![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, September 9, 2004
|
Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Flag, bass drum, hard hats]](/images/2004/0909eng.gif)
Teamwork
and that can-do spirit mark engineering orientation; this scene
was caught during the Junkyard Wars event yesterday morning on the
Village green. Today brings lots of free time for first-year students
in engineering as well as math and AHS, while students in other fields
throw themselves into such events as the Science Olympics and, in
environmental studies, an outing to the Laurel Creek Conservation Area.
Tonight, it's the semi-formal "Monte Carlo Night" in the Student
Life Centre and Physical Activities Complex, one of the biggest social
events of the year.
The English Language Proficiency Exam will be offered in the PAC at 11:00 (for engineering) and 1:00 (for math, AHS and software engineering). "Single and Sexy" has its final performances of the season today, at 10:00, 1:00 and 4:00 in the Humanities Theatre. |
"These CFI investments will provide world-class facilities and cutting edge tools for Canadian researchers examining complex issues that are of critical importance to the province of Ontario and the rest of Canada," said Carmen Charette, interim president of the federally-funded CFI. "It will also enable outstanding researchers to provide the training and mentoring required by the next generation." Projects and researchers funded at UW:
"Providing Research Infrastructure for Mathematical Excellence." CFI funding: $630,429. Jeff Orchard and Marten Karsten, CS; Chek Beng Chau, Etienne de Klerk, Jochen Konemann, Romy Shioda, and Jacques Verstraete, combinatorics and optimization; Nathalie Lanson, applied math; Michael Rubinstein, pure math; Weidong Tian and Grace Yi, statistics and actuarial science.
The funding will provide specialized high-powered computing equipment and sensors, enabling diverse research ranging from statistical models of financial markets to the development of biomedical prototypes to assist in cancer treatment. The goal is to build up research efforts to offer innovative advances in technology and critical discoveries in mathematical theories that contribute to fields like business efficiency, health care, engineering and cryptography.
"Creation of a High Performance Computational Facility for Quantum Chemistry." CFI funding: $269,424. Martinus Nooijen, chemistry.
The new infrastructure will allow the development and application of new computational methods in quantum chemistry that can help clarify longstanding questions concerning the intricate chemistry of transition metal compounds. These molecular systems, which are important in a wide range of chemical and biological contexts, have largely defied accurate theoretical descriptions up to now. New computational tools are required to understand their rich behaviour and predict their properties from first principles.
"Buildup of a Femtosecond Laser Spectroscopy Laboratory for Biological and Environmental Studies." CFI funding: $172,489. Qing-Bin Lu, physics.
The funding is being used to create a time-resolved (pump-probe) femtosecond laser spectroscopy in the researcher's laboratory, which will obtain observations and controls of reactions in molecular systems of environmental, biological and medical importance.
Two research projects to benefit from the infrastructure funding involve ultra-fast electron-transfer reactions in biological systems and radiation induced reactions of pollutants for ozone depletion. The first project seeks to identify molecular pathways controlling DNA damage and cell death in biological systems, which could be related to a number of diseases, such as cancers, strokes and heart attacks. The second project can have significance in a variety of complex environmental and atmospheric areas, from stratospheric ozone depletion to cleanup (dehalogenation) of environmentally hazardous materials.
"Development of Green Nanotechnology for Nano-Structured Polymers." CFI funding: $128,458. Qinmin Pan and Ali Elkamel, chemical engineering.
The infrastructure support will enable an innovative research program on "Green" Nano-Technology for Nano Polymer Materials, which will also create opportunities to strengthen the training of highly qualified personnel in this frontier area of science and technology.
"Impact of Geological Uncertainty on achieving regulatory compliance objectives used to control subsurface waste disposal or remediation projects." CFI funding: $141,075. Andre Unger, earth sciences.
The new computer equipment will combine sophisticated hydrologic process and remediation design models into a computational framework, providing the means to improve cleanup, closure and redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites. Also, the new equipment will allow the running of watershed-scale hydrologic models to forecast the impact of land use development on groundwater management strategies, including the best timing of alternative water supply measures (such as pipelines from the Great Lakes) to maintain a supply of high quality drinking water using a real options approach.
![[Walker gestures]](/images/2004/0909walker.gif)
The newsletter, distributed with brochures about how to hire students for the coming winter term, includes several profiles of students who have held a variety of interesting jobs.
"Up to now," the article says about Walker (right), "she has spent her entire co-op experience with her first employer." That would be the Calgary office of design firm Stantec Inc., where she's now completed four work terms and wants more.
"It is like home to me," says Walker. Continuing to return to her employer for subsequent work terms allows her more responsibility. "To begin with I did a lot of copying and filing, until they realized what I could do."
Her present official title is Landscape Architectural Technologist, and in her latest term she was heavily involved with production of the technical drawings and graphic presentations for the healing gardens that will surround the new $250 million Alberta Children's Hospital. The hospital is set to open late in 2006.
What are the healing gardens? "Horticultural therapy," Walker explains. "The gardens are for making the hospital as comfortable as possible for the patients who have to be there. It is a lot nicer to be in a hospital where there is somewhere to go, somewhere to play and somewhere to discover things." There are six different gardens set to surround the hospital. The one called "the backyard" is her favourite. "It has a whole bunch of different activities in it. There are basketball courts, playgrounds, a butterfly garden, a green house, a little pond and a huge event lawn for barbecues. It is a massive project and I have been the technical support for it," she says.
The landscape architects for the gardens bring Walker their designs, and she creates presentation boards to make the designs look appealing. The presentation boards are used when she travels around Calgary, visiting different user groups to talk about the garden. Says supervisor Dave Spencer: "She has been able to manage very large and daunting technical production tasks and stay cool under pressure."
He goes on to say, "Kelsey has an excellent attitude and is willing to take on any tasks offered, even if they are somewhat mundane or at the other extreme, challenging."
"From his experiences," the Recruiter article assures employers, "Spencer would definitely consider hiring more UW students. Why? Because UW students are continuously showing their employers how much talent they have."
| WHEN AND WHERE |
|
Digital challenge event for new faculty members to discover
campus technological resources, 9:30 to noon, Flex lab, Dana Porter
Library.
New faculty members welcoming event, by invitation, starts 10:30, details online. Warrior team meetings (new players welcome): men's and women's golf, 4 p.m., PAC room 1001; men's and women's swimming, 5 p.m., PAC room 2021; men's squash, 8:30, PAC room 1001. One Book, Two Restaurants, Three Readers literary evening tonight sponsored by The New Quarterly. Black and Gold Day spirit celebration and men's rugby game, Saturday 3 p.m., Columbia Field 6. Pancake breakfast served by Warrior athletes and coaches, Tuesday 7:30 to 9:30, Brubakers, Student Life Centre, all welcome. Renison College Town and Gown Society 10th anniversary event, 2 p.m. Tuesday, September 14 (rescheduled from today). Karen LeDrew, associate registrar, retirement wine and cheese party, September 15, 3:30 to 6, University Club, RSVP jldean@uwaterloo.ca. Kitchener Rangers hockey game, outing organized by UW Recreation Committee for staff and faculty, Friday, September 24; ticket information e-mail uwrc@admmail. |
Two days of training for UW's Student Ambassadors will start this morning in the Tatham Centre. They're the group of students who conduct campus tours and run other programs to introduce Waterloo to future students. Over the two days they'll be briefed on all aspects of UW, from admission requirements to housing, and they'll end the day tomorrow with words from the president of UW -- and ice cream sundaes. Heather Godelie, acting manager of the visitors' centre, says the newly-trained Ambassadors will be giving their first tours on Monday, and Saturday tours -- popular with high schoolers and their parents -- will start September 18.
An open house for UW's distance education ("correspondence") students has been an annual tradition for decades, but none will be held this year, a newsletter for those students has announced. "You're welcome any time," students are told, and "we'd be happy to make arrangements for you," but the customary Saturday of tours and programming won't be taking place. The distance education office is considering "options for subsequent years" and asking for student suggestions, says the newsletter, which has changed its name: formerly the Correspondent, it's now Connections.
The newsletter of UW's Midnight Sun solar car project reports that Midnight Sun V, which competed internationally in 1999, has found a new home: it's been donated to the Canada South Science City museum in Windsor. "The team worked on Midnight Sun V to restore the solar car to museum quality," the newsletter notes. "The donation is in addition to our active educational campaign for both elementary and secondary school students." Meanwhile, the current incarnation of the car, Midnight Sun VIII, is in day 34 of its planned 40-day North American tour. It passed through Waterloo, New York, yesterday and ended the day in Oswego, on the Lake Ontario shore, using borrowed garage space to shelter from the same rainstorm that hit Kitchener-Waterloo overnight.
The UW bookstore -- as if it wasn't busy enough already with beginning-of-term textbook sales -- is offering a 20 per cent discount on "all regular priced hardcover dictionaries", through September 18. . . . The new CD by UW-based Christian rock band Critical Mass, "Grasping for Hope in the Darkness", is out now, and will be launched with a concert Saturday night at Waterloo Stage Theatre on King Street. . . . Gerald Bergman, who was a custodian in UW's plant operations department from 1976 to his retirement in July 2002, died September 1. . . .
CAR