Grants help 'internationalize' courses -- second of three articles by Barbara Elve

Among faculty members who have received "course internationalization grants" for this year is Yulia Gel (right), who recently arrived in Waterloo after earning graduate degrees in Russia and holding appointments in Sweden and the United States. Gel was unfazed by the challenge of infusing her forecasting course, Statistics 443, with an international flavour.

"In short, very diverse multicultural groups of students worked on international statistical projects," she explains. As an example of real-life applications, Gel had groups of three to four students analyze a time series such as economical, financial, legal or meteorological data for a particular country. Groups prepared written reports and gave oral presentations on their findings. Among the projects: Real GDP Growth Rate of Indonesia, Consumption in Belgium, and Sugar Production in the USA.

"Real life examples with international sources enrich the course and help students to understand better and deeper various statistical concepts," says Gel.

The grant money will "help further to develop these strategies in future terms as we can prepare more sound time series databases, collect relevant research papers, etc."

As for the future, Gel is inspired by the response of her students. "I would like to try similar strategies in other applied stat courses, such as linear regression, spatial statistics, etc."

A short distance away in the faculty of applied health sciences, recreation and leisure studies professor Paul Eagles (left) plans to use a grant to digitize some 750 of his "tens of thousands of images collected over 30 years of field work in over 25 countries." His slides will be digitized and stored on CD by UW Graphics.

He'll use the digital images in Ecotourism and Park Tourism (REC/ENVS 433), a course on the planning and management of park tourism, to enable the students "to observe directly the principles and examples that I describe in my lectures.

"Parks are highly complex," he adds, "and an understanding of their landscapes and their management is strengthened by images.... The course evaluations always show student appreciation for strong image representation of concepts and principles."

Eagles also uses case studies and examples from many countries. "These are in the form of lectures, films, and guest speakers. Even though I have no budget for bringing guest speakers from overseas, I am fortunate in having many people drop in to Waterloo for personal collaboration. They often agree to visit my senior classes and share their knowledge with the students. In recent years, I have had people give lectures based on their work in Australia, Uganda, Kenya and Ecuador.

"I am committed to giving my students the broadest international perspective possible," he adds. "I will use whatever methods and approaches that I can, given the time and money available. This small internationalization grant helps along this path."

Interdisciplinary and independent studies move to arts

Effective August 1, the Interdisciplinary Studies Program Board (ISPB) will cease to exist. Interdisciplinary programs will now receive academic approval through the Faculty of Arts. The independent studies degree program will also become part of arts.

“In order to strengthen UW’s interdisciplinary humanities and social science programs, and to streamline the academic approval process for such programs, administrative authority is being consolidated in the Faculty of Arts,” says a memo from Gail Cuthbert Brandt, the associate vice-president academic, who has administered the ISPB until now.

Interdisciplinary programs that will now be administered by the Faculty of Arts include cognitive science, East Asian studies, fine and performing arts, international studies, legal studies, legal studies and criminology, peace and conflict studies, sexuality, marriage and family studies, spirituality and personal development, and women’s studies.

Programs in this group that are not affiliated with a UW college will become part of a new Division of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Faculty of Arts, under the direction of Emanuel Carvalho, associate dean of arts, special programs. They include cognitive science, fine and performing arts, international studies, and women’s studies. In addition, management studies, which was already administered by the Faculty of Arts, will be associated with the new division.

Independent studies, previously a separate degree program external to all faculties, will also be joining the Faculty of Arts and will be housed in the new division.

Business team in Vienna competition -- from the UW media relations office

An alternative energy business hatched in the newly formed Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program has been selected to represent Canada this fall at the Junior Chamber International Best Business Plan Competition.

The final round will be held during the JCI World Congress, which is scheduled to take place October 26-30 in Vienna, Austria. UW's entry is EnerGen Innovations (EGI), founded by UW graduate Ramin Hayratiyan -- who calls himself a "serial entrepreneur."

After deregulation of electricity in Ontario and a dramatic increase in hydro bills in his businesses, Hayratiyan decided to put commercial power generation into the consumer's hand. He designed an innovative low-cost, low-maintenance small wind turbine that can be installed on commercial and residential buildings.

After 11 years away from campus, Hayratiyan returned to Waterloo and the MBET program "to gain the tools and knowledge to commercialize his idea." While working on his MBET, he met the rest of his team: Flor Garcia (corporate logistics and finance), Tim Tang (electrical engineer) and Alvaro Tascon (industrial engineer and accounting). They have a working prototype for the wind turbine (which can generate 30 to 50 kilowatts of electricity) and are currently looking for financing to commercialize their idea.

Under the mentorship of Paul Doherty, associate director of the MBET program, and with the help of other faculty and advisory council members, the team won the second place standing in the UW/WLU LaunchPad $50K Venture Creation Competition held earlier this year.

JCI is a Chamber of Commerce initiative with 6,000 chapters located in more than 100 countries. Currently, the team's plan is being reviewed by a panel of judges (drawn from Harvard Business Review, JCI board of directors, ICC national organizations), where the four semi-finalists will be chosen. The grand prize for this competition is $5,000 US, along with travel and accommodations of the four finalists to Vienna.

Staff retirements are noted

A number of UW staff members retired this summer or will be leaving as of September, the human resources department advises. Some names:

Elaine Bradley, records clerk in parking services, retired August 1, ending a UW career that started in December 1981.

Ralph Korchensky, computer hardware technologist in civil engineering, retired August 1. He came to the university in November 1991.

Brian Whitfield, machinist-technician in the engineering machine shop, retired August 1, ending a UW career that began in May 1988. (The photo at right dates from 1994.)

Duncan Murie, records assistant in development and alumni affairs, retires September 1; he came to UW in January 1994.

Phyllis Nandakumar, senior buyer in procurement services, retires September 1; she has been on UW's staff since August 1976.

Josef Offak, serviceperson in plant operations, will retire September 1; he's been working at UW since March 1995.

World enough and time ….

Mark Morton, instructional program manager at the Centre for Learning and Teaching Through Technology (LT3), recently published The Lover's Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex (Insomniac Press).  Renamed Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk, by his UK publisher, Atlantic Books, “which doesn't (to my mind) really capture the nuances of the book,” Morton says, the work has been reviewed in the Times and other major British newspapers. A snippet from the Times review: "Absolutely correct and without fault, beautifully prepared and presented.... I would love to go to a Morton lecture. Living in eternal hope that possession of wordsmithery indicates a true Casanova, I suspect he is very crushworthy.”

UW is holding its first Teaching Excellence Academy, “a pilot effort to accelerate the development of UW's good teachers into great teachers,” says a note from Tom Carey, associate vice-president, learning resources and innovation.  “We have recruited a cohort representative of our top teachers, who will spend three days in August in a facilitated workshop to re-examine the learning and teaching approaches in one of their upcoming courses… I think this is unique amongst Canadian universities, in its focus on helping successful teachers to achieve a higher level of excellence.” The workshop winds up in a “celebration session”  tomorrow afternoon.

At about the same time tomorrow, friends and colleagues of Mark Murdoch, who is moving on after 14 years as director of food services, will wish him farewell at an open house at the University Club from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, an Ottawa-based federal student lobby organization that includes UW’s Federation of Students, is looking for a policy and research officer. The deadline for applying is August 15. Information at CASA’s website, or phone (613) 236-3457, ext. 222.

In a previous issue of the Daily Bulletin we carried the news of "The Next Great Prime Minister" show, scheduled to air this fall on Global Television. The deadline for contestants to send in their submissions has been extended to September 30.

C&PA