CEMC celebrates 10 years with workshop

from the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing

Thirty-six Grade 9 and 10 students from across Canada will gather at the University of Waterloo from May 28 to June 4 for the 2011 CEMC Workshop in Computer Science for Young Women. This year, the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at Waterloo marks the program’s 10th anniversary.

A similar workshop will be held at the University of Calgary June 11-18, supported by the Imperial Oil Foundation.

These young women (like the ones above, taking part in a previous year's workshop) enjoy the opportunity to learn more about computer science from Waterloo professors and graduate students. They stay on campus in the university residences and build lasting friendships with their peers from across the country, while enjoying an early taste of university life.

Through lectures, interactive labs and hands-on activities, the workshops explore computing applications that have a profound effect on the world around us. The participants learn that computer science is fun and relevant, and leads to exciting careers.

Too many women are missing out on these career opportunities due to their misperceptions of fields of computer science and math. The Waterloo program helps encourage more girls to consider pursuing this area of study, while building a supportive community of their peers.

Mathematics and computer science are all about solving problems.  They underlie the technologies that are being developed to tackle the issues that affect us all, every single day. Effective problem-solving requires a diversity of perspectives. This is why society as a whole will benefit from more women pursuing these traditionally male-dominated areas.

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Safety office aces hazmat training exercise

This looks serious — and it is. But it’s not a real disaster. The university's Safety Office and Waterloo Fire Rescue (WFR) conducted a training exercise, complete with hazmat response trailer, on Thursday morning at the ESC loading dock and the building’s gas cylinder storage room.

As Doug Dye of the Safety Office described it beforehand, “No UW buildings will actually be evacuated although ESC will instead be considered as having been evacuated. WFR will respond as if this were a real call, trucks and crews will be dispatched from their normal station houses.

"Shortly after arrival on scene the Platoon Chief will make the determination that this is a hazardous materials release and will call in WFR’s hazmat response team. The incident will be a simulated release of fluorine gas (no actual fluorine or any other hazardous material will be released). WFR’s hazmat response team will then don their protective gear and attempt to remedy the situation.”

Dye added later that “the exercise went well and was concluded by 11:30 a.m.” And who was that wrapped-up figure on the stretcher? “The victim in this case was a 160-lb training dummy owned by Waterloo Fire Rescue.” (Photo: Karen Kawawada)

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Architecture wins; You @ Waterloo; more

“The quality and achievements of students, faculty and graduates of our school have been recently recognized by a series of awards, scholarships and exhibitions,” announces Rick Haldenby, director of the Waterloo School of Architecture.

The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) presented its awards Friday, May 20, in Toronto. Recent Waterloo MArch grads won prizes in all three sub-areas of the Concepts and Presentations category:

• Michelle van Eyk won an Honourable Mention for an image from her thesis: Studio 124-125, 48 Abell Street (After Eviction).
• Yiu-Bun Chan won an Award of Excellence in the Artefact category for his project entitled Echo.
• Liana Bresler won an Award of Excellence for her thesis project, Embedded Boundaries, in the field of Proposals / Concepts.

The School of Pharmacy building, by Hariri Pontarini/Robbie Young Wright, was recognized with an OAA Design Award.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) presents its awards today, May 27, in Vancouver. Among the winners:

• North House (left, designed by a team of faculty and students from Waterloo, Ryerson, and Simon Fraser universities) will receive the RAIC Technical Innovation in Architecture Practice Award.
• Taymoore Balbaa, MArch ’04, winner of the inaugural Canada Council Prix de Rome for Emerging Practitioners, has now won the inaugural RAIC Young Architect Award.
• Philip Beesley, Waterloo Architecture professor, receives the RAIC Allied Arts Award for his work in sculpture and installation art.
• Master’s student Renee Kuehnle receives the $5,000 Canadian Green Building Council Scholarship.

And more:

Stephanie Neufeld has won the $10,000 Saskatchewan Association of Architects Bursary to support her graduate studies.

Petra Bogias has won the Royal Canadian Academy Annual Scholarship to assist her with travel to Europe and her studies in the Rome Program.

The exhibition Jerusalem/Sarajevo: In-Between Cities, mounted by Lejla Odobasic and Liana Bresler as part of last year's MasterWorks show at Design at Riverside, is opening at the Hanikah Gazi Husrev Beg Medresa in Sarajevo.

Future students coming to campus tomorrow

On Saturday, thousands of Waterloo’s future students (and their parents) will be coming to tour the campus, see what the residences are like, meet professors, staff, and students, and decide if this is the place for them to be in September.

The annual You @ Waterloo Day open house is for students who have received offers of admission. The goal is to make sure they, and their parents, have a positive experience tomorrow and end the day wih a firmer sense of commitment toward the university.

Organizer Kim McKee says about 5,000 visitors are expected. Events run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The main locale will be the Physical Activities Centre, where representatives from the faculties, student awards, the admissions office, co-op, athletics, and a dozen other offices and services will be on hand to answer questions. And there will be a welcome celebration, noon to 12:30, in the PAC, with “You’re In!” cupcakes available.

There will be faculty-specific tours of the campus, as well as tours of the residences and the university colleges. Food outlets in the Student Life Centre, Village 1, Conrad Grebel, Renison, and St. Jerome’s will be open.

South Campus Hall stores that are usually closed on Saturdays this time of year — the Bookstore, Waterloo Store, Write Stuff, and E Smart — will be open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, the School of architecture is holding its own You @ Waterloo event in Cambridge, also tomorrow.

Chile entrepreneurship event Monday

Nicolas Shea, an adviser for Innovation to the Ministry of Economy of the Government of Chile and the initiator of Start-Up Chile, is making a presentation about the program on Monday, May 30, 9:30 a.m. - noon, in Needles Hall room 1101.

"The Start-Up Chile program, an initiative of the Government of Chile, through its National Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, InnovaChile, is aimed at strengthening the local culture of entrepreneurship and innovation through exposure to hundreds of international entrepreneurs," says the program description. "Start-Up Chile offers USD 40,000 (as an equity free grant) and a one-year work visa (among other benefits) to selected entrepreneurs who agree to live in Chile while they develop their business for at least six months." If interested, RSVP to Emily Barnes of VeloCity: e2barnes@uwaterloo.ca

CPA staff

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