Monday, August 24, 2015

Commemorative cranes carried to Hiroshima

With files from Renison University College.

University of Waterloo graduate Derek Coyles delivered 1,000 origami cranes to the Hiroshima Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan earlier this month.

Coyles, who took Japanese language courses at Renison University College, collected the paper cranes made by students and staff on campus as a part of the Hiroshima 70^th Anniversary Wings and Prayers Project, in recognition of the atomic bombing that devastated the city in 1945. They were then strung together to produce a Japanese senbazuru, which is a chain of 1,000 origami cranes.

The Hiroshima 70^th Anniversary Wings and Prayers Project is a collaborative effort between students and staff of the University of Waterloo and Renison University College.

In the years following the destruction of Hiroshima, Japanese paper cranes have come to symbolize the desire for peace on earth and nuclear disarmament. Coyles brought the completed senbazuru to the annual Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Thursday, August 6, where it was laid alongside others built by like-minded students and groups from across the globe, in a unifying expression of world peace.

Students of the Sakura Japanese Language School also contributed to the project when Coyles came to a class in June. He spoke about his project and asked the students to think about peace. 

Student receives PEO Sisterhood Scholarship

This article originally appeared on the Systems Design Engineering news site.

Jennifer Howcroft, a systems design engineering graduate student, is one of just two doctoral students in Canada chosen to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood. She was also selected as a Mary Louise Remy Endowed Scholar, a special designation only given to 13 of this year's recipients to recognize the finest Scholars. A total of 90 students across the U.S. and Canada are recipients of this year's award from the philanthropic organization focused on offering women increased opportunities for higher education.

Howcroft's research is focused on assessing and predicting the risk of falling in elderly individuals using wearable sensors. Her doctoral work is being supervised by systems design engineering faculty members Jonathan Kofman and Edward Lemaire.

The P.E.O. Scholar Award was established by the P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1991 to provide merit-based awards for women in the U.S. and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral level degree at an accredited college or university. The Mary Louise Remy Endowed P.E.O. Scholar Award was the first Endowed award for the P.E.O. Sisterhood and was established through gifts from California State Chapter in honor of Past President of the International Chapter Mary Louise REmy. 

Remembering Eve Kliman

Human Resources is reporting that retired professor Eve Kliman died July 27. Professor Kliman began her career at the University of Waterloo in March 1974 as a Lecturer in Fine Arts. She became an Assistant Professor in January 1978, received tenure in July 1983 and was named Associate Professor in July 1987.

She was the 1982 winner of the Arthur Kingsley Porter Prize for best article by a young scholar in art history in North America.

"Eve taught Art History in the Fine Arts department for twenty years and she contributed significantly, along with Virgil Burnett and Nancy-Lou Patterson, to integrating art history with studio, something that still defines the department and remains fairly unique in Canada," says a memorial statement on the Fine Arts news page.

Professor Kliman retired under the Special Early Retirement Program (SERP) in July 1996. She is survived by her husband, Melvin.