Wednesday, October 14, 2015

190,000 job applications sets new co-op record

A message from Co-operative Education and Career Action (CECA)

Co-op students submitted an astonishing number of applications for work-terms beginning in January 2016. The 190,000 applications marks an all-time record for the university and is a 10 per cent increase over last year. The night before the application deadline, CECA received over 150 applications a minute! Our employers will have their hands full with so many great applicants to interview and the Tatham Centre will be at full capacity.

It's no wonder so many visitors come to campus to see how we run such an expansive and complex co-op program‎ so successfully. 

Capture and share your #uwaterloolife today

Today is the day to show off your #uwaterloolife because 24 Hours of Waterloo is back for the fourth year!

All members of the UWaterloo community are encouraged to share photos of their day (today!) on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #uwaterloolife. Submissions are also accepted via email.

Follow along and check out all of the photos throughout the day to get a snapshot of UWaterloo Life.

The top 15 submissions (from students) will be chosen and posted to the UWaterloo Life Facebook page from October 19-23. The photo with the most likes on October 23 at noon will receive $500 to spend at Retail Services.

UWaterloo Life Instagram will also feature the ultimate Instagram takeover today, with a range of Waterloo community members taking over the account for 24 hours.

Learn more about the 24 Hours of Waterloo project.

Emmy win for engineering professor

Zhou Wang, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at University of Waterloo, has won an Engineering Emmy® Award for developing computational models that accurately and consistently predict how people view image and video quality.

The Television Academy, based in Los Angeles, California announced the award earlier this month.

Professor Wang, along with co-creators Eero Simoncelli, a professor at New York University, Alan Bovik, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and Hamid Sheikh, a director at Samsung’s Mobile Processor Innovation Lab, will receive the award for outstanding achievement in engineering performance on October 28, at ceremony held at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

The Engineering Emmy recognizes the team for its creation of Structural Similarity (SSIM), a mathematical formula and computer algorithm that is now widely used throughout the television industry.

SSIM uses powerful neuroscience-based models of the human visual system to easily achieve highly accurate prediction performance, an issue that has long plagued the broadcast industry. Wang’s video quality measurement model is applied in real time on common processor software, bypassing previous models that relied on complex hardware and could not accurately report how humans actually perceived video and image quality. SSIM, in contrast, offers real-time assessments and allows production teams to immediately make changes to video or film to enhance the quality of their work.

"SSIM is now a widely used perceptual video quality measure, used to test and refine video quality throughout the global cable and satellite TV industry, and directly affects the viewing experiences of tens of millions of viewers daily," the Television Academy said in announcing the award.

Professor Wang is well known for his leadership in the field of image processing and multimedia communications. Recently named to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists for his work in this field, Wang is one of the world’s most frequently cited authors in the field of image processing.

Professor Wang was also the recipient of an E.W.R Steacie Memorial Fellowship in 2014 – the prestigious award from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) – for his work in understanding how people view the quality of images and videos.

Professor Wang is also co-founder of SSIMWave Inc., a spinoff company from the University of Waterloo. Supported by the University’s commercialization office and the Accelerator Centre, SSIMWave is commercializing Professor Wang’s innovations with products that promise to revolutionize today’s approach to video content processing and delivery for the optimal visual quality-of-experience.

In a nod to the power of technology, Josh Brener of HBO’s Emmy-nominated Silicon Valley will host the ceremony. 

Water Institute announces WaterTalks lineup

The Water Institute is pleased to announce the second installment of its WaterTalks Lecture Series. The 2015-16 WaterTalks series brings several high-profile speakers to Waterloo to share their research with the University's water community. The 2015-16 speakers are:

October 29, 2015: Dr. Dustin Garrick, Assistant Professor and Philomathia Chair of Water Policy, Department of Political Science and Booth School of Engineering Practice, McMaster University, Pathways to Water Security for Rivers under Pressure: Water Markets and Transboundary Governance in Australia and Western North America.

November 26, 2015: Dr. John Reynolds, Professor of Aquatic Ecology and Conservation, Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Aquatic Conservation, Simon Fraser University, Salmon-fuelled Ecosystems of the Great Bear Rainforest.

January 28, 2016: Dr. Sharachchandra Lélé, Senior Fellow, Asoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Bangalore, India, Bridging Many Divides: Building an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Water Issues in a Developing Country Context.

February 25, 2016: Dr. Susan Hubbard, Associate Lab Director, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, New Approaches for Characterizing Watershed Structure and Function.

March 31, 2016: Dr. Prabhakar Clement, Harold Vince Groome Professor of Environmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, Worthiness of Complex Groundwater Models for Decision-making: When Should We Say Enough is Enough.

All are welcome to attend! All lectures begin at 2:30 p.m. in either DC 1304 or 1302. The talks will also be available via livestream and posted to the Water Institute's YouTube channel afterwards.

TEDxUW applications open; other notes

TEDxUW is the University's official TEDx experience and a key player in the global TED movement, according to an earnest statement from TEDxUW. 

"In an ever-evolving world, TEDxUW is here to remind you of the power of collaboration," says a note from the organizers. "Our event is set to take place on November 14 at the Centre of International Governance and Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo. The day will consist of a line-up of 10 incredible TEDx speakers from various walks of life, topnotch performers, cutting-edge break out activities and an opportunity to mingle with the brightest minds and game changers of Waterloo."

Want to join us in exploring collaboration? Visit www.tedxuw.com for more information. The application form to attend is now live on the website so make sure to apply by the end of Friday, October 16. 

The University of Waterloo played host yesterday to Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca and Minister of Economic Development, Employment & Infrastructure Brad Duguid as they opened Ontario's roads to the testing of automated vehicles and related technology - a first for a Canadian province. Participating in the announcement was Varden Labs, providing demonstrations of their self-driving golf cart. Read the full text of the Ministry of Transportation's announcement.

University Relations will be hosting a United Way “Hot Chocolate Bar” fundraiser in the Arts Quad between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. while supplies last. Donate to receive a cup of hot chocolate with your choice of toppings. You can even bring your own mug!

Bradley Fauteux, director of Ontario Parks, will be on campus today delivering a talk as part of the Ecosystem and Resource Management in Protected/Natural Areas Guest Lecture Series. The event takes place from 1:00 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. in AL 105. The lecture is part of an ongoing series for the ENVS444/REC437 course and features speakers, whenever possible, who have a connection to the University. The lecture is free and open to the public. The next speaker is Chris Wilkinson, senior manager, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, on Friday, October 16 at the same time and location.

The David Johnston R+T Park's recent food drive netted 6,026 pounds of food and $13,524 in cash for the Food Bank of Waterloo Region. Bravo!

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include: Uken Games, Cloudera, Atomic Labs, Arup, Cargill, PDT Partners, Tesla Motors, Zenefits, Tesla Motors - Car Display, VarageSale, Nascent Digital, Remitly, Qlik, Ericsson, Nymi Inc, Bina Technologies/part of Roche Sequencing Unit, and DAC Group.