$20 million for work in water technology

A single drop of water, photographed in an engineering lab by nanotechnology engineering student Mike Vlascov, was featured on the university's home page yesterday (right) to mark the announcement of federal funding for a new "water consortium". A federal agency will provide almost $20 million to “the Southern Ontario Water Consortium, under the leadership of the University of Waterloo”, for work in “water technologies” along the region’s rivers.

The money, from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, is “a non-repayable contribution of up to $19,580,000 to build an integrated system for the development, testing, and demonstration of new, market-driven water technologies and services, primarily along the Grand River and adjacent watersheds”. It was announced yesterday at events in three cities. In Waterloo the key speaker was Kitchener-Waterloo MP Peter Braid, who toured a lab in the CEIT building after the ceremonies. He's seen (photo, below, by Chris Hughes) chatting with Pat Horgan of IBM Canada and Syed Ismail Hussain, a graduate student in earth and environmental sciences.

The FedDev funding will go toward “the purchase and installation of equipment related to setting up the water system components spanning the London, Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton and Toronto areas,” said a news release from FedDev. “This game-changing initiative will allow southern Ontario water-related technology companies to test their innovations on a watershed-level platform to allow them to compete in a global marketplace.”

The new Water Consortium will be headed by a board that includes six universities (Waterloo, Western Ontario, Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier, McMaster and Toronto); the Toronto Region Research Alliance; and eight private companies. In addition, Ryerson University, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, more than 60 companies and a number of municipalities in southern Ontario are involved, FedDev said.

IBM Canada Limited is the major private sector partner in the project, providing a contribution valued at $20,068,233 to establish the electronic data system that allows for the real-time streaming, exchange and archiving of data among users.

“This regional partnership,” said the news release, “will help to advance water-related technologies associated with the following key areas: watershed management, to better handle groundwater and all forms of run-off into the watershed, reducing threats to water purity and usage; drinking water and wastewater treatment, to enable more effective use and reuse; ecotoxicology, to detect new and emerging contaminants in the water supply; and analytical technologies, to develop sensors, data collection, analysis, processing, management and dissemination of water-related research.

“It is anticipated that this project will lead to the creation of many high quality jobs, resulting from the expansion of current water companies, the creation of new companies, the attraction of companies from outside the region, and the expansion of public sector jobs in the water industry.”

Said a statement from George Dixon, Waterloo’s vice-president (university research) and a professor of biology whose own research touches on water pollution: “This collaboration of water technology expertise is a unique network and tremendous asset to the region. The Southern Ontario Water Consortium will provide enormous benefits to the environment, the economy, and Canadians overall.”

“One of the most important issues for communities around the world is access to clean drinking water and the safe treatment of wastewater,” said Gary Goodyear, MP for Cambridge and the minister responsible for FedDev, who spoke yesterday at Association of Municipalities of Ontario Annual Conference and Trade Show, being held in London.

“This investment will strengthen southern Ontario’s position as a world leader in clean water technologies, create new jobs in our region, while offering solutions for communities across the globe that lack easy access to clean water,” Goodyear said.

Peter Kent, federal minister of the environment, spoke at the University of Toronto, where the project was also announced.

The government said the project “is divided into various permanent and mobile components”:

• Municipal Flow Scale Wastewater Treatment Facilities for Compliance Testing and demonstration, at the City of London Wastewater Facility Site
• Mobile Field Facilities for Eco-toxicological Measurement, led by Wilfrid Laurier University
• Mobile Field Facilities for Drinking Water Treatment, led by the University of Toronto
• Field Monitoring Facilities, along the Grand River and Mimico Creek Watersheds
• Sensor Development Facilities, at McMaster University
• Computer Equipment and Data Analysis, at the University of Toronto
• Bed Rock Testing, in Guelph
• Wastewater Treatment Facilities for Nascent Technologies, at the City of Guelph Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Groundwater Facilities, at the Canadian Forces Base in Borden
• Analytical Facilities for Drinking Water and Field Collected Samples, at the University of Waterloo

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Biggest lecture hall will seat 387

Eight new classrooms will come into use when the fall term begins next month, says Charlene Schumm, whose responsibilities as director of scheduling in the registrar’s office include keeping track of classroom space — and sometimes getting it improved.

Among them will be the largest lecture hall on campus, with 387 seats. That’s room 1006 in the new Mathematics 3 building, which is just about ready for use.

Until now the biggest lecture hall has been Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 101. (That's not counting the Humanities Theatre and Theatre of the Arts, which are not officially classrooms.) RCH 101 has boasted 389 seats for many years, but will have a lower capacity — 350 — when its current repairs and renovations are finished, Schumm said. "Classes have been moved if necessary for the fall term, mostly to the new M3 room." (The photo of work in RCH 101, right, is by Michael L. Davenport.)

Other new rooms this fall are a 250-seat classroom at St. Paul’s University College — the first classroom at any of the “federated and affiliated” institutions to be part of the university’s central class scheduling system — and six rooms of various sizes in the new Environment 3 building.

Schumm was in charge of the project three years ago that led to approval of a set of University of Waterloo Classroom Standards, covering everything from furniture to lighting, sound systems and non-glare paint. When money is available, she’s also in charge of getting it spent on the most urgent improvements.

“Last summer,” Schumm reports this week, “funding was made available to improve centrally-managed classrooms during the Spring 2011 term. When determining priorities for allocating these funds, a number of factors were taken into consideration including the assessment that was done to all centrally-managed classrooms using the standards document that we have in place and also the requests we’ve received from instructors, academic departments and faculties for improvements to the rooms they use.”

The outcome: “Along with a complete overhaul to RCH 101 (currently underway), it was decided that we would replace the furniture in 17 rooms in Hagey Hall and Modern Languages. Other improvements are needed in these rooms, but funding is limited this year so we decided that replacing the furniture is our first priority. The furniture is being delivered this week.”

Schumm notes that the room capacity will change in 15 of those 17 rooms in HH and ML. “The capacity has increased in seven. Unfortunately, though, it has decreased in eight, since we are replacing tablet armchairs in many of these rooms which are considerably smaller than the tables and chairs that are required according to the standards document.

“The classrooms will, however, be much more comfortable and functional and provide a far better learning environment.”

CAR

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