Today must be the season of the witch

Today is the big day — Hallowe'en, that is — and we'll likely see a goodly number of costumes around campus even before the sun sets. Expect daytime partying in various locations: the Engineering Society, for instance, is promising "pumpkin pie eating contests, apple bobbing and much more" in Carl Pollock Hall. After dark, well, imagination is the only limit to what people may show up wearing at night-spots and private parties. Exercise your imagination on this one: an unidentified student told the OMGUW blog site the other day that he, or she, was dressing up for Hallowe'en as "a sexy mathie". Among the social options tonight is “Hallowicked” at Federation Hall, admission at the door $10.

In anticipation of this day-of-the-dead, the psychology department has been holding an office decorating competition (proceeds to support the United Way, of which I'll say more in a moment). The will also be judging today for costumes and pumpkin carving. A front-runner in the office decor category would be the stretch of hallway that's pictured here, done up by Mare Appleby and some colleagues from the International Tobacco Control Project. "It directly relates to the smoking research," says psych administrative officer Sharon Adams, and apparently the tombstone inscriptions refer to the well-known links between cigarettes and death.

As children hit the streets of Kitchener-Waterloo tonight for trick-or-treating, dozens of student volunteers will be out there as well, flaunting their costumes and collecting for "Trick or Eat". What they're asking householders to contribute, rather than candy, is canned and other non-perishable food for local food banks. Canada-wide, Trick or Eat is hoping for more than half a million dollars' worth of sustenance for hungry children and adults, says a spokesgoblin for Waterloo Meal Exchange, which is organizing the effort locally.

In other matters . . . the opening celebrations for Engineering 6 building drew a more-than-capacity crowd on Friday morning (left). The ribbon that was cut by VIPs, including the president, the dean of engineering, a student leader, and federal and provincial representatives was — of course — engineering purple. "This investment," said Kitchener MPP John Molloy, "helps support the expanding population of the campus, allows students to learn in modern state-of-the-art facilities, and created 233 construction jobs."

The United Way campaign on campus is officially scheduled to end today, but donations will be welcomed for another few days at least, as givings so far are at 78 per cent of the target. Among those who have contributed to the $164,440 received so far are some first-time givers, campaign organizers say. Melissa Graham, a financial analyst in the research office, first donated to the United Way when she was working in downtown Toronto in 2005. She saw first-hand evidence of many social issues right outside her office building. “I had a heightened awareness of it because I was seeing it every day,” she recalls. She started work at Waterloo in August, and says it was an easy decision to make a contribution to the United Way campaign here. “I think it’s so important to donate where you live to help your neighbours. I consider it an investment in my community.” Moira Glerum, a professor in biology, is another newcomer who had donated to the United Way elsewhere, when she was at the University of Alberta. When the pledge cards came around at Waterloo, Glerum agreed that it was an easy decision to decide to donate. “I had donated before in Edmonton, but now that I'm here I wanted to make sure I was supporting my new community. A lot of charities exist, but I like the idea that the United Way sees where the support is needed and directs the funds in that direction.”

Here's another reminder from the human resources department that the myHRinfo system will shut down for a systems upgrade from November 3 at 4:30 p.m. until Wednesday, November 9. "During the shutdown period, users will not be able to login or to make changes to any information using myHRinfo. Check myHRinfo.uwaterloo.ca for updates on availability."

“Volunteer and explore in Peru,” a note from the Waterloo International office suggests. “The Waterloo/SIA Peru Program is offered starting in the summer of 2012. The University of Waterloo has partnered with Solidarity in Action Inc., an international Canadian based not-for-profit social justice organization, to provide a service learning trip aimed towards social justice, spirituality, and community development projects in the developing country of Peru.” Details about the program including volunteer placements, cultural activities, costs, and application procedures are online. The application deadline is November 4 — this Friday.

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New VP won't be same as the old VP

About 48 people have applied, or been suggested, for the key position of vice-president (academic) and provost at Waterloo — but Geoff McBoyle, who holds the office right now, is happy to make it known that he isn’t one of them.

President Feridun Hamdullahpur told the quarterly board of governors meeting last week that the 48 candidates have now been narrowed down to about 15, and the committee will soon decide on a shortlist of those to be interviewed.

McBoyle (left) said Friday that “I haven’t applied for the job, and I look forward to seeing a new vice-president as soon as possible. I’m not continuing in the job.” He has been VP and provost on an interim basis since Hamdullahpur moved from the provost’s office to become president of the university after the departure of David Johnston a year ago.

There’s a different desk waiting for McBoyle, a professor of geography and environmental management and former dean of the environment faculty. When a new provost arrives, he’ll go back to his office down the hall and the post of associate vice-president (academic programs). His term in that role ends next June 30.

He noted that he’s not involved in the selection of the new provost — that’s being handled by a nominating committee chaired by the president — but he does play a role in filling some other senior administrative positions that are currently vacant or about to be that way.

Nominating committees for vice-president (university research), dean of engineering and dean of science are at work, for example, and so is a committee seeking a permanent occupant for the post of associate provost (students). “We are doing a North-America-wide search,” McBoyle said on Friday.

The president also told the board last week that searches are beginning for the positions of associate vice-president (international) and associate provost (information systems and technology). The current occupants of both posts — Leo Rothenburg as AVP (international) and Alan George as AP (IST) — will end on June 30. Details of both searches will be announced soon, McBoyle said.

The search for the next university secretary has been going on since spring and should lead to a result soon, Hamdullahpur told the board meeting. He’s likely to say more about senior appointments at tomorrow afternoon’s “town hall” meeting in the Humanities Theatre — including something about what will become of the position of vice-president (external relations), vacant since Meg Beckel left Waterloo in June.

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Nano grads bring home pride and cheque

by Karen Kawawada, communications and public affairs

A group of Waterloo graduate students (photo above) recently beat NASA in an international competition for nanotechnology research. Doctoral students Shruti Nambiar, Qingsheng Kang, Morteza Ahmadi, Lawrence Wong, and Albert Chen, with their supervisor John Yeow, came second in the Prototype-on-Prototype Global Nano Innovation Contest, held earlier this month in Taipei, Taiwan.

The systems design engineering students’ project consisted of creating a nano-sensor and a reader to detect radiation.

“Nowadays we all wear a badge when we work with X-ray machines,” explains Nambiar. “We wear this badge daily when we work with radiation sources, any kind of radiation source. After three months you take the badge and it’s sent out for processing. So it’s not real time. It’s just a badge that accumulates the exposure, if there is any exposure, and it’s calibrated after three to four months.”

So the badges used today can’t tell immediately if a worker in the nuclear industry or in a mine is exposed to a sudden and potentially dangerous surge of radiation. Nambiar and her colleagues are working to change that.

“We made a real-time detector," she says. "We had a hand-held, small, BlackBerry kind of reader to which the nanosensor is attached, and it gives a real-time signal to the reader. We attached a wireless module to the reader, so if you have a cellphone, and if you run a program, you can actually be anywhere in the range of Bluetooth and wirelessly communicate with the reader.

“If a worker is wearing a sensor with the reader, the worker can see it. At the same time, the boss, or the radiation safety officer, can see it in his office.”

IBM Research won the contest and NASA, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, came third. Waterloo's entry was the top university team. It was tough competition, because the big industries had more resources and worked on their projects longer, says Nambiar. It was “awesome” to beat NASA — “it was really nice to be second.”

CAR

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