UAE campus ready for first students this fall

by Martha Foulds, Faculty of Engineering

“I am pleased to inform the UW community that the UW campus in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates will begin classes in September 2009,” writes former provost Amit Chakma in a June 30 memo. Students in chemical and civil engineering will attend orientation days on August 30 and 31 prior to starting classes on September 1. Following two terms in class, they will have their first co-op work experience in the spring term of 2010.

(The photo above shows what students will see as they approach the Dubai campus. The Waterloo logo is centred above the main entrance doors.)

“I’m truly excited for this great new initiative to start in the fall,” says Adel Sedra, dean of engineering. “We’re offering a unique academic experience to these students and an enriching opportunity for our faculty members who will go to Dubai.” Three faculty members from Waterloo will join the campus director, E&CE professor Magdy Salama, in Dubai this fall to teach the first class. Four professors will be teaching in Dubai in the winter term. Staff needs are being finalized and will be met by our local partners, the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT).

As of July 2, 54 applications for admission to the UW UAE campus had been received. Of those, the University of Waterloo has offered admission to 36 applicants; another 15 are pending decisions until documentation is complete. Twenty-one confirmations have been received from accepted students. “We have been informed by our academic partner in the UAE that we will continue to receive applications during July and August. As a result, it is very likely that the enrolment will continue to increase between now and September,” adds Chakma’s memo.

Leo Rothenburg, associate vice president international and former acting dean of engineering, explains that admissions activity for this fall’s UAE class continues because university application patterns in the Gulf Region are quite different from those in North America. “I’m extremely pleased at the positive response we’re receiving to our targeted recruitment efforts in India and Pakistan over the past two months,” says Rothenburg, “and I expect that ongoing recruitment efforts in Iran will also bring even more student interest to the campus.”

Chakma’s memo also points to three important features of the UW campus at Dubai: “(1) the curriculum offered is identical to the one offered at the UW campus in Waterloo, (2) the course instructors will be regular faculty from the UW campus in Waterloo, and (3) the admissions process is managed by the UW campus in Waterloo.”

Waterloo administrators, faculty and staff continue to work with their HCT peers and the campus director to ensure an excellent experience for everyone involved in the inaugural class at this unique new UW campus.

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Professors on sabbatical

Here are the names of a few more UW faculty members who will be on sabbatical leave starting July 1. Their plans for the sabbatical are as reported to UW’s board of governors at the time the leave was approved. All these sabbaticals are six months long.

Brendon Larsen, environment and resource studies: “During this sabbatical, I will complete book manuscripts for Yale University Press; complete other outstanding manuscripts; initiate new projects, especially graduate student research funded by my SSHRC grant; and network at 1-2 international conferences. I have also been approached by a Swedish colleague about being a visiting scholar at Linköping University.”

Martin Ross, earth and environmental sciences: “This early sabbatical is needed to accelerate research progress and dissemination of results; strengthen recently developed external collaborations; and complete setting up the recently awarded CFI infrastructure. Planned activities mainly include completing publications and visiting external collaborators. I also plan on spending more time in the field gathering new data at a critical time.”

James Robinson, environment and resource studies: “For many water utilities, including this Region, while water charges per litre are constant all year round, the principal determinant of infrastructure capital requirements is the height of peak (summer) demands. The leave will be used to research the effectiveness in use and general applicability of peak demand rate structures to defer major water infrastructure expenditures such as pipelines.”

Roger Suffling, planning: “I shall chair a symposium, Ecology on Edge, and edit resulting proceedings; complete a chapter for Ecology: A Canadian Perspective, conduct research for a popular volume resulting from Ecology on Edge, and write up backlogged research papers before retirement.”

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Feasts for the soul and senses, and more

If you missed it yesterday, you can still enjoy the barbecue that's being held today, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the square in front of the Arts Lecture Hall. Members of the university's Muslim Students' Association and the Kitchener-based Afri-Can Connection are serving up Halal chicken, beef burgers and sausage, as well as vegetarian choices. Funds raised will go toward the $20,000 cost of building a well in Larabanga, a village in northern Ghana where infant mortality is high and there is no clean source of water.

Paul Roorda (BA ’88) is showing his artworks this weekend (Friday through Sunday) in booth white-33 at the annual Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in Nathan Phillips Square. Roorda's mixed media encaustic drawings, like the image on the left (Chisels, rust and beeswax on paper, 2006), can also be seen on his website. In his statement he says: "I am interested in how pervasive ritual is in cultures throughout the world and in the way rituals become an essential part of life for people, even when they may be at a loss to describe in words the full meaning those rituals hold.... In my work, the materials are chosen to reflect the types of symbolic materials rituals are made of: Wine, gold, tea, smoke, beeswax, handmade paper, flowers, earth, stones, string, wheat…”

Shakespeare in Performance is being offered as a university credit course this summer by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in partnership with the universities of Guelph, Toronto, Windsor and Western Ontario, Brock University, and St. Jerome’s University. From the website: "A historical, theoretical and analytical introduction to Shakespeare in performance, taught by a university professor, with guests from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival company. Focus will be on current Festival productions of Shakespeare. The class will meet for three hours per day, five afternoons a week, July 20 to August 8, and will include attendance at Shakespeare productions. Auditors welcome." More information here.

41º to 66º Architecture in Canada: Region, Culture, Tectonics is an exhibition of projects from the Canadian entry to the 11th International Architecture Exhibition held in Venice last fall. Selected projects from that entry are on view at Cambridge Galleries Design at Riverside, 7 Melville Street South, in Cambridge, until August 22. The exhibit is co-curated by architecture professors John McMinn (Waterloo) and Marco Polo (Ryerson) and features 36 architectural projects by 27 architectural firms from across Canada. It's partly funded by the Waterloo Engineering faculty. Details.

Colleagues have sent word that Sue Fraser, a 36-year veteran staff member in applied health sciences and long-time staff association contributor, is celebrating a milestone birthday today.

CPA staff

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