Frost Week keeps campus cool

a media release from the Federation of Students

Free breakfasts and poutine, a sensational Canadian electro-rock songstress, lots of laughter and a little hypnosis. It’s Frost Week at uWaterloo.

“We’ve got something for everyone at Frost Week,” said Nga Tran, Special Events Coordinator for the Federation of Students. “Frost Week, which will run from January 9 to 12, is a way to welcome all of Waterloo’s undergraduate students back and remind them that even though the homework has already started, there’s always time for some fun.”

Frost Week will kick off at 8 a.m. on Monday, January 9 with a free hot breakfast for the first 800 students in the SLC Great Hall.

“We want to make sure everyone has a great start to their week and the energy to keep up with all of the events,” said Tran.

On Tuesday starting at 9 a.m. students can enjoy another free breakfast (for the first 150
students) at the Bombshelter Pub. For those who wake up a little bit later there will be a
coffeehouse in the Great Hall at noon with student singers and songwriters as well as the
headlining band: White Coals from North Bay, Ontario. Then at night get ready for a laugh with a free Comedy Show at Fed Hall featuring Yuk Yuk's comedians (doors open at 9 p.m.).

Wednesday has another free breakfast (for the first 150 students) at the Bombshelter Pub
followed by a free hypnotist show at Fed Hall starting at 12:30 p.m.

For those who haven’t been hypnotized into thinking they’re a Laurier student, the Frost Fest Night will kick off at 8 p.m. in the SLC with inflatable games, movies (The Rise of the Planet of the Apes & Footloose) and more.

After three days of free breakfast, Feds will switch it up on Thursday for a Canadian tradition:
free poutine will be given away in the SLC Lower Atrium starting at noon (while supplies last).

All of the fun is leading up to a Lights concert with special guests Nightbox Thursday night at Fed Hall. Doors will open at 9 p.m. and it’s an all ages, licensed event. Lights won Indie Awards in the Favourite Solo Artist and Favourite Single categories during Canadian Music Week in March 2009 in Toronto. She also won in the Best New Artist category at the 2009 Juno Awards.

For more information on any of these events contact Nga Tran at n2tran@ feds.uwaterloo.ca.

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No idle chitchat here

reprinted with permission from the Office of Development's 2010-2011 Stakeholder Report

It's amazing what a little talking can do. It can inspire. It can create relationships. It can advance technology. For mathematics student, Sam Pasupalak, talking has done all this and more.

"When Bill Gates visited Waterloo in 2008, he spoke about creating technology that solved the world's pressing problems," says Sam. "I dreamed of becoming a professor but Bill changed all that, and I've set my sights on developing innovations that can make a difference."

Sam is part of VeloCity, a startup incubation program located in a dynamic residence space on campus. It brings together bright minds eager to imagine and create the future of mobile communications, web, and new media. When the startups are ready to move to the next level, they take up space in the Communitech Hub in Kitchener, amidst a cluster of other early-stage startup companies.

"Being a part of VeloCity means access to anything from office space to testing devices to mentoring services...it is an ideal start-up environment," says Sam. Sam's company, Maluuba, is also about talking. His team has created a natural language search engine, using artificial intelligence, linguistics, and human-computer interaction. "This means someone can ask their smartphone 'Can I get a ticket from San Francisco to New York leaving in a week?' And the software will return a series of appropriate tickets from Expedia."

But it's not just the software doing the talking. Former engineering student and successful entrepreneur Ted Livingston, has been engaging in some very useful dialogue with VeloCity participants. Ted, who founded Kik Interactive, donated $1 million to VeloCity earlier this year, to support entrepreneurial students such as Sam.

"Ted has been a great inspiration and mentor," says Sam. "His insights have helped us refocus our energies and think about customer-centric issues, not just core technology. Of course, as a 23-year old millionaire, Ted also has great advice on managing investment opportunities."

Ted's interest in sharing what he has learned with other student startups, illustrates his commitment to VeloCity and his belief that at Waterloo, our students are uniquely positioned to start world-changing companies. For both Ted and Sam, talk isn't cheap. It's invaluable.

More stories can be found here.

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Science welcomes stem cell researcher

by Sharon McFarlane, interim Science Communications Officer

The Faculty of Science is very pleased to welcome back biology alumnus Dr. Ronald Li (right) as he offers a public lecture Tuesday on the topic of stem cell research as it pertains to the hopes of curing and managing heart disease.

Dr. Li’s talk, entitled Engineering Bio-artificial Human Heart Cells and Tissues by Pluripotent Stem Cell and Gene-based Approaches: From Disease Modeling, Drug Discovery to Regenerative Therapies promises to be an insightful overview of various cell and gene base approaches developed in the past decade. He will discuss specific topics including bioartificial pacemakers (as an alternative or supplement to conventional electronic devices), heart cell and tissue engineering, and microRNA.

“Heart disease, caused by many factors from lifestyle to diet to genetic predisposition, is undeniably a major cause of death in Canada touching many of us personally, “explains Dr. David Rose, Chair of Biology, "Regenerative medicine is a cutting-edge approach to clinical treatment that uses undifferentiated stem cells to create functional, mature healthy cells, such as heart cells and many other types. We’re very excited to have Dr. Li, who is working at the forefront of this development, here on campus to talk about what is happening in this fascinating and promising field of medical research”.

Faculty, staff, students as well as the general public are invited to attend this free lecture on Tuesday, January 10 in RCH room 101 at 3:00 p.m. Please RSVP online or by calling 519-888-4567, ext 38804 to attend.

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Nominations open for student senators

A memo from the university secretariat invites nominations for the following undergraduate student seats on Senate:

Faculty Seats

• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013.
• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2014.
• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Environment, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2014.
• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2014.

At-large Seats

• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013.
• One student elected by/from the full-time undergraduate students, term May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2014.

The nomination form is available online. At least five nominators are required in each case. Completed nomination forms should be submitted to the Chief Returning Officer, Secretariat, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:30 p.m., Monday, January 23, 2012. Elections, if necessary, will coincide with the annual Federation of Students elections. Undergraduate student senators with terms expiring April 30, 2012 are: Jordan Vandjelovic (applied health sciences), Alana Vandervoort (arts), Mariam Gill (environment), Jonathan Cluett (science), Reemah Khalid (at large) and Jeffrey Bunn (at large).

Information about Senate and its committees/councils is online.

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