Friday, August 14, 2015

ION construction closure to affect Seagram Drive

Work on the ION light rail transit system is moving on down the line to Seagram Drive, part of an ongoing project to remove and replace CN railway tracks between Northfield Drive and King Street South.

Beginning on or about Friday, August 14 for approximately three weeks, crews will be working on the CN railway tracks at Seagram Drive between University Avenue and Central Drive.

During this time, the affected section of Seagram will be closed to traffic. The Waterloo Park parking lot, located on the west side of the track, will also be closed during this time.

In addition, Central Drive will permanently be detoured to run along the path east of the tracks to access Seagram Drive.

This work will also require temporary closures of the Laurel Trail between Seagram and University. Signs will be in place to help inform pedestrians and cyclists in the area. 

According to GrandLinq, work will take place from Monday to Friday between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., and on the weekends of August 14-17 and August 21-24, crews will work around the clock for an 88-hour period.

Visit the ION blog or the ION-related travel disruptions site on the Waterloo News page for more details.

Coolman is on the CASE

A message from the Office of Advancement.

The Office of Advancement is pleased to announce that Jason Coolman, Associate Vice-President, Development has recently been appointed to the Council for the Advancement & Support of Education (CASE) District 2 Board of Directors, and will serve as Chair of the Membership Committee.

CASE's mandate is to serve educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. CASE helps its members build stronger relationships with their alumni and donors, raise funds for campus projects, produce recruitment materials, market their institutions to prospective students, diversify the profession, and foster public support of education.

Additionally, Jason has been invited to be a member of the CASE CURRENTS Editorial Advisory Panel. CASE CURRENTS is CASE’s award-winning magazine that runs feature articles on a variety of issues important to advancement professionals, including trends in the field, case studies from different institutions, and information from research and surveys conducted by CASE’s research division. The CASE CURRENTS Magazine publishes 9 editions a year with 17,000 copies of each edition being circulated to institutions in 70 different countries.

Lastly, in 2016 Jason will conclude a three-year term as a faculty member for the Annual CASE Europe Alumni Relations Institute (UK). In this role Jason delivers a series of lectures and tutorials during the 3-day institute conference.

Please join us in congratulating Jason on his appointment to these important roles that provide significant value to the higher education sector, and raise the profile of Advancement and of Waterloo. 

Watching the skies over Waterloo

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

Last night, hundreds of members of our community came to campus to indulge in the world of astronomy. Featuring a unique public lecture about space rocks followed by a stargazing party at Columbia Lake Fields, people of all ages were mesmerized by our solar system.

Professor Michael Balogh and Associate Chair for the Department of Physics and Astronomy kicked the evening off with an introductory lecture titled “Space Rocks.” It’s been an exciting 12 months for solar system exploration, with a spacecraft visiting a comet (67p), a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt (Ceres) and a much more distant and famous dwarf planet, Pluto. Speaking to this array of discovery, Balogh’s talk captivated audiences attention, with exciting topics such as the search for life on other planets. Not only did he discuss planets and other rocks that make up our solar system, but he also touched on the origins of the annual August Perseid meteor shower, which is at its most active peak this week.

Hosted by the Faculty of Science’s Outreach team, this annual event was designed to inform and engage the community to learn about the solar system in an interactive way. By joining forces with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, volunteers, staff, and expert astronomers were on site to help the community learn more about the shower and see meteors first hand.

The best part of the evening was hearing the oohs and ahhs erupt from the field when the sparkly shower flashed across the night sky. By merging education with entertainment and discovery, our community not only learned something new, but they had a ton of fun doing it.

Friday's notes

Parking Lot H has been under construction in recent weeks as part of an overhaul of campus parking infrastructure. Visitor parking will now be accommodated by credit card, while staff will use transponders. This means that the venerable Lot H parking kiosk has been removed. The 4-foot by 10-foot kiosk, resplendent in its "pacific turquoise" colour scheme, was installed in September 1996. Godspeed, parking kiosk.

Speakers have been announced for the next student-run TEDxUW event, which will be held at CIGI on November 14. Speakers on the roster include:

• Arran Stephens, Canadian entrepreneur, author and philanthropist;
• Frances Edmonds, director of environmental programs for HP Canada and Adrienne Lo, employee engagement manager at WWF Canada;
• Phil Cha, world traveller;
• Gloria Roheim, author, strategist and speaker and Ricard McRae, co-founder of Wedge15 and founder of Black in Canada;
• Michael Bociurkiw, OSCE Monitor for Ukraine; 
• Terry Stuart, chief innovation officer of Deloitte and Waterloo alumnus;
• Harry Gandhi, CEO of Medella Health and 2015 Thiel Fellow;
• Jagneet Singh, change-maker and founder of Just Doing It;
• Dave Farrow, two-time Guinness World Record holder; and
• Sabrina Rubli, co-Founder of Femme International; 

TEDx events such as this one are local spin-offs of the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, famous for its philosophy of sharing riveting ideas, for free, with the world. The local event is organized by a cross-disciplinary team of Waterloo students, staff, faculty, and alumni.

Beginning this weekend, students will be taking part in the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) ACU Commonwealth Summer School, which runs from August 15 to 22 at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University and Western University. Through workshops, TED-style talks and group activities, participants will explore this year's conference theme, "Big Data and the Digital Divide."

Finally, the examination period wraps up on Saturday, August 15. Enjoy what's left of your summer, students.