Monterrey Tech students immersed in Waterloo

a news release from Renison University College

Friday, June 29 marks the final day of classes for 34 students from Mexico who have been studying with Renison’s English Language Institute (ELI) for the past five weeks.

The students are from Monterrey Tech, a private university in Mexico, with 33 campuses in 26 cities. The students came to Renison for a customized English immersion program. This is the second year that Renison has hosted this program, with plans to bring students from 3 additional Monterrey Tech campuses next year.

Based in Monterrey, Mexico, the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (commonly shortened to Monterrey Tech) is one of the largest private universities in Latin America with over 90,000 students on 33 campuses throughout Mexico.

The students were taught by instructors from Monterrey Tech and Renison. Renison was represented by five instructors: Neal Smithwick, Sophie Paish, Jesse Corwin, Cheryl Edmonds, and Diane Dick. Professors Duane Fiedler, Adriana Contreras, and Montserrat Comellas of Monterrey Tech also delivered classes.

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Waterloo announces licensing agreement

by Saeed Bagheri, Technology Transfer Officer. This article originally appeared on the Waterloo Commercialization Office's website on June 25.

The University of Waterloo announced today that it has secured a licensing agreement with Milliken & Company for its technology on Hydrosilylation of Polypropylene targeted for additives for specialty chemical market. Traditional hydrosilylation processes utilize solution chemistry that requires subsequent precipitation and drying processing steps, both of which require higher energy, material handling, and labour costs. Waterloo’s licensed technology offers a unique way to produce hydrosilylated polypropylene in the melt phase, thus allowing for a single step reactive-extrusion process to be utilized which also results in reduced environmental impact.

An invention by a team led by Dr. Costas Tzoganakis, a University of Waterloo chemical engineering professor, now makes it possible to bring added value to specialty chemical additives. Although Waterloo’s technology has been developed with reference to polypropylene, the process is applicable to all types of polyolefins or any other polymers which are inert to the conditions of the hydrosilylation. This process provides a way to modify polypropylene with desirable functionality, such as increased adhesion, chemical reactivity, or hydrophilicity characteristics and could be of interest to manufacturers of modified\engineered plastics and elastomers.

Working in partnership with WatCo, Dr. Costas Tzoganakis secured funding to apply for broad intellectual property rights and to develop and test pre-commercial prototypes that ultimately were used to showcase this technology for commercialization. Milliken, a leader in specialty chemicals and a manufacturer of specialty additives worldwide quickly recognized the market opportunity to combine Waterloo’s technology in their line of products. WatCo worked closely with Dr. Costas Tzoganakis and Milliken chemists during the licensing process which resulted in Milliken securing an exclusive license for the technology. Moreover, Milliken and Dr. Tzoganakis plan to embark on future collaborative research projects to develop more products related to the background technology to be marketed globally.

About Milliken & Company

By combining science with design and insights, Milliken tackles the issues and concerns of today. Milliken has long led the way for "knowledge-based" investment, and has accumulated over 2,200 U.S. patents - and more than 5,000 patents worldwide - since its founding in 1865. The Company has 39 manufacturing facilities located in the U.S., U.K., Belgium, France and China, and with other sales and service operations throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, Milliken's nearly 7,000 associates work to create entirely new customer experiences, build for the future and create products that do good for the world.

http://www.milliken.com

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Emergency simulation a real success

Although the bike accident and blood in the Arts Quad was just a simulation, the display of skills and collaboration by the Campus Response Team, Police Services, and Waterloo EMS was very real. Tuesday’s simulation, pictured above, was just one part of a full day of training by CRT to maintain their skills and practice responding with Police & EMS counterparts.

“The simulation gave an important opportunity for realistic, hands-on practice,” said CRT trainer Ben Morcos. “The responders did an excellent job at treating the casualties efficiently and effectively in an incredibly difficult scenario.”

In addition to hours of training before the simulation, CRT is now poring over videos, photos, and notes from the response to improve its training in the future. “CRT demonstrated remarkable skill and professionalism during the response,” said Eric Kennedy, former CRT coordinator. “When every second counts, their quick response and dedicated care can – and has – made all the difference, and it will be exciting to see their role on campus grow over the terms to come.”

The response was a covered by CTV, The Record, and social media. Visit the Campus Response Team's website to request event coverage or apply to join the team.

Photograph by David Madge.

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