Mechanical and Mechatronics engineering professor Carolyn Hansson is one of the university's latest recipients of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, which was presented to her by President Feridun Hamdullahpur on Tuesday, February 26. Professor Hansson is pictured above with Hamdullahpur and Dean of Engineering Pearl Sullivan.

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It's International Women's Day

Every year, March 8 is designated International Women's Day, and a today is the culmination of a week's worth of events sponsored and organized by groups on campus including Women's Studies, Sociology and Legal Studies, International Development, the Federation of Students’ One Waterloo Diversity Campaign and The Women’s Centre.

There are two main events in support of the special day today, with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics hosting "Women and Physics: Past, Present, and Future - A Celebration of International Women's Day all day.

Tonight, there is an International Women's Day dinner hosted by the university's Women's Studies program that features Professor Wendy Mitchinson, Canada Research Chair in Gender and Medical History as the keynote speaker, with a talk entitled "Fighting Fat: Mother-Blaming in Canada, 1920-80." The event takes place at the University Club at 5:30 p.m..

International Women's Week concludes tomorrow with a performance of The Vagina Monologues in HH 180 at 8:00 p.m.

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Stacking cans for a cause

by Russ Wong, Faculty of Engineering.

On Saturday, March 9, two teams from the Faculty of Engineering and School of Architecture will head to Conestoga Mall for Canstruction Waterloo Region’s 2013 event. Organized by the Food Bank of Waterloo Region, Canstruction is part of a larger international program that raises awareness of poverty while collecting food for those in need. The University of Waterloo is a proud sponsor of Canstruction, which is now entering its sixth year in our community.

The Engineering and Architecture teams will be joined by 12 others, with participants ranging from the Kitchener Rangers and Mosaic Counselling and Family Services to Google and McAfee. When all of the teams are done, the Mall will be host to 14 “can-structures”, all designed and built with non-perishable food items: bags of rice, boxes of pasta, and—of course—thousands and thousands of cans. These structures will be on display until Sunday, March 17, when the teams return to take down their creations and find out who wins the coveted People’s Choice award.

Canstruction teams spend a lot of time in planning and design leading up to the event, which includes trips to grocery stores to find cans, boxes, and bags that are the right sizes, shapes, and colours. Memorable builds in past years have included Angry Birds, Thomas the Tank Engine, and a medieval castle defended by Kool-Aid men. Engineering’s 2012 build was a tuna leaping out of a can, and Architecture’s 2010 model of the Parthenon won an international award.

While most teams will build after the mall closes on Saturday evening, Architecture and three other teams will start at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. Drop by to show your support for our students, then come back later in the week to check out all of the impressive structures! In the meantime, you can visit the Food Bank website to see builds from the 2012 and 2011 events.

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Prof named Outstanding Young CS Researcher

by Anna Beard, Communications Officer, Faculty of Mathematics

Ondrej Lhotak, Associate Professor with the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science has been named an Outstanding Young Computer Science Researcher by the Canadian Association of Computer Science. Lhotak joins Associate Professor Ian Goldberg (2010) and Professor Bin Ma (2009) in a growing list of distinguished faculty members who have won this researcher prize.

Lhotak’s research focuses on programming languages, compilers, and program analysis, with a specific focus on object-oriented languages. Program analysis has long been used to generate efficient code, and is increasingly being used in software engineering tools. These applications require precise and efficient program analyses. Increased modularity enabled by object-oriented languages makes interprocedural analysis necessary for precise results. As a result, he is working on making precise interprocedural analyses efficient enough to be practical.

In addition to his research, Lhotak coaches the University of Waterloo ACM teams. Once a member himself, the ACM teams compete in the Association for Computing Machinery Intercollegiate Programming Contests (ACM-ICPC). Lhotak led the Waterloo Black team to a bronze medal at the 2012 ACM-ICPC world finals.

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March Break programs bring kids to campus

It's that time of year already - next week is March Break, and if the students you see on campus next week look younger than usual, it's probably because they are elementary and secondary schoolkids participating in one of the university's March Break programs

For example, from Monday, March 11 to Friday, March 15, Waterloo Unlimited, the high school enrichment program on campus, hosts over 60 grade 11 students from across Canada as they explore the theme of Design across disciplines. Waterloo Unlimited exposes participants to ideas and information from all across campus, and challenges them to make trans-disciplinary connections.

Engineering Science Quest (ESQ) also has programming lined up on the main campus next week for youths from grades 1 to 6 (registration is full but there are waiting lists), as well as programs at the Waterloo Stratford Campus for kids in grades 1 to 4. ESQ's goal is to "offer a variety of fun and educational activities, that cover a whole range of engineering and science concepts, each day."

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Queen's Cup game tomorrow and other notes

"The Waterloo Warriors men’s hockey team battle the UQTR Patriotes on Saturday for the 102nd Queen’s Cup," Dan Ackerman from Athletics reminds us. "Follow @WlooWarriors and use the hash tag #beatuqtr to show your support for the team as they look for their third ever provincial title."

Tickets for this Saturday's playoff game sold out in 30 minutes, and the event, which starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Icefield, will be broadcast online.

Another TEDxUW talk on failure has met with success, as serial entrepreneur Michael Litt's talk from last November's TEDxUW event, "Why you have to fail to have a great career," was featuring in a blog post on the main TED (for Technology, Entertainment, Design) website entitled "8 talks about learning from failure."

This weekend marks the return of Daylight Saving Time, with clocks to be turned ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. Waterloo Fire Rescue has sent out its usual press release reminding people that it is a good time to replace batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Here's today's nutrition "myth vs. fact" from Health Services dietician Sandra Ace:

"Myth:" Eating eggs is bad for cholesterol levels.

"Fact:" This notion is based on older research that has since been re-evaluated. While there is about 185 mg of cholesterol in an egg yolk, saturated fats found in fatty cuts of meat and high fat dairy products and trans fats found in many processed foods have a much bigger impact on blood cholesterol. Eggs are a great source of nutrients, as well as being inexpensive and versatile.  Adults without a history of heart disease or diabetes can enjoy eggs, including the yolk, in moderation, or about one per day.

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