Building a 3D printing partnership

with files from Christie Digital's media release

University of Waterloo students and staff now have access to some of the world’s most advanced rapid prototyping and environmental testing technologies under a partnership arrangement with Hyphen, located at Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc.’s worldwide engineering and manufacturing center in Kitchener.

The partnership arrangement represents a major boost to the University of Waterloo’s 3D Print Centre’s ability to expose engineering students to world-class technology and help them design, assemble, test and refine products and parts for their engineering projects. The 3D Print Centre has already become one of the most popular resources at the Student Design Centre.

“Hyphen is a state of the art resource, literally at our back door, that we can offer to Waterloo students to expand our capabilities in a rapidly evolving technology,” said Peter Teertstra, director of the Student Design Centre. “Strong ties with industry define the University of Waterloo experience, and Hyphen’s dedication to supporting student projects through academic discounts on products (and supports) will impact programs across campus."

The 3D printing process is attracting world-wide attention because of its ability to turn a computer generated drawing into a physical object. It can produce components with complex structures that work as well as machine-made parts and dramatically reduces production cycles, increases quality and uses less energy.

For more information about the university's new partnership with Hyphen, read this write-up from the Waterloo Region Record.

 

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From co-op to career

by Shannon Tigert, Communications and Marketing Associate, CECA

Nicole Bradley, who received her Bachelor’s degree in Health Studies from the University of Waterloo, is a perfect example of how co-op can shape your future career path.  Nicole spent four out of five co-op terms working at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre in Toronto.  She was the first co-op student to be hired as a Clinical Research Assistant student at the Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program (RRRP) there, and Sunnybrook has gone on to hire co-op students every year since then.  During her time there, she was able to work on and maintain over 12 clinical research studies assessing the quality of life in patients nearing their end of life who were receiving treatment, all of which had competing timeframes and deadlines.  “It challenged me and kept me on my feet,” says Nicole, “and inspired me to achieve more than I thought could be possible for an undergraduate student.”

While Nicole got the opportunity to work on many different projects, she maintains that one of the most memorable aspects of her time there was the opportunities to work directly with patients.  “It’s [an opportunity] that you wouldn’t necessarily  get unless you were in professional school, so I was able to develop a relationship with the patients and witness first-hand the ins and outs of cancer treatment,” says Nicole.  “These experiences were invaluable, and really taught me to live my life to the fullest.”  A favourite memory of hers is getting the chance to be in an operating room, observing a surgery on someone with bone cancer.  “It was a little bit strange at first, I wasn’t sure how I would respond or if my stomach would handle it well, but it was really interesting.  I don’t think I ever would have had that experience unless I was in a medical or professional school.”

The work Nicole did at the Odette Cancer Centre inspired her to continue her work in health and cancer related fields.  Nicole went on to do her Masters of Epidemiology at the University of Toronto.  She spent one year working at the Ministry of Health & Long Term Care, before moving on to the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) as a Health Care Analyst.  POGO is a not for profit organization that identifies areas for cancer system development, making evidence based policy recommendations to the Ministry of Health on child cancer systems in the province.  Nicole works directly with the executive director of POGO to make these recommendations.   One of her major projects of the past three years has been developing a set of measures for the quality of the system.  “This was the first time this was done internationally, there was no evidence based quality indicators to measure the quality of childhood cancer care,” says Nicole.  The outcome of this massive undertaking was 20 individual indicators that will be used to compare the quality of the system in Ontario to other provinces in Canada, as well as internationally.  The results of this research will be published this summer.

“At the beginning of my undergrad I was interested in cancer and health research and making the largest impact possible,” Nicole says, noting that she had originally been leaning towards medical school after graduation.  During her work at Sunnybrook, she became interested in working in health care at the population level and studying the causes of diseases and giving clinicians and policy-makers research based recommendations.   She recognizes how much co-op helped her discover what she wanted to pursue after graduation.  “Co-op is really important for students, particularly in the medical or health related field because it provides opportunities and experience that are really not found in the classroom.  It allows students to gain insight into potential careers.” 

Nicole Bradley is currently working at POGO in Toronto. 

This article is From the Winter 2013 edition of the Inside sCo-op

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Planned wireless outages on Sunday

Over the past 10 months, Information Systems & Technology (IST) has been upgrading the wireless infrastructure across campus in an effort to better support the needs of students and other users within common areas. The number of wireless devices on campus is increasing, and key devices within the core of the university's wireless network must be upgraded to keep up with the increasing demand.

These upgrades, however, require that the network be taken down from time to time as work is done. The next scheduled outage of wireless service is set for Sunday, July 21, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Recurring outages on the wireless network will take place during that time, varying in duration and location.

Even wired users in residences will experience these periodic outages.

If you have questions or concerns about ResNet, please contact the ResNet Helpdesk at ext. 33538 or reshelp@uwaterloo.ca.

If you have general concerns or questions, please contact the IST Helpdesk at ext. 84357 or helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca.

 

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