Happy hunting, hawk: Cameron Shelley of the Centre for Society, Technology and Values snapped this pic of a red-tailed hawk contemplating its next move in a tree near Engineering 5 yesterday morning.

Back to top

Welcome to the Innovation City

by Matthew Bondy, Communications and Public Affairs

“I’m fond of referring to the Waterloo region as Canada’s Innovation Capital”, said Feridun Hamdullahpur at the CIGI campus auditorium during the opening session of the CityAge: Innovation City conference in Waterloo yesterday.

“Not only is our renown as a hub of innovation growing around the world, but we are truly building that innovation capital every day: the knowledge we generate, the innovations we develop, and most importantly, the human capital we provide this community in the form of talented, thoughtful, impactful students and graduates.”

CityAge is a conference that brings its signature event experience to cities across North America known to have highly innovative communities and economies. The invite-only gathering seeks to build bridges between business, academic and public policy leaders.

CityAge Waterloo drew a broad base of participants from the region’s civic, political, business, and academic organizations yesterday, kicking off its first of two days with welcoming remarks by Waterloo mayor Brenda Halloran, and introductory comments by Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waterloo.

“You look around this region and you see signs of innovation and renewal everywhere,” said President Hamdullahpur during his introductory remarks. Commenting on how the University of Waterloo sparks innovation, he said “From The downtown core of Kitchener, to the University of Waterloo’s north campus, to Cambridge, to Stratford, and every community where the university has a presence, we see the University of Waterloo as major catalyst for positive economic, civic and social change.”

CityAge is being held at the CIGI campus on Erb Street in uptown Waterloo, with panels and other participatory events running both yesterday and today. Learn more about CityAge online.

Back to top

Tracking diseases through social media

Research by a Waterloo professor published last week in Science magazine gives "going viral" a whole new meaning.

Well, not for the reasons you might think. The notion is that social media networks like Facebook and Twitter could provide vital clues to controlling infectious diseases by using mathematical models to understand how people respond socially to biological contagions.

In the piece Social Factors in Epidemiology published in Science, Chris Bauch, a Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, and co-author Alison Galvani from Yale University, suggest that the biological spread of diseases is intertwined with how society responds to those contagions.

The annual approach of cold and flu season, for example, prompts society to find ways to prevent the spread of illness through measures that range from vaccination all the way through to covering our mouths when we cough. Social responses like these are much more difficult to predict than the way a biological contagion evolves. But as the researchers show, new methods are being developed to do just that.

“Social media and other data sources can be tapped for insights into how people will react when faced with a new disease control measure or the threat of infectious disease,” said Professor Bauch. “We can create models from this data that allows researchers to observe how social contagion networks interact with better-known biological contagion networks.”

The researchers found that ideas, sentiments and information can be just as contagious as disease. They looked at examples such as pediatric vaccine coverage, public health communications aimed at reducing the spread of infection and acceptance of quarantine during the SARS outbreak.

“Predictive modelling isn’t perfect, but it can help gauge how people will respond to disease control measures,” said Bauch, who works with epidemiologists and population health researchers. “All sorts of variables can effect something as complex as the spread of disease. This is why it’s important to bring a variety of perspectives into play, not just the biological considerations.”

Bauch will continue to study the intersection of theory and data in order to build better predictive models. Understanding how social contagion networks and biological contagion networks interact with one another can help public health officials prepare to save lives in the case of future disease outbreaks.

Back to top

A few words on Mental Health Day

by Mark Beadle, director, Campus Wellness.

World Mental Health Day, celebrated annually on October 10, was initiated by the World Federation for Mental Health in 1992 to highlight the importance of mental health. Here at the University of Waterloo we care about the mental health of our students, staff, and faculty. We know that 1 in 5 Canadians will be affected by mental illness in their lifetime.

We want to create awareness that our campus is a caring community and a safe place to ask for help, and we have the resources to help you.

Every year for the past 5 years we have promoted awareness across campus on Mental Health Wellness Day. Staff, faculty, and student leaders demonstrate their support by wearing bright orange MHWD t-shirts on campus.  This year, MHWD is on Thursday, October 24.  If you have a shirt from last year, dig it out of the closet and wear it proudly on the 24^th. If you need a shirt, most departments and faculties have already submitted orders.

For those of you who missed the deadline, we have re-opened on-line ordering until the end of the day on Wednesday, October 16. You must enter a valid uwaterloo.ca email address, office location, and phone extension for your order to be accepted. There is no cost to you for the shirts. Multi-shirt orders will be delivered to departments and faculties starting next week. Single shirt orders will be available for pick-up in Health Services on October 21. We will email pick-up instructions by the end of next week.

Check out the MHWD website for additional ways to participate, including sending a tweet to #1in5 with your answer to “What do I do to stay mentally healthy?”

Back to top

Thursday's notes

Conrad Grebel University College President Susan Schultz Huxman (right) will be delivering this year's Benjamin Eby Lecture. Her remarks are entitled 'Speaking Truth to Power:’ Profiles in Rhetorical Courage for Church and Society. The Benjamin Eby Lecture is an annual event that presents the research of a faculty member at Conrad Grebel University College and is named after Benjamin Eby, an early education and Mennonite church leader in Waterloo County. The lecture takes place tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Conrad Grebel's chapel.

A group of staff members has organized "Christian fellowship during the lunch hour" on Thursdays from 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. in Modern Languages 212. "Drop in and enjoy inter-denominational fellowship," writes Gerry Brummelhuis. "On a rotating basis, anyone who wants to present a topic of interest can do so for 20 minutes. After, we can discuss together, while we eat lunch." Contact Brummelhuis for more information.

In today's United Way Campaign-related news, the School of Accounting and Finance is inviting people to buy raffle tickets. The prize? A wine cellar! Each Friday in October a ticket will be drawn with the winner receiving 6 bottles of wine. Tickets cost $20 each, or you can receive one ticket for each bottle of wine you donate (valued between $12-$15) to the cause. For tickets and more information see Bonnie Bishop in HH 3152 or David Ha in DC 3107.

The Waterloo Warriors Men's Hockey team has its season opener tonight as they launch their defence of their OUA West crown and prepare to go all the way this year with a game at home against the UOIT Ridgebacks at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Icefield. The Athletics website has all the details.

Proxies, start your engines: The University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, October 30 in DC 1302 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Back to top