'Flexibility' in non-credit courses

UW alumni who sign up for the online “e-community” — and that means more than 38,000 of them around the world, at last count — are being offered discount prices on UW’s continuing education courses. “Whether you live near campus or across the world,” an invitation to alumni says, “you can rely on UW to provide life-long learning opportunities to meet your professional and personal goals.”

The continuing ed program for this season gets going today with a one-day course on “Leading People to Effectiveness”, being offered at the UW outpost on Gage Avenue in Kitchener. Alumni, and other users of the continuing ed program, can choose from 40 classroom courses with low student-instructor ratios, and more than 100 online courses, “all aimed at improving your workplace performance, and helping you achieve your career goals”.

Hobby-related courses seem largely gone from this year’s continuing ed calendar (left), although nothing says that courses with titles such as “Write Fiction Like a Pro” and “Discover Digital Photography” can only be used during working hours. Conversational French, “instant Italian” and “speed Spanish” are also available.

Courses offered — the listings are also available online — range from project management to business administration, multimedia to software, and languages to professional development. “New courses are offered each term, so check back frequently,” says Michael Hunt, who was appointed associate director for continuing education in July. “You can also contact Continuing Education at 519-888-4002 or conted@uwaterloo.ca."

An Alumni E-Community membership brings a 20 per cent discount on the fees for all in-class and online CE non-credit courses. Sticker prices vary, but many of the one-day courses, such as today’s, cost $310 plus GST. There’s a 50 per cent discount for full-time UW staff members taking any of the in-class courses.

Classroom classes scheduled for October include “Customer Service Works” this Wednesday, “The Art of Negotiation” on Thursday and Friday, “Managing the Opportunities Provided by Conflict” on October 10, “Project Management Applied Tools and Techniques” October 15-17, and more. There’s even “Guerrilla Grammar” on the 29th.

“The one message I would like to get out,” says Hunt, “is that we offer a lot of flexibility to learners — we have both classroom (here at Gage Street) and online (10 start dates per year from September to June).

“Our areas of expertise are business communication, business leadership and management, business writing, personal development, career development, finance, project management, human resources, languages, and computer and information technology. We also do customized corporate training in these areas.”

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Computing network holds open house

Sharcnet — the Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network — will hold an open house today from 2:00 to 4:00 in Physics room 374, aimed at graduate students, postdocs, faculty members and technical computing staff who are interested in large-scale computing.

The UW event is part of a “virtual open house” at Sharcnet’s locations across Ontario. It provides an opportunity, says researcher Hans De Sterck of the applied mathematics department, to “meet other UW people who are interested in high-performance computing; see the AccessGrid video conference system in action, connecting sites at universities across Ontario; take a tour of the Sharcnet machine room at Waterloo, showcasing the 'Whale' cluster, which, with 3,072 compute cores, is the largest cluster on the Sharcnet network; get information about how you can use Sharcnet computing resources for your research.”

Tours of the machine room will start at 2:30 and 3:30. Drinks and snacks will be served,

The Sharcnet network spans 16 institutions in south central Ontario, making a "cluster of clusters" of high performance computers, linked by advanced fibre optics. “We aim to accelerate the production of research results to meet the needs of researchers and industry partners in today's competitive fast-paced academic and business environments. . . . Sharcnet gives the opportunity to faculty members at UW to use all Sharcnet-wide computing resources for the research conducted by their postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students.”

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Making a list of water researchers

A Task Force on Water Research is at work, and wants to hear from faculty members across the university whose research has to do with water.

A memo that was sent to department chairs last week will turn up many of those researchers, but some could easily be missed, says associate provost Bruce Mitchell, who’s chairing the task force. It was set up by the provost “to develop a proposal to establish interdisciplinary research clusters focusing on water-related research and the application of research results”, says Mitchell’s memo. “In doing that, the Task Force has been asked to consult widely.”

He writes: “The first job of the Task Force is to review UW's current areas of strength in water resources. In that regard, the Task Force would be pleased to hear from faculty colleagues with expertise in water who would like to have opportunity to share ideas about opportunities. In that context, such faculty are asked to contact Nan Gao (n2gao@admmail) so that she has both their names and brief information about their research interests.

“The Task Force would like to receive such information by not later than 12 October. This information will become the base to ensure that the Task Force can contact faculty colleagues with expertise in water resources.”

Members of the task force, besides Mitchell, are Susan Andrews of civil and environmental engineering; George Dixon, vice-president (university research); Wayne Parker, civil and environmental engineering; Dave Rudolph, earth and environmental sciences; and Mark Servos, director of the Canadian Water Network.

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Taking a shine to Waterloo were visitors to a range of Homecoming events on the weekend. Cars from the 1950s were displayed in the arts quadrangle as a nod to UW's founding in the year of the '57 Chevy. Alex Lippert of the dean of arts office caught this view in the Saturday sunshine.

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Seeking the next University Professors

The provost has issued an invitation for department chairs and "the University community generally" to suggest who should receive the high honour of University Professor in 2008.

"To date," a memo from provost Amit Chakma notes, "UW has awarded this distinction to eleven individuals: Garry Rempel, Mary Thompson and Mark Zanna in 2004; Terry McMahon, Cam Stewart and Robert Jan van Pelt in 2005; Phelim Boyle and Ian Munro in 2006; Ken Davidson, Keith Hipel and Jake Sivak in 2007."

He summarizes the purpose of the award and the nomination process: "The University of Waterloo owes much of its reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors. UW recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation 'University Professor'. Once appointed, a faculty member retains the designation for life.

"Not counting retirees, it is anticipated there will be 14 University Professorships at steady state, with at most two appointments each year. Such appointments are reported to Senate and to the Board of Governors . . . and are recognized at Convocation."

Nominations are invited each fall. "A nominee shall have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence in a particular field or fields of knowledge. The individual who nominates a colleague is responsible for gathering the documentation and submitting it to the Vice-President, Academic & Provost. The University Tenure and Promotion Committee will act as the selection committee; its decisions are final.

"A nomination must be supported by at least six signatures from at least two UW departments and must be accompanied by a curriculum vitae and a short non-technical description of the nominee's contributions. A nomination must also be accompanied by letters from the nominee's Dean," and also comments from "scholars of international standing in the nominee's field" — the memo gives the details. The provost adds that the selection committee keeps the dossiers of unsuccessful nominees on hand for two more years, to be considered again with updated information.

Nominations for this year's awards should be "in my hands before Christmas", Chakma writes.

CAR

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