Goose crossing: Local geese were among the first pedestrians to take advantage of the pedestrian refuge in the middle of the reconstructed Phillip Street, which was reopened late last night.

Jane Britton, head of Special Collections at the Library, took this photo of your tax dollars at work this morning.

City workers had removed most of the traffic cones yesterday evening, and the street is now open to traffic after a long closure.

According to Britton, at one point the line of geese stretched from the sidewalk to the centre of the road.

 

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Insert Coin to Play at Gamification 2013

Gamification 2013: Gameful Design, Research, and Applications is a new international and interdisciplinary conference with a focus on researchers and professionals in gamification, that is, the use of game design to make a system that primarily supports non-game tasks more fun, engaging, and motivating.

The conference, in cooperation with the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) will be hosted by the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus on October 2 to 4, 2013.

The conference will showcase current academic research in gamification, opening the door for discussion around the growth of the gamification industry. The three-day event will cover a range of academic and industry research specifically aligned to expand the effective implementation of gamification in business, health, education, and entertainment and is expected to attract people who are involved or who have an interest in gamification as a researcher, designer, student, or professional across a broad spectrum of industries.

The conference is being organized by researchers from the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo and the GAMER Lab at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT).

There are many opportunities for students looking to level up:

The Gamification Student Design Competition is a unique opportunity for students to showcase their gamification systems and designs. A gamification jury panel will judge the submissions and invite the best submissions for presentation at the conference. Students will need to submit:

• A link to a short video trailer and explanation of the gamified system on YouTube or Vimeo; 
• a 2-page description of the system and approach in ACM SIGCHI format; and
• proof of student status.

To submit an entry in the competition, create a login account in the online submission system. Select "Submit to Gamification 2013 Short Paper, Poster, Demo, or Student Competition Submissions" as the submission type. The deadline is Thursday, August 8 at 11:59 p.m.

Posters and Works-in-Progress Short Papers provide a unique opportunity for breaking results and late in-progress work to be presented to the gamification community. Submissions should be in the form of a 4-page ACM SIGCHI paper. Accepted submissions will be presented as a poster at the conference. To submit an entry in the competition, create a login account in the online submissions system. Select "Submit to Gamification 2013 Short Paper, Poster, Demo, or Student Competition Submissions" as the submission type. The deadline is Thursday, August 8 at 11:59 p.m.

Students are welcome to register to attend for a special rate of $99 plus tax and processing fee, though there are limited student tickets available and registration opened back in June. The rate gives students access to the opening and closing plenary sessions, regular panel sessions, access to demo stations and poster presentation, lunch and snacks on Thursday, October 3 and a discounted ticket package to the Stratford Festival.

Volunteers are always needed to make a conference like this one successful. Contact the conference organizers if you are interested in becoming a volunteer for the event.

A full description of the student opportunities is available on the conference website.

The conference's program streams will feature a blend of academic research and experimental applications with industry and non-profit examples, procedures, best practices, goals and results. 

Gamification is serious business: the latest projections suggest that half of all companies will use this kind of technology by 2015.

 

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Retiree, world traveller, Keystone supporter

by Paul McKone. This piece appears on the Keystone website.

The many blessings and good luck she enjoyed with her husband James allowed Elise Devitt to give back to the place that remains near and dear to her heart.

Elise arrived at Waterloo in 1968, ready to tackle the many challenges of the fledgling university.  What was the campus like at that time?

“Mud,” she smiles. “Lots of mud.”

She worked at a variety of jobs in the new Math and Computing building, Needles Hall, and the Dana Porter Library, to which new floors were being added.  “The fire alarm kept going off, and we’d have to walk all the way downstairs, only to find it was a false alarm,” she recalls.

Over the years, Elise moved around in the Faculty of Mathematics, sharing in new challenges and adventures.  It was Elise’s nature that when she came across a problem, she itched to solve it.  That trait still motivates her today.

When she retired in 1991, Elise and her husband, James (pictured together above), who had retired from Uniroyal five years earlier, set out for the southern hemisphere. Together, they drove the length of New Zealand, toured around Australia, and then headed home via Asia. Over the years, they travelled throughout five continents.

Following James’ death in February, 2007, Elise established two scholarships in his memory.  Good students, Elise believes, need good support. Excellent marks and financial need are the only prerequisites for these undergraduate and graduate awards.

Another gift from Elise is taking shape on the sixth floor of the Dana Porter Library in the form of an impressive group workspace. The James and Elise Devitt Study Room was officially opened December 17, 2012, the day after what would have been the couple’s 51st wedding anniversary.  Friends, family and former colleagues came from near and far for the unveiling.  The Study Room, with its electronic displays and writeable glass walls, marks the start of extensive changes to the sixth floor.  Elise (pictured above right with University Librarian Mark Haslett outside the study room) is eagerly anticipating the arrival of new study carrels and other features which are still under wraps.

Read the complete piece on the Keystone website.

 

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Campus celebrates Civic Holiday with closures

What better way to start off a new month than with a long weekend? Monday, August 5 is the Civic Holiday, which means that university offices and most services will be closed, including Retail Services outlets and the majority of Food Services' offerings.

The Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield will both be open Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., but will be closed Monday.

The Davis Centre library will be open on its exam-time schedule (open 24 hours) while the Dana Porter library will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday.

Mudie's in Village 1 is keeping its doors open for business hours Monday (7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.)

As always, the Student Life Centre's Turnkey Desk remains open 24 hours a day, and UW Police are available at extension 22222 or 519-888-4911 off-campus.

 

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