CS professor named ACM Fellow

Frank Tompa, a professor at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science since 1974, has been named a new Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery "for his contributions to to text-dominated and semi-structured data management".

Tompa is one of the 41 inductees from the world's leading universities, corporations, and research labs who “have provided fundamental knowledge to the field and generated multiple innovations in industry, commerce, entertainment, and education”, says the online announcement from the ACM, considered the world’s leading

“The 2010 Fellows, from the world’s leading universities, corporations, and research labs, achieved accomplishments that are driving the innovations necessary to sustain competitiveness in the digital age. These men and women have made advances in technology and contributions to the computing community that are meeting the dynamic demands of the 21st century.”

Tompa already holds many honours for his academic and industrial work. He is considered one of the pioneers of the spinoff companies and the technology industry in Waterloo Region, largely for his involvement in the Oxford English Dictionary project that was the genesis of Open Text Corp. In 2006 his name was given to one of the east-west streets in the research park district north of Columbia Street in Waterloo (photo, above) .

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Cold facts on a December morning

"Cold" is right — it was minus-13 Celsius overnight, according to the university's weather station on the north campus. Practically no snow has fallen in the past 24 hours, the station insists, although there was certainly white stuff blowing around last night. But certainly the Waterloo area has escaped the fierce storm that has paralyzed traffic in the Sarnia area. And the branch campus in Stratford, half an hour west of Kitchener-Waterloo, was barely on the edge of the snowfall area. Among other disasters that didn't affect Waterloo overnight: a fire in the central plant at York University has closed that institution's main campus, at Keele and Finch Avenues in Toronto.

A reception this afternoon will mark the retirement of long-time faculty member Desmond Fonn of the school of optometry, who is particularly known as the founding director of its Centre for Contact Lens Research. “After arriving in Waterloo in 1986 from South Africa,” says a memo announcing the event, “Dr. Fonn has not only established himself as an outstanding leader, teacher and researcher in contact lenses but has also been an advocate for optometric education and a champion volunteer for the School’s expansion and renovation campaign. In 1988 the CCLR was established with a mandate to become an international leader in contact lens research. Through Des’s leadership, the CCLR has accomplished their goal by building a strong team and by partnering with industry to conduct research on contact lenses with an emphasis on studying the ocular response. Although Dr. Fonn is retiring at the end of this year, we know that he will continue to be involved with the CCLR and will continue to share his extensive knowledge and expertise with the optometric community.” Today’s event, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the “COETF Student Commons” area of the Optometry building, is being held “to celebrate his illustrious career, to thank him for his extensive contributions and to wish him luck as he embarks on this next phase.  There will also be a special presentation on behalf of CIBA Vision in Des’s honour.” Information: call ext. 33178.

An article in the new issue of the optometry school's alumni newsletter acknowledges a $100,000 gift from Nikon Optical Canada a few months ago, money that will go towards planned renovations at the optometry clinic. "Nikon is the first company to support the costly renovation of the Dispensary," says the school's director, Thomas Freddo. "With the completion of our 50% enrolment increase and our new addition, it is now critical that UWSO move forward with plans to completely renew and reconfigure the public eye care clinic. This next phase of our expansion and renovation project will allow us to transform clinical education in order to meet the demands of our evolving profession." Estimated total cost of the project: between $4 million and $5 million.

Daniel C. Andreae (right), a long-time teaching associate in Renison University College's Social Development Studies program, was among 13 recipients who received the Ontario Medal of Good Citizenship in a presentation at Queen’s Park on November 23. A citation read at the award ceremony stated: “Dr. Daniel Andreae is known by the social workers in Ontario as a transformational leader in the profession, by government leaders as a lobbyist, and by his students as an inspirational teacher.” After ten years of building province-wide coalitions, making connections between allied professionals, and working closely with elected officials and senior civil servants, Andreae’s ten-year campaign resulted in the creation of a College of Social Workers, which helped establish social work as a regulated profession in Ontario.

The time has come for an update to SharePoint, an online service that’s used by more than 300 groups in various parts of the university. (“The best known example,” says Stephen Markan of information systems and technology, “is that SharePoint is used to host the course notes for the SEW courses.”) Markan announced yesterday that “the long awaited SharePoint update”, from the Windows SharePoint Services version to SharePoint Foundation 2010, will take place on December 20. “The last test migration,” says his memo, “showed no site errors in the databases, and now that the excitement of the Bookit migration has been absorbed, time for another change!” SharePoint will be down on that day (next Monday) from 8 a.m. Everything in SharePoint will be backed up and then the data from the WSS server will be migrated to the new system, which should be ready to go in the late afternoon. “There will be no change in URLs,” says Markan. “The server will continue to be called sharepoint.uwaterloo.ca, and for most users there will be no immediate or visible change.”

A memo went out to departments this week, as it does this time every term, explaining the opportunity that's presented by the International Undergraduate Work-Study Program for the fall term. "You could employ an international student on a part-time basis for one-quarter the normal cost," writes Linda Jajko of the student awards and financial aid office. "International students are not eligible for provincial government financial aid (OSAP)," she explains, and "obtaining other financing or part-time employment that fits the student's schedule is very difficult." Hence the program, financed 75 per cent from "a central university fund", to subsidize up to 25 part-time jobs (up to 10 hours a week) in UW departments. "Jobs that tend to receive the most interest are those that create meaningful work experience for the students," Jajko notes, inviting faculty or staff members to submit job proposals by January 14 for the coming term. More information: ext. 35726.

Jason Coolman (left), Waterloo's director of alumni affairs, has been honoured by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education as a "Rising Star". CASE gives that award to professionals at universities across North America who demonstrate "the potential for leadership in advancement programs, enthusiasm for and commitment to the advancement profession, and understanding the needs and goals of the philanthropic tradition". Coolman has been working at the university since 2000 — as a residence life coordinator, a development officer, and then alumni director. In 2008 he served for a time as an acting associate vice-president. He also serves on the alumni board at his alma mater, Brock University. As part of the work toward his master's degree, he is doing what one citation calls "ground-breaking research" on how a university can use numerical models "to inform the creation of an institutional strategy that will maximize alumni pride and the impact that they make."

And, here's a reminder: from parking to ventilation, from Warrior games to Christmas Eve worship, there are special arrangements at the university before and during the shutdown that will last from December 24 through January 3. The final Daily Bulletins of 2010, on December 22 and 23, will marshal the details of opening and closing times, events and services — but only with the help of the departments and offices responsible, both on the main campus and in remote locations. Last year's version is still online, like all past Daily Bulletins. I'd appreciate receiving updates as soon as possible so they can be properly organized for publication next week.

CAR

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