Thursday, November 5, 2015

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• Waterloo owns the podium at ACM contest
• Global Business and Digital Arts interns for hire
• Community discovers world of science at open house
• Thursday's notes

Waterloo owns the podium at ACM contest

by Anna Beard.

Members of the Waterloo Black Association of Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest team are headed to Phuket, Thailand this coming May for the contest world finals thanks to a stunning performance at this past weekend's East Central North America Regional Programming Contest which took place at the University of Windsor.

Out of 130 teams from 55 universities and colleges, Waterloo's four teams, Waterloo Black, Gold, White and Red finished 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 9^th, respectively. Other universities in the top ten were Ohio State (4^th), Toronto (6^th), and Carnegie Mellon (5^th, 7^th, 8^th, and 10^th).

Waterloo's Black team was the only team to solve all nine problems, finishing the five-hour contest in four hours and thirty minutes. Waterloo's Gold team also solved more problems (7) than any other university.

Team coaches Ondřej Lhoták and Troy Vasiga along with Edward Chrzanowski expressed their pride in the teams.

"I am impressed with our students. Not only are they carrying a full workload of courses (or are on work term), but they manage to train and compete," said Chrzanowski.

The members of Waterloo's teams were:

Waterloo Black (1^st place):

• Andy Huang
• ​Antonio Molina Lovett
• Jacob Jackson

Waterloo Gold (2^nd place):

• David Choi
• Felix Bauckholt
• Ted Ying

Waterloo White (3rd place):

• Sean Purcell
• Renato Ferreira
• Yang Gao

Waterloo Red (9^th place):

• Jim Zhang
• Ben Zhang
• Charles Zinn

Jacob Jackson, Felix Bauckholt, and Renato Ferreira are recipients of the Michael and Ophelia Lazaridis Olympiad Scholarship. Each of them have won medals at international olympiads for either mathematics or informatics.

Complete contest standings for the East Central North American Regional Contest can be found on the contest's website.

The teams are grateful to Wish for sponsoring Waterloo's participation in the contests. 

Global Business and Digital Arts interns for hire

A message from the Stratford Campus.

Did you know the Stratford Campus has a paid internship program for their Bachelor of Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) students? The second cohort of third-year GBDA students are now applying for their paid internship positions in spring 2016. Our students have a background in digital media design and production, global business, marketing, videography, photography, sound editing, project management, and user (UX) experience design. They are adept at working in teams as the program places a strong emphasis on teamwork and project-based learning. Our curriculum is based on knowledge integration, bringing together creativity, technology and business in the framework of digital media and design thinking. A promotional video showcases the work of the GBDA students.

If you would like to hire one of our talented Global Business and Digital Arts Students for three to four months in spring 2016, we would be happy to hear from you. For more information please contact susan.cole@uwaterloo.ca and she will be in touch. 

Community discovers world of science at open house

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

On Saturday, October 24, the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Science opened its doors to the community for the 21^st annual Science Open House. Run in conjunction with the Earth Sciences Museum Gem and Mineral Show, the popular event attracts more than 1,500 visitors each year.

“This event is a great opportunity to engage with the local community," said Heather Neufeld, Manager of Community Outreach for the Faculty of Science. “Visitors get to learn about all of the amazing things science enables us to do through hands-on activities”.

Budding scientists panned for gold, extracted banana DNA, explored a giant cell, created slime from household products and linked tree rings to climate events, all while learning about chemistry, genetics, momentum and climate change.

All units in UWaterloo’s Faculty of Science worked together to create more than 100 hands-on activities for all ages. One new activity this year was the dress up like a scientist activity run by the Science and Business program.

“This year, we’ve expanded the program by adding more events to engage pre-teens,” said Neufeld.

For the first time, visitors can tour the Velocity Science entrepreneurship space to meet with students who are taking their science ideas to competitions and turning them into businesses. Visitors could also learn about synthetic biology and its uses to manipulate and build new biological systems in the iGEM labs.

"I think that the students sharing their passion for science are just as excited as our young visitors,” said Neufeld.

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Science would like to thank everyone who attended this wonderful and educational family experience. We hope you had a scien-rific time!

We'd also like to send a special thank you to all of the faculty, staff and student volunteers who helped to make this year’s Science Open House possible.

Thursday's notes

With the naming of local MP Bardish Chagger to the federal cabinet yesterday, Waterloo has its first cabinet minister in nearly 30 years.

Chagger was named Minister of Small Business and Tourism in the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall that featured a First Nations drummer, Inuit throat singers, and Métis dancers.

Chagger is a Waterloo alumna who earned a Bachelor of Science from the Faculty of Science in 2004. Before winning the Waterloo riding in the 2015 federal election in October, she worked as the special projects coordinator at the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre, an organization that assists new Canadians. She is also actively involved in numerous community organizations as a board member or volunteer. In 2012, she was recognized as one of The Record’s Top 40 Under 40 for her community leadership.

Chagger's predecessors, Peter Braid and Andrew Telegdi, both served as parliamentary secretaries during their terms in office, and Telegdi was also sworn into the Privy Council. Walter McLean, who held the Waterloo riding from 1979 to 1993, served in cabinet as Secretary of State for Canada and Minister of State (Immigration) in the 1980s.

Chagger is one of 15 women in the new Liberal cabinet, which is made up of 31 members including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The next lecture in the Arriscraft lecture series will take place on Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m in MLH-1001. The featured speaker is architect Virginia San Fratello, whose remarks are entitled "Full Scale Study Models."

Virginia San Fratello is a partner at Rael San Fratello and in Emerging Objects, a pioneering design and research company that specializes in 3D-printed materials and objects for the built environment based in Oakland, California. San Fratello is an Assistant Professor in the area of Design at San Jose State University and holds a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University in the City of New York.

Her research focuses on the convergence of digital, ecological, and creative material explorations. The research is applied through the design and fabrication of innovative buildings and their components, furniture elements and site specific installations that often look at inherent material resources and have embedded political consequences.