![[University of Waterloo]](/images/logobars/goldbar.gif)
| Yesterday |
Thursday, October 20, 2005
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
![[Four in their interview suits]](/images/2005/1020ecestudents.jpg)
Found them:
After Tuesday's mention of four electrical and computer engineering students
who devised an "impaired driving simulator" for their project
in January 2004,
a couple of Daily Bulletin readers chimed in with details, and even located this
photo of the group. Left to right they're Louis Chong (now working at a
bank in London, England);
Mabel Lam (at a consulting firm in Toronto);
Carol Kwong (also at a consulting firm);
and Bobby Chan (now in graduate study in the United States). Advisor for
the group was E&CE professor Dwight Aplevich. "It's remarkable," he
says, "what can be accomplished with a small budget and a lot of
people and agencies cooperating. So far as we or the police know, there
is only one other similar vehicle in North America, although there was
a
recent article about a million-dollar grant to the University of Guelph to
develop a simulator for studying the driving capabilities of the elderly."
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"We have to tap into the international market," Chakma said Monday as he briefed UW's senate on the ways Waterloo is competing for the faculty candidates it need. "Overall we're doing very well," he said, adding that "our success varies across disciplines."
Senate spent almost an hour hearing from Chakma, two deans and two department chairs, and discussing faculty recruitment issues. Hiring is "the one place where you can make the biggest change in the university," dean of arts Bob Kerton told the meeting, and engineering dean Adel Sedra noted that hiring one faculty member is "a multi-million-dollar investment" over thirty years or more.
To give Waterloo a better chance of catching the fish it wants, policies and practices have been made "more flexible", Chakma reminded the senate. He pointed in particular to UW's recently stated willingness to find jobs -- as faculty or staff members -- for the spouses of academic stars that departments badly want to attract.
The salary structure has been made "more competitive", the provost pointed out, adding that introducing "outstanding performance awards" might have been "an extremely difficult decision for a faculty association to support . . . on any other campus," but not at UW.
"We are in a tough competition" for top professors, Sedra said, "and if things look too easy, you probably aren't aiming for the top." Robert Mann, chair of the physics department, echoed that. He said the department's "success rate", the number of professors who accept UW's offers, is actually going down, "but that's a good thing," because it means Waterloo is trying for the stars, who are in demand from leading universities worldwide.
"Hiring is an energy-consuming and time-consuming process," said Mann. "Hiring is our first priority," added Paul Schellenberg, chair of combinatorics and optimization. "It takes precedence over everything."
During the discussion, more than one speaker noted that it's important to be "prompt" and open in dealing with applicants for faculty jobs, not keeping them in suspense for months. One senate member observed that the attractiveness of Kitchener-Waterloo -- pleasant neighbourhoods, recreation and cultural amenities -- is among UW's biggest assets in hooking faculty members from elsewhere, "especially Americans".
Schellenberg told senate that "it's important to know who's in the pipeline," being aware of promising graduate students in one's field who will soon be coming onto the academic job market. Kerton said UW recently snared one young star after keeping an eye on her for six years.
And senators discussed the practice, used by some departments, of asking job candidates not just to talk about their research, but to step in and teach an undergraduate class. That experience doesn't reveal everything, but "it protects you from some bad decisions," said Sedra. Traditional hiring practices seem to emphasize research more than teaching skills: "It's really appreciated when a teacher can teach!" said student senator Rebecca Baxter.
![[Holt]](/images/2005/1020holt.jpg)
The magazine published the list with the explanation that "Canada has had more than its share of inventors and entrepreneurs. They have helped shape not only the nature of this country's business technology landscape, they have changed the very nature of computing itself. From mobile e-mail devices to open source operating systems to platform-agnostic programming languages -- Canada's IT innovators have left an indelible mark."
The faculty member who appears on the list is Ric Holt (left), director of UW's Software Telecommunication Group and holder of the NSERC-Nortel Networks Industrial Research Chair in Telecommunications Software Engineering.
Says a brief summary of his importance in the online Wikipedia: "Holt is a pioneer researcher of the computable effects of the gravel pit industry. Helped develop the Turing programming language, Euclid programming language, SP/k, S/SL programming language as well as deadlock theory, early operating systems and transcontinental hitchhiking protocols."
![[Quilt in orange and blue]](/images/2005/1020artgreen.jpg)
'Spin Cycle'
-- a meter wide -- is among works by Art Green of UW's fine arts
department that have been on display in the
UW art gallery
in East Campus Hall for the
past five weeks. The show, "Heavy Weather", closes today on campus,
but an exhibition of Green's work continues for another month at the
Kitchener-Waterloo
Art Gallery. Also winding up today in ECH is
an exhibition of items from the UW permanent art collection.
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| WHEN AND WHERE |
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Career workshop: "Successfully Negotiating Job Offers,"
3:30, Tatham Centre room 1208, registration
online.
School of Computer Science Distinguished Lecture: Stephen Cook, University of Toronto, "The P vs. NP Problem and Its Place in Complexity Theory," 4:30, Rod Coutts Hall room 101. 'Relieving Disasters' discussion at weekly meeting of Forum for Independent Thought, 5:00, Student Life Centre multipurpose room. Arriscraft Lecture, school of architecture: Teddy Cruz, San Diego, "Border Postcards: Chronicles from the Edge," 7:00, Architecture lecture hall. The New Quarterly launch of the summer issue, with author readings, 7:00, Waterloo Public Library main branch, details online. Issues in Native Communities speaker series: Harmony Rice, publisher of Spirit magazine, "The Reclaim Nation: The Culture of Us vs. Them," 7:00, St. Paul's College. Faculty of arts alumni event: alumni authors (including George Elliott Clarke, Melanie Cameron) read from their work, 8 p.m., Starlight Club, information online. Professional development seminar in information systems and technology: "How are we doing with web accessibility issues?" Friday 8:45, IST seminar room. Central Ontario Family Business second annual conference, sponsored by Centre for Family Business, Conrad Grebel University College, Friday, Waterloo Inn. Chemical engineering seminar: Thomas Boughner, Pope & Talbot Ltd., "Process Safety and Loss Management," Friday 1:30, Doug Wright Engineering room 1501. Earth sciences department annual Farvolden Lecture: George Teutsch, Umweltforschungszentrum, Germany, "Groundwater Hydrology at Catchment Scale", Friday 2:00, Humanities Theatre. Blood donor clinic Monday-Wednesday 10 to 4, Thursday 9 to 3, multipurpose room, Student Life Centre, appointments now at the turnkey desk. Marcel Massé, executive director, World Bank (Canada), "How Fast Can We Change? Some Effects of Globalization in Canada," Monday 5:30 p.m., Centre for International Governance Innovation, 57 Erb Street West, free tickets 885-2444 ext. 251. East Asian Festival at Renison College, October 28-29, including Family and Culture Day on the Saturday, information online. |
A memo from UW president David Johnston went to staff and faculty members yesterday drawing their attention to UW's Homecoming on October 29. "With family-friendly events throughout the day, and several evening events to choose from, I hope that you take the opportunity to celebrate with us," he writes. "Stop by Homecoming headquarters on Saturday to pick up your passport -- identify yourself as UW faculty or staff for a chance to win special UW prizes."
Among the Homecoming events is a children's show, "Where the Wild Things Are", by the Carousel Players. "Children can be directly involved," says publicity from the sponsor -- UW's faculty of arts -- "and alumni mascot Pounce will pay a special visit." The show is October 29 at 2:00 in the Theatre of the Arts; tickets are on sale online now at $8 for kids 4 to 8, $10 for adults.
We're coming up to the last few days of EinsteinFest at the Perimeter Institute in central Waterloo. "Over 18,000 people have experienced EinsteinFest during the last three weeks," Perimeter reports. "We only have one weekend left -- your last chance to see our extensive exhibit, try your hands at science experiments, enjoy free lectures and debates, theatre and much more." Events include performances of Steve Martin's play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", with an extra show just added for tomorrow afternoon at 3:30. Oh, and "Perimeter's casual 4th-floor restaurant is open during EinsteinFest for lunch, dinner or snack." Details are on the web site.
Monday will bring a campus visit by a key figure from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research: Anne Martin-Matthews, scientific director of the Institute of Aging. "She will be meeting informally with graduate students and new investigators in the morning," writes Leslie Copp of the UW office of research. (Want to get in on that? Call Copp at ext. 6040.) At 2:30 on Monday afternoon, Martin-Matthews will speak on "Funding Research from Cell to Society, from Promise to Practice", in the Clarica Auditorium, Lyle Hallman Institute.
"Students are advised to keep their address, e-mail and telephone numbers updated in Quest," says a memo from the registrar's office. . . . To mark Canadian Library Week, UW's library is holding a small online contest that's open to current UW students, faculty, and (non-library) staff. . . . The teaching resource office is holding a graduate student workshop today on "Teaching Dossiers", but it's full. . . .
Yes, things are being done to prevent any repetition of the recent Internet problems, when a business squabble between two big American providers meant some users couldn't reach some sites for almost three days. As far as UW is concerned, "the task is to determine the optimum tradeoff of cost, complexity and robustness," says Roger Watt of information systems and technology, who's been investigating the possibility of additional Internet links so UW's isn't as dependent on a single supplier. The primary connection from the campus to the wider world is through the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network to a node in Toronto, where it connects to Cogent -- one of the parties in the recent providers' dispute -- and other networks. ORION notified UW late last week that it's about to provide "an interim solution to help with continued delivery" in the case of Internet problems. Details are being worked out.
CAR