Tuesday, November 10, 2015

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• Veterans speak at the Library today
• Master of Quantitative Finance joins world's best
• Governor General honours Waterloo history prof
• Campus Starbucks opens; other notes

Veterans speak at the Library today

Canadian military veterans will their stories and share their memories in advance of Remembrance Day at a special event at the Library today.

The event takes place in the Dana Porter Library from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

There will be a question and answer period with the veterans. Space is limited.

Biographical entries on each of the speakers can be found on the Library's website. Their combined service covers major conflicts like the Second World War, the Suez Crisis, and the Bosnian War, and several Cold War-era confrontations including the Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as several United Nations peacekeeping operations over the last half-century.

Speakers include:

• Jim Gardiner, the President of the local Royal Canadian Regiment Association, Waterloo-Wellington Branch, who served for 23 years in the Royal Canadian Regiment infantry;
• Ronald Green, who served with The Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) from 1962-1967;
• Tom Jenkins, who served in both the Artillery Reserves and the Canadian Forces in signals intelligence, rising in the ranks from private to captain during his 37-year career;
• Bill Macleod, who joined The Royal Canadian Medical Corps and served three UN tours in Cyprus;
• Gordon Ross, a member of the 16^th Medical Company, which served the needs of the 38^th Canadian Brigade Group;
• Lance Steel, who served in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers or RCEME for 36 years, who was stationed in the Sinai buffer zone and retired with the rank of Major; and
• Harry Watts, who joined the Canadian forces in 1942 and was in the Royal Armoured Corps stationed in Italy from November 1943 until March 1945, serving as a motorcycle dispatch rider.

Master of Quantitative Finance joins world's best

The Statistics and Actuarial Science department has a new statistic to be proud of, as for the first time since its inception in 1995, Waterloo's Master of Quantitative Finance (MQF) program was ranked in among the best masters programs in financial engineering in North America. This list includes related programs at Carnegie Mellon University, City University of New York, Columbia University, University of California, New York University, University of Chicago, University of Toronto and Boston University.

The 2015 QuantNet performance ranking is the most comprehensive ranking to date of master programs in financial engineering (MFE) and mathematical finance in North America. 

The program was recognized for its high admission standards, rigour and balance of its program, highly successful placement record and subsequent career path of its graduates. It was ranked 14 of 30 programs.

Established in 1995, the MQF program has prepared graduates for careers in the demanding and ever-changing financial services industry. It strikes a balance between finance and the mathematical, probabilistic and computational elements of quantitative finance. The MQF program draws on the strengths of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, home to a unique combination of experts in these areas.

"High admission standards bring in consistently outstanding groups of students every year," says a note on the MQF program's website. "Each class has 15-20 students, selected from 160-180 applicants who go through a rigorous three-stage screening process. Based on their academic transcripts and letters of reference, a selected group of applicants is invited to write an entrance exam. Based on the result of their entrance exam, a few of them are selected to participate in an interview. This is intended to ensure that admitted MQF students bring robust finance, mathematical, and computational backgrounds as well as good communication skills."

There are currently over 250 MQF alumni working mainly in the financial sector in Toronto and a few in New York. A few have gone on to PhD programs and pursued highly successful academic careers.

Read the full article on the MQF website.

Governor General honours Waterloo history prof

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This article originally appeared on Waterloo Stories.

The Governor General of Canada has honoured a Waterloo history professor for her “remarkable contributions” to the understanding of First Nations’ history.

History Professor Susan Roy was awarded a joint Governor General’s History Award along with her collaborators for a multi-site exhibition in Vancouver called c̓əsnaʔəm, the city before the city.

“Given this year’s report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I’m particularly proud to see this recognition of Susan Roy’s research highlighting Aboriginal history,” says Dean of Arts Doug Peers. “It’s incumbent on the academic community to contribute to redressing such a critical national issue.”

The largest ancient Musqueam village in the area

The exhibits tell the story of one of the largest ancient Musqueam villages and burial sites upon which Vancouver was built. Along with Roy, the exhibits were jointly curated by the Musqueam First Nation, the University of British Columbia, and the Museum of Vancouver (MOV).

The collaboration was initiated in 2012 with Roy’s SSHRC Partnership Development grant, for which she was principal investigator, and also draws from her 2010 book: These Mysterious People: Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community.

The book traces the long history of interpretation around the site of the Musqueam village of c̓əsnaʔəm, known as the Marpole Midden. The village was the source of ancestral remains and cultural objects for local, provincial and international museums, such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. “Archaeologists and historians since the late 19th century interpreted this site in ways that disassociated local Indigenous connections to place,” says Roy. “From the 1970s onwards the Musqueam First Nation began to have more control over public interpretations of indigneous history in Vancouver.”

Read the full article on Waterloo Stories.

Campus Starbucks opens; other notes

Latte lovers, rejoice: The Starbucks inside the Science Teaching Complex is open as of this week. Apparently business is already booming. The location, operated by Food Services, accepts cash and debit, and is open Mondays to Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., on Fridays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The arrival of the coffee shop was first announced in June 2014. This isn't the first time Starbucks coffee has been available on campus, however: back in 1999 Food Services opened and briefly operated a kiosk in South Campus Hall called Double U's (later known as Bookends when it moved to the Waterloo Bookstore) that served Starbucks, and the current William's Fresh Café in Environment 3 was originally slated to feature the iconic green mermaid and lattes aplenty before plans changed.

"The Federation of Students is proud to host the grand opening of its Volunteer Centre today from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the SLC Great Hall," writes Jacqueline Martinz. "Waterloo President Feridun Hamdullahpur, Feds Vice-President, Internal Maaz Yasin, and Volunteer Action Centre Executive Director Jane Hennig will be speaking at the grand opening. Students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend and learn more about the opportunities. More information about the Volunteer Centre is available online."

The Fall 2015 Velocity $5K Qualifier nights take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday in the Lazaridis Centre from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in QNC 0101.

The startups seeking the $5,000 prize will be judged by a panel that on Wednesday includes Waterloo lecturer Geoff Malleck, CEO of Chalk.com William Zhou and CEO and co-founder of Suncayr Rachel Paulter and on Thursday includes Bryan Smith, Co-founder of TrendRadius, Mallorie Brode, co-founder of Bridgit, and Laura Smith, co-founder of Pout. 

The top 5 finalists from each night will move on to the Velocity Fund Finals $5K pitch competition happening on November 26 in the Student Life Centre Great Hall.