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Concept $5K winners named
After almost three years and no in-person pitch competitions, Velocity welcomed a packed house as students, faculty, friends and family filled the seats for the Concept $5K pitch competition. The competition is the culmination of the term end and the largest event for Velocity student participants.
The standing room-only event took place on Thursday, July 14 at the Student Life Centre in the Black and Gold Room and saw nine aspiring student teams present a three-minute pitch to a panel of esteemed judges. The ideas presented covered a wide variety of sectors from Health to Construction to Commerce and in-between.
Four winning start-up teams that featured high potential business ideas were each awarded $5,000. This term, teams featuring Engineering students had the advantage, claiming three out of four awards along with showings from Math, Arts and MBET students.
The winners are:
- The President Braids, a project aimed to provide quality, reliable and accessible day long customized hair care services to people of colour across Ontario. Team member: Adanna Amechi (Engineering, Chemical Engineering);
- OrientaMED, which is developing a breath-based glucometer to replace the blood test with a single breath. Team Members: Nathalia Moraes do Nascimento (Math, Computer Science), Júllia Nascimento, Rheyller Vargas and Eduardo Lucena;
- Symphonic, which wants to build a wearable interface that directly decodes speech from neuromotor intentions, enabling people with speech disabilities to speak. Team members: Christopher Samra (Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering), Avery Chiu (Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering), Ryan Trainor (Arts, Accounting and Financial Management);
- Tako, a B2B solution for the global seafood supply chain. Tako takes care of the information processes, allowing exporters and importers to focus on their expertise in delivering fish. Team members: Tan Hung Le (Engineering, Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology), Osama Siddiqui (Engineering, Master of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology)
Librarian Jane Forgay retires after 30 years at Waterloo
A message from the Library.
The Library extends a farewell and warm wishes to librarian Jane Forgay as she prepares for retirement later this month. Jane started in the Dana Porter Library in 1992 as the librarian for services for people with disabilities before becoming the liaison librarian for History, Political Science, and Independent Studies in 2000, later adding liaison responsibilities for Public Service and Global Governance.
Over the course of her three-decade career, Jane has witnessed tremendous change in libraries and has been at the forefront helping students and researchers to navigate the ever-evolving research landscape. She has conducted countless library workshops, moved instruction online (and then back offline!), written collection policies, rewritten collection policies, bought a lot of books, subscribed to many resources, unsubscribed to others – all with fresh enthusiasm, and always with the Waterloo community in mind. Nothing has given Jane more joy than a challenging reference question, of which she has answered thousands. She is the co-creator and co-compiler of the German Canadiana in Ontario bibliography.
Known by colleagues for her keen wit, grounded insight, and everyday acts of extraordinary librarianship, Jane will be greatly missed. Her immediate post-retirement plans involve volunteering at the Canada Summer Games followed by a few road trips both by car and by bicycle. Jane’s colleagues have created a Kudoboard card for her and invite individuals to share memories and comments with Jane as she embarks upon retirement.
Embracing universal stories
By Noah Pratt. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.
No matter what language a person speaks, most of us can relate to stories of common human experiences such as love, friendship, and conflict.
Austin Jack, a fourth-year Global Business and Digital Arts student, is a Wood Pencil winner in the British Design & Advertising (D&AD) New Blood competition for his proposed Netflix marketing brief, "Find Your Story." The campaign focuses on embracing universal stories regardless of language within Netflix's library.
"I'm still in awe of what happened yesterday," read Austin's LinkedIn post, as he learned he was a winner.
D&AD's annual award is regarded as the highest achievement in design and advertising. It is the equivalent of a "career knighthood," according to one industry observer.
"It's an incredible honour to win a D&AD Pencil at this point in my life, and I couldn't be more jazzed about it. Thank you to everyone who has helped inspire my passion for advertising thus far. Keep being great people," notes Austin.
Finding your story
Austin's submission, "Find Your Story," builds upon the diversity of Netflix's library and introduces viewers to stories they may have never considered. "Through exposing audiences to the wide variety of content that exists on Netflix and showing them how relatable it is, we can get them excited, talk about, and consider Netflix's international titles first," Austin's brief explains.
“Audiences in the UK find non-English titles unrelatable. But no matter where you're from, you don't need to understand the language to relate to the characters on screen.”
Of Netflix’s 2,600 title catalogue, half are not in English.
One of Netflix's most popular shows of 2021 was Squid Game. "You may not speak Korean, but you know what it's like to want a better life," Austin points out.
By showing the existing content to a wider audience, Austin is potentially solving a major challenge for Netflix, which spends an estimated $13.6 billion annually on creating and licensing content in a wide range of languages.
About the D&AD Awards
The D&AD Awards, famously noted for their pencil trophies, are an annual award for achievements of creative excellence in design and advertising. Established in 1962 as British Design & Art Direction, D&AD is a creative collective built upon celebrating and raising standards within the advertising industry.
View Austin’s D&AD Award-winning submission on the D&AD Website.
Infants and toddlers needed for vision study
A message from the School of Optometry & Vision Science.
Researchers at the School of Optometry & Vision Science are currently seeking infants/toddlers aged 18-47 months to participate in a study developing a new, more accurate, method of assessing detailed vision in this age group. The study is called “Development of Form Visual Acuity in Infants”. This study will include one in-person visit lasting about 30 minutes with an optional second visit later. The study includes tasks such as pointing at shapes and faces shown on a touch screen. Eligible participants will receive $20 per visit at each visit. For more information, please contact Suypriya Aryal, University of Waterloo at s5aryal@uwaterloo.ca.
This study has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee.
Monday's notes
Hey pal, Laurier is up the street: Wayne Gadsby of Finance snapped this pic of a hawk enjoying its breakfast outside East Campus 5.
The next Kinnomaage Waawaanoon: Indigenous Learning Circle takes place Tuesday, July 19 at 11:00 a.m. on the BMH Green and is entitled Notable court cases involving Indigenous Peoples. "Hear Elder Myeengun Henry speak from an Indigenous perspective about some significant cases that have and continue to influence our society," says a note from the event organizers. All are welcome. In the event of inclement weather, the Indigenous Learning Circle will be in Expansion (EXP) 1686.
Human Resources has reported a number of recent retiree deaths.
- Zuleime Minas, who started at the University in May 1967 and retired in May 1993, died January 30, 2022;
- Cornellis Vanderkruk, who began working at Waterloo in October 1967 and retired in April 1985, died on March 25, 2022;
- Sally Lerner, who began her career at Waterloo in July 1976 and retired in July 1996 as a Professor in Environment and Resource Studies (now the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability), died March 13, 2022;
- Ron Hosler, who started at the University in April 1998 and retired in November 2017 as a Systems Integration Specialist in Information Systems & Technology, died April 5, 2022;
- Koncay Huseyin, who started at Waterloo in November 1969 and retired in July 1996, died on June 2, 2022;
- Colin Mayfield, a faculty member in Biology who began his career at the University in July 1970 and retired in October 2013, died May 3, 2022;
- Frank Kenyon, who started at Waterloo in January 1967 and retired in July 1996, died June 17, 2022;
- Sally Mazurek, who began working at Waterloo in April 1991 and retired in July 2003 as a clerical assistant in the Bookstore, died June 9, 2022;
- Peter Dagenais, who joined the University in October 1983 and retired in July 1996, died May 31, 2022;
- Erwin Dumbroff, who started at Waterloo in July 1965 and retired in July 1994, died June 18, 2022;
- Raymond Fournier, who joined the University in September 1966 and retired in January 2004 as Associate Professor of French Studies died June 3, 2022;
- Kish Hahn, who started his career at Waterloo in June 1962 and retired in January 1999 as Associate Professor in Systems Design Engineering, died on April 30, 2022;
- Mary Merrikle, who joined the University in September 1981 and retired in September 2000 as Manager of the English Language Proficiency program (ELPP), died on April 24, 2022;
- Robert Neal, who started at Waterloo in October 1976 and retired in July 1996, died on April 24, 2022;
- Murray Dubrick, who joined the University in March 1969 and retired in July 1994 as Equipment Operator in Plant Operations, died May 7, 2022;
- Doreen Dodd, who started her career at Waterloo in January 1984 and retired in July 1994, died May 14, 2022; and
- Harold Frey, who started at the University in September 1982 and retired in November 2004 as Technician - Biological in Physics, died on April 13, 2022.