Zen and the art of motorcycle balancing: Architecture student Anam Khan and senior mechanical technologist Carlos Radic found a fitting way to enjoy some of April's summer-like weather last month. More of that weather appears to be on the way (thunderstorms notwithstanding), according to forecasts.

Photograph by Jeff Wettlaufer.

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National startup tour to hit Waterloo

The Accelerator Centre in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park will be hosting a stop on the Startup Canada national tour. Startup Canada is "Canada's first-ever, entrepreneur-led, national movement to enhance the nation's competitiveness and prosperity by supporting and celebrating Canadian entrepreneurship." The tour will hit 30 cities between March and September 2012.

The town hall will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 17.

The tour is intended to "fuel a groundswell, grassroots, entrepreneur-led movement to bring together Canada's entire entrepreneurship community to create a clear, concise plan that leads to real change and action." The town hall event will include discussion and the creation of an action plan that will be presented to the Prime Minister's Office.

Registration for the town hall can be done online. Attendance is free.

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Geometry, physics researchers convene

The GAP (Geometry and Physics) 2012 conference, held jointly by the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, takes place from Saturday, May 5 to Monday, May 7. "This is now the 4th installment in a very successful annual series of conferences, whose primary goal is to bring together geometers, from Canada and around the world, who work at the interface between mathematics and physics," writes organizing committee member and Pure Mathematics professor Spiro Karigiannis.

The conference features principal speakers from a variety of institutions including Australian National University, Universiteit Utrecht, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton, and MIT, as well as seven local area postdocs.

Registration details can be found online.

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Pebble Kickstarter passes $7M, other notes

Waterloo alumnus Eric Migicovsky's Pebble Smartwatch fundraising venture using the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform has received more than $7.9M in pledges from over 53,200 backers with more than two weeks left to go before the funding project comes to a close. The Pebble watch, which uses e-paper technology and connects to iPhone and Android devices, is the successor to Migicovsky's InPulse smartwatch for BlackBerry, which began as a project during his days as a VeloCity resident in the fall of 2008. Migicovsky has kept in touch and shared his experiences with other VeloCity students.

The annual Think About Math workshop got underway yesterday and will run until May 5. The workshop, intended to boost Grade 9 girls' interest in mathematics, is hosted by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing and will bring about 40 students together over three days.

This is the fourth year for event, which gives young girls' in high school the opportunity to learn about the lifestyles and fulfilling careers of women who have graduated with a degree in mathematics. Girls will also participate in interactive labs and hands-on activities. They will learn how the field of mathematics relates to such fields as the environment, the stock market, and social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. University of Waterloo faculty members and professional businesswomen and businessmen will lead all of the sessions.

A note from IST's Andrea Chappell to faculty members last week provided an update on the status of the podium computers in 104 Registrar-scheduled e-classrooms. The podiums' scheduled upgrade to the Windows 7 operating system has been completed. "A note has been left on the computer to indicate it has been upgraded," writes Chappell. "We advise you to visit the e-classroom in which you will teach to make sure any special applications you use work as expected, and to become familiar with the interface (if you have not used Windows 7 before." Anyone encountering problems with the computer should call extension 33233, which is the usual e-classroom help line that reaches the ITMS support technicians.

E-classrooms can be found in the Arts Lecture Hall, Biology 2, the Davis Centre, Douglas Wright Engineering, EIT, Engineering 2, Environment 1,2, and 3, Hagey Hall, Mathematics and Computer and Mathematics 3, Modern Languages, Optometry, PAS, and RCH.

Gordon Stubley, a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor and as of May 1 the Faculty of Engineering's first Associate Dean (Teaching) has been honoured with a 2012 Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Award for Excellence in Teaching. He was one of just eight province-wide to receive the award. Professor Stubley was nominated by the University of Waterloo's Federation of Students.

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