Thursday, September 24, 2015

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• Library exhibit goes back to school in Waterloo
• Special advisor presents HeForShe update
• Grad invents biochip, starts company with $60K award
• WatITis issues call for papers
• Student Design Teams to hold open house

Library exhibit goes back to school in Waterloo

"Special Collections & Archives is welcoming students, both new and old, back to campus with our “Back to School in Waterloo” exhibit!" says a note from Rose Koebel. "We are showcasing material from our Dana Porter, Gerry Hagey and Elizabeth Smith Shortt fonds to inspire and motivate you with your studies!"

Special advisor presents HeForShe update

by Diana Parry. This is an excerpt of an article posted on the Office of the President's website.

In May, the University of Waterloo announced its involvement in the United Nation Women’s HeForShe campaign and specifically, the IMPACT 10x10x10 framework.  UW made three specific commitments as part of the IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative:

• to boost girls’ participation in STEM experiences to build future female leaders
• to enhance female faculty representation to drive towards parity in the future, and
• to advance women into positions that lead the university.

Work is well underway to help to achieve our goal of comprehensive, long-term, and sustainable gender equity. Working under Feridun Hamdullahpur’s leadership, and as the President’s special advisor on women’s and gender issues, I am working with a network of people across campus to implement our action plan. So far UW is committing in excess of $800,000 over the next five years toward the HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative.

Commitment One

To achieve our first commitment - to boost female participation in STEM - each of our Deans is identifying a lead who will solicit input from students, faculty, staff, and alumni around gender equity concerns, issues, and challenges within each faculty. The provost is allocating up to $5,000 per lead per year for five years to facilitate events such as workshops, panel discussions, or clubs to address these concerns– a financial commitment of $150,000.

We have also developed six new University of Waterloo HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 scholarships valued at up to $12,000 each over four years to be awarded to six outstanding female students admitted to the first year of an undergraduate STEM degree program in which females are currently underrepresented. More details about the scholarships and the first awardees will be announced soon.

Commitment Two

To address our second commitment, Mahejabeen Ebrahim, director of equity, is reviewing our faculty hiring policy and practices to identify the resources and support required to enhance the representation of women in the faculty cohort at Waterloo. Based upon the outcome of her evaluation, Ebrahim will work with the deans to pilot gender-sensitive hiring practices. Part of this endeavour involves provision of consultation and training on reducing unconscious biases and fostering an equitable climate at Waterloo.

Commitment Three

UW is committed to more women in positions that lead the university. We already have programs in place for staff who are interested in career development, but we need to establish similar opportunities for faculty. To begin, we will host a series of round tables early this fall to solicit input from female faculty regarding their experiences on campus including challenges they have faced and career development ideas/aspirations. I encourage you to sign up for the roundtables so that your experiences and insights are heard.  

Conclusion

All told, our involvement in the UN Women’s HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 framework represents an exciting time of progress and development for the University of Waterloo. Our involvement in the IMPACT 10x10x10 framework positions the university as an international change leader in gender equity, a role consistent with our reputation as Canada's most innovative university.

As the University of Waterloo continues to move forward as part of the effort, there will a number of ways for everyone to get involved and contribute. If you have any questions, comments or ideas, or if you would like more information about how you can get involved in any of these initiatives, I encourage you to get in touch with me by phone at 519-888-4567 ext. 33468 or by emailing dcparry@uwaterloo.ca. For questions relating to commitment number two or equity more generally, please contact Mahejabeen Ebrahim, the University of Waterloo's director of equity, at mahejabeen.ebrahim@uwaterloo.ca.

Read the complete update on the Office of the President's website.

Grad invents biochip, starts company with $60K award

A message from the Office of Research.

A University of Waterloo alumnus and student have developed a biodegradable chip that’s implanted into the body during surgery to detect postsurgical complications. About the size of a shirt button, the biochip identifies issues arising after surgery, such as internal bleeding or infection, then sends that information to the patient’s doctor via a transmitter patch located on the exterior of the body.

The development of the biochip was funded in part by a $60,000 award from AC JumpStart. Funded by FedDev Ontario and delivered through the Accelerator Centre in partnership with University of Waterloo, AC JumpStart provides early stage technology startups with the seed capital, mentorship, and market-readiness tools needed to build a business in today’s knowledge economy. Alumni who earned their last Waterloo degree within five years and are interested in commercializing an innovation and starting a business can apply for AC JumpStart by October 16.

The biochip, an innovation by Waterloo alumnus Youssef Helwa and nanotechnology engineering student Amr Abdelgawad, could revolutionize the postsurgical-care market where no comparable device exists – the only way to currently detect complications is to use imaging such as CT scans or MRI after a patient is showing complication symptoms. The new biochip, licensed under the startup NERv, will allow doctors to be proactive in postsurgical care by assessing and treating complications before the patient experiences symptoms.

Once the critical postsurgical period has passed (after about one month) the biochip, made of novel biodegradable materials, disintegrates inside the body.

The innovation stems from Helwa’s experiences with his mother – a surgeon who worried about postsurgical complications in her patients. “Since there is a 15 per cent chance a complication could occur within 24 hours of surgery, and 50 per cent of those go undetected within the first seven days, post-surgery was a stressful time for my mother,” says Helwa. “The biochip removes the guesswork by sending a notice of time, severity, and location of the complication to the doctor as soon as it’s detected, and a notice to the patient to go see their doctor so treatment can begin.” 

WatITis issues call for papers

The 13^th annual WatITis (Waterloo Information Technology and Information Systems) conference will be held on Monday, December 7, and the 2015 WatITis Committee is inviting members of the University community to actively participate as a speaker, presenter or panelist for one or more sessions during the conference.

This year there are two different session options available for speakers:

• Full-length presentation session (45 minutes in length)
• Rapid-fire presentations (5-7 minutes in length) where the speaker shares a time-slot with other speakers and presents short summaries of their topics.

"When submitting your abstracts, please also identify which session type you are interested in," says a note from the committee. "Please also be aware that you may be required to attend a brief speakers meeting prior to the conference to discuss presentation materials, expectations and logistics."

Topics include, but are not limited to, teaching, research, institutional support, new projects, campus Start-Up ventures, client services, future developments or general interest for Waterloo staff.

"We also invite you to submit your ideas for session topics which you feel would be of interest to other IT professionals on campus," the committee's message continues. "Please send a brief synopsis of your topic and/or idea of submissions to Jenn Brewster (jenn.brewster@uwaterloo.ca), our program committee chair, by October 9^th, 2015."

"For more information, please contact our co-chairs Jenn Brewster (jenn.brewster@uwaterloo.ca) or Craig McDonald (cjmcdona@uwaterloo.ca)."

Information about last year's conference, including presentations and session recordings, committee contacts and mailing lists is available on the WatITis website.

Student Design Teams to hold open house

There will be a Student Team Open House on Tuesday, September 29 in the Sedra Student Design Centre on the first floor of Engineering 5 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Whether you like working with your hands or you are more computer-savvy, if you have a creative imagination or prefer to work with people or numbers, if you want to make some new friends while joining one of the innovative student design teams, then this open house is for you.

Students from all six faculties are invited to participate in the design and construction of projects, attend local and international competitions and trade shows, and gain valuable experience in business, communications, marking, accounting, and fundraising, and this open house is a great way to break the ice and step out of your comfort zone.

Refreshments will be provided.