It looks like cake, but it's pie — sort of. Thursday, July 22 was Pi Approximation Day (22/7), and to mark the occasion Ian Goulden, the new math dean (seen above with MathSoc vice-president Joyce Kare), served approximate pie to students. On Pi Day (March 14, or 3.14), students get real pie, as in this video.

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Keystone June event hailed as success

from the Office of Development

Held Thursday, June 3 in the main hall of the Student Life Centre (SLC), this annual event celebrated another successful year for the Keystone Campaign.

Emcee Paul McKone commenced the festivities with a heartfelt welcome. He then introduced President David Johnston, who expressed gratitude to the audience for their tremendous work and dedication to the University of Waterloo. Keystone Campaign co-chairs Steve Brown (representing faculty) and Bob Norman (representing retirees) thanked attendees for the contributions they continue to make to the campus community, while Pamela Helmes-Hayes (representing staff) sent her best wishes. Pat Mihm, chair of the Keystone Annual Events Committee, also took the opportunity to recognize and thank the event sponsors and volunteers.

The highlight of the event was a live trivia game consisting of questions spanning 53 years of uWaterloo history. With teams from across campus participating, the Fire Breathing Systems Dragons came out as champions, winning the final challenge that saw contestants searching through buckets of 'goo' to find five keys and five stones. (From left, the dragons are Colleen Richardson, Bernie Roehl, Kristen Deckert, and Carrie Gilmour, staff members in Systems Design Engineering.)

The answers to the trivia questions are online. Other highlights included fresh popcorn, door prizes, and a grand prize draw for a $500 uWaterloo Retail Services gift card.

A second celebration was held later in the day for evening staff. Pat Mihm, Steve Brown, and Bob Norman shared a few words regarding the importance of staff contributions, and attendees had the chance to win great prizes and socialize over coffee and refreshments.

In the past year, uWaterloo faculty, staff, and retirees have contributed more than $950,000 in support of projects they are truly passionate about — projects such as student support, faculty or unit priorities, and research initiatives. To date, the collaborative support of more than 2,400 donors has resulted in Keystone's total of more than $10 million.

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New under the sun: students, robots, snow

Hot off the virtual press comes something called Waterlootion, an online newsletter created “to articulate how much of a difference your contributions make in the lives of our students, researchers, and faculty, and how they make other definitions of Waterlootion possible.” It features videos of students describing how donations to Campaign Waterloo support innovative research, new building projects, and financial relief for students. It also includes the news about our next Governor General, as well as a link to the president’s June 2010 update on “the health of our institution” and its recent accomplishments. Free computer wallpapers are on offer, and readers are also invited to “take the alumni challenge” — which means getting involved in Waterloo-related activities, with the chance of winning a Nikon D5000 camera.

Warrior golfer Jack Gibson (right) has won the Investors Group Ontario Junior Boys’ Championship, played at the Listowel Golf Club July 20-22. The second-year accounting and financial management student is only the second Warrior golfer to reach the national championship besides Tim McCutcheon, a member of the Waterloo Warriors Hall of Fame. Gibson will represent Ontario at the Canadian Boys Junior Championship in British Columbia, August 3 - 6. The news release from Athletics is here.

Major Mark Gasparotto will be speaking in the POETS lounge, CPH atrium, Wednesday, July 28, 5-7 p.m., about his experiences as a combat engineer in Afghanistan. A Waterloo civil engineering grad (BASc ’96), he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal for his actions in one of the deadliest missions of the war in Afghanistan in 2006-2007, when he commanded 23 Field Squadron, a group of 135 combat engineers attached to 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment Battle Group. The squadron association has now published Clearing the Way: Combat Engineers in Kandahar, a book that tells the story of the mission through the voices of 12 members of the squadron. Among them are two Waterloo grads: Captain Dan Clarke (BASc ’02),  and Gasparotto, as well as Corporal Matt Austin, now a fourth-year political science student. Profits from the book will go to the Wounded Warrior Fund and the 23 Field Squadron Association. This Wednesday Gasparotto will tell his squadron’s story and link it to a discussion of ethics, leadership, and risk management.

In the vein of inspired engineering, a fourth-year ECE design team shares this video of their motorized table hockey game.

And yes, that was real snow, real snowballs (and real snow cones) in the Student Life Centre courtyard last Thursday, when the thermometer hit 27 degrees. The snowball fight was arranged by Housing and Residences to encourage current students to apply for residence for the winter 2011 term. The snow came courtesy of the Columbia Icefield.

CPA staff

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