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Waterloo wins at CCAE Prix D’Excellence awards
Jason Coolman, associate vice-president, development, student Jenifer Sibdhannie, and Kelly Schultz and Lauren Merrifield with the University of Waterloo's CCAE Prix D'Excellence Awards.
Communicators from the University of Waterloo cleaned up at the recent Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) Prix D’Excellence Awards held during the organization’s annual conference from June 10 to 12 in Montreal.
The Spring 2014 issue of the Institute for Quantum Computing’s NewBit newsletter won a Prix D’Excellence Gold Medal in the Best Brochure, Newsletter or Flyer category. This is the third award for NewBit in as many weeks, as it recently won an APEX award for excellence in the newsletter category and a CASE Circle of Excellence award for external audience print newsletters.
The Student Success Office’s UwaterlooLIFE Instagram Takeover campaign won a Prix D’Excellence Gold Medal for Best Use of Social Media.
Finally, the Student Portal won a Prix D’Excellence Gold Medal in the Best Use of Multi-Media for its portal promotions.
In addition, fourth year arts and business student Jenifer Sibdhannie accepted her TD Fellowship in Advancement. Valued at $37,500, only two such fellowships are awarded annually in Canada. The prize is generously provided by Meloche Monnex and TD Bank Financial, and offers the chance for people new to the field of advancement to gain practical experience in the industry. Sibdhannie began her fellowship in May.
The Prix D’Excellence is the CCAE’s annual awards program that recognized outstanding achievements in alumni affairs, public affairs, communications, marketing, development, advancement services, stewardship, and student recruitment.
Reception to mark employment milestones
by Susan Fish.
The annual recognition reception for new members of the University community celebrating milestone employment anniversaries takes place tonight, and new members of the 25-Year, 35-Year and, for the first time, 45-Year Clubs will be presented with an award for their dedication and years of service at the Physical Activities Complex.
More than 110 employees, faculty and staff alike, will be officially welcomed to the club tonight, and in honour of the celebration event, the Daily Bulletin has asked a few of them to reflect on their time at the university.
Byron Murdock, senior construction coordinator, Plant Operations
One of the University of Waterloo’s longest continuous-serving employees, Byron Murdock began working at Waterloo in September 1968—nearly 47 years ago—and will conclude his service when he retires at the end of August. It was never his plan to stay as long as he did but he says he always enjoyed coming to work and enjoyed his colleagues and the opportunities he has had. Starting as a service person with plant operations, Byron began his career at the university at the bottom of the ladder, doing odd jobs. Over the years, he worked all over campus, mostly in plumbing and mechanical services. In 1981, he was part of the first group to participate in on-site apprenticeship training, with instruction from Mohawk College and on-site training at Waterloo to become a journeyman millwright mechanic. Seventeen years ago, he moved to the design construction office where he has worked as a project coordinator, liaising between contractors and departments and faculties.
His most recent project—the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre—has been the biggest challenge, but he’s proud to look around the campus and see the changes, knowing his role in helping the university grow. His interests outside of work have overlapped with the university as well—as a longtime member of the Lakeshore Optimists, Byron and his fellow Optimists were vendors at the first University of Waterloo Canada Day celebration in 1984, and continue to offer student bursaries. In retirement, Byron plans to help his younger son with his business, but will miss the routine of working at the university as well as the colleagues who have made his career enjoyable.
Ian Goulden, dean of the Faculty of Mathematics
Ian Goulden says the longer he’s been at Waterloo, the more challenging it has been to be cynical or jaded in the least. In fact, as he celebrates his 35th anniversary of working at the University and the end of his five-year term as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, he says he often feels like he’s “the luckiest person on God’s green earth.”
Ian’s career at Waterloo began when he discovered that he could actually study math at university and, with the encouragement of his father who had hired co-op students, applied to study math at Waterloo. The branch of math he has most liked is combinatorics, a type of math he finds particularly elegant and one for which Waterloo has been (and continues to be) a world-leading centre. Throughout his own student experiences and career, Ian says the people who have been part of this field of study at Waterloo have been a Who’s Who of combinatorics. In 1980, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) set up university research fellowships and Ian was one of the first recipients. He then was offered a tenure-track position, and says he has had fantastic colleagues who have always been fans of one another, creating a supportive culture.
In his most recent experience as dean, Ian has come to have an increased appreciation for his math colleagues, many of whom, he says, do “back of the envelope” calculations in meetings to determine what will and won’t work. He values the combination of directness and collegiality of his colleagues.
Outside of work, Ian’s mathematical interests creep into his life with his wife and two teen daughters. He says, “I love things that are geometric—putting in hardwood floors, designing and making stained glass windows.” As he embarks on a sabbatical, his intention is to consider what the next phase of his career at Waterloo will entail, but also to “exercise a bit more order on the garden.”
Katrina Di Gravio, director of Organizational & Human Development
When Katrina Di Gravio began working as a benefits clerk in the Human Resources department of the University of Waterloo, neither she nor any of her colleagues had any idea of her staying power. Katrina had had a number of different jobs, mostly clerical, before coming to the university and her hope was to find a good permanent position. Two of her longtime colleagues (now retired) watched her come out of her initial job interview and looked at one another, saying of Katrina, “She won’t last six months!” The three continue to laugh about her longevity in her career at Waterloo which has now lasted 35 years.
Over the course of her career, Katrina has not only been a staff member, but was also a student (taking a BA in liberal arts over a 12-year period) and a lecturer in human resource management. Katrina spent 26 years in the human resources department before she and colleagues recognized a growing need for leadership training, among students, staff and especially in academic leadership program development. As the Director of Organizational and Human Development, a role she has held since 2006, Katrina helps new chairs develop the administrative skills they need. “For me,” she says, “it has always been about the people.” Her various roles have given her understanding for what different people need, and at the same time she feels that there is a level of care from the university as an employer so that the entire community is collaborative.
Outside of work, Katrina has enjoyed singing as part of two jazz and blues bands, and being part of a comedy troupe that wrote and performed its own programs for Oktoberfest. “I’ve been very fortunate in my career,” she observes. “Waterloo has offered me something I don’t think I would necessarily get elsewhere, and that is continuous learning.”
From Velocity to Kickstarter Glory: Pebble's story
Not many companies can say that the public invested in them to the tune of 20 million dollars in just 30 days, but Pebble can.
After running the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date, Pebble, a leading smartwatch provider, is gearing up for the fight of its life as other Goliath technology companies try to lay claim to the smartwatch industry.
Velocity will host Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, on June 18 at the Humanities Theatre.
Pebble, which has emerged as a leader in the connected wearables space, just wrapped a record-setting Kickstarter campaign and is about to enter into a very tough, and likely very public, battle with a tech behemoth – Apple.
Migicovsky will tell the tale of Pebble’s journey from its inception at the University of Waterloo, to its move to the Bay Area, to its latest connected smartwatches and how a local idea has taken the Internet of Things industry by storm.
While studying systems design engineering at the University Of Waterloo, Migicovsky developed a passion for developing well-designed, creative products. This led him to apply to the Velocity Residence where he created the first smartwatch model, InPulse, with a group of friends while living in Velocity’s unique collaborative entrepreneurial environment.
Pebble launched its eponymous second generation smartwatch on Kickstarter in 2012. At $10 million in backer funding, it quickly became the most successful crowdfunded project in Kickstarter history. (This was surpassed in 2014 by the Coolest Cooler at $13 million raised.) In early 2015, Pebble launched its latest smartwatch, Pebble Time, and the Pebble Steel, which re-set the record for most successful Kickstarter campaign ever at now over $20 million.
Tuesday's notes
Members of the University community volunteered and participated in the KW Relay For Life, which took place on Friday, June 12 from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. at Resurrection Catholic Secondary School.
The Relay For Life is a community fundraising event where Canadians across the country join together in the fight against cancer.
Alexandra Lippert, senior alumni and development officer at the School of Accounting and Finance was a volunteer along with fellow SAF members and Waterloo professors David Ha (pictured at right with Lippert) and Julie Robson, who participated in the relay.
In addition, honours arts and business students Kayla Dixon, Paula Colasso, and Ryan Connell, coordinator, International Student Experience participated in the event on Team Forever Strong, raising $1,200 for the Canadian Cancer Society.
In the annual relay, participants walk or run together around a track at a local school, passing a baton to their fellow participants and working together toward one common goal the fight against cancer. This year, the KW Relay for Life raised $97,072.99.
In ION-related construction news, the rail crossing at EC2 has been closed to pedestrian traffic until this evening. A construction worker is on site directing pedestrians to an alternate path of entry near Engineering 5. People travelling to the East Campus Buildings should then cut through the parking lot.