Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Previous | Next

• Today, we remember
• Co-op: the best choice you can make
• Waterloo startup wins James Dyson Prize
• Wednesday's notes

Today, we remember

The University of Waterloo community, along with the rest of the country, will pause for a few moments today to remember Canada's war dead.

"On Remembrance Day, we express our solemn gratitude for those who have given their lives for Canada and for peace. We also celebrate the inheritance of freedom and democracy they have entrusted to us," wrote Feridun Hamdullahpur in a message circulated to students, faculty and staff this morning. "Over the course of Canada’s history more than one hundred thousand Canadians — more than the current population of Waterloo — have sacrificed their lives for freedom, both ours and others’. Their memory is honoured in monuments from Calais to Kapyong to Kandahar, and in thousands of communities across Canada."

The official date of the Remembrance Day commemoration is always November 11, the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War. Much of the imagery of Remembrance Day is connected to that conflict, including the poppies, worn in lapels, that are sold by the Royal Canadian Legion. They recall the wildflowers that grow in the fields of Flanders, in north Belgium, as mentioned in the poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae of Guelph that is read at many Remembrance Day commemorations.

The flags at the University's south entrance will be lowered from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. today in accordance with the University's guidelines.

For those students, faculty and staff looking to mark the occasion on campus, the UW Chaplain's Association has organized a Remembrance Day interfaith service in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall beginning at 10:45 a.m. The service will include music from the University Chamber Choir, prayers for peace from a variety of faith backgrounds, and the traditional 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 a.m. Everyone is welcome.

The ceremony is open to all students, faculty and staff.

Other community ceremonies include:

• Waterloo - The parade begins at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 530 at 10:15 a.m. with the ceremony taking place at the Waterloo Cenotaph at 10:30 a.m. Vice-President, University Relations Sandra Banks will represent Waterloo at the City of Waterloo’s Remembrance Day ceremony at the cenotaph.
• Kitchener - A parade will begin at 10:15 a.m. at the corner of Duke and Ontario streets, with the ceremony being held at the Kitchener Cenotaph, located at the corner of Frederick and Duke Streets at 10:45 a.m. 
• Cambridge (Galt) - The ceremony commences at the Queen's Square Cenotaph at 11:00 a.m.
• Cambridge (Hespeler) - The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Cenotaph located at Queen and Tannery Streets.
• Cambridge (Preston) - The ceremony begins at the Cenotaph on King Street at 11:00 a.m.
• Stratford - A parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Legion Hall on St. Patrick Street, followed by a ceremony at the York Street Cenotaph at 11:00 a.m.

"Those monuments, like the mental and physical scars borne by all who have served in Canada’s name, both haunt and inspire us," President Hamdullahpur wrote. "More than anything, they call us to build a world ever more peaceful, fair, and equitable. In our own way, that’s what we do at the University of Waterloo. We uncover new knowledge to make the world smarter, new technologies to make it safer and more prosperous, and new leaders to make it more humane, inclusive and just."

"By fulfilling this vocation, we honour those who gave their lives to keep Canada glorious and free."

Co-op: the best choice you can make

by Nicole Simec.

Third-year Arts & Business student Viktor Seregelyi recently had an article about the value of Waterloo’s co-op program published with the Conference Board of Canada. In the article, Viktor explains why co-op at Waterloo is the best choice he’s ever made.

“My experience with co-op has been incredibly positive and I definitely recommend it as a method of enhancing academic learning”, says Viktor, who is working at the Conference Board of Canada for a second time.

Viktor works in the Industry and Business Strategy Division and has had the opportunity to work on important projects like analyzing Canada’s global competitiveness.

Take a look at Viktor’s insightful article on the Conference Board of Canada website.

Waterloo startup wins James Dyson Prize

Voltera V-One, a custom circuit board printer developed by University of Waterloo engineering students, has taken top prize in this year’s International James Dyson Award competition, beating out a record 710 entries from 20 countries.

The printer, created by Alroy Almeida, Katarina Ilic, James Pickard, and Jesús Zozaya as their 2013 Engineering Capstone Design project, enables circuit boards to be prototyped within minutes, eliminating the frustrations with traditional fabrication processes and drastically reducing hardware development time.

The company currently operates out of Velocity, a startup incubator run by the University of Waterloo.

“The team behind Voltera are the latest in a growing line of successful innovators to emerge from this University’s vibrant entrepreneurial environment,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur. "Voltera have used the knowledge gained studying at Waterloo together with experience in co-op employment to create a truly innovative product and I am immensely proud of their achievements." 

While studying mechatronics engineering, Almeida, Zozaya, and Pickard became frustrated by the inefficiency of designing circuit boards. Teaming up with Ilic, who was studying nanotechnology engineering, the students spent two years improving the electrical properties of the conductive nano-silver ink, producing a compact electromechanical system to dispense the thick ink and developing a software algorithm to control it precisely.

The end result — the Voltera V-One printer — was named one of the top 10 innovations for 2015 by Popular Science. It also has been recognized as the 2015 TechCrunch Disrupt (Hardware Battlefield) Champion and this year’s Make Magazine Editor's Choice.

After graduation in 2013, the team members moved Voltera into the Velocity Garage and later, the Velocity Foundry, the hardware arm of Waterloo’s successful incubator.

"We're lucky to have been encouraged and supported by the University of Waterloo. As a startup, the university's name has opened doors for us on a worldwide stage,” said Jesús Zozaya. “We receive guidance from Velocity mentors on a daily basis and regardless of the problem, they always find a way to put things into perspective and make the next steps clear. As students, we had the opportunity to experience different industries through the co-op program, and as employers, we have a constant supply of high quality students that have proven invaluable to the development of the Voltera V-One."

Voltera is the first Canadian project to capture the prestigious Dyson award that comes with a prize of about $54,000 (CAD) for the team members and $9,000 for the University’s Faculty of Engineering.

“The Voltera V-One printer pushes the boundaries of innovation,” said Pearl Sullivan, dean of engineering. “It is an excellent example of what our students are capable of when they graduate from Waterloo Engineering. They took a very complex problem and came up with an elegant solution that would change customized circuit printing forever. The future of technology innovation in Canada lies within brilliant teams like Voltera."

The James Dyson Award, launched by the James Dyson Foundation in 2007, is an international student design challenge open to university level students and recent graduates in the fields of product design, industrial design and engineering with the objective to design something that solves a problem.

Last year Suncayr, a Waterloo nanotechnology engineering student startup, was the first runner up in the International James Dyson Award competition. In 2013, a team made up of recent engineering graduates had their robotic suturing tool listed as one of the Dyson award's Top 20 ingenious ideas. 

Wednesday's notes

The Keystone Campaign will be hosting an event entitled Celebrating our Caring Community today in QNC 0101 featuring the University of Waterloo’s Habitat for Humanity Build Team. The event will be held from noon till 1:00 p.m.

The latest in the Office of Research's Research Talks Series will take place today featuring Susan Tighe. Professor Tighe, the Founding Principal and Director of the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology, will share her vision for sustainable roads and energy generating solar pavement in a talk entitled "Roads of the future: environmentally-friendly and resilient pavement," which runs from noon to 1:00 p.m. in DC 1302. This event will also be webcast on Waterloo's livestream page.

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include: Ceridian, Infosys Public Service, National Bank Financial Markets, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCooper.