize the innovative work done in universities and colleges, hospitals and laboratories, and in private sector research facilities. It is intended that the Accelerator Centre will provide a broad range of services including IP management consultation, mentoring, access to professional service providers, community networking events and investor matchmaking with innovators. Common services, including office and meeting space, administrative services, etc., will be available to clients, who will be encouraged to commercialize their ideas and ultimately lease space within the Facility or other areas of the Research Park."

[Goal judge watches]

Mike Della Mora (#9) in action during the Warriors' 3-2 victory over Queen's on November 28

Hockey stars face national team

Mike Della Mora, star forward of the men's hockey Warriors, will be part of an Ontario universities "Selects" team that will face the Canadian junior national team in Kitchener twice this weekend. Karl Taylor, head coach of the Warriors, will be an assistant coach for the university team. The head coach is Mark French of the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks.

Della Mora is leading the Warriors with 8 goals in fall term play. The team was 4-9 through the end of November, and stands at the bottom of the OUA Far West division.

The games are being played to get the Canadian team tuned up for the World Junior Championships, to be played in Finland starting the day after Christmas. Two exhibition games are planned, Sunday and Monday, at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

The Ontario University Athletics roster features 20 of the top players in the conference, selected by the assembled coaching staff in consultation with other OUA coaches. The Lakehead Thunderwolves, ranked fifth in Canada, had four players selected, the most by any team. Despite the "Ontario" label, the team has a French connection as well, with four players coming from the Québec schools that compete in OUA men's hockey.

The games will be played Sunday and Monday at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $11 (children and seniors $7 and $8) for one game, or $16 and $18 (children and seniors $14 and $16) for the pair. They're available from the Auditorium box office at 745-0303.

WHEN AND WHERE
Mature students lunch, 12 noon today -- last-minute information, ext. 2429.

"The Nutcracker", children's performance, 1 p.m., Humanities Theatre.

K-W Symphony, "What's So Grossi About Concerti?" including Bach's Brandenburg Concerto no. 2, 8 p.m., Theatre of the Arts.

Pension and benefits committee, 9 a.m. Thursday, Needles Hall room 3004.

Understanding the Learner workshop for teaching assistants and other instructors, 1:30 to 4:30 Thursday, information ext. 3132.

Job descriptions workshop for supervisors responsible for preparing them, 2:30 Thursday, Davis Centre room 1302.

ONE CLICK AWAY
  • Report of the Task Force on Future Requirements for Graduate Education in Ontario
  • Etudes sans Frontières (Students Without Borders)
  • Ontario application statistics 2002
  • Council of Ontario Universities briefing notes
  • Laurier moves into the wireless era
  • A book about teaching literature
  • Supreme Court case on Internet property rights
  • Overview of the new Canadian Permanent Resident Card
  • University of the Arctic offers new degree
  • How many appliances in your residence room?
  • Public Goods, Private Benefits and the University
  • French students 'resist university reform'
  • From all corners of the campus

    Painting the campus is a bit like the old thing about painting the Brooklyn Bridge: it never stops. Just at present a plant operations paint crew is at work in Needles Hall, and I've been asked to mention (for those who hadn't noticed) that the main staircase, the one that runs at a vertiginous angle from the first to the second floor, is closed. When I went by yesterday, a pair of workers seemed to be wrapping things in plastic, Christo-style, presumably to prevent anything falling down onto Pastry Plus. The job's expected to continue for the rest of the week.

    Today brings the "Better Recordings" seminar organized by the audio-visual centre for the benefit of researchers who want to improve their audio and video clips for PowerPoint and other end products. "Many helpful tips" are promised, and clearly the product is in demand, as I'm told that the room will be full and no more reservations are being accepted.

    As I mentioned yesterday, there's an open house tonight, organized by the city of Waterloo, to explain its plans for widening narrow, rutted Columbia Street from the campus east toward King, "with provisions for an on-road cycle path and auxiliary lanes at the major intersections". The open house runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Northdale building of Waterloo Collegiate Institute on Hickory Street. "Plans will be presented detailing the extent of the road reconstruction, construction staging, road closure, water and storm/sanitary sewer improvements, hydro location and tree removal." The number to call for more information about the project: 747-8604.

    A session titled "Introduction to UWone Gradebook" will be offered tomorrow morning, and again on the afternoon of December 18, by the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology: "This feature of UWone provides a facility for instructors to maintain a gradebook for each course they teach. Marks can be collected from on-line (and off-line) quizzes, homework dropboxes within UWone and assignments submitted outside of UWone. Course requirements/marks can be organized into weighted categories that are then used to compute an overall grade for each student. Grades can be imported from another program into Gradebook and exported from Gradebook into a spreadsheet or database. These sessions are appropriate for both current and future UWone course instructors." Registration is through the LT3 web site.

    The key control office sends word that its hours will be limited tomorrow: service will be available only from 8:30 to 11:45 and 2:15 to 4:30. I think perhaps a departmental Christmas lunch is involved.

    And . . . a staff orientation session is being held Friday morning, and invitations have gone to all (non-union) staff who started work at UW since March. In addition, the human resources department announced yesterday that other staff who might be interested are welcome to attend the half-day session. Anyone interested should call Carolyn Vincent at ext. 2078 as soon as possible.

    CAR


    Communications and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
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