Seed grants for health research available

The Chronic Disease Prevention Initiative (CDPI) based in the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact and on behalf of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, has put out the call for seed grant applications, with a deadline of Monday, December 16.

The CDPI offers seed grants of up to $10,000 to bring together multidisciplinary teams and increase their success in external funding applications.

The main purpose of the initiative is to "catalyze new interdisciplinary collaborations that focus on preventing chronic diseases and reducing their burden." The focus for the seed grants is on ideas to advance chronic disease prevention research, and to do so by creating new multi-disciplinary teams.

Applications will be considered and evaluated by the degree which they have potential to impact chronic disease prevention, increase collaboration across disciplines, bring together new teams or expand existing ones, and demonstrate the appropriate intended use of the requested funds. The grants are worth up to $10,000.

The inaugural call for applications, back in the Spring of 2013, resulted in nine successful teams that included investigators from 11 different departments across campus.

The latest call for applications was issued on Friday, November 1. Application details are online. Applications can be submitted electronically until 4:30 p.m. on December 16.

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O'Brien named women's soccer head coach

a message from the Athletics department.

The Department of Athletics has announced that John O’Brien has been named the head coach of the Waterloo women’s soccer program. O’Brien will take over coaching duties from Peter Mackie, who will continue to coach the men’s team and focus his efforts recruiting for both programs. Mackie has been the coach of both teams since 2001.

“It has been an honour and a privilege to coach hundreds of women over the past ten years,” said Mackie. “The decision to bring in John was an easy one. He brings a wealth of coaching experience and is the perfect fit for our women’s soccer program.”

O’Brien is currently the coach of the Waterloo United U-16 boys and Waterloo Provincial U-21 women’s programs and holds a coaching license 1-3 and Provincial B license from the Ontario Soccer Association (OSA). O’Brien’s deep soccer experience doesn’t end there, as he has been a mentor of a program called Pure Touch run by the Kitchener Minor Soccer Club and is also a proud founder of the Waterloo Development Program to promote and enhance youth soccer in the area.

O’Brien also has an extensive playing background spending four seasons in the National Soccer League before returning to play in the Kitchener and District Soccer League (KDSL) with Kitchener City FC and the Celtic Boys Club.

“I am very excited to be leading the women’s soccer program and eager to get started,” mentioned O’Brien. “The Warriors are a hard working group of student-athletes and I look forward to helping them achieve their goals on and off the pitch.”

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From competition to CrossChasm

by Dana Ciak, Alumni Affairs. This piece was originally published on the Alumni website.

In 2004 alumni Matthew Stevens (PHD ’09, Chemical Engineering) (left) and Chris Mendes (MASC ’07, Mechanical Engineering) joined the ChallengeX four year competition that changed the course of their futures. The competition consisted of top North American engineering students tasked with building a sustainable vehicle. The team went head to head with leaders in the industry at the time such as General Motors and National Instruments. Not only did they win the challenge but the experience also equipped them with the knowledge they needed to create CrossChasm.

CrossChasm, founded by Matt and Chris and first employee Jennifer Bauman, provides products and services that help vehicle manufacturers build best-in-class high efficiency vehicles and bring them to market faster. They also educate vehicle owners on fuel efficient technologies and greening their fleets, from individual car buyers in dealerships to large government fleets buying thousands of vehicles.

The two main products the company offers are MyCarma and FleetCarma. MyCarma generates an individual’s fuel cost estimates by basing the entire analysis on that individual’s personal driving habits. This gives the car buyer the knowledge on what the best vehicle for them to purchase is regarding fuel efficiency, based on their personal driving habits.

FleetCarma is MyCarma’s big brother and allows fleet managers to make better-informed purchase decisions and then to measure and maximize those savings after purchase.

Read the full piece on the Alumni website.

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IST Open House tomorrow and other notes

Tomorrow, Information Systems & Technology (IST) will be hosting an Open House to share an update on the IT Directions resulting from the IT Strategic Plan project, including a review and discussion of the initiatives started, and in some cases finished, during the first six months of the time line.

These initiatives include a browser- and mobile-friendly Student Portal, the new Promissory Note, WiFi upgrades, IT governance discussions, and Service and Operational Level Agreements.

The open house will take place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in DC 1302.

Professor Lorne Dawson, chair of the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies, will be a featured speaker at the Research Matters public lecture event in London (Ontario) tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the London Children's Museum.

An expert in religious radicalization and homegrown terrorism, Dawson's talk is titled 'How much of a threat are Canadian terrorists?'

Presented by the Council of Ontario Universities, Research Matters is a 'public outreach initiative that explores how Ontario university research affects everyday life, and improves the ways people live, work and play.'

Dawson will be speaking alongside Brock University's Ana Sanchez, the University of Windsor's Bill Anderson, Western University Jody Culham, and Wilfrid Laurier University's Stephen Perry. Each Research Matters event features short presentations from a variety of speakers, followed by moderated questions, discussions, and debates.

The event will be webcast (registration is required).

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