A state-of-the-art lab that will support research programs ranging from photonics to quantum computing to nanoelectronics will open on campus today.

The Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) facility, located in the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre, is a high-end research and development lab with production capabilities. The MBE lab will allow for the fabrication of compound semiconductor materials, one thin layer at a time, in a vacuum-controlled environment.

Superconductivity occurs when electricity flows without energy loss or resistance.

The opening event will take place from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the atrium of the Quantum-Nano Centre.

Photograph by Jonathan Bielaski, Light Imaging.

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The Keystone Campaign picnic is this Friday

by Whitney Albright.

Faculty, staff and retirees are invited to join us on Friday, June 6 between 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the DC Quad. We’ll be serving a delicious barbecue lunch, and providing music and entertainment, all to celebrate the impact faculty, staff and retirees have on the University through the Keystone Campaign.

An event is also scheduled the same day for our evening employees between 6:00-7:00 p.m. in the SLC. The SLC is also the rain-out location in case of inclement weather during the day.

The list of participants in the always popular dunk tank can be found on the picnic website as well as the list of senior leadership volunteering their BBQ skills.

While food is free, attendees are reminded to bring their food ticket found at the bottom of the campus-wide email that was sent out on Tuesday. This will help ensure everyone gets fed. If you forget your ticket, there will be plenty more at the registration table.

The weather is calling for a bright and sunny day, so along with your food ticket, don’t forget sunscreen and a reusable water bottle to stay hydrated.

If you have any questions, please contact Whitney Albright.

See you on Friday!   

The Keystone Campaign engages and inspires the campus community in philanthropy. Every year, our family of faculty, staff and retirees donates over one million dollars and countless volunteer hours to support the University of Waterloo.

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Bridging generation gaps one coffee at a time

by Kaitlyn Holbein.

Dave Wilkin, founder of Redwood Strategic, and a recent Waterloo alumnus (pictured above with John Betts, CEO of McDonald’s Canada), is changing the way that the generations interact through his social media website, Ten Thousand Coffees.

The website allows for seasoned professionals and younger, more inexperienced people to connect. Students, recent graduates, and young professionals are encouraged to reach out to industry leaders, explaining why they would like to meet for coffee and conversation. Young people with the right ideas, questions, or projects are presented with the opportunity to meet for a casual, insightful chat with an accomplished person in their field.

Wilkin and his team at Redwood Strategic first came up with the idea for Ten Thousand Coffees while contemplating how to solve a problem. The marketing company sought to find a fix for an issue they kept observing: a gap between current industry leaders and the next generation. By making industry leaders more accessible to young people through social media, a solution was born.

Wilkin explains that the coffee conversations encouraged through Ten Thousand Coffees are mutually beneficial to both parties, and work towards reducing the gap:  “What CEOs from various companies talked about is how over a coffee conversation they were learning so much and they enjoyed just meeting with these students, recent grads, and young professionals and hearing their ideas.”

Insights presented by Millennials allow for organizations to better target to the needs of this large group, and breathe fresh life into their companies. Advice and conversation with experienced professionals allows for young people to grow and gain valuable connections that can lead to mentoring relationships.

Ten Thousand Coffees and Co-op

Recently named one of Profit Magazine’s top 30 under 30, Wilkin credits much of his success to his start at Waterloo. While networking between co-op terms, Wilkin connected with an accomplished professional in his industry (over coffee!), who convinced him to begin his own company. Rather than working for this person during his next co-op term, as Wilkin originally sought out to do, he instead started Redwood Strategic while doing an enterprise co-op term.

Reflecting on his time at Waterloo, Wilkin says, “what’s amazing with Waterloo co-op is that you get a chance to go and just try things out, and you get a chance to go meet as many people as possible and that’s what creates careers.”

Wilkin now benefits the current cohort of students by hiring Waterloo co-ops to work for his companies, and through the more democratic networking opportunities he created.

Waterloo students like Calvin Chan, a second-year accounting and financial management student, already profit from the possibilities created by Ten Thousand Coffees. Calvin joined the site a few months ago and was recently able to meet with his dream employer, John Ruffolo, CEO of OMERS Ventures. The coffee conversation that Calvin had with Ruffolo helped him to realize the entrepreneurial goals that he now plans to pursue in future.

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Midweek notes

The Graduate Student Association is presenting "Graduate Talk: Get That Killer Job" with speakers Larry Smith, Paul Salazar and Mike Makahnouk today from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in RCH 302.

Students can register to attend the event, which will also be livestreamed.

The University of Waterloo Art Gallery and the Department of Fine Arts are presenting "This Could Be The Place" this week, with daily performances and a daylong symposium on Saturday, June 7.

"This Could Be The Place points towards art’s capacity to revel and flourish in confusion, to operate under apprehension and misdirection," says the event's promotional material. "As much a statement as a question, the title suggests unpredictability, disorientation and aimlessness as strategies that can be used to activate, define or repurpose aspects of public spaces while also paralleling the distinctive lack of navigation and means of way-finding within the built environment on campus. This Could Be The Place is a satellite of CAFKA 2014 and was developed in response to the biennial’s theme It should always be this way, which poses a similar question––how to disrupt the everyday by inserting utopian daydreaming, contemplation and curiosity into the ebb and flow of the urban environment."

Visitors are encouraged to meet at the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) at 11:30 a.m. each day for student guides will lead walking tours to each performance site. Performers include Lisa Birke, Jessica Thompson, Johannes Zits, and Terrance Houle.

The weekday performances (which began Monday, June 2) culminate in a daylong symposium on Saturday, June 7 at UWAG, beginning at 8:30 a.m., featuring "presentations and panel discussions addressing interdisciplinary practices, the politics of public space, and art and performativity as a form of precarious labour."

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