ACE users will hear from three profs

The UW-ACE User Group, made up of instructors who rely on the online course environment for significant parts of their teaching, will hold its end-of-term meeting today — 1:30 p.m. in the Flex Lab on the third floor of the Dana Porter Library. The Centre for Teaching Excellence provides this summary of the presentations they'll be hearing:

"Professor Richard Wells teaches a first year Kinesiology course: Kin 160, Ergonomics in Industry, with over 200 students. Richard will share how he has used the blog feature in UW-ACE to show his students examples of good and bad ergonomic design encountered in our everyday lives, as well as provide summaries of each of his classes. The summaries help students focus on the main points of the lecture, as well as provide Richard an opportunity to reflect on the class, and briefly note items which he may not have had time to mention in class.

"Steve Forsey, Chemistry: Pre-laboratory online instructional videos and online quizzes were introduced into two introductory Organic Chemistry laboratories. In years prior to the introduction of online material students read the lab manual and completed a pre-lab assignment before going to the laboratory. Pre and post online questionnaires were given to determine the impact that the online videos and quizzes had on the student learning experience. Results from the questionnaires showed that the students supported the use of the online material to aid them in their learning. The students did not have trouble with the technology and did not have problems viewing the videos and performing the quizzes. The questionnaire also indicated that the students who completed the online videos and quizzes had a better understanding of the lab content. This was seen in the general knowledge questions in which the students who viewed online material out-performed the students who did not view the online material.

"Monica Vesely, Chemistry: In order to address the preparedness of students for lab in Biochemistry lab courses, again pre-lab quizzes were prepared and pre-lab instrument instructional videos were developed. These, however, were created with a lower budget and time commitment and relied on campus resources such as the Audio Visual Department and the Science Liaison for the Centre for Teaching Excellence who facilitated the incorporation of the on-line features into Biochemistry lab courses. Monica will also discuss the collaboration with Katherine McLean with the English Language Proficiency Program to introduce modules into her course with the aim of improving the quality of written lab reports. Finally, Monica will highlight some of the library resources that were incorporated into a self-guided tutorial aimed at assisting students in finding and using references materials relevant to the course.

"Special bonus feature! Andrea Chappell from ITMS will be available to field questions about the Online Learning Environment review. This review is in place to guide a recommendation for the direction of a centrally supported online learning environment beyond the 2010 license expiry for ANGEL LMS, by evaluating UW's needs and identifying promising solutions. Andrea welcomes input from faculty members on their current experiences with UW-ACE and their vision of their future needs in the online environment. A change in our course management system is recognized as a serious undertaking, to be pursued only if demonstrable advantages are compelling."

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Accelerator Centre hails successful firm

The Accelerator Centre in UW's Research and Technology Park will hold a "graduation" celebration this morning (9:30 a.m., 295 Hagey Boulevard) for Miovision Technologies Inc., the second company to grow with the help of Accelerator Centre partners to the point that it's ready to move out.

"The first company to graduate," says a news release, "was Primal Fusion in October 2007. Miovision is, however, the first company to graduate with a founding team of first-time entrepreneurs. The three founders, all of which are University of Waterloo engineering grads, started Miovision in 2005 utilizing their core skill sets and technology developed at UW.

"Miovision was the first client to join the Accelerator Centre in April 2006. At that point they had a team of six, including the three founding team members. As the company’s markets were defined and the product suite was being created, the team started to grow. At the point of graduation Miovision has over 20 full-time employees. Although the company has raised over $1.8 million in funding through numerous sources, including angel investors, OCE, IRAP and SR&ED, growth is being fuelled by revenue for the most part."

It quotes Mike Stork, one of the company's mentors at the north campus facility: “Having been involved from the start as a mentor and now as an investor and member of Miovision’s Board of Directors, I have seen firsthand their transition from a product development company to a market leader in automated traffic studies. The team has welcomed the mentoring provided by the Accelerator Centre and utilized the educational programs to advance their personal and corporate development."

And Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride agrees: “The Accelerator Centre provided us with the support and infrastructure needed to allow us to focus on our core business and actually accelerate our business development significantly. Along with a great facility, mentoring and educational programs, the Centre also provided our team with a very dynamic and collaborative work environment."

Tom Corr, CEO of the Accelerator Centre and associate vice-president (commercialization) in UW's research office, says Miovision "exemplifies the type of organization the Accelerator Centre looks to graduate. They have a well-developed management team, a world-class Board of Directors, a well-defined market place with numerous key customers, and strong revenue. Our goal at the Accelerator Centre is to have a positive impact on the local economy by graduating strong companies who are poised to provide many jobs for people in the Waterloo Region, and Miovision is a prime example.”

The release explains that Miovision Technologies "develops video and web-based technologies to help traffic consultants and municipal governments reduce the cost of collecting, analyzing, and reporting accurate traffic data. They replace manual traffic data collection with their Automated Turning Movement Count system.  The Miovision Online Data Management & Reporting system allows customers to keep all traffic data — no matter how it was collected — in one secure, centralized, globally-accessible place." The company will be holding an open house January 22, starting at 5:00, at its new headquarters on Kitchener's Otonabee Drive.

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Science alumni award, and more notes

The Faculty of Science honoured one of its graduates at an awards banquet November 27, presenting the Distinguished Alumni Award to Michael D. Lees, the president of Babcock & Wilcox Canada. “In 1980,” a citation says, “Michael graduated from Science’s Applied Physics program. He signed on as a stress analyst for Babcock & Wilcox in Cambridge, Ontario, a company he perceived to offer the most opportunities for professional advancement. Twenty-eight years later, he continues to work for this industry-leading company in such progressive roles as Director of Business Development & Marketing, Head of the Nuclear Division, and finally President. During his long career with the company, Michael has seen his workplace transform itself from a smokestack boiler production company to one establishing new technological frontiers in the lucrative oil sands of western Canada. Babcock & Wilcox has revamped their nuclear division across North America to become not only more efficient but more environmentally responsible. In fact, under his guidance the company has developed an oxygen-burning process called oxy-combustion which aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its traditional boilers, a coup that sets the company apart from their competitors.” He’s seen (left) posing with the dean of science, Terry McMahon, the one with the unstriped necktie.

Architecture professor Philip Beesley is in New York today, taking part in something called "The Colloquy of Things" at The Urban Center, which is a branch of the Municipal Art Society of New York, on Madison Avenue near 51st Street. What's it all about? "This panel discussion will explore the growing agency of natural and artificial things, a theme being developed by the Situated Technologies Pamphlet Series. What are the social and technological challenges when 'things' begin to be the producers and consumers of information? What are the opportunities and consequences of delegating greater responsibility and autonomy to technologies or natural ecologies? What conceptual shifts in programmatic and material organization will designers need to contend with when designing such architectures? How will the contingencies of context and situations affect the way they will function, communicate, and interact with people and each other? Themes that the presenters will explore include ambient intelligence, underspecification, responsiveness, cyclic materiality, and emergent ecologies. This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs."

The UW Sustainability Project is selling "Klean Kanteens" for $20 apiece; available at the Federation of Students office in the Student Life Centre, "they make a great gift," says UWSP coordinator Danielle Woon. • The staff association is offering its members discount tickets for the Chicopee Ski Club again this season. • “Confronting Evil Today”, a free three-part mini-course by St. Jerome's University faculty member David Seljak, will begin Friday, January 16, 7:30 p.m., in Siegfried Hall at St. Jerome's.

And finally, a couple of corrections. First, in Tuesday's Daily Bulletin I said that Christmas dinner events at the University Club were scheduled for Thursday evenings this week and next; in fact they're on Wednesday evenings (December 10 and 17). Second, I said the other day that the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund had given a grant to buy, among other things, a sound level meter for the student Clean Snowmobile Team. In fact, funding for the meter was turned down, says WEEF director Brandon DeHart; the team did, however, get money to buy or build a trailer to carry its machine.

CAR

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