UW Daily Bulletin, August 24, 2006

James Rush is now serving as associate dean (graduate studies and research) in the faculty of applied health sciences. A professor of kinesiology, he took on that post as of July 1, succeeding Richard Hughson.

Link of the day

St. Bartholomew's Day

When and where

Columbia Lake Village (north and south) end-of-summer barbecue Friday 4 to 6 p.m., Community Centre.

Conrad Grebel University College alumni day on Pelee Island, Saturday, details online.

Warrior men's soccer alumni game Saturday 3 p.m., Columbia Field.

'Single and Sexy' preview performance Friday, September 1, 11:30 a.m., Humanities Theatre, admission free. Shows for first-year students: Tuesday, September 5, at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m.; Wednesday at 9:30, 1:00, 4:00; Thursday at 10:00, 1:00, 4:00.

Fall term fees due September 6 if paid by bank payment, August 28 if paid by cheque; detailed information online.

One click away

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• 'Investing in the Future' (Mike Lazaridis)
• Reviving a massive heart study after the hurricane
• Dr. Mom's Guide to College
• At Cambridge, those were the good old days
• Students can use Microsoft 'game developer kit'
• Princeton tops US News rankings this year
• Financial boost for Quebec universities and colleges
• Professors' group investigating New Orleans layoffs
• UW student can't blog from Afghanistan
• 'Why do Maclean's school rankings rankle?'
• First Impressions: Understanding Public Views on Emerging Technologies
• 'Facts and Figures 2006' from Council of Ontario Universities
• Laurier names new dean of business school

'German diaspora' conference opens

The first-ever conference about German-speaking immigration around the world will get going this afternoon with a keynote talk by noted researcher Hans Lemberg of German's Philipps Universität Marburg, speaking on "Reasons and Conditions of Population Transfer. Expulsion of Germans from East and Central Europe and their Integration in Germany and in Foreign Countries after World War II."

He'll be followed by sessions on German, Austrian, Canadian and Jewish "aspects" and "perspectives" of the so-called German Diaspora — and, over the ensuing three days, South American, Russian, Australian, Turkish, American and Swiss points of view as well.

[WCGS logo] The event is being sponsored by UW's Waterloo Centre for German Studies and proudly held in what the centre describes as "Canada's most prominent area of German settlement", Kitchener-Waterloo. Sessions will be held today through Sunday morning at St. Paul's College.

Under the title "Diaspora Experiences: German-Speaking Immigrants and their Descendants", it will showcase some 60 international experts giving public talks on German immigration in 27 countries and areas around the world.

Diaspora, a term commonly used to describe the socio-historical experience of the Jewish people, now has evolved into an analytical category for examining present-day patterns of immigration in broader terms. "We will explore commonalities and differences experienced by German-speaking immigrants and their descendants when living in geographical and linguistic settings other than those of their own ethnic origin," said David John, director of the WCGS and a UW professor of German studies.

Keynote speakers in addition to Lemberg will be Hugo Hamilton, an author living in Dublin, reading from his celebrated novel The Speckled People about growing up in a mixed Irish-German-English culture, and Janet Fuller of Southern Illinois University, speaking on "Language and Identity in the German Diaspora (and at Home)."

The full schedule of the conference is available online. Students and local residents are welcome to attend the sessions, but are asked to register. Admission is free in most cases, but there is an $8 ticket price for Hamilton's reading, to begin at 7:30 Friday evening in MacKirdy Hall at St. Paul's.

Funding for joint technology transfer

The University of Western Ontario has announced a $3.9-million grant from the Ontario government for the so-called C4 group of universities, formed in 2004 by UW, Western, the University of Guelph and McMaster University.

The four C’s are coordination, cooperation, collaboration and commercialization — aspects of what it takes to move research results to market in the process called “technology transfer”.

"We have long been advocating that institutions can improve their knowledge transfer by working with partners and by building on innovation strengths within geographic regions, said Paul Guild, who was UW’s vice-president (university research) when the group was formed. "There is much to learn about how to support our campus innovators. We will learn more quickly if we do so together."

Now it will have provincial funding to move ahead with its work. There are three components to how the money will be spent, according Alex Navarre, director of industry liaison at Western.

"One is to establish tech-transfer offices in member institutions. The second is to be able to invest in small projects and proposals by researchers in order to expand and validate their inventions. The third one is to enhance the entrepreneurship initiatives from students."

The plan for C4 is that by sharing resources and expertise, the universities establish broader partnerships, apply jointly for funding opportunities and more effectively market and commercialize technologies. "What the grant means,” said Navarre, “is that by pooling some resources between the four institutions, it enables us to hire much more specialized people than we would be able to do individually. The people will work for more than one institution. It will bring some additional resources to my office, new staff that will expand my office by a third from 10 up to 15 people."

The money came as part of $31.4 million to be spent by the province under its Ontario Research and Commercialization Program. ORCP is described as the first program of its kind in Canada and is geared to making Ontario a global leader in transfer of research and development from research institutions to the private sector. The program supports 55 public research and not-for-profit organizations across the province, as well as numerous technology-based companies.

Pixels in the big picture

In a sure sign that the fall term is just around the corner, on-site training begins today for the dons and other residence life staff who will play a key role in the Villages and other student residences in the months ahead. Some 100 of them are arriving for nine days of training, winding up just in time for the Labour Day weekend. The residences will fill up on the Sunday and Monday of the long weekend — first the new first-year students, whose orientation activities will begin September 5, and then more thousands of returning students. Fall term classes start September 11.

Also in Ron Eydt Village this week are three dozen unusual folks: the participants in the annual Waterloo Busker Carnival, now in its 18th year. An advance gala (with a hefty ticket price) was held last night, and street shows will run this evening, tomorrow and Saturday afternoon and evening (including the late-night adult show), and Sunday afternoon, all on King Street in "uptown" Waterloo. I'm guessing it's the only time of year that fire-jugglers and tightrope-walkers put in an appearance in rez; no comment on the possible presence of clowns year-round.

Ashok Kapur (right) officially retired July 1 after 35 years as a faculty member in UW's department of political science. Educated at India's Panjab University, George Washington U in the United States, and Carleton, he came to Waterloo after a brief time as a lecturer at Carleton and the University of Ottawa, and has been much quoted over the years as an authority on nuclear proliferation, disarmament, the Middle East and South Asia. In the fall of 2001, during one of the many tense periods between India and Pakistan, the Gazette published a long interview with Kapur in which he spoke of "new, though faint, glimmers of hope" for peace in the region. He had been involved in organizing a major bilateral conference on India-Pakistan relations in Delhi that summer. "Our expertise could be plugged into this very complex situation," he observed, "and we can now see how our work can have both academic and social significance."

Let's repeat an announcement from Bob Hicks of the information systems and technology department that might be of concern to lots of people who own laptop computers: "You may have heard that Dell has issued a recall notice on batteries in many of its notebook computers (Latitude, Inspiron, XPS and Dell Precision Mobile Workstation). It is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could pose a risk of fire. They should not be used while you are waiting for a replacement battery: use your AC adapter power cord in the meantime. Dell provides a web site to help you identify whether or not the battery in your notebook is defective. If it is defective, Dell will provide a replacement as well as a mechanism to return the defective unit. If you would like IST to facilitate your battery eligibility and exchange please call the IST hardware shop at extension 3-2456 or email schepers@uwaterloo.ca and have the following information available: model number of laptop (e.g. Latitude D610), service tag number located on the bottom of the laptop, battery part number (see Dell's web site for details). If you are not comfortable removing the battery, please bring your laptop to the CHIP in MC 1052."Recruitment brochures

Speaking of IST, there's a staff golf tournament this afternoon, and one consequence is that the CHIP — that's Computer Help and Information Place — will be closing early today, at 3:30. Back to normal tomorrow, modulo any strains and sprains from today's exertions.

And . . . a second recent UW graduate has been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to smuggle armaments to Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka. Ramanan Mylvaganam, who received a degree in computer engineering earlier this year and was listed as last year's vice-president of the Tamil Student Association, appeared in court yesterday.

CAR