Day anchored by the Pascal Lecture

Rosalind W. Picard (pictured) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a specialist in “affective computing,” will give the 2007 Pascal Lecture on Christianity and the University tonight, with a follow-up seminar tomorrow aimed at students. Picard’s lecture tonight is entitled “Building Machines with Emotional Abilities — Building People?” She’ll speak at 8:00 p.m. in Siegfried Hall, St. Jerome’s University. Admission is free.

“At MIT,” says Picard, “we are leaders in research to give today's robots and other machines emotional skills, including the ability to recognize and respond appropriately to people’s emotions, to display emotions, and to reason using emotion-like mechanisms. This talk will include a real-time demonstration of some of the latest emotion-skilled technology, which is being used to help people on the autism spectrum.

“The talk will also address these questions: What is the difference between people and machines once you give machines emotional abilities? Isn't emotion the last thing that separates people from computers?”

Tomorrow, Picard’s seminar will start at 2:00 p.m. (Davis Centre room 1304) under the title “Emotionally Intelligent Technology”.

Rosalind Picard is founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Laboratory and co-director of the Things That Think Consortium, the largest industrial sponsorship organization at the laboratory. She is known for her pioneering research in the area of affective computing and content-based image and video retrieval, and her award-winning book Affective Computing (MIT Press, 1997) lays the groundwork for giving machines the skills of emotional intelligence.

Picard and her students have designed and developed a variety of new sensors, algorithms, and systems for sensing, recognizing, and responding respectfully to human affective information, with applications in human and machine learning, health, and human-computer interaction.

Among the other things happening at UW in the next 24 hours:

The student life office asks: “Have you seen those commercials that mention HPV and wondered what it’s all about? Have you seen the ads for Gardasil in the student planner and questioned if it’s something you should get? As a woman, have you ever asked yourself, Am I at risk of getting cancer? What are cancer vaccines, and do they come with side effects? Should I get vaccinated? Does my student health plan cover cancer vaccines? The Graduate Student Association and the Federation of Students are hosting an information seminar on women's health with a focus on cancer to answer all of these questions and more. The purpose of the event is twofold: to educate female students on cancer and to promote the new HPV vaccine Gardasil which is covered under the student health plan. A panel of speakers including a Registered Nurse from UW Health Services, a Breast Cancer Researcher from McGill University, GSA's VP (finance), and a speaker from the Canadian Cancer Society will be there to help you become more informed about your health and cancer.” The event runs from 3:00 to 5:00 today in the Student Life Centre great hall.

Co-op students can rank jobs starting at 1:00 today, based on the recent round of employer interviews, and will find out Monday afternoon whether they've been matched with a post for the winter term. • It's Rock and Roll Night at the Graduate House (doors open at 8:30). • The Computer Help and Information Place, or CHIP, won't open until 10:30 Friday morning, as staff will be at a training seminar.

"Since this Friday is the last dress-down Friday," writes Cathy Seitz of the PDEng office in Engineering II, "PDEng Staff will be wearing their PJs, and we have invited all of engineering to do the same and raise funds for United Way. We would like to invite all university personnel to dress this way for United Way on Friday, October 26, and see if we can get everyone right up to the president's office to don their PJs (or smoking jacket as the case may be) and raise some serious cash. Any office willing to participate should have a designate to collect the donations and should contact Stacey Ritzer in the United Way office, ext. 33840, to get some stickers."

Tomorrow also brings the first annual Keystone Run for Excellence, and here’s how it was described in an e-mail to faculty and staff members two weeks ago: “Please join us on Friday, October 26, for a walk or run around Ring Road and show us what excellence means to you. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, excellence is ‘the quality of being excellent’ which means to be ‘extremely good or outstanding!’ What does excellence mean to you? *Completing the run/walk — achieving a personal best time — breaking the 10-minute mark — setting the Keystone record for the fastest time around Ring Road? Run for Excellence details: 11:45 a.m., bib handout in the Davis Centre Fishbowl; 12:15 p.m., start time at the Davis Centre.” Entry fee is $10, and there’s more information (and preregistration) online. Questions go to Krishna Mistry at ext. 37195.

Looking just a little further ahead, there's the Tata Lecture on Monday — a talk on India's emerging global trade interests, featuring a senior executive of the Tata Group, one of India's largest business enterprises. Alan Rosling will give the Tata Lecture at noon Monday in the Laurel Room of South Campus Hall. It’s a by-invitation event (information, ext. 33580). Rosling will discuss India's internationalization efforts and how to do business with the world's second most populous country. "The Tata Group is at the forefront of establishing long-term mutually beneficial relationships with universities around the world for decades, including Waterloo," says UW president David Johnston. "Waterloo and the Tata family of companies share a common set of values, namely integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility." In 2003, UW and Tata Consultancy Services signed a memorandum of agreement to create co-operative education work placements for UW undergraduate students and establish collaborative research.

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Health services offers annual flu shots

As sharp as ever, the staff in UW's Health Services are ready to stick it to you, with the announcement that flu shots are now available for "high risk" people and in November will be offered to students, faculty and staff at large.

Anybody in the "high risk" group can visit the clinic (it's in the white building overlooking the pond across from the Student Life Centre) and see a nurse any time between 9 and 5 Monday to Thursday and 9 to 4 on Fridays.

Among the people who might be on campus and are officially classified as "high risk":

• UW police, daycare workers and Optometry students currently in clinic.
• Persons 65 years of age or over.
• Those with diabetes or other metabolic disease, chronic cardiac or respiratory conditions (asthma), cancer, kidney disease, blood disorders or anyone whose immune system is weakened.
• Anyone who lives, works or volunteers in a nursing home, retirement home or chronic care facility.
• People who live in the same household as, or are in close contact with, a person who is at increased risk of the flu’s more serious effects.

For the "healthy" population — everybody who's not classified as high-risk — the flu immunization clinic is November 13, 14, 15 and 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Life Centre multipurpose room.

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CKMS asks pledges to repair studio

a news release from UW's student radio station

After 30 years, CKMS 100.3 FM is replacing the beloved burlap soundproofing in our recording studio. We need to raise $5,000 to do the job, and so CKMS is holding a pledge drive event, October 24 through 30.

The Palindrome studio is an industry standard recording facility utilizing pro-tools and years of engineering experience recording almost every genre of music you can think of.This is where many up and coming bands, as well as well known artists, have graced our airwaves live. We continue to broadcast live-to-air concerts from this wonderful room, and you never know who may be gracing the dial with an up close and personal performance just for you.

During the pledge drive we have three live-to-airs scheduled. The Rock Show will be presenting Acoustic October Live on Monday at 3 p.m. This will be a taste of things to come at Hanna's Bella Bistro later that night: Pete Oldridge and the Urban Monks with Meghan Weber, live. Second, Random Green Dots will be presenting Calliope's Radio at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the last day of the funding drive. And today starting at 8 a.m., “Taking you to Work” is airing a surprise live.

Any money raised over and above our sound studio renovations will be put toward maximizing our signal by saving for the Tower Project. Past pledge drives have been successful in helping us fix our tower when it was hit by a snowplow and damaged a couple of winters ago. Now we are looking at moving the whole thing. As it stands, the tower is surrounded by many buildings which could be impacting our transmissions. To get the best sound possible, with the wattage we have, moving our tower to higher ground, out in the country, is the best option, but it costs money.You can help us work toward our goal of saving at least a $100,000to make this dream a reality. Until then, funds are also used to help us maximize our reach through our website and through show-related initiatives throughout the year.

You can phone in anytime during this week and operators will take your pledge: 519-884-2567. Pledges can also be made online.

We have several gifts from the music industry, indy labels and artists, and local businesses, waiting to go home with you when you pledge to help CKMS.We have really beautiful 30th anniversary T-shirts for donations of $30 or more. They are navy with silver lettering sporting an original design by Al Kirker (local graphic artist and long time volunteer with CKMS). Every show currently on the air this year, more than 90 of them, is listed on the back of the shirt.

Broadcasting from the UW campus in the heart of Waterloo, CKMS relies on community support to keep the station pumping out every genre of music you can think of, multicultural programming, spoken word and current affairs, local and alternative news.

Among special pledge week events was last night’s launch of River Bundles: An Anthology of Local Aboriginal Writers, at Victoria Park. On Monday don't miss The Rock Show's Acoustic Rocktober at Hanna's Bella Bistro Tapas Bar & Lounge. A “Hotter Than Hades All Hallows Eve Bash” concludes the week on October 31 at the Huether Hotel.

CAR

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