Representatives of the participating agencies — including Siva Sivoththaman of UW's electrical and computer engineering department (back left) — signed an agreement for the Masdar Research Network in Abu Dhabi a few days ago.

UW joins Abu Dhabi energy network

UW will be a partner in a “research network” established this week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, “to develop alternative technologies for advanced energy and environmental solutions”.

The Masdar Research Network will connect programs from half a dozen universities and institutes in Asia, Europe, and North America and “address issues of global importance, affecting the more industrially developed as well as developing countries”.

A news release explains that it’s part of the Masdar Initiative launched earlier this year to advance “clean” technology and prepare for the day when Abu Dhabi can no longer prosper just by selling oil. The Initiative involves a $250 million Clean Tech Fund, a Special Economic Zone for advanced energy industry, a graduate teaching and research institute, and a clean development company for carbon emission reduction.

That, it says, “is Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted response to the need for a global focus on resource conservation and the alternative energy sector. It is designed to ensure in the long term that Abu Dhabi retains and even grows its share of the global energy market.”

Says Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company: “We want to nurture an ecosystem of researchers who can work together with greater freedom in imagination. The Masdar Research Network will allow these universities and institutes to diversify and expand blue-sky research projects, work closely with industry in translating the research potential into benefits for citizens worldwide and cross-fertilise ideas and opportunities.”

UW’s strength for the partnership is said to be in “solar, wind, and hydrogen energy through the Centre for Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Systems and the Green Energy Research Institute”. Meanwhile, “the Energy Futures Lab of Imperial College London has a strong suit in systems design and carbon management,” RWTH Aachen University in Germany will provide “energy and water research through its several research institutes and close cooperation with major industrial partners”, Columbia University is “a leader in developing sustainable energy solutions”, the German Aerospace Centre has “leading R&D programs in concentrating solar power”, and the Tokyo Institute of Technology offers “advanced research on innovative solar thermal systems”.

Says the release: “The Masdar graduate and research Institute, scheduled in three years, will become the hub of this international research activity.”

It quotes the Sultan: “We have a vision of Abu Dhabi becoming an incubator of next-generation research and its practical applications in the advanced energy and environment sector.”

Already coming along are research into electro-dialysis technology for water desalination, advanced solar panels, solar structures for buildings, and “solar thermal towers which may demonstrably change existing markets and industries, as well as make critical improvements to our quality of life”. In addition, Masdar is looking at systems-level projects for carbon sequestration, cleaner transport systems, green development and urban water management.

Tidu Maini, pro-rector at Imperial College, says the Masdar initiative is highly exciting: “It is not just of value to the Gulf region but to the whole world. I know of no other initiative that is bringing together such leading research groups from across the world and providing them with the resources to carry out blue-sky research aimed at new energy and environmental sustainability solutions. I am particularly impressed by the joined-up thinking of Masdar and how the research can then be further leveraged through joint ventures with industry and an investment fund to develop a portfolio of groundbreaking companies.”

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Magazine stories support cancer group

The New Quarterly, a journal of Canadian writing published out of St. Jerome's University, is joining Hermione Presents, a Stratford-based music, dance, and spoken word series, to raise funds for The Quilt, a breast cancer support organization. The magazine will present two programs of poems and stories from the magazine. The first, this Saturday at 11:30 a.m., is called "Childbirth and Other Complications."

Stratford writer Terry Griggs, in an early interview in The New Quarterly, had this to say about motherhood and the creative life: "Domestic and creative life are incompatible, and even if you have a good financial setup, with paid help (I wish), your mind isn't always free (not to mention the overly friendly family virus and those sleepless nights). Time becomes a commodity you buy, fight for, learn to protect, and suddenly you're defining yourself against what you love most because if you let it, motherhood will eat you alive. You think about the abstract child, so malleable, trotting off happily to the sitter's, and then there's this one, the real one, wrapped around your ankles, screaming, throwing up in the snow because he doesn't want to leave you. And you see his point."

She will be reading, together with Waterloo writer Carrie Snyder, stories that give a humorous take on the business of bringing new life from old. The program will be introduced by Erin Noteboom, prize-winning poet, editor, and new mom, whose own comic journal of a birth year is forthcoming -- once, that is her daughter Vivian reaches her first birthday. (For a sneak preview, see the latest issue of TNQ, "To Laugh or To Cry," on newsstands now).

On Saturday, August 12, again at 11:30 a.m., Festival storyteller Mary-Eileen McClear will perform a program on a culinary theme: "Forbidden Fruit and Forbidding Mushrooms," poems on the subtle wiles of plums and eels and other edibles plus a pair of rollicking tales on the theme of food-its temptations and the trepidation it can instill in even the best-intentioned. The author of one of these stories, Bernice Friessen, is herself a cancer survivor.

Both performances are at The Quilt, 55 Downie Street, Stratford (about a block down from the Avon Theatre). Tickets are $18, students and seniors $15, at the door.

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Pixels in the big picture

In this pause between classes and exams at the end of the spring term, thoughts are turning to September, as thousands of brand-new first-year students log onto Quest to choose their classes. Faculty members should look ahead too, says a memo from Sean van Koughnett, director of UW Graphics: "Instructors are encouraged to submit courseware orders as soon as possible to ensure that their materials are ready for the beginning of term. You can place your order by contacting Erin Smith in Graphics at ext. 3996 or courseware@uwaterloo.ca, or drop in to Graphics (COM building) between 8:30 and 4:30. You can also order online."

The month-long, intensive Shad Valley program for teenagers is coming to an end, and the group will hold an open house this afternoon to show off what they've been doing. It runs from 1:30 to 4:30 in the great hall of Conrad Grebel University College; all are welcome. "The students," says Linda Carson of the Shad Valley staff, "will be showing off the results of a spectacular month at UW, from robotics to organic agriculture, from water quality research to anatomical drawing, from knitting to Ultimate Frisbee." So what's going on in the photo at right? Participants, Carson explains, are "building low-fidelity prototypes of stacking chairs from that most Canadian of materials: the Tim Hortons coffee cup."

The Cambridge Times reported on Tuesday that "construction is about to begin again" at the UW Architecture building in Cambridge. It quoted Rick Haldenby, director of the architecture school, as saying that work "downstairs" in the century-old building will add a digital lecture room, more offices and other facilities. "In the long term," the paper continued, "the university's engineering department has additional plans for the growing school of architecture. As early as 2008, the school could be adding a second building in its south end parking lot." Haldenby said a new three-storey building, largely occupied by facilities for Master of Architecture students, would be linked to the existing one, a converted textile factory.

From the engineering faculty's e-newsletter: "Recent Waterloo Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD graduate Vahid Miraftab and his supervisor, Professor Raafat Mansour, have received the 2006 IEEE-International Microwave Symposium best paper award. The paper, which demonstrates the feasibility of building a smart robot to tune microwave filters, was singled out from more than 500 presented at the conference."

With some students completing their degree requirements with spring term courses, this memo from the registrar's office is timely: "The last day to file an Intention to Graduate form is August 1, 2006, for students expecting to graduate at fall convocation, October 21, 2006. Forms are available from the Registrar's Office website or the Graduate Studies website. If you submitted a form earlier in the year for Fall 2006, do not submit a new form. If you submitted an Intent for Spring convocation but were unable to fulfill degree requirements, you must submit a new Intention to Graduate Form for Fall 2006 convocation. Convocation information is available online. Address to which diplomas will be mailed for students who do not attend the ceremony is the home address recorded in Quest. Please note that this is the address to which diplomas will be mailed for students who do not attend the ceremony. Grad Studies mails to the home address after convocation -- or mailing address if no home address exists. Ceremonies for Applied Health Sciences, Arts, and Independent Studies begin at 10:00 a.m.; Engineering (including Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology), Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Science begin at 2:00 p.m."

Staff in the faculty of science have finished voting, and chosen Karen Trevors of the dean's office as their representative on the Dean of Science Nominating Committee. . . . Some 50 participants in the International Summer School for Young Physicists, sponsored by the Perimeter Institute, are currently staying in the Ron Eydt Village conference centre. . . . The sixth annual MOPTA conference — that's Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications — has been hosted by the department of statistics and actuarial science, and winds up today. . . .

CAR

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