Celebrating Waterloo's impact

by Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor.

In about an hour from now, the first graduands of Fall Convocation 2013 will cross the stage, taking their place in the world as alumni of the University of Waterloo.

While I don’t want to get ahead of my planned remarks this morning, I have to say that Convocation always stirs in me a feeling of optimism and opportunity, as well as responsibility. Each degree conferred by the University of Waterloo is a promise for our alumni to keep. People expect good things from the University of Waterloo’s graduates – intelligence, innovation, integrity – and the degrees we confer are guarantees that our grads do indeed possess those qualities.

To all those who will soon look out upon the world for the first time as Waterloo alumni: congratulations, and good luck!

October has been an incredibly busy month at the university, and for me as well.

Earlier this month I was in Korea opening our newest – our eighth – alumni chapter. This photo of the event is of me and Korea chapter president Dr. James Hong, at the embassy of Canada in Korea, where the founding event was hosted. James and about sixty of his fellow University of Waterloo alumni in Korea gathered in Seoul to officially open the chapter. It was a great day, and an excellent further step for “global prominence and internationalization” as called for in our Strategic Plan.

While in Korea I also represented the University of Waterloo at KAIST University’s annual conference of university presidents. This year the conference explored the role and responsibility of research universities, with a special focus on technology transfer and entrepreneurship.

Obviously, these are strengths for the University of Waterloo, and I was extremely proud to see how our performance in these areas compares to other institutions around the world.

International and national rankings, many of which have been recently released, have been reflecting these and other strengths of the university.

Waterloo ranked as a global top 200 university by the critical ARWU and QS rankings, and as a global top 250 institution by the important Times Higher Ed ranking.

I am delighted to report that here in Canada, we were ranked top Canadian university in the comprehensive category by Research Infosource for the sixth time – an excellent validation of our performance as an innovative, high-impact university.

Closer to home, yesterday I hosted the University of Waterloo’s first annual President’s Community Breakfast, giving me the opportunity to present our new Strategic Plan to our community partners, and to officially unveil the University of Waterloo Economic Impact Study 2013.

With more than $2.6 Billion of total economic impact, and by providing more than an 800% economic return on government investment, the University of Waterloo is the anchor of the Waterloo region’s economic ecosystem and a key driver of prosperity and opportunity for Canada. I encourage you to read the highlights of the report online.

I hope your October has been as positive and productive as it’s been for the university as a whole.

Please accept my best wishes for a great weekend – and be sure to congratulate our grads on campus.

Sincerely,

FH

 

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2,352 degrees to be granted at convocation

More than 1,300 undergraduate degrees and 1,000 graduate degrees will be handed out at the University of Waterloo's 107th convocation in four ceremonies taking place today and tomorrow in the Physical Activities Complex.

Several honorary degrees will also be conferred, and a number of individuals will receive faculty alumni achievement awards, for outstanding contributions to their professional field and in community and public service.

Today, beginning at 10:00 a.m., 118 students from Applied Health Sciences and 320 Science students will cross the stage.

Humanitarian Stephen Lewis (left) will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws and address convocation. He is founder of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. Among his other accomplishments, Lewis was UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, deputy executive director of UNICEF, and Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Patrick Harrison will receive the Applied Health Sciences Alumni Achievement Award, and Jenna van Draanen will receive the Applied Health Sciences Young Alumni Award.

Jasmin Bhawra and Kent Fisher will be recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies at the Master's level, and Andrew Paul Costa and Ramila Niloshini Sinnatamby will be recognized at the doctoral level.

This afternoon, starting at 2:30 p.m., 146 students from the Faculty of Environment and 499 students from the Faculty of Mathematics, including Including Software Engineering and Computing & Financial Management, will receive their degrees.

Professor Leslie Valiant (right), the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics degree and address convocation.

Carol Fung will receive the Alumni Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance in a doctoral program. Her research focuses on distributed computer security, in particular on the design and management of collaborative intrusion detection networks.

Andrew Good will be named the recipient of the K.D. Fryer Gold Medal for high academic standing in mathematics together with good student citizenship.

Erin Alexiuk and Victor Veitch will be recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies at the Master's level, and Kyrke Gaudreau will be recognized at the doctoral level.

On Saturday, October 26, students from Arts and Engineering will receive their degrees in two ceremonies.

In the 10:00 a.m. morning ceremony, 766 Arts students will cross the stage.

Professor Eric Rentschler (left), the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and chair of the Standing Committee on Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University will receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree and address convocation.

He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading film scholars.

In addition, professors John Holmes, Hildy Ross and Michael Ross, all of the Department of Psychology, will become Distinguished Professors Emeriti.

Ernie Regehr (right) will receive the Arts Alumni Achievement Award. Regehr has spent the better part of his life in the pursuit of the demilitarization of security, establishing one of Canada’s premier peace and security NGOs. He is a senior fellow in Arctic Security at The Simons Foundation of Vancouver; and a research fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, at Conrad Grebel University College. He is also a co-founder of Project Ploughshares, a non-governmental organization that works with churches, governments, and civil society in Canada and abroad, on peace and security issues.

Nicole Gadoury will be named the recipient of the James D Leslie Prize for outstanding performance in studies by distance education.

Belinda Kleinhans will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

Jenny Wing Yan Wong will receive the Accounting Alumni Award for Excellence in Accounting, given for outstanding academic performance in the Master of Accounting Program.

Jasmine Bélanger-Gulick will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies award a the Master's level, and Belinda Kleinhans will receive it at the doctoral level.

On Saturday afternoon, 503 Engineering students will receive their degrees.

Professor Thomas H. Lee, a leader in the field of radio-frequency integrated circuit design from Stanford University, will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree and address convocation.

Jeffrey Luc Glaister will be given the Alumni Gold Medal for outstanding academic performance in a master’s program.

Andrea Gail Murphy will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

Xiaohui Liang will receive the award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies award at the doctoral level.

The ceremonies will be livestreamed.

Leslie Valiant photo by Larry Bercow.

 

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Convocation milestones for new programs

with files from Wendy Philpott, Sam Toman, and Michelle Madden.

Congratulations! Herzlichen Glückwunsch! This fall's convocation marks the first time Germanic and Slavic Studies graduate students in the joint MA in Intercultural German Studies (IcGS) will receive their degrees.

Out of the 24 current students in this one-of-a-kind program, the first graduates are Antje Riethmueller, Nicole Knapp, and Svetlana Borodina. The graduands will receive a diploma bearing the seals and signatures from the program's two partner institutions: University of Waterloo and Universität Mannheim, Germany.

Students in this two-year joint program spend one academic year at each university and write a thesis with input from colleagues at both institutions. For more information about the Joint MA, please visit the IcGS website. 

Also, the first cohort of students graduate from the Master of Environment and Business program. It is a degree for experienced professionals, taken online and part-time over three years, and allows students to interact with more than 30 guest experts.

16 students will be graduating with MEBs at today's convocation.

 

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Event explores the economics of everything

by Wendy Philpott, Faculty of Arts.

The Department of English Language and Literature is playing host to a major interdisciplinary conference this weekend - the Canadian Association of American Studies (CAAS) annual gathering, Total Money Makeover: Culture and the Economization of Everything, will explore the meaning of money in literature, society, and culture. 

With over 100 scholars attending from across the country and the U.S., the conference will take place off campus at the Kitchener-Waterloo Hotel and Conference Centre, October 25-27, and features two keynote lectures and a graduate student expo that are open to the public.

Waterloo faculty will give papers, talk on panels and chair sessions – covering themes such as ‘ecological economies’, ‘neoliberal identities’ and ‘fictions of technology’. Presenters from Arts include Heather Douglas (Philosophy) on “Science Advisors and the Problem of Loyalty during the Nixon Administration”, Jasmin Habib (Political Science) on “Jewish Peace and Social Justice Activists, and American Identity”, Lowell Ewert (Conrad Grebel) on “Alternative Economics: The Influence of Fair Trade”, and Jennifer Harris (English) presents “Hit me with Hawthorne: Anne Wales Abbott and the Game of Authors in Nineteenth-Century America.”

On Saturday, graduate students from the English department will present Invisible Cities: Located Knowledge and Digital Design at the Communitech Hub. The symposium and expo features digital art works that investigate computational objects, data visualization, game worlds, and locative media design. These visual forms facilitate critical and analytical engagement with the power and effects of digital design – and viewers are encouraged to discuss the works with the students who created them.

For more information, visit the conference website.

 

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A world of discovery at the Science Open House

by Science Events.

A chemistry magic show, gold panning and exploring a giant cell are just some of the fun hands-on activities for the whole family at the Science Open House taking place in EIT and other Faculty of Science buildings this Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Also among the activities and demonstrations for children aged 5 to 13 are dry-ice experiments, digging for fossils, making a marble roller-coaster and adding science to Hallowe'en tricks.

The Gem & Mineral show will add to the excitement with mineral and gem vendors’ spectacular collections for sale.

"This popular event is a great way for kids to discover the fascinating and varied world of science in a memorable and exciting way," said Heather Neufeld, outreach coordinator for the Faculty of Science at Waterloo.

Free parking is available in Lot B.

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