Shaping up for the fall term

It's the quiet end of August, but the campus is busy and loud, and not only with new building construction. Existing buildings are also being reconfigured and spruced up for fall. As September sweeps towards us, bringing thousands of students, the hammers seem to beat a little faster.

St. Paul's College is renovating in three areas, says Lindsay Restagno, St. Paul's director of operations. "A major renovation is underway in our dining and student common area to create a new student centre. This new space combines lounge-style dining with a TV theatre and expanded games area. The decor (including a fireplace) and comfortable seating will give it a relaxing atmosphere. The modern kitchen will allow for greater flexibility and freshness in our food service for both students and visitors. We are also upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in our administrative areas to improve efficiency. Finally, a new main entrance and reception is being constructed to better serve visitors."

The sign outside Minota Hagey residence is now headed: "VeloCity." This "mobile and media incubator" is something very new, a living-learning residence geared to technological innovation, especially mobile communications, as the logo (right) suggests. Renovations have been concentrated in the common areas. Technological enhancements include the Rogers Wireless Device Lab, network infrastructure, multimedia, gaming and wifi," according to the website. "Although there is still a lot of ground to cover, the site is on track to be complete just before some of the students move in," says Sean Van Koughnett, the director of VeloCity and manager of the Media and Mobility Network Project. "After working on developing VeloCity over the past year, it is very exciting to be in the home stretch before our launch."

In Dana Porter library, ceilings are finished in the lobby area. This image (left) shows the ground floor looking towards the entrance. Renovations are expected to be complete and ground-floor service to resume in the second half of September, says Alex McCulloch, the library's renovations manager. Meanwhile, services continue to be available in the library. Circulation is located on the bottom floor during the renovations; the temporary entrance is on the west side, opposite Needles Hall.

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Alternative energy mix assessed

Research by Claudio Cañizares (right), a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Michael Fowler (below left), a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was featured in a recent article on the online science magazine, PhysOrg.com, entitled "Hydrogen-Wind-Nuclear Plant in Ontario Not Currently Worthwhile, Study Shows."

In this era of costly and shrinking fossil fuel supplies, nuclear, hydrogen and wind energy are all promising alternatives. "Bruce Power – Canada’s first private nuclear generating company – is considering including a hydrogen storage and distribution component to go along with a large scale wind farm, all presently sharing the main electrical transmission line in Bruce County, Ontario," says the PhysOrg.com article.

Investigations by Cañizares, Fowler, and their co-authors, Gregor Taljan and Gregor Verbic of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, showed that the plan is not feasible in terms of cost, "at least not at the current state of hydrogen technology development. . . . As the researchers demonstrate, the selling price of electricity would need to be about four times the buying electricity price for the hydrogen system to profit from storing electricity." However, there are other circumstances under which hydrogen storage might be feasible economically, and the fiscal picture could change as hydrogen technology matures, the researchers say.

The full text of the PhysOrg.com article is online.

The research is published as “The Feasibility of Hydrogen Storage for Mixed Wind-Nuclear Power Plants,” IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 23, Issue 3, August 2008. This paper is also online.

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Ken Coates on Ideas, and other notes

A talk by Ken Coates (left), dean of arts, entitled "Losing the Arctic?" will be broadcast on CBC Radio One's Ideas program this evening. Ideas starts at 9:05 EST (9:30 NT). Born in the Yukon, Coates is a historian specializing in the Canadian North. From the Ideas website: "The threats posed by climate change, the resource potential of the Arctic, and new challenges to Canadian sovereignty have re-invigorated debate about the future of the north. . . . Ken Coates discusses the contradictory influences at work in this important but little understood part of Canada." The talk was first delivered at St. Jerome's University on November 30, 2007, as the 2007-2008 John J. Wintermeyer Lecture. It's also accessible as a podcast on the St. Jerome's website.

Katrina Di Gravio, director of Organizational and Human Development (OHD), sends this announcement. "Career Services and OHD are pleased to announce the availability of the Career Development eManual to the entire UW community. Career Services developed the Career Development eManual for students; however, the concepts apply to anyone interested in career development. So check it out! This interactive guide will walk you through the six steps to career development: Self assessment, Research, Career decision making, Marketing yourself (includes work search, résumé writing, CV writing, letter writing, and interview skills), Work, and Work/life planning. You can access the Career Development eManual directly by clicking on this link and using your UW userid.

A new engineering student design group will be revving its engines this fall. The Waterloo Team for Sustainable Automotive Materials is intended to "accelerate the development of novel and sustainable materials for the automotive industry," its website says. "Sustainable materials should lower the environmental impact, be commercially feasible and deliver the appropriate technical requirements. Novel or existing materials, or combinations of those, will be investigated and implemented in actual vehicles, thus creating the AutoBIOmobile. The AutoBIOmobile is meant to be a tool for exploring new ways to decrease the environmental impact caused by the transportation needs of our modern society." Volunteers from all departments are welcome. The team has chosen the Ford Flex (pictured) as the first AutoBIOmobile. "Built in Canada, this vehicle is a versatile people-mover. The team will be exploring the incorporation of sustainable materials in the design of Ford Flex." Among other activities, they plan these:

• Incorporation of sustainable materials in automobiles: biobased materials from renewable resources, evaluation of environmental impact, selection of materials based on eco-properties, life cycle analysis
• Increase collaboration between industry and academia
• Creation and disseminate knowledge on sustainable materials for transportation
• Integrate renewable materials in vehicles for demonstration, evaluation and raising awareness

CPA staff

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