Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Waterloo unveils HeForShe commitments

The University of Waterloo made three commitments today to achieve comprehensive, long-term and sustainable gender equity as part of the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign.

Waterloo is one of 10 universities around the world committing to take bold, game-changing action to achieve gender equality within and beyond their institutions in the HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 framework, and is the only Canadian organization participating in the framework.

Waterloo is working in partnership with UN Women, the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. HeForShe is a global effort to engage men and boys in removing the social and cultural barriers that prevent women and girls from achieving their potential, and together positively reshaping society. 

“Waterloo is taking the lead for Canada’s university sector in the global HeForShe effort,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur. “Gender equity is not a women’s issue. It is an everybody issue. Waterloo’s been invited to help lead HeForShe because we’re committed to gender equity. We are making three ambitious-but-realistic goals that we intend to achieve within the next five years.”

Working alongside governments, leading universities and global businesses the University of Waterloo is making three commitments to achieve gender equity by developing innovative programming aimed at a full spectrum of women, from young girls right through to the University’s senior leadership.

UN Women created the HeForShe initiative that was launched by UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in September 2014.

Launched at a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2015, HeForShe’s IMPACT 10x10x10 program engages 30 key leaders across three sectors—the public sector, private sector and academia. All 30 IMPACT champions have made common commitments and have also developed tailored commitments, formally reviewed by an expert team at UN Women and approved personally by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of UN Women.

Waterloo's commitments are as follows:

Boost girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiences to build future female leaders

To reach gender parity in STEM, we need to engage women and girls as young students. The University of Waterloo will build upon its existing expertise, scaling targeted outreach programming for young girls and women to build the pipeline for future success. Focusing on the most gender-disparate STEM experiences, the university commits to boost female enrolment in these programs to 33 per cent by 2020 by expanding the scope of current programs and developing a number of targeted new initiatives.

Enhance female faculty representation to drive towards parity in the future

A gender-equal faculty is key to attracting and supporting the female leaders of tomorrow. To kick-start change, the University of Waterloo commits to reach a faculty composition of 30 per cent women by 2020. The University of Waterloo will champion three initiatives to increase the representation of women: a comprehensive review of hiring practices, unconscious bias training and the creation of career opportunities for high-potential women.

Advance women into positions that lead the University

Today, 24.5 per cent of senior academic and administrative leaders are female. The journey from entry-level faculty to senior leadership takes over a decade. Increasing the share of women in leadership positions will have a ripple effect on gender parity at lower levels; as women see women in these roles, they feel empowered to take on these positions. Through these commitments, and a suite of programs to target high potential women, the University of Waterloo commits to reach 29 per cent representation of women in academic and senior leadership.

The HeForShe campaign kicks off today with a launch event at 10:00 a.m. on the BMH Green. Students, faculty and staff are being invited to assemble at 10:00 a.m. to form the HeForShe logo by holding up coloured placards and having overhead photos taken in support of the campaign. The photo shoot has been moved, for logistical reasons, into the Mathematics 3 atrium. Members of the University community, of all genders, are encouraged to register and attend the special event.

More information about HeForShe can be found on the President's Office website.

Athletics partners with HockeyTech

The University of Waterloo Warriors hockey team has partnered with HockeyTech to help launch and perfect their revolutionary technology for obtaining hockey analytics. The groundbreaking in-arena system allows for location tracking data of all players, on-ice officials, and the puck in real time.

The company has relocated from Guelph to Waterloo, recognizing the University of Waterloo as a place where innovation comes to life and surrounding themselves with the resources available was a no-brainer. 

"When we thought about how you mix hockey and technology, I can't think of any better academic institution in the world than the University of Waterloo," said Stu Siegel, CEO of HockeyTech. "When we were looking at our growth objectives, we saw a great opportunity to be here in Waterloo.  We've had nothing but great co-operation from the university."

"We are excited about the partnership with HockeyTech. On a campus where we are recognized internationally for our research, while making innovation a priority, it is fitting that we can contribute to a partnership like this," said Director of Athletics Roly Webster. "Having this revolutionary technology in our facility, along with the support and involvement of our hockey programs, coaches and athletes allows us to provide a living lab for HockeyTech to test and perfect their technology."

Throughout the CIF Arena, there are 24 locators (hung in the rafters) that have been installed and the players each wear a virtually weightless radio-frequency identifier (RFID) chip about the size of a coin. There is also a chip embedded into the puck and the locators track every move of the players/puck instantaneously. The installed locators calculate in real time the precise position of each chip up to 50 times per second. These coordinates run through proprietary advanced algorithms to produce real-time statistics on each player and the puck, such as time-on-ice, skating speed, distance travelled, shot/pass speed and location, zone play, puck possession, and much more. Further development is planned for the areas of player safety, media, fan engagement, and a series of visualization tools.

"It's been a tremendous partnership from the start and for our student-athletes to be able to test out the technology and see the results first-hand has been a truly unique experience," said head coach of the men's program Brian Bourque.  "I am a firm believer that hockey analytics is moving towards this type of data and the more advanced stats we can receive about our players, the better they will be."

Read more about the partnership on the Athletics website.

Tuesday's notes

Retail Services is hosting its Leather Jacket Day in the South Campus Hall concourse outside the Waterloo Store on Wednesday, May 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Sizes are available for men and women, and you can save up to $60 off the regular price of a custom Waterloo leather jacket.

There will be a chiller and fumehood shutdown in Research Advancement Centre 2 (RA2) affecting several rooms (1132, 1124, 1121, 1011, 1007, 1003A, 1003B, 2021, 2131 and 2121) on Thursday, May 7 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. that will require the disconnecting of both power and fumehood exhaust as a breaker is installed in Room 2021. Plant Operations notes that computer equipment should be shut down in an orderly fashion the night before.

University of Waterloo Fine Arts is presenting its MFA Thesis 2 and MFA Preview exhibition beginning Thursday, May 7 and running until Saturday, May 30 in East Campus Hall.

The opening reception will take place Thursday, May 7 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and will feature a performance by Support at 5:15 p.m. followed by a performance by New Horizzzons at 7:00 p.m.

Robert Dayton's Outta This World is comprised of drawing, video, music, performance and installation elements. "This body of work is an outcome of my thinking about the concept of the nation-state, in this case Canada, and the way that it imposes specific identities on its’ citizens," says a statement by the artist. "Using strategies of humour, abject beauty, social engagement and ritual, my work proposes alternate possibilities of Canada through a difficult, yet ultimately beneficial process of de-repression."

Dayton is a multidisciplinary artist whose work aims to "dissolve repression and create a sense of wonder." He is a Waterloo MFA candidate and received a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. As The Canadian Romantic he has performed all over North America, most recently as part of Ann Magnuson's One-Hour Bacchanal. His collaborative performance and recording projects include Canned Hamm, July Fourth Toilet, and New Horizzzons. He is the recipient of a Keith and Win Shantz Fellowship and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. 

In addition, there will be an MFA Preview exhibition, showcasing recent works in various media by first-year candidates in Waterloo's MFA program. Presented in context with the MFA Thesis presentation, this exhibition will provide a public preview of recently completed projects by Jennifer Akkermans, Marianne Burlew, Veronica Murawski, and Anna van Milligen.

Exhibitions are free and open to the public.