The university's newest building is the Summit Centre for the Environment, erected in Huntsville, Ontario, for the G8 summit proceedings in June. As planned, the university has signed a long-term lease as the lead tenant of this facility, which overlooks Cann Lake and is being equipped with laboratories, seminar and meeting rooms and dormitory space for up to 50 students and faculty. The Centre will house undergraduate and graduate courses, and workshops, as well as training for midcareer professionals in such areas as ecosystem restoration, strategic environmental assessment, sustainable tourism, environmental planning and green business, based in the Faculty of Environment. Its research program will involve ecology, climate change, tourism, land-use planning and local economic development. Up to 3,000 researchers and students are expected to use the facility annually.

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Girls preview engineering on Saturday

a news release from the office of media relations

More than 150 young women interested in what a future in engineering could hold for them will make their way to the Waterloo campus on Saturday for the sixth annual Go Eng Girl! event. The girls, in grades 7 to 10, will have the chance to discover firsthand what engineering is all about.

Waterloo’s event is part of a provincial initiative to spark interest in engineering at a time when young girls are thinking about their future careers and are choosing the courses that will prepare them for further education. On the same day, 15 other Go Eng Girl! locations across Ontario will be alive with engineering-related activities. Organizers expect more than 1,000 girls to participate this year.

“This event is meant to open the eyes of these young, talented and smart girls to the range of careers that an education in engineering can provide for them,' said Mary Wells (right), chair of Waterloo’s Go Eng Girl! and associate dean (outreach) in the engineering faculty. “Parents are always amazed at the opportunities studying engineering can provide to their daughters as well as the importance of continuing to study mathematics and sciences in high school to ensure they keep their options open for university.”

The girls and their parents will have their own programming for the day, with the girls participating in age-appropriate group activities where they’ll solve a fun but complex engineering task.

Girls in grades 7 and 8 will design and build a functioning device that cushions an egg after it is dropped, while grade 9 and 10 girls will design and build a functioning automobile powered by a balloon. After the designs are complete, everyone will be invited to attend an information fair showcasing various student groups and offering further information about admissions and co-operative education.

"These fun activities are a great example of how hands-on learning, one of the things the University of Waterloo is known for, influences success," said Wells, who is also a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering.

Participants must have pre-registered. The event begins at 9 a.m. with registration in the J. R. Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall, followed by welcoming remarks from Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, and Wells. After an inspirational talk by Sylvia Wu, a current Waterloo engineering student, parents and the girls divide into their specific programming: the girls taking part in their activities and the parents attending a speaker series of female engineering graduates. After lunch, members of an undergraduate student panel will share their engineering experiences.

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Pixels in today's big picture

Suddenly it's the season for midterm exams, and to help with that experience, the volunteer group Students Offering Support is listing pre-exam sessions in a dozen or so first-year physics, math, accounting, biology and chemistry courses. "Students Offering Support," its web site explains, "is a national network of student volunteers working together to raise funds to raise the quality of education and life for those in developing nations through raising marks of our fellow University students. This is accomplished through our Exam-AID initiative where student volunteers run group review sessions prior to a midterm or final exam. All of the money raised through SOS Exam-AIDs is funnelled directly into sustainable educational projects in developing nations. Not only does SOS fund these projects, but SOS volunteers also help build the projects on annual outreach trips. From August 20 to September 4, 22 SOS volunteers used the funds you helped us to raise to build a kindergarten classroom, a sewing workshop, and an English language training classroom for the community of Tica Tica in Cusco, Peru."

It's "Coming Out Week" for GLOW, which was once Gay Liberation of Waterloo but has been rebranded "The Queer and Questioning Community Centre". Activities started yesterday afternoon with introductory speakers in the Student Life Centre, and an evening showing of the film "Get Real". Today, Wednesday, a "Queer Alphabet Exhibit" runs from 10:00 to 4:00 in the SLC great hall, "showcasing different queer terminology and issues". The group will hold its regular Wednesday night discussion group (7:15, PAS building room 3005) with the AfterGLOW Social following at the Graduate House, "to meet other queer and queer-friendly people". Then from 10 p.m., Flag Guard takes place in the SLC's multipurpose room, "a traditional event where attendees are encouraged to stay overnight to 'guard' the pride flag (left) that will be hanging in the SLC". More events continue on Thursday (including an "ally reception" for friends of GLOW and its cause), Friday and Saturday.

The United Way campaign continues on campus, and among the major fund-raising projects for it this month is the second annual United Way Coat Drive. The event is called "We've Got You Covered", and relies on donations of what organizers call "gently used coats". The donated garments will be sold next Monday and Tuesday in the Student Life Centre multipurpose room. All proceeds go to the United Way, and any coats that are not sold will be donated to local charities (last year, they went to Coats for Kids, Out of the Cold, Marillac Place, and Goodwill).
The event last year was very successful and raised more than $400. "This year’s goal is to raise twice as much!" says a note from the volunteers behind the project. "You can help out by donating your gently used coats at the Davis Centre Library, Dana Porter Library, Hagey Hall 3152, or Engineering III 3162." More information: Sue Oestreich, ext. 38120, or Bonnie Bishop, ext. 35618.

David Rudolph (right), director of Waterloo’s Water Institute, has received the National Ground Water Association’s 2010 M. King Hubbert Award for major science contributions to the knowledge of groundwater. The award will be presented on December 8 at NGWA’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. Says the association: “In addition to being an educator, Rudolph has conducted extensive research broadly based on groundwater resources, with major focus on the protection of groundwater resources, groundwater contamination/remediation from agricultural sources, vadose zone processes, and the mechanisms of groundwater recharge. Since 1990, he has authored or co-authored more than 50 papers in refereed journals, more than 40 papers in refereed conference proceedings, and about 100 conference presentations — amounting to about 10 publications of various forms a year. Rudolph also is known for his balanced teaching which combines sound theoretical foundations with practical applications in the lab and in the field. He is sought-after teacher who attracts students from near and far, said co-nominators Emil Frind, Edward Sudicky and Shaun Frape, all of the University of Waterloo.”

Mat Schulze, director of the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, sends a reminder that "Twenty years ago this month, the German Unification Treaty was signed. On this occasion, the Waterloo Centre for German Studies and the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies invite everybody to visit the poster exhibition 'From Peaceful Revolution to German Unity'. The exhibition is in the foyer of the Modern Languages building and will be shown until 29 October. The posters explain or let you re-live the events in East Germany in 1989 and 1990, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventually to a united Germany. All texts are in English. The exhibition tour in Canada is co-ordinated by the German Consulate General in Toronto and it was curated by the Federal Foundation for the Critical Appraisal of the SED Dictatorship."

Meanwhile, a book by Gary Bruce, of Waterloo's department of history, was published this summer that looks back on one of the least comfortable aspects of German reunification: the discovery of how the Stasi, the secret police, operated during the years of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Says the publisher, Oxford University Press: "Based on previously classified documents and on interviews with former secret police officers and ordinary citizens, The Firm is the first comprehensive history of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, at the grassroots level. Focusing on Gransee and Perleberg, two East German districts located north of Berlin, Gary Bruce reveals how the Stasi monitored small-town East Germany. He paints an eminently human portrait of those involved with this repressive arm of the government, featuring interviews with former officers that uncover a wide array of personalities, from devoted ideologues to reluctant opportunists, most of whom talked frankly about East Germany's obsession with surveillance."

CAR

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