UW joins World Community Grid

A news release from the UW Media Relations office

Many University of Waterloo computers in libraries and labs that would otherwise be idle will be harnessed to help solve some of the world's most pressing humanitarian problems.

UW has partnered with World Community Grid, a public computing grid that draws on the computational power of idle computers to expedite research on worldwide humanitarian concerns, such as AIDS and the environment. The university joins IBM Corp. and a group of more than 380 companies, associations, foundations, not-for-profits and academic institutions in the international project.

The UW library has taken the lead on the project. "We are very keen to be involved in this worthy project which has the potential to do so much good for humanity," says Mark Haslett, university librarian. "Involvement in the World Community Grid is also in line with our commitment to support advances in research, both at the University of Waterloo and around the world.

World Community Grid uses grid technology to draw together PCs from around the world in order to create a unified system with computational power exceeding that of a few supercomputers.

In this way, when computers are not in use by UW students, faculty or staff, they can communicate with the World Community Grid's server to receive, process and return data.

"The University of Waterloo has become IBM's latest World Community Grid partner in Canada," says Pat Horgan, IBM vice-president of manufacturing, development and operations. "IBM's relationship with Waterloo continues to evolve on many positive fronts. We hope that other Canadian universities and public organizations will follow Waterloo's example and also sign up for the World Community Grid program."

Waterloo's team on World Community Grid has attracted about 57 users, placing it in 387th position out of more than 14,000 teams worldwide on the grid. Waterloo has accounted for 185,000 results returned to the grid to date. Since the inception of the World Community Grid, more than 160,000 years of computer time has been donated to humanitarian research.

To date, more than 382,000 individual PC owners have become part of the WCG and results have already been achieved on critical health issues. To join, click here and download a free, small software program. The software is safe for computers and easy to install.

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Rebecca Campbell (left) and Carol Ann Weaver with teacher/singer Thankdeka Mazibuko at Zulu Township School, Durban, South Africa, May, 2008.

Music and cultural exchange in South Africa

by Susan Fish

Seventeen Conrad Grebel University College students traveled to Durban, South Africa on a 19-day music culture trip in May 2008. They attended concerts, visited AIDS clinics, met anti-apartheid and refugee workers, visited local markets, beaches and slums. They also unexpectedly found themselves in the midst of the violence that plagued South Africa in May.

The trip was led by Grebel Music professor Carol Ann Weaver and singer Rebecca Campbell. Students were able to receive either Music or Peace and Conflict Studies credit.

A highlight was the all-night Isicathamiya Male Choral Music Competition where groups of men danced and sang traditional, unaccompanied Zulu choral music.The group also attended a four-hour church service in KwaMashu Township where they were given songbooks so they could sing along phonetically. At the end of the service, their van was blocked by a locked car, so eight men lifted the car out of the way. In the same township, the group visited a secondary school where they were greeted by several hundred young Zulu voices. Weaver and Campbell also performed at this school.

Students described the experience as life-changing. While students were sobered by the harsh realities of apartheid, AIDS, poverty and violence, they also saw signs of hope.

“South Africa is evidence of a miracle,” said first-year Music student Michelle Van Rassel. “A culture of hatred has been overpowered by truth, grace and humility. Although the corruption, anger and violence left over from apartheid aren’t completely snuffed out, these things are not supported by society, which is hopeful. My hope is not for the success of one life but for the peacefulness of the entire planet.”

A number of students are considering returning to South Africa to teach, study or work in the community, while others are integrating the experience into their life in Canada. “What I bring back with me is a broader understanding of the world, so that I can apply new convictions gained from South Africa to my local community,” said Music and Environmental Studies graduate Hingman Leung.

“The impact of this trip has been huge, profound, and invaluable for us, with exciting dialogues beginning and continuing with South Africans who so eagerly allowed us to learn from their lives and culture,” says Weaver. “This trip allowed us to begin to understand, and hopefully communicate to our own communities something of the mystery, beauty, complications, pains, frustrations and sheer joy of these cross-cultural experiences. Our world is a small place, but sometimes we need to go outside our comfort zone to understand how much we don’t know, and how much we would like to learn about other people, their realities and their expressions.”

Weaver will offer a new Music/PACS course, “African Music and Peace”, in Winter 2009, to further explore some of the experiences of this South African travel course.

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Notes on a Wednesday

The Calgary-based company Realex Properties Corp. is becoming the owner of the Accelerator building on UW’s north campus, as part of a $142 million deal to take over the assets of local developer The Cora Group. Realex said in a news release that it was acquiring “a portfolio of 6 office buildings located in Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, comprising approximately 933,000 sq. ft. of rentable area, approximately 2,000 parking stalls and 470,000 sq. ft of development entitlements”. Most of the buildings are in downtown Kitchener, but one of the six is the landmark Accelerator Centre at 295 Hagey Boulevard. Realex is also taking over Cora’s management subsidiary: “With the acquisition of the management company,” says the release, “Realex will be able to leverage a Southwestern Ontario team of 25 people led by Adrian Conrad, the owner of the property management company, who, following completion of the Acquisition, will join Realex as a Vice President. . . . In addition, Manfred Conrad, the principal shareholder of Cora will, subject to regulatory approval, join the Realex Board of Directors.” The wing of the Accelerator building that houses UW’s Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology is Manfred Conrad Hall. Cora broke ground for the Accelerator in 2004, on land that is leased from UW as part of the Research and Technology Park.

Moods Magazine will no longer be showing up on departmental desks across campus, says Linda Brogden of health services on behalf of the university’s Employee Assistance Program. “In the past,” she writes, “Moods was provided by the EAP to all departments on campus four times a year. However, Moods recently launched an online version, which will be free to the University of Waterloo via password.” Anybody who would like to use the magazine’s site can get details (and the password) from Brogden by e-mail: lbrogden@uwaterloo.ca. The magazine, published in Mississauga, was founded five years ago “to improve the quality of life for Canadians by providing an awareness and knowledge of mood disorders and healthy living. Prevention, healthy living, and balancing life are the focus.” The spring issue included articles on migraines, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sodium in food, “the teen brain”, “dealing with a sexual affair”, and the genetic basis of depression. UW people who would still like to receive the printed version can subscribe at a discount rate of $11 a year — again, Brogden has the details. She adds that the magazine is developing new sections: On Campus, Health at Work, a searchable resource guide, a detailed self-test, and a Research/Studies section where researchers can share current studies and recruit participants.

Ashley Patterson of the nutritional and nutraceutical research lab in UW’s kinesiology department is still looking for participants (aged 35 to 50) for her study of omega-3 nutrients in people’s diet, a project that was featured in the Daily Bulletin back in April. • Karl Taylor, who was coach of the men’s hockey Warriors from 2003 to 2005, has been named head coach of the expansion team Ontario Reign (that’s Ontario, California) in the East Coast Hockey League. • There were festivities at the University Club on the afternoon of June 25 as colleagues celebrated cancer researcher Roy Cameron’s designation as a University Professor, one of two UW faculty to be granted that rank this year.

Last month was “a hot June with lots of rain”, says Frank Seglenieks of the UW weather station, although people might be surprised to hear it. He explains: “For each day we look at the highest and the lowest temperatures. The average of those two readings is the average temperature for that day and then these numbers are averaged to get a number for the entire month.” For June the daytime highs averaged 0.3 degrees Celsius below normal, and that slight chill is what sticks in people’s minds — but the predawn lows were 2.9 degrees above normal, which raises the overall result for the month. “A more exact method,” says Seglenieks, “would be to take an average of all 2,976 temperature readings for the month (one every 15 minutes). Unfortunately we don’t have a long enough record to make meaningful averages.” So, what made those overnight lows unusually high? “One of the factors is the amount of cloud, and as it turns out this was a cloudy month. The incoming shortwave radiation is a measure of how much of the sun’s energy gets to the sensor — this June the average was 221 Watts per square metre compared to the average of 242.” Finally, the 106.4 mm of rain last month made it the wettest June in the 10-year history of the weather station.

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