Swimming with sharks: Kevin O'Leary, who at times has been a dragon and a shark, spoke to an audience of Engineering students in the Theatre of the Arts yesterday, delivering a talk entitled "Entrepreneurship - what it takes to be a success."

O’Leary a well-known Canadian entrepreneur, investor, journalist, writer, financial commentator and television personality. Known as the toughest of the Dragons on CBC’s Dragon’s Den and the savviest of Sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank, he has a history of entrepreneurial success including O’Leary Funds, O’Leary Fine Wines and the O’Leary Financial Group, launched in 2014.

Photograph by Yuni Jo.

Back to top

Teens' "Big Ideas" can change the world

by Sanaya Mistry, IDEAS Coordinator, Waterloo International.

Teenagers get all sorts of ideas, and some of them may even change the world.

That's the notion behind the IDEAS Summer Experience, an annual summer enrichment program based here at Waterloo, Canada’s most innovative university.

The program has been developed with a strong focus on highlighting Waterloo’s innovative spirit through a multidisciplinary and experiential teaching approach, says Julie Hummel, Director of Communications for Waterloo International.

“In keeping with Waterloo’s innovative spirit," Hummel says, “IDEAS participants will work together to solve some of the world’s biggest problems — like childhood obesity or the Digital Divide — with their own big ideas.“

During 2 weeks in July, grade 10 and 11 students from around the world will have access to some of the best facilities at the University of Waterloo, live on campus, meet other students from around the world, and explore popular Canadian landmarks (such as Niagara Falls).

One 2014 IDEAS participant said of their experience, "IDEAS definitely helped me realize that although I am only one person, with drive and knowledge I have the power to change the world.”

This year, the IDEAS Summer Experience will be taking place from July 12 to July 26. If you know an international student who would enjoy IDEAS, invite them to apply today.  

Back to top

Help build the future brick by plastic brick

For the third year, the University of Waterloo will be hosting the FIRST LEGO League West Provincial Championship. The competition will take place on Saturday, February 7 in the Physical Activities Complex.

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League (FLL) is an international program that aims to stimulate and foster an interest in science and engineering in young people. Using LEGO Mindstorms technologies and other educational materials from the LEGO Group, kids work alongside adult coaches and mentors to design, build, and program autonomous robots. Each year, a challenge is issued to the teams, which contains several missions that teams try to have their robots complete.

The organizers are looking for volunteers to help with the event. "There are many opportunities available - score and timekeepers, team escorts, field re-setters, and others," writes Stephen Swartzentruber.

There are 40 teams made of up elementary and senior public school students (grades 4 through 8) from western Ontario who have registered to compete this year. They have spent the past five months working on their LEGO construction projects. Winners of the West Provincial division will go on to compete at the provincial level.

"You will be able to join in with their excitement as they complete at one of the province's championship events," writes Swartzentruber.

Volunteers will be required on-site from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and will receive lunch and a t-shirt.

For more information, visit Waterloo's FIRST Robotics website. Anyone with questions is invited to reach out via email for more information.

Back to top

Lecture on how to make robots behave

The latest entry in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science Distinguished Lecture Series is on a subject that, in an era of drones, driverless automobiles, and other unsettling curiosities, seems particularly timely: Making Robots Behave.

Leslie Pack Kaelbling is the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has made research contributions to decision-making under uncertainty, learning, and sensing with applications to robotics, with a particular focus on reinforcement learning and planning in partially observable domains.

Before you show up in hopes of hearing tips on how to avoid a Terminator-style robotic uprising, take heed of the talk's abstract: "The fields of AI and robotics have made great improvements in many individual subfields, including in motion planning, symbolic planning, probabilistic reasoning, perception, and learning. Our goal is to develop an integrated approach to solving very large problems that are hopelessly intractable to solve optimally. We make a number of approximations during planning, including serializing subtasks, factoring distributions, and determinizing stochastic dynamics, but regain robustness and effectiveness through a continuous state-estimation and replanning process. This approach is demonstrated in three robotic domains, each of which integrates perception, estimation, planning, and manipulation."

Professor Kaelbling holds an A.B in Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University, and has had research positions at SRI International and Teleos Research and a faculty position at Brown University. She is the recipient of the US National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship, the IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, and several teaching prizes and has been elected a fellow of the AAAI. She was the founder and served for ten years as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Machine Learning Research.

The lecture takes place today from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in DC 1302.

Back to top

'Mother Geese' will tell FASS fables

Today marks the beginning of the the annual FASS theatre production's run at the Humanities Theatre.

"FASS Fables: Tales from Mother Geese" follows the theme of fairy tales, and audience members are invited to join Will and Ella as they "encounter a series of hilarious characters and navigate the perils of real life."

The production is a full-length musical featuring parodies of popular songs, a live band, and jokes about student life, the community and popular culture. With characters such as the "Nice-Guy-Prince" or Cinderella and her Terrible Housemates, FASS Fables presents a modern take on some of your favourite childhood classics. You might just laugh, cry, and then laugh a bit more.

FASS (short for Faculty, Alumni, Staff, and Students) is an amateur theatre company
at the University of Waterloo that produces a full-length theatrical production each year based on an original script. The entire production process takes place over January and February, over the course of five weeks.

“In just a few weeks, we manage to coordinate 75 actors into acting, singing, and dancing, while the band rehearses and the tech team builds the set, costumes, and props," says producer Elizabeth McFaul. "Considering many of our members have very little theatre experience, it’s amazing to watch a full show come together in such a short time frame."

All FASS shows take place in the Humanities Theatre on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of the first full week of February. The Thursday show start at 8:00 p.m., while there are two shows on Friday, at 7:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Saturday's show starts at 6:00 pm.

FASS has been a long standing tradition on campus for over 50 years, providing entertaining self-written theatre. Tickets for the shows are $9 for Thursday's show and
and $12 for the Friday and Saturday performances at the door. Groups of 10 or more have a special rate. Tickets can be secured at the Theatre Centre Box Office.

Back to top

Thursday's notes

Human Resources is reporting that retiree Ronald Cash died January 28. Ronald worked in Plant Operations as a Custodian from November 1987 until he retired in April 1998. He was predeceased by his wife, Lucille. Cash was 81.

The Finance-Student Accounts office will be closed from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. today for a staff retirement lunch.

The Office of Advancement is reminding community members that today is the final day for ordering Treat-A-Grams for delivery on Thursday, February 12. Orders should be placed by noon today.

"When you send a Treat-a-Gram to your colleagues on campus, proceeds from the treat support the Waterloo General Student Wellness Fund," says a note from Advancement. "Don't forget that there are gluten-free/vegan treats available, as well as a postcard alternative."

Visit the Office of Advancement's website for more information.

Back to top