The barrel pyramid beside the old Seagram Museum building on Erb Street — now home to the Centre for International Governance Innovation — was removed last week in a step towards building a major new landmark on the site. Earlier in the summer, CIGI “welcomed” an announcement by the federal and Ontario governments that they will provide $25 million each for the creation of a “Balsillie Centre of Excellence”. CIGI founder Jim Balsillie made a private donation to CIGI to match the funds provided by the two governments. The City of Waterloo donated the land next to CIGI for the building of the new centre. (The museum building, including what was once the Seagram barrel warehouse, is at lower left.) The centre will “create resources and facilities to run programs of studies in partnership with the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and other universities in Canada and internationally. The Centre will house several schools and programs, including the already established Balsillie School of International Affairs.”

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New agreement for university policing

by Melinda Dalton, reprinted by permission from the Waterloo Chronicle

The university special constables and Waterloo Regional Police have updated their agreement, amending jurisdictional restrictions to allow for the transport of detainees to Kitchener lock-up and Grand River Hospital. The new agreement updates an outdated, patchwork agreement that had previously outlined the roles and responsibilities of the universities' on-campus peace officers.

"We took some time to review (previous agreements) to make sure they were meeting the needs of 2009," said Insp. Steve Beckett of the regional police. "In doing that, we found some inconsistencies that had happened over a number of years where powers were different for different officers and jurisdictions were different. We really combined all of it into new agreements and allowed us to go forward in a way that really suits the community."

One of the most significant changes is spelling out where and when special constables can transport detainees from university property - which is generally the area that limits their jurisdiction. They've also been given authority to take people to Grand River Hospital under the Mental Health Act.

Rod Curran, director of Wilfrid Laurier University's special constable service, said that move could provide an additional challenge for the service, given that they only have two special constables on duty some evenings. "But, we've got a really good working relationship with the police, so it won't present too much of a problem," Curran said. "The contract really spells out what our roles are. It actually helps me out when we want to get funding from the university, because we have to live up to that contract."

Last fall, Laurier asked the police service to approve the use of OC spray, commonly known as pepper spray, for its special constables. The new agreement doesn't outright permit the use, but instead says it is subject to the approval of police and the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Beckett said the police are waiting on the recommendations of a white paper drafted by the Ontario Chiefs of Police before it makes a decision on the OC spray. Special constables at several universities including Western and the University of Guelph already carry OC spray.

The white paper is expected to recommend more than a dozen changes to improve the use of special constables in Ontario. In addition to universities, special constables are employed by several other organizations including municipal police forces, the Toronto Transit Commission and the Niagara Parks Police. Special Constables are not police officers, but are sworn peace officers and have powers similar to police, but a limited jurisdiction.

The new agreement between regional police and the universities also outlines training responsibilities for special constables. They are not required to attend Ontario Police College, but must complete training approved by the regional police's training branch.

Both the University of Waterloo and Laurier already offer ongoing training for their special constables, sometimes through regional police. UW has also added a seconded staff sergeant to its service to ensure operational protocols are current and to assist with training.

The police services board also re-appointed all of the 32 special constables employed by the universities. Before, the board had to re-approve special constables throughout the year based on their hire date and police found some of the appointments would lapse or some officers would have different powers based on their date of appointment. Now, all of the special constable appointments will be renewed on the same date every five years.

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Latest CFI grants for UW research work

a news release from UW's media relations office

Waterloo researchers have received funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation to investigate how Canada can make the most of its spending to renew the country's infrastructure such as bridges and highways. Other Waterloo researchers will also study how to improve the fuel efficiency of cars by reducing their weight with the use of new materials. Still others will study the creation of new materials and better ways to manufacture industrial products.

In the latest round of CFI funding, Waterloo received a total of $8.3 million for two new projects under CFI's new initiatives fund, which aims to enhance Canada's capacity in promising new areas of research and technology development, and two continuing projects under the leading edge fund, which enables institutions to build on already successful initiatives supported by past CFI investments.

"This new funding will lead to new discoveries and technologies that will keep our country internationally competitive," said George Dixon, vice-president (university research) at Waterloo. "The investment will enhance the ability of UW researchers and students to carry out important world-class scientific research and technology development that will benefit society."

The two new Waterloo research projects:

Facility for the Assessment of Engineered Rehabilitation Systems for Infrastructure Renewal. CFI funding: $468,909. Lead researcher: Khaled Soudki, Canada Research Chair in Innovative Structural Rehabilitation, and a professor of civil and environmental engineering. Other researchers: Sriram Narasimhan, Susan Tighe, Scott Walbridge and Jeffrey West.

The new infrastructure, which features a component and materials fatigue testing system, will allow researchers to develop innovative solutions for the renewal of civil structures such as bridges, buildings and pavements. They will conduct fundamental and applied engineering research on how to rehabilitate civil infrastructure, resulting in less expensive and long-lasting repairs.

"Our aim is to develop ways to repair deteriorated structures in a cost-effective and timely manner and well-suited for the Canadian climate," said Soudki. "The evaluation and rehabilitation of Canada's aging civil infrastructure is a serious issue costing billions of dollars a year."

Materials and Manufacturing for Light Weight Automotive Structures and Advanced Occupant Protection. CFI funding: $3,774,926. Lead researchers: Michael Worswick, Canada Research Chair in Lightweight Materials and a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, and Joseph McDermid, NSERC/U.S. Steel Canada/Xstrata Zinc Industrial Research Chair in Zinc Coated Advanced Steels and a professor of mechanical engineering at McMaster University. Other researchers: Jack Callaghan, Duane Cronin, Shahrzad Esmaeili and Mary Wells, all of Waterloo; Mukesh Jain, Joseph Kish, Nikolas Provatas and David Wilkinson, of McMaster.

The new infrastructure will propel research initiatives, expanding on the world-class expertise in automotive materials and structures currently based at Waterloo and McMaster . The research aims to develop and commercialize light-weight automotive materials and structures.

"The global automotive sector will undergo revolutionary change in automotive body structures through the widespread adoption of ultra-high strength and ultra-light weight materials," said Worswick. "Our work seeks to address key elements of the automotive life cycle, spanning material production, fabrication into structures and superior service performance in corrosion protection, vehicle crash-worthiness and occupant safety."

Expected results include developing the next generation of low-weight, high-strength automotive materials, particularly ultra-high strength steels, magnesium and aluminum alloys. Such innovations will cut greenhouse gas emissions by reducing vehicle weight and deploying innovative manufacturing processes.

The two ongoing Waterloo research projects:

Smart Materials Ontario: Advancing New Functional Materials Technology. CFI funding: $2,903,866. Lead researcher: Tong Leung, professor of chemistry at Waterloo. Other researchers: John Honek, Lyndon Jones, Flora Ng, Siva Sivoththaman,Norman Zhou of Waterloo, plus researchers at Lakehead, Wilfrid Laurier, McMaster and Guelph.

The multi-disciplinary project focuses on materials research, especially "smart" functional materials for technology innovation. These structures can provide novel properties and functions based on stimulus-and-response, enabling a wide range of new applications and technologies. "The goal is to develop a fundamental understanding of these molecular self-organization processes and to design and build multi-functional prototype devices for a wide range of targeted applications," said Leung.

The project's new facility will include the most advanced ion microscopes and spectrometers in the world and a rapid prototyping facility for multi-functional materials and device research. It will support key research aimed at complex problems in applications. The work will result in innovations in materials technology, such as biosensors, industrial catalysts, electronics and biomolecular devices, environmental materials, green energy generation and storage, and nanotechnology.

Advanced Joining Facilities for Macro, Micro and Nano Level Fabrications. CFI funding: $1,183,608. Lead researcher: Norman Zhou, professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo. Other researchers: Walter Duley, Michael Mayer, Joseph Sanderson, Andrei Sazonov and Tze-Wei Yeow, all of Waterloo, and faculty at Western Ontario, Alberta, and McMaster.

The project's new facilities will add to research strengths in advanced welding and joining to make Waterloo a leader in the field. Joining, whether at the macro-, micro- or nano-scale, is used to fabricate manufactured products ranging from aircraft, automobiles, ships and nuclear power plants, to microelectronic packages and medical implants.

"Researchers in joining and welding are being continually challenged to deliver technology advancements to support faster and more reliable fabrication, continuing miniaturization and cost reduction," said Zhou. The new infrastructure includes a femtosecond pulsed laser facility for developing nano-joining processes and a real-time assessment facility for testing more reliable microelectronics interconnects. There's also a performance test station to evaluate corrosion resistance for bio-medical microwelds, along with a fibre laser system for higher speed welding of lightweight metals.

CAR

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