Grads awarded for 'exceptional teaching'

Four graduate students are this year’s winners of the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student. Their names were announced at Monday night’s senate meeting by Sue Horton, the associate provost (graduate studies).

The award has existed since 1998, under a series of names, and is given “in recognition of excellence in teaching of all kinds by registered students. The awards are open to all students who have a formal teaching role at the University of Waterloo. The Selection Committee will look for intellectual vigour and communication skills in the interpretation and presentation of subject matter. Concern for and sensitivity to the academic need of the students is an important criterion.”

The winners are:

• Keith Delaney, Earth & Environmental Sciences
• Arash Shahi, Civil & Environmental Engineering
• Andrea Murphy, School of Architecture
• Hamed Shateri, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering
  

Keith Delaney (right), a graduate student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, is currently a Ph.D. student specializing in geohazards and natural disasters. His remarkable teaching abilities are greatly appreciated by the students and faculty members in his department. The enthusiasm and interest he displays in the big first year courses in which he instructs gives inspiration to undergraduates to continue in this field of study. “It is in part through Keith’s enthusiasm and passion for the Earth Sciences that reconfirms my personal decision to dedicate my studies and future career to the geoscience field”, a student writes. Another writes “Earth 121 became my favourite course”. Keith is helping to ignite the interests of students in this important field of study.

Arash Shahi (left) is a graduate student who is completing his Ph.D. in the field of Construction Management. Since joining the University of Waterloo in Fall 2002 as an undergraduate student, Arash has developed into a respected teaching assistant and mentor. His strong teaching abilities are recognized by those in his own department as he was assigned a sessional lecturer position in a 3B course with a class size of over 110. In course critiques, students consistently praise his efforts stating “Arash is very good at answering questions and guiding students”. Arash’s influence extends beyond the classroom to instructing and mentoring other graduate students to develop as teachers, through his work with the Centre for Teaching Excellence. It is noteworthy that his contribution to teaching excellence is in a broad range of areas.

Andrea Murphy (right) is a graduate student in the School of Architecture and is currently completing her Master’s degree. Throughout her time at the University of Waterloo, Andrea has been a dedicated teaching assistant and served as the president of the undergraduate student society while being an excellent architecture student. She is recognized in the school for her affinity for the technical side of the profession as opposed to the more common interest in the design and cultural aspects. By integrating the technical and design aspects together in her tutorials, the students achieved a better understanding of the material. Her excellent teaching abilities are reflected in the students’ support, stating that she was “Clear, concise, and flexible to student needs”. Others complimented her on how familiar she was with the course, saying “her knowledge base far exceeded that required for the course”. These excellent qualities of Andrea as a teaching assistant are appreciated by all of the students in her tutorials.

Hamed Shateri (left), a graduate student in Mechanical Engineering is currently completing his Master’s degree. He is an exceptional teaching assistant in that he is “friendly, patient, teaches at the student’s level, and open to feedback”. He is known to form close bonds with students in his tutorials in order to make an interactive student–instructor teaching environment. He is highly regarded for his genuine concern for the success of each and every student. “Hamed has helped forge me into a better student”, one student writes. His influence extends far beyond the classroom as the students ask him for advice in other aspects of being a university student, such as “techniques used to succeed”. With his extraordinary mentoring abilities and friendly personality, Hamed has helped make a difference in a large first year required course.

Back to top

Parsing the provincial budget

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan presented the 2012 Ontario budget yesterday, ushering in a new era of austerity that includes an extension of the wage freeze for members of the Ontario legislature as well as senior public sector executives, and a warning that public sector unions can expect a hard bargain at the negotiating table as current agreements begin to expire.

Overall, spending on the post secondary sector will rise by 1.9 per cent over the next three years, with the university sector increasing by 2.1 per cent. In addition, the government is keeping the recently announced 30 per cent tuition grant for eligible full-time undergraduates in place. The government also anticipates undergraduate enrolment to grow, with operating funding on the table for an additional 6,500 student spaces in 2012-2013 and again in 2013-2014.

The post-secondary sector will have to reduce its costs by 1.5 per cent through a series of proposed measures, including the use of so-called ‘policy levers’ that will have universities find efficiencies though innovation and productivity while decreasing spending on the order of $40 million in 2013-14, and $81 million in 2014-15. The government is also looking to eliminate study-abroad scholarships and implement reductions in support for non-PhD international students.

On the pension front, the government plans to introduce legislation this fall that would pool the investment management functions of smaller public sector pension plans, with “small” meaning those plans worth $10 billion or less. Duncan noted that Ontario’s 20 publicly funded universities have 25 pension plans between them. The government also expects that single-employer pension plans will to move to a 50-50 cost-sharing framework, with employees and employers sharing the costs equally, within five years’ time.

The compensation freeze for executives at hospitals, colleges, universities, school boards, and agencies has been extended a further two years, and explicitly names presidents, vice-presidents, provosts, and deans.

The Council of Ontario Universities was supportive of the budget, welcoming the government’s continued commitment to support the projected growth in student enrolment.

As with most budgets, the devil is in the details, and full details about many of these budget initiatives are not yet readily available. Expect further updates as more information surfaces.

Back to top

VeloCity Demo Day today; other notes

Some of the University of Waterloo’s emerging student entrepreneurs will compete against one another for one of three cash prizes of $1,000 at VeloCity Demo Day today, which gets underway at 2:00 p.m. in the Davis Centre foyer. More than 20 teams will pitch and demonstrate their innovative projects to a panel of judges. Winners will be announced at 3:30 p.m. and the team demonstrations will start at 3:35 p.m.

Orchestra@uwaterloo, the university's orchestra of students, staff, faculty and alumni, is playing an end-of-term concert on campus on Thursday, March 29 at 8:00 p.m. The concert features an undergraduate Computer Science student, Andrew Song, who tied for first place in the 2012 Concerto Competition. Andrew will play Wieniawski's 2nd violin concerto, a virtuoso piece. The program also includes Schumann's 4th Symphony and Debussy's Nocturnes.
The concert takes place in Humanities Theatre, and free tickets and can be reserved at the Theatre Box Office, ext. 84908.

In celebration of Women in Engineering Day tomorrow, Waterloo’s Women in Engineering group is holding a number of activities for students, staff and faculty members. Limited edition T-shirts and bandanas will be for sale for a nominal cost in the CPH foyer and people are encouraged to write on a special Wall of Words. As well, POETS will be playing several movies all day long. Jennifer Smith, vice president of Christie Digital, will be the key note speaker at a lunch time talk at 12:30 p.m. in E2-1303. Her presentation entitled “Stories from my iron ring: really…it talks!” will be followed by a Q&A session.

Here's the latest Nutrition Month "myth vs. fact" tip from Health Services dietician Sandra Ace:

"Myth": The best way to limit your sodium intake is to stop using the salt shaker.
"Truth": Surprisingly, the salt shaker is not the biggest culprit. Over 75% of the sodium Canadians eat comes from processed foods, packaged and ready-to-eat foods and restaurant meals. Only about 11% comes from salt added when cooking at home and salt you shake on at the table. The rest of the sodium you get occurs naturally in foods. To limit the sodium you eat, choose fewer pre-packaged convenience foods and restaurant meals and enjoy more home-prepared foods cooked with lower sodium ingredients.

Back to top