November 30, 2005

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Campus-wide celebration on Monday
'Brightest minds' meet in January
Grad students to defend theses

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

[She's definitely purple all over]
Engineering Society president Karim Lallani cuddles up to his successor, Jenn Carroll of mechanical engineering, who will be sworn in today at the last EngSoc meeting of the fall term (5:30 in POETS Pub). Lallani is looking smooth on top after a head-shaving for the fund-raiser EngSoc is currently running for the Canadian Cancer Society (grand finale celebrations are tomorrow at noon in Carl Pollock Hall). Carroll is looking purple because, well, apparently that's what they do to new EngSoc presidents.

Pension meetings wind up
Two more public meetings are scheduled for today to offer information about the UW pension and benefits programs and how they compare to those at other universities. The pension and benefits committee invites staff and faculty members to attend at 3 p.m. or 9 p.m. today, in Davis Centre room 1302.

Campus-wide celebration on Monday

A party for the whole university on Monday will celebrate UW's achievements of the past year -- and mark the end of the fall term. The event is for faculty, students, staff, retirees, even nearby alumni.

Says the invitation, distributed across campus by e-mail yesterday: "It's time to celebrate and to thank our students, faculty, staff, alumni and retirees for helping the University of Waterloo to attain tremendous successes in 2005! President David Johnston invites you to attend a celebration for the entire UW community to highlight UW's successes, including our recent #1 'best overall' ranking in Maclean's magazine. . . .

"There'll be giveaways, a chance to pick yourself out in a 'digital yearbook', as well as cake and refreshments! Come out for some pre-Christmas celebrating!"

The event will run from 1 to 2 p.m. Monday in the great hall of the Student Life Centre. It's being organized by a group headed by Dana Evans, manager of public affairs here in the office of communications and public affairs, whose talent lies behind many major campus evens and parties.

Monday's the last day of classes for the fall term; exams for the term will run December 8 through 22.

POSITIONS AVAILABLE
On this week's list from the human resources department:

Research administrative officer, mechanical engineering, USG 7

System administrator, management sciences, USG 10

Communications coordinator, offices of development and alumni affairs, USG 6

Faculty financial officer, dean of engineering, USG 9

Institutional programs coordinator, office of research, USG 8

Serviceperson I (carpenter), plant operations

Payables specialist, finance, USG 5-6

Assistant director, chair in design engineering, mechanical engineering, USG 12
Longer descriptions are available on the HR web site.

'Brightest minds' meet in January -- from the UW media relations office

A student technology conference that had its start at UW will bring together "the brightest young minds our country has to offer" in January once again.

The Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference is planned for mid-January at the Sheraton Parkway Toronto North, says CUTC's public relations executive, Aly Masud, a third-year student in systems design engineering.

"CUTC is the largest student-organized and student-run conference in North America," he said. From its inception in 2000, as "the brainchild of a few visionary students" at UW, the organization now involves undergraduate students from more than 80 post-secondary institutions across Canada, and 600 delegates are expected this year. "After six straight sold-out conferences, CUTC is back for 2006, from January 12 to 14, to stir up a storm," Masud said.

Rahul Bhardwaj, chair of CUTC 2006 and a fourth-year UW electrical engineering student, has defined the vision of CUTC as "being a platform to bring together bright young minds and create a space for them to exchange ideas, opinions and energy. Through exposure to their peers, as well as the brightest minds in the technology industries and academia, CUTC nurtures the future leaders of Canadian innovation." He added: "The conference attempts to improve the interactivity of learning and give students an experience that will be unparalleled in their educational careers."

Delegates will participate in many special events including the TechExpo, showcasing the developments of leading firms, academia and student organizations. There are also TechShops designed to further the learning experience with a "hands-on approach," with workshops on a variety of topics hosted at an on-site computer laboratory. TechTours give delegates the opportunity to visit one of several industry and research facilities, while the TechShow is an informal comedy talk-show style event that includes one-on-one interviews with industry leaders, demonstrations of the latest tech gadgets and mini-competitions. And ThinkTank is where delegates work in small groups with industry mentors to discuss and analyze pertinent technological and societal issues.

WHEN AND WHERE
Arts research seminar: Mary Thompson and John Goyder, UW Survey Research Centre, "How to Critically Evaluate and Use Existing Survey Data: Info for All Disciplines," 12 noon, Humanities room 373.
Music student recital 12:30, Conrad Grebel University College chapel.
Lions magic benefit show 1:00, 5:30 and 8:00, Humanities Theatre.
'Extreme Buildings in Extreme Climates', Joe Lstiburek and John Straub, Construction Specifications Canada and UW school of architecture, 1:30, Architecture lecture hall.
Faculty of engineering holiday reception 3:30 to 5:30, Festival Room, South Campus Hall.
Warrior volleyball vs. Guelph, women 6:00, men 8:00, Physical Activities complex main gym. Basketball (men and women) at Windsor tonight.
'Travel Abroad to East Asia' session with Yan Li, coordinator, Chinese language program, Renison College, 7 p.m., Renison chapel lounge.
The Starlight Tour: The Last Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild by Susanne Reber and Robert Renaud, reading and signing, 7 p.m., Arts Lecture Hall room 116, admission $2, sponsored by UW bookstore and Aboriginal student office.
Jewish studies program presents Michael Higgins, president, St. Jerome's University, "The Pope for the Jews: John Paul II and Catholic-Jewish Relations", 7:30 p.m., Siegfried Hall.
'Greening the Campus' environment and resource studies course presents 18 projects from this term, Environmental Studies I courtyard, Thursday 10:00 to 11:30.
Canadian Institutes of Health Research president Alan Bernstein speaks and meets with health researchers, Thursday 10:30, Tatham Centre room 2218.
Teaching seminar: Trien Nguyen, department of economics, "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Economy", Thursday 3:00, Needles Hall room 3001.
Videoconferencing: 'Megaconference' on "Increasing Empathy Through Videoconferencing", viewing Thursday 9:00 to 4:00, Dana Porter Library room 328. Drama students at UW and Bradley University jointly perform a scene from Strindberg, 4 p.m., Theatre of the Arts.
'Israel and the Arabs' debate sponsored by Waterloo Israeli Public Affairs Club and Debate Society, Thursday 5 p.m., Rod Coutts Hall room 302.
Orchestra@UWaterloo winter concert, Thursday, December 1, 8 p.m., Humanities Theatre, Beethoven and Tchaikowsky, free tickets available from Humanities box office.
Faculty association fall general meeting Tuesday, December 6, 3:00, Davis Centre room 1302; reception for new faculty, 4:30 to 6:00, Davis lounge.
The annual event is sponsored by numerous leaders in the tech sector, including Research In Motion, Microsoft, ATI, Bell, IBM, GE and Nortel.

Rahul said: "This year's conference is set to raise the standard of CUTC to the next level. Our core focus for 2006 has been 'quality' and we've done a great job so far of following that principle as the basis of which speakers we invite and how we organize our events. With featured keynotes by Yahoo's Director of Technology Development, Bradley Horowitz, President and Co-CEO of Research In Motion, Mike Lazaridis, and events like the Microsoft Digital Entertainment Launch Party, CUTC 2006 is one student conference that's definitely high quality."

[Graham watches keyboard user]
Angelo Graham is retiring after 33 years at UW, first in the library, more recently in the safety office, where he's a well-known figure from ergonomics consultations across campus. A farewell reception will be held from 3:30 to 5:30 today at the University Club.

Grad students to defend theses

Here's the latest list of graduate students who are approaching the last hurdle before the PhD: the oral defence of a thesis.

Chemical engineering. Jason Grove, "Assessment of Changes in the Potential Functional Diversity of the Bacterial Community in a Biofilter." Supervisors, W. A. Anderson and M. Moo-Young. On display in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Tuesday, December 6, 9:30 a.m., Doug Wright Engineering room 2534.

Systems design engineering. Ibrahim A. El Rube, "Robust Multiscale Shape Representation and Description." Supervisors, M. Kamel and M. Ahmed. On display in the faculty of engineering, CPH 4305. Oral defence Monday, December 12, 10 a.m., Davis Centre room 2584.

Applied mathematics. Simon K. Alexander, "Multiscale Methos in Image Modelling and Image Processing." Supervisors, E. R. Vrscay and P. Fieguth. On display in the faculty of mathematics, MC 5090. Oral defence Monday, December 12, 10 a.m., Math and Computer room 5158.

Physics. Ian B. Betty, "Strongly-Guided InP/In(1-x)Ga(x)As(y)P(1-y) Mach-Zehnder Modulator for Optical Communications." Supervisor, D. O. Yevick. On display in the faculty of science, ESC 254A. Oral defence Tuesday, December 13, 12 noon, Physics room 352.

Statistics and actuarial science. Yun Hee Choi, "Accelerated Life Regression Modelling of Dependent Bivariate Time-to-Event Data." Supervisors, D. E. Matthews and G. Y. Yi. On display in the faculty of mathematics, MC 5090. Oral defence Wednesday, December 21, 9:30 a.m., Math and Computer room 5136B.

And there are two changes to previously announced PhD orals, both scheduled for December 8:
• Statistics and actuarial science: Abbasali Khalili Mahmoudabadi, defence will begin at 9:30 a.m. rather than 9 a.m.
• Computer science: Khuzaima Daudjee, defence will be held at 9:30 a.m. in Davis Centre room 1331, not 1304.

CAR

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