It's a sleepover for newest students

from a Media Relations news release

Incoming first-year students will have an opportunity to visit the University of Waterloo for two-day overnight sessions this month or next for a preview experience of campus life.

Now in its 16th year, the Student Life 101 program helps both students and parents with the transition to university before classes begin on Monday, September 12. The first two-day session takes place today and Friday, followed by seven other sessions every week until August 8 and 9. More than 1,000 students are expected to take part in the revamped orientation program.

"This expanded orientation event was created to help prepare students for university life by giving them the tools so that they are successful throughout their time here," said Gabrielle Finnie, student life co-ordinator of first-year experience. "Students attending the program will be able to stay overnight in a traditional-style residence community, attend a lecture designed just for them, and start their personalized success plans."

The two-day session will allow students to become familiar with their specific faculty buildings, attend a lecture and tutorial, and meet professors, staff, and upper-year students.

They will also learn about student services to assist them during first year, focusing on the first six weeks of university life. These services include student awards and financial aid, health services, career planning, and co-operative education.

The orientation program, organized by Waterloo's Student Life Office, includes 16 experience leaders, upper-year students serving as peer mentors.

A separate one-day session for parents and supporting family members will offer a campus tour and a presentation on what parents can expect in a student's first year. “We’ve created a one-day program that will educate parents on their new role in supporting student success,” Finnie said.

In previous years, the Student Life 101 program offered students and parents a one-day orientation. This year's expansion of the program is the result of recommendations from a special student transition project that was reported on last November.

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PAMI expands into wide-ranging centre

The official launch of the newly established University of Waterloo Centre for Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (CPAMI) was held yesterday at the Davis Centre in the presence of George Dixon, vice-president university research; Adel Sedra, dean of engineering; and Manoj Sachdev, chair of electrical and computer engineering, as well as professors from different faculties, grad students, and industrial partner representatives.

CPAMI is a centre of excellence in the field of pattern analysis and machine intelligence. The centre is interdisciplinary, bringing together experts from artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, systems design engineering, civil engineering, management sciences, chemical engineering, mathematics, and statistics. The centre will collaborate with a number of industrial partners from the area and will co-operate with other centres at Waterloo and at other universities worldwide.

The new centre, an expansion of the Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) research group, was approved by the University of Waterloo Senate earlier this year. The inaugural director is Mohamed Kamel; the inaugural co-director is Fakhri Karray; and the inaugural associate director is Otman Basir, all of whom are professors in the electrical and computer engineering department.

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What else is going on now and Friday

Art of architects on display

An exhibition, Installations by Architects, is on view at the Design at Riverside Gallery, Cambridge, to August 6. Curated by Sarah Bonnemaison and Ronit Eisenbach, the exhibit features a collection of the most significant installation projects from the last 25 years by today's most exciting architects. The works are presented as a series of 36 printed banners and a film projection on 10 time-based projects. The installations are grouped under the themes: tectonics, body, nature, memory, and public space.

(Above: Pink Ghost, Périphériques Architects. Image courtesy of the architects)

Sarah Bonnemaison will give a talk about the exhibition this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Waterloo School of Architecture’s Main Lecture Theatre. There will also be a book signing. The book, Installations by Architects (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009), follows the exhibition’s  format and themes but also includes interviews with the project architects and critical discussions. The catalogue is available for $45 plus tax.

The lecture theatre and Design at Riverside are located in the School of Architecture, 7 Melville Street South, Cambridge. Design at Riverside, which is part of Cambridge Galleries, is open Tuesday to Thursday, 12 - 8 p.m., Friday 12 - 5 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Admission is free, all are welcome.

Racism in Our Communities: Anti-Racism Practices is the name of a workshop taking place today as part of the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group (WPIRG) Seeds of Resistance workshop series. From the website: “This workshop will be facilitated by a white-identified organizer who has worked in the indigenous sovereignty, migrant justice, queer, feminist, environmental, sex worker and anti-capitalist movements. Using creative and embodied exercises and facilitation techniques, the workshop will open spaces to ask questions and share skills and perspectives about issues and challenges that arise in the context of organizing in activist spaces.” The workshop takes place 5-8 p.m. in the Student Life Centre, room 2135. Free, open to all. “Food and bus tickets will be provided, and childcare is available upon request.” To register, or for additional information email tammy@wpirg.org or visit the website.

The quantum magic of Krister Shalm
Krister Shalm, a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Institute for Quantum Computing, is staging a two-night show called “the Quantum Physics of Harry Potter,” with magician Dan Trommater, at the Princess Twin Cinemas in Waterloo, today and tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.

Shalm (right), who researches quantum optics, knows that many non-scientists are baffled by the counter-intuitive wierdness of quantum physics: how matter works at the level of the atom, where particles can exist in two places at once and elements can change their basic properties — phenomena as magical as anything in the books by J.K. Rowling. Shalm’s show, part of IQC’s outreach, is meant to enchant people of all ages, while giving them some insight into what quantum science is all about. It’s timed to borrow some glamour from the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, opening in local theatres July 15. Shalm’s tickets, which were free, did their own vanishing act soon after the show was announced.

Special needs kids show off their talents
Wanted: Super Heroes for Mission Green! is the title of the 18th annual Arts Express recital, when children with special needs will perform their own original dance, dramatic and musical numbers. The show takes place Friday, 1:30 p.m., in Wilfrid Laurier University’s Maureen Forrester Recital Hall. It’s fre;, all are welcome. Here’s a map of the location.

Arts Express is an integrated arts camp for children aged six to 14 with a variety of special needs. The camp is co-sponsored by the University of Waterloo, among others. Camp counsellors are Laurier and Waterloo students taking Creative Arts for Children with Special Needs, a designated Community Service Learning course at Laurier. The students learn to facilitate arts experiences for children with special needs and then put theory into action as counsellors.

“The students not only witness the growth in the children as they lead the Arts Express camp, but they also experience the arts first-hand through the course material,” said academic and camp coordinator Elizabeth Mitchell, a part-time instructor for Laurier’s music therapy program. “Many of them connect the academic material and the camp experience to their own lives.”

Claws-on learning

Young people coming to campus for Student Life 101 might catch a glimpse of experiential learning in action. Ann Simpson, manager of the Student Life Centre, was near the University Club when she captured this image of a red-tailed hawk feasting on a squirrel that it had just caught and killed. “Initially there were four of them, two ‘babies’ (they were quite big) and the parents,” she writes, “and I think they were teaching the young ones how to hunt.”

CPA staff

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