'We here at the Institute for Quantum Computing,' writes communications specialist Colin Hunter, "have just finished making a six-minute video about the important experiment that was published in a recent issue of Science." As reported in the Daily Bulletin in late July, it's a stress test on the widely accepted Born’s rule, which gives the probability that a measurement on a quantum system will yield a given result. Post-doctoral fellow Urbasi Sinha is seen in her IQC laboratory.

Back to top

Football, popsicles and a summer Monday

As football and steroids are still in the news, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport issued this brief statement at week’s end: “The CCES commends the University of Waterloo for its commitment to clean sport and for the final report ‘Review of the University of Waterloo Football Program in Relation to the Use of Banned Substances’; released on Wednesday, August 18, 2010.  The university is a stakeholder in the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and the CCES applauds the efforts of all stakeholders to eradicate doping from all parts of Canadian sport.  CCES will make the report available to the independent task force it is appointing to explore the use of performance enhancing substances in football as announced last week.” On the same day, the Texas-based Taylor Hooton Foundation issued a statement about the work it’s going to be doing at Waterloo. “Waterloo’s efforts to educate its student-athletes and athletic staff are unparalleled,” said foundation president Don Hooton. “No other university in the United States or Canada has made as strong a commitment to combating this problem.” Four  Warrior football players have been suspended as the result of drug testing this spring, and there have also been suspensions at two other Canadian universities.

Media people are getting a tour this morning of the “Balsillie campus” building that’s rising on Erb Street in central Waterloo. A news release explains that the building, designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB), is on the site of the 19th-century Seagram distillery and will be “an ambitious, new 114,000 sq. ft. academic campus. It is being built beside CIGI, located on the corner of Erb and Caroline Streets. General contractor Cooper Construction Ltd. of Oakville began the three-storey academic facility in September 2009 and completion is scheduled for August 2011. The Balsillie Campus project has one of Ontario’s first BubbleDeck systems, a revolutionary construction technology developed in Europe that uses considerably less concrete than a conventional poured in place slab and beam system. The principal characteristic of the system is the hollow plastic spheres (balls) used within the floor that eliminate more than 30% of the dead load weight. This $50 million-dollar project is funded jointly by the Governments of Canada and Ontario. It was matched by a $50 million donation to CIGI from CIGI founder and chair Jim Balsillie. The City of Waterloo donated the land next to CIGI for the building of the new campus, valued at $5 million. Upon completion, the Balsillie Campus will create a platform for post-graduate education in international affairs. The campus will house several schools and programs, including the already established Balsillie School of International Affairs,” jointly operated by UW and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Announcements that climate change researcher Stephen Schneider would speak at Waterloo in September, giving this term’s TD Canada Trust Walter Bean Lecture, are being revised. (His name appeared in the Daily Bulletin’s events listings as recently as last week.) Schneider, who served as Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies in the biology department at Stanford University, died of a heart attack July 19, while travelling from Sweden to a scientific conference in London. He was 65. The faculty of environment has now announced that the Walter Bean Lecture will be given by Joe MacInnis, described as “one of the world’s foremost explorers”, with a dive to the wreck of RMS Titanic among his credentials. He’ll speak under the title “Oilstorm: Leadership Lessons from the Gulf of Mexico”. The lecture is scheduled for Thursday, September 30, at 4:00 in the Humanities Theatre.

There's been a bit of publicity about National Cherry Popsicle Day this Thursday — so what's this all about? Whoever chose August 26 for such a celebration in the first place (and I'd suspect the popsicle manufacturers of being involved in that), it's the UW Recreation Committee that has picked up on the idea, negotiated for a grant from the staff Special Initiatives Fund, and organized Thursday's noontime lickfest for employees (12:00 to 1:00 in Biology I room 271). Says a memo from UWRC: "Cool down with a refreshing cherry popsicle and enjoy the improv theatre skits performed by ToTE. Audience participation is encouraged! The audience provides suggestions to the actors and they create a skit. Sign up ASAP to ensure that we have enough popsicles for everyone! There are prizes to be won! This is provided at no charge to employees."

Also coming up from UWRC: "The Special Initiatives Fund approved funds to cover the cost of a bus for a bus trip. So, where will this bus trip take us? Let us know of a location for a day trip by bus that interests you (probably a Saturday or Sunday trip). Email entry #7 and email entry #47 will win UW Farm Market dollars to be used in September/October 2010. Email your suggestion for a bus trip location to UWRC@uwaterloo.ca."

And speaking of bus trips . . . the Retirees' Association has a day-long outing scheduled for Saturday, September 18, up to the Canadian Big Band Celebration in Port Elgin. "Come with us," says the association's web site, "as we travel back in time to the 1930's and '40's and the unforgettable music of the big bands!" Terry Weldon, who coordinates the association's tours, says there are "at least fifteen spaces still available", probably because a Saturday in September is bound to be a busy time, and he's inviting un-retired staff and faculty, indeed "everyone in the UW community", to get in on the trip. Tickets, including two meals and admission to the Big Band event, are $110.

Back to top

Roundup of IST projects for the season

“Even though the lazy days of summer are upon us, there is a lot of activity in information technology,” writes Bob Hicks (right), director of client services in the information systems and technology department. Some of the items in his eight-point report have already been mentioned in the Daily Bulletin, but the full list is as follows:

• “IST will soon provide a SharePoint 2010 Foundation production system. The plan is to also create SharePoint 2010 Server, and provide that service only to those that need it. These 2 activities (SharePoint 2010 Foundation, SharePoint 2010 Server) will continue in the Fall term.”

• “The Office 2010 investigation project team is looking at Office 2010. IST still needs to determine deployment and training options. There will be a SEW course offered in September to highlight what is new in Office 2010. Before deploying Office 2010, we need to test compatibility with our corporate applications.”

• “Bookit will be replaced by Exchange Calendar, probably sometime in November 2010. IST is looking at ways to move Bookit data to Exchange Calendar. Training in Exchange Calendar will start in October. Associated with this project is the move to Exchange 2010 which is happening this summer. The web experience for Exchange calendar is much better with Exchange 2010 than it was with the previous version. We are also looking at how Outlook 2010 differs from Outlook 2007.”

• “Academic support departments that participate in the desktop rollover program will be getting new computers to replace any Dell GX620 currently in use by FTE staff. These GX620s are approaching 5 years old. While we would like to deploy these computers with Windows 7 we also want to make sure that any special purpose applications run in Windows 7. We will be asking the computing support reps in these departments to do some testing before we deploy the workstations.”

• “A Web Content Management implementation team has been formed and will start work in August on four pilot implementations of Drupal. The pilots consist of Housing, Web resources, uWaterloo main, and Student Life.”

• “The staff members of ITMS who now reside in E2 (the former Audio Visual department) are moving to MC. The customer service areas, Equipment Loans and the Media Resources, will be in the CHIP to facilitate "one stop shopping" for IST services. The move will be staged with some areas targeted for November 2010, depending upon renovations being completed. As dates become firm, they will be advertised and sent to various client areas.”

• “Those with laptops will soon be using a new service called Eduroam to connect to the campus network. Also, laptops which contain sensitive information should have the hard disk encrypted in case the laptop is stolen or lost. The encryption software is called WinMagic. Faculty and staff will soon be able to encrypt their laptop hard drive themselves or have the CHIP do it for them.”

• “Student email accounts for all new incoming students have been provisioned on mailservices.”

CAR

Back to top