New Faculty Teaching Day next Friday

On Friday, January 30 the Centre for Teaching Excellence will be hosting the winter term's New Faculty Teaching Day.

This day is intended for those new faculty members that arrived after (or missed) CTE’s August Teaching Orientation Days and will include three of the four core new faculty workshops all on one day (Who are Our Learners, Classroom Dynamics and Engagement, and Assessment for Learning). The fourth core workshop, Course Design Fundamentals, will be offered on Monday, February 2 as a part of CTE’s regular winter term programming.

In addition to the workshops, the New Faculty Planning Committee has opened invitations for new faculty to attend a New Faculty Welcome Luncheon on the same Friday, January 30 at the University Club from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. During the luncheon, new faculty members will have the opportunity to meet members of some key academic support units on campus as well as their own new faculty cohort group. The workshops are scheduled around the luncheon.

Attendees will be able to register for the workshops, the luncheon or both by filling out the required fields on the CTE registration page. Be sure to register for the Teaching Day events by the end of the day Friday, January 23.

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Calling all donors

This is the latest in a series of #UWCommunity stories that feature Waterloo in the community.

The Blood Signal, a media campaign to signify times of great need for donated blood, is activated numerous times per year. To help prevent these times of great need the University of Waterloo hosts a number of blood donor clinics throughout the year. Each year through these clinics Waterloo donates over 800 units of blood to help those in need. The impact that Waterloo’s campus clinics have on our community is tremendous. Since the first clinic in 1976, over 35,000 units of blood have been donated on campus.

“We know we can rely on the University of Waterloo whenever the times are tough for us,” said Sharr Cairns, a Canadian Blood Services territory manager responsible for mobile clinics and raising awareness. Over the years, students, staff and faculty members at the University of Waterloo have been partnering with the Canadian blood society to help patients in need. Cairns continued, “From running clinics in the summer, to adding in a last minute clinic when we’ve had a cancellation, The University of Waterloo is always ready to help us out when it counts”!

One car accident victim can require about 50 units of blood, and many patients have ongoing needs. For example, a leukaemia patient needs eight units of blood per week. Approximately 52 percent of Canadians say that they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or medical treatment. Live transplants can take up to 100 units of blood. By donating blood, the Waterloo community is doing their part to help save lives.

The next clinic at the University of Waterloo is being held on January 28, 29 and 30 in the Student Life Centre from 10 am to 3 pm each day. A OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network registration event will run alongside the blood donor clinic. All are welcome to come and donate and can visit Canadian Blood Services for more information or Student Life Centre Clinic for other upcoming clinic dates.

The Canadian Blood Services is also looking for a few volunteers to help with the OneMatch events next week. For more information contact Andrea Davies.

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International Programs Office renamed

The Office of Research has changed the name of its International Programs Office unit to International Research Partnerships. This change was ratified by Senate at its meeting on Monday, January 22.

The new name "more closely reflects the unit's broader responsibilities," says a report by George Dixon, the Vice-President, University Research.

The International Programs office was created in 1982 and at the time had a single dedicated staff member who provided administration and management for international development projects. Over the years, the mandate and functions of the office grew considerably to include three full-time staff who managed a broader suite of responsibilities including administrative support for the dissemination of over 200 global research funding opportunities, proposal review and contract negotiation, and project oversight for more than 100 funded projects from 50 international funding agencies per year.

The office is also the central coordinating unit for all international institutional agreements and hosts a wide range of international delegations. The office now provides strategic counsel, visioning and needs assessment to senior administrators to promote international research partnerships with elite global institutions.

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GI Jam offers "game making madness"

This weekend, people will be getting their game on in the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre at the Winter 2015 GI Jam.

Hosted by the Games Institute and the Playful Pixel, the weekend-long event is full of mentor tutorials, lectures, and game-making sessions. Budding game designers will have the opportunity to take their game from a dream to a playable prototype.

The event begins at 6:00 p.m. tonight and will run until Sunday, January 25 at 10:00 p.m. in rooms 1502 and 2502 of the QNC. The jam rooms will be open for participants to use from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Friday and from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

In keeping with the GI Jam's ethos of learn, make, and play, the event will feature talks from invited experts about the tools and techniques involved in the design and creation of games, opportunities for attendees to build their own games from scratch along with helpful advice from Games Institute mentors, and there will be new games on hands for people to try, including ones made at the GI Jam.

Mentors from the Games Institute will be giving talks and tutorials about how to brainstorm, prototype, and develop games starting with paper prototypes and Programming 101, through 2D and 3D development with Unity software for digital games, and on towards mobile games and networked multiplayer experiences.

Participants can register through Eventbrite.

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Friday's notes

Today is payday, with the pay schedules for those employees on the biweekly payroll and the monthly payroll synchronizing, an event of no doubt cosmic significance. The pay dates for 2015 are available on the Human Resources website.

If you are a student looking to land a co-op term with one of Waterloo Region's tech companies, then Communitech is here to help today from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Tatham Centre's room 2218B for 10-minute resumé critiques in advance of the second round of job postings.

Communitech, as you're no doubt aware, is Waterloo Region's hub for commercialization of innovative technologies. Over the years, Communitech has supported and helped build tech clusters of nearly 1,000 companies in all stages of their growth and development, from start-ups mid-sized companies to large global players. 

The resumé critiques are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Three senior human resource coordinators will review your resumé and give some tips while the Communitech Campus Ambassadors will be on hand to answer any questions you might have about tech companies in Waterloo Region. The last appointments will be held at 3:45 p.m. today.

Also today, Canada Excellence Research Chair David Cory will share his vision toward building the first 100 qubit universal quantum computer at a new research speaker series, Research Talks. The session, entitled "The quest for the first quantum computer," is full, but will be webcast beginning at noon. For those who have already secured a seat, the event is taking place in DC 1302.

Beginning next week, Renison is offering a 10-week introductory Korean language class to staff and faculty at the University free of charge. The sessions will be held over the lunch hour from noon to 1:00 p.m. every Thursday at Renison University College.

East Asian Studies and the King Sejong Institute are "pleased to announce this exclusive opportunity for staff and faculty of Renison, the University of Waterloo, or any of Waterloo's affiliated and federated institutions."

The classes will start on Thursday, January 29 and run every Thursday for ten weeks, including Reading Week in Room 0104 at Renison. All you'll need is a notebook, a pen, and the willingness to learn. Spaces are limited, and registration is required. Register online or contact EAS@uwaterloo.ca for more details. 

Friends and colleagues of Professor Metin Renksizbulut are invited to a retirement open house taking place on Wednesday, January 28 from 3:30 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. at the University Club. Please RSVP to Christina Lashbrook.

Finally, the outdoor ice rink in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park, located on Hagey Boulevard just north of the Accelerator building, will be ready for skaters on Monday, January 26, according to a notice sent out by the park. So none of this skating on frozen patches of Columbia Lake, ya hear?

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