![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, November 25, 2004
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Antique Santa]](/images/2004/1125santa.gif)
Looking ahead to the holidayIt's beginning to look a little like Christmas, although the holiday is still a month away. To be accurate, here's the plan: the last working day of the year at UW will be Thursday, December 23. Staff then get 11 straight days off, and offices reopen on Tuesday, January 4, 2005.The monthly payday for December will be Thursday, the 23rd. Last day of fall term classes is Monday, December 6. Exams run from December 9 through Wednesday, December 22. The winter term starts Tuesday, January 4. |
The Bob Rae "review" of post-secondary education in Ontario held one of its town hall meetings last night in Guelph, and the road show comes to Kitchener-Waterloo today, with a meeting set for 7 p.m. at the Recreation Centre at Conestoga College in south Kitchener. Everybody's invited, although online pre-registration was suggested. Certainly a number of UW leaders are expected to be there, to press the points raised in UW's brief to the review, including the need for more provincial funding for co-op programs. Student leaders will also be on hand, not necessarily agreeing with what UW's brief says about "flexibility" on tuition fees; the leadership of UW's Federation of Students, in particular, is in tune with proposals from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, which speaks of "controlling skyrocketing tuition fees". Tonight's meeting will be chaired not by Rae himself but by another former premier of the province, and member of Rae's advisory committee, William G. Davis.
Four students enrolled in the Certificate in University Teaching program will be presenting their research findings at 2:00 this afternoon in Math and Computer room 5158. The speakers are Carmen Bailian ("Learning Styles"), Aphrodite Dracopoulos ("Problem Based Learning in the Optometry Curriculum"), Kate Hano ("Integrating of Individuals with Learning Disabilities into Canadian Universities"), and Graeme Kemkese ("Teaching to Reduce Math Anxiety").
The staff association's 11th annual craft sale runs today (from 10 to 4) and tomorrow (9 to 3) in the Davis Centre lounge. UW staff members and retirees will be selling things they make: knitting, baskets, ornaments, chocolates, candles, ceramics, quilting, and so on. With 10 per cent of the proceeds going to the Senate Scholarship Fund and Staff Association Bursary, students also benefit from the event (last year to the tune of more than $1,100, says Sue Fraser of the kinesiology department, who chairs the association's social committee). She notes that there will also be a raffle of donated items, with all the proceeds going to the same funds.
Speaking of the staff association, today's the deadline for expressions of interest in staff positions on several committees: the Employee Assistance Program committee, the nominating committee for UW's vice-president (university research), and the association's own nominating committee. Information is available on the web.
The "Jail and Bail" fundraising event at St. Jerome's University, raising funds to help build a school in Kenya, is scheduled for tomorrow. . . . Signs indicate that the planning school's Pragma Council, an advisory body of professional planners, is meeting today. . . . Previews continue today for the fine arts department's miniature art exhibition and sale, which is set to open Friday at 4 p.m. . . .
Finally, I wrote a bit yesterday about work that's about to start to renovate Woolwich and Waterloo Courts at the UW Place residence complex, and said that Wilmot Court, as well as the two towers (Beck and Eby Halls) had already undergone the same process. Don't forget Wellesley Court, says a note that quickly arrived from a long-time UW Place resident. He calls himself "a UWP lifer . . . I've been here since Beck Hall first opened, and the only renovated building I haven't lived in is Wilmot." So the imminent work on Woolwich and Waterloo will complete the whole complex.
"RIM's gold-level sponsorship of $50,000 is an excellent boost to our event," said Robert Gorbet, an electrical and computer engineering professor who helped to bring the regional competition to Waterloo. "RIM's commitment to FIRST is exemplary -- they sponsor a local school team, provide a judge for the competition and will now be one of our key event sponsors. We're pleased to be working with them."
UW is the second Canadian site to be given an opportunity to hold a regional competition, after the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.
The annual competition now involves 27 events, with more than 900 teams from Canada, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Britain and almost every U.S. state. It involves short games played by remote-controlled robots that are designed and built in six weeks out of a common set of basic parts by a team of 15 to 25 students and a handful of engineer mentors. The students pilot the robots on the field.
The event is called "an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way." The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines and deadlines. FIRST competitions are open to the public.
Regional competitions are often held at universities and involve 40 to 70 teams cheered by thousands of fans over two and a half days. A championship event caps the season. Referees oversee the competition and judges present awards to teams for design, technology, sportsmanship and commitment. The contest had its start in 1989 in New Hampshire, with the championship now held at such places as Disney World and the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Universities, colleges, corporations, businesses and individuals provide scholarships to the student participants. As well, involved engineers experience again many of the reasons they chose engineering as a profession and their companies contribute to the community while they prepare and create their future workforce. The competition is meant to show students that technological fields hold many opportunities and the basic concepts of science, math, engineering and invention are exciting and interesting.
| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Montréal Massacre memorial service remembering 14 women
murdered in 1989, 11:30, Paul Martin Centre, Wilfrid Laurier
University.
'Creating CVs and Cover Letters', teaching resources seminar aimed at graduate students, 12 noon, details online. Women in Engineering technical talk 4:30, Rod Coutts Hall room 307. English Society student-faculty mixer, 5 to 8 p.m., Humanities room 334. 'Spirituality in Caring': talk by Peter L. VanKatwyk, presented by Spiritual Heritage Education Network, 7:30, CEIT room 1015. Issues in Native Communities lecture series: Memee Lavell, "The Search for a New Way Forward: The Aboriginal Experience in Education", 8:00, MacKirdy Hall, St. Paul's United College. Tourism lecture series: Julia Harrison, Trent University, "Charting the Tourists' Travels", Friday 9:30 a.m., PAS room 1229. Centre for International Governance Innovation presents Jennifer Clapp, Trent University, "The Political Economy of Genetically Modified Food Aid", Friday 12 noon, 57 Erb Street West, reservations rsvp@cigionline.ca. Warrior Weekend activities in the Student Life Centre: movies Friday ("Zoolander" 9:30, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" 11:30), dance lessons and games Saturday, details online. |
Chemical engineering. Noppadol Benchapattarapong, "Mass Transfer in a Simulated Pseudoplastic Fermentation Broth." Supervisors, W.A. Anderson and M. Moo-Young. Thesis on deposit in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Monday, December 13, at 10 a.m., Doug Wright Engineering room 2534.
Statistics and actuarial science. Wenyu Jiang, "Resampling Estimating Functions with Dependent Structure." Co-supervisors, J.D. Kalbfleisch and J. Chen. Thesis on display in the faculty of mathematics, MC 5090. Oral available on overnight loan to any interested faculty member until defence Monday, December 13, at 10 a.m., Math and Computer room 6007.
Biology. William B. Anderson, "Endotoxins in Drinking Water: Mechanisms of Release from Biofilms and Response to Treatment Technologies." Supervisors, C. I. Mayfield and D. G. Dixon. On display in the faculty of science, ESC 254A. Oral defence Monday, December 13, 1 p.m., Biology I room 266.
Systems design engineering. Chad Schmitke, "Modelling Multibody Multi-Domain Systems Using Subsystems and Linear Graph Theory." Supervisor, J. McPhee. Thesis on deposit in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Tuesday, December 14, 1 p.m., Davis Centre room 1307C.
English. Valerie Creelman, "Household Words: The Rhetoricity of Fifteenth-Century Gentlewomen's Household Letters." Supervisor, Lynne Magnusson (adjunct). Thesis on deposit in the faculty of arts, HH 317. Oral defence Wednesday, December 15, 11 a.m., Humanities room 373.
Electrical and computer engineering. Yaxun Liu, "Efficient Simulation of EM Response of Dielectric Objections in Multilayered Medium." Supervisor, S. Safavi-Naeini. Thesis on deposit in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Tuesday, December 14, 1 p.m., CEIT room 3142.
Statistics and actuarial science. Victor Mooto Nawa, "Analysis of Developmental Trajectories and Binary Longitudinal Data." Supervisor, K.S. Brown. Thesis on display in the faculty of mathematics, MC 5090. Oral defence to be held Tuesday, December 14, 9:30 a.m., Math and Computer room 6007.
Biology. Neelakanteswar Aluru, "Impact of Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Activation on the Cortisol Response to Stress in Rainbow Trout." Supervisor, M. Vijayan. On display in the faculty of science, ESC 254A. Oral defence Friday, December 17, 9:30 a.m., Biology I room 266.
CAR