![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
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Monday, November 3, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
"To the best of our knowledge, we are the only school in Canada and one of only a handful in North America that offer this service," says Mark Murdoch, director of food services. He notes that during Ramadan, which began October 27, Mudie's in Village I opens at 4:30 a.m. and offers hot and cold cereals, pastries, and hot breakfast, including all-beef sausage that meets Muslim halal regulations.
As the month of Ramadan continues, devout Muslims at UW, like those around the world, abstain from food and water (as well as other physical pleasures) during daylight hours, and rejoice in spiritual growth when darkness falls. "O you who believe!" the Quran summons them. "Fasting has been prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, so that you may learn self-restraint." Fasting (along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the "five pillars" of Islam.
Abdullah Sameer of the Muslim Students Association reports that the Campus-Wide Fast launched last year will be held again this year, on November 20. It's "an opportunity for non-Muslim students to take part in the Ramadan experience by offering to fast for a day to raise money for a charitable cause", this year the House of Friendship hostel.
Ramadan will also bring Islam Awareness Week (November 17-21), featuring educational exhibits and lectures about Islam.
During the holy month, Sameer noted, there are nightly prayers in the new multi-faith prayer room on the third floor of the Student Life Centre.
Computing courses are scheduledThe information systems and technology department (IST) is offering computing courses in November to UW faculty, staff and students. The following courses are being offered for students: Using PowerPoint for a Class Presentation, Introduction to Microsoft Access.The following courses are part of the Skills for the Academic e-Workplace program, and are offered to faculty, grad students, and staff with instructional responsibilities: Creating Theses with Word, Bibliographic Databases with Reference Manager, Creating Theses with Scientific Workplace and LaTeX, On-Line Thesis Submissions, Visual Basic for Excel, Parallel Computing with MPI, Poster Creation and Presentation with PowerPoint, SAS Part II -- Basic Statistical Analysis, Keeping Current Digitally -- Multidisciplinary. Information about the courses, along with a registration form, can be found on the web. |
He says: "The first step will be to penetrate the roof structure and attach the racking system. The solar panels will then be hoisted up onto the roof and fastened to the racking. Finally, the electrical wiring will be completed and the solar array will go live, producing clean energy for over 50 years."
Everyone is invited to come out to the "Grand Unveiling" of the completed solar array on November 27 at 11 a.m. Tours will be given and displays and videos showing the installation process will be set up.
STEP is a multi-disciplinary group of students and faculty who started in January 2002 with the aim of bringing the first student-designed solar array to the UW campus as a demonstration of renewable energies and climate change solutions.
"Our goal is to get students actively involved in renewable energy projects and thinking about conserving energy," says DeLoyde. The solar array will consist of 36 55-Watt PV panels, which will create a 2 kilowatt array capable of generating about 2,400 kWh per year of electricity -- enough to meet two-thirds of the electricity needs of an energy efficient home. Since the array produces clean energy, more than 1,200 kg of carbon dioxide emissions will not be released by burning fossil fuels.
The free electricity produced by the solar array will save UW $200 annually, DeLoyde says. A display board with a real-time readout of the array's electricity production will be built in front of Fed Hall. He notes: "The solar array employs leading-edge technology and was designed so that the electricity produced will be fed back into UW's power-supply grid in a process called grid-tying. This will avoid the use of environmentally hazardous batteries. Using the grid-tied technology, if all the electricity is not used in Fed Hall, it can be fed into UW's grid and be used anywhere on campus."
Although Waterloo North Hydro is one of a handful of utilities in Ontario that permit grid-tied systems, there are generally no set rules on how much they will pay the owner of such a system, he says. "In areas such as California, legislation exists that mandates utility companies to allow grid-tied solar or wind systems and pay the homeowner a fair price for their electricity."
The STEP team has had more than 55 volunteers since the inception of the project and has raised $40,000 to date through 20 sponsors from UW and local business. Members spent the first year raising funds, then designed the solar array, and since September 2003, have been gaining hands-on skills in the student machine shop building components of the racking system. The team has surpassed the original goal of $25,000 because quotes from contractors to install the array on Fed Hall came in at $16,000, nearly three times the budget.
"To allow us to pay for the contractors, recent sponsorships were generously given by UW president David Johnston, the dean of engineering, the civil engineering department, Ontario Power Generation, Stantec Consulting Ltd., Conestoga Rovers and Associates, and Enermodal Engineering," says DeLoyde.
"We see this as being the first of many student-led renewable energy projects on campus." Possible future projects include a solar sculpture that moves when the sun is out, a solar hot water system on the Physical Activities Complex, and a solar array that tracks the sun.
![[Egoyan]](/images/2003/1101egoyan.gif)
The award-winning Canadian film director will discuss his film -- which deals with the Armenian genocide of 1915-23 -- at this year's Hagey Lecture, "Poetic License and the Incarnation of History," tonight at 8 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre.
As well, Egoyan will conduct a student colloquium tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Modern Languages room 135.
Born in Cairo of Armenian parents and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, Egoyan grew up hearing stories of the massacre of the Armenian population of Turkey in the years around 1915. The tales of the horror that befell his grandparents' generation seemed remote. It wasn't until he began studies at the University of Toronto and met members of the Armenian community there that Egoyan began to explore the impact of the genocide. Although one of the first feature scripts he wrote dealt with the "Armenian issue", it was 20 years later that "Ararat" finally appeared on the screen.
Egoyan's films, which "reflect his own, very personal thematic obsessions, delving into issues of intimacy, displacement and the impact of technology and media in modern life," include "Calendar", "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter". They have garnered numerous prizes at international film festivals, including the Grand Prix and International Critics Awards from the Cannes Film Festival -- and two Academy Award nominations.
Tickets for tonight's lecture are free, and as of Friday there were still some available. They can be picked up from the Humanities box office, 888-4908.
For students who will be on campus next term, rather than out on the job, today's also a significant date, as open enrolment begins for course selections and changes through the Quest system.
![[One car, many pedestrians]](/images/2003/1103caplan1.gif)
Avi Caplan
is an
independent studies student who spent the past summer as a
volunteer with Engineers Without Borders.
He was working in Lira, in northern Uganda, assisting Canadian
Physicians for Aid and Relief with an information and communications
technology project. (The photo shows him on a street in Lira.)
At 5:30 today, the local Engineers Without Borders chapter presents a talk by
Caplan: "He will speak, depending on the interest of the
audience about the challenges involved with introducing computer technology
to a developing area, about the conflict in northern Uganda and the realities
of working there, and about the experience of living as a foreigner in a
different culture."
Location: Physics room 150.
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A workshop on job search strategies for international students starts at 4:30 in Tatham Centre room 1208: "International students will learn best approaches to search for work in Canada after graduation from UW (including visa requirements)."
There will be a special event tomorrow "in recognition of the generous gift by RBC Financial Group to establish the RBC Information Commons". The "information commons" is explained, in the invitation to tomorrow's event, as "a state-of-the-art learning and study space to be located in our Engineering, Mathematics and Science library". The announcement will come following a 12:00 "light lunch" in the Davis Centre lounge, just across the great hall from the library.
A workshop on "teaching dossiers" will be held tomorrow morning, sponsored by the teaching resources and continuing education office, and aimed mostly at graduate students. "You will learn what a teaching dossier is and how you can use one," says TRACE. Among the advance advice to participants: "Choose a metaphor that describes you as a teacher (i.e., gardener, architect, travel guide)." There's more, including details of workshop registration, on the TRACE web site.
The Co-Op Student Services group -- organized by the Federation of Students -- sponsors a forum tomorrow about the long-awaited "Co-op Online" computer system. The forum, says CSS coordinator Karen Ng, "will inform students of the new co-op system, its development, how it will affect the process and how students will need to adjust." It's set for 4:30 tomorrow in Rod Coutts Hall room 101.
And a reminder from health services: "Flu clinics for the general population (students, staff and faculty) will be held from November 11 to 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Life Centre."
CAR