Friday, January 8, 2016

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• Here came the sun
• Student Life Centre, PAC expansion to go to referendum
• Engaging our community, one public lecture at a time
• Company celebrates anniversary by launching Engineering scholarships

Here came the sun

Aida Martinez of Electrical & Computer Engineering snapped this shot of the sun starting to shine over Engineering 5 at 7:38 this morning. Wait, there's a 7:38 in the morning now?

Student Life Centre, PAC expansion to go to referendum

For many years, Waterloo students have frequently voiced the need for more student space: social, study, dining, and recreation space.

As a result, the Federation of Students and the Graduate Student Association, in partnership with the University, are proposing a solution to address the majority of student space needs: the SLC/PAC Expansion.

The University will contribute $10 million of the capital costs towards the expansion and students would need to contribute the remaining $24 million through an $18 per term fee, for the addition to be built.

The proposed expansion would include a 63,970-square foot addition to the SLC and the PAC, to the west of the BMH Green. The new space will connect to the current SLC on all three floors and connect with the Red North corner of the PAC. It will also include a link connecting the SLC to the third floor of MC and a covered walkway to the AHS buildings.

The expansion will focus on the creation of additional student social, activity, dining, and recreation space, to help facilitate a greater sense of community and to improve the Waterloo student experience.

A referendum will be held on February 9 to 11 to ask undergraduate and graduate students if they will support an $18 per term fee to build the SLC/PAC Expansion.

Students are encouraged to get informed about the project, by visiting the project website, attending the SLC/PAC Expansion Town Hall on Monday, January 18 (1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.), connecting with their elected representatives, asking questions on social media using #UWSLCPAC, or emailing the project team. 

Engaging our community, one public lecture at a time

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

The University of Waterloo engages our community through public lectures that aim to challenge, inspire, and enrich not only our faculty, staff and students, but all members of our Waterloo region community. Touching on a range of timely topics like life-changing research and controversial subject matter, our researchers and established faculty members relish opportunities to share their expertise and help our community learn more about the world around them.

Community Relations and Events works to bridge the relationship between our academic experts and our community partners to make knowledge accessible off campus. Through our collaboration with the Kitchener Public Library (KPL), we offer local knowledge seekers ways to learn something new and also connect directly with experts and other like-minded community members, all at a prominent community location.

In November 2014, Waterloo hosted a public lecture at the KPL on radicalization and the threat of ISIS; the lecture saw over 150 community members in attendance, with over 58 percent attending a UWaterloo public lecture for the first time. Due to overwhelming positive response and our ability to reach new audiences, we continue to enhance community programing with lectures that speak to current events. Some examples of community-based lectures include:

• During Earth Week 2015, more than 100 regional residents joined us at the KPL for a Faculty of Environment lecture on the effects of climate change;
• As part of Science Literacy Week 2015, the Faculties of Science and Engineering hosted a KPL community lecture on transportation and its influence on human behaviour that engaged close to 200 members of our community;
• Most recently, UWaterloo partnered with the Waterloo Public Library in December 2015 to offer a discussion on the historical Battle of Waterloo. Presented by four leading Faculty of Arts professors, each with distinct backgrounds in different aspects of the humanities, this lecture helped over 80 community members learn more about the history of our region.

By connecting our community to compelling new research and topics, the University proudly contributes to knowledge mobilization, equipping our community members with innovative information that can help change the world and foster informed, world-class citizens.

Want to know more about upcoming UWaterloo lectures and events? Learn more by following #UWCommunity

Company celebrates anniversary by launching Engineering scholarships

Pete Devenyi, Vice President Global Software Development, Dematic Corp; Fatma Gzara, professor, Management Sciences, UW; Waterloo Mayor David Jaworsky; and Scott Wahl Director of Global Software Development, Dematic Corp.

Dematic, a supply chain optimization and automation company, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its Waterloo location by announcing scholarships valued at $10,000 for the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering.

The Dematic Scholarship for Excellence in Supply Chain Optimization will be awarded to one male and one female second-year engineering student based on academic standing and an essay submission. There will be two awards granted each year for the next two years, each worth $2,500.

The company opened its Waterloo location in September 2014 to capitalize on the world-class technology and engineering talent in the area. Shortly after opening, Dematic established a relationship with the University of Waterloo to also contribute to the educational community. 

“Dematic is a large global company and could choose to set up an office anywhere in the world. Dematic chose Waterloo because the quality of the tech talent here is undeniable,” said Pete Devenyi, Dematic's vice-president of global software development. “We wanted to mark our anniversary by investing in the community and the people we hope to recruit and mentor. This scholarship is a natural addition to an already great partnership with the University of Waterloo.”

Samir Elhedhli, chair of Waterloo Engineering’s Management Sciences department, said the scholarship recognizes the importance of training in supply chain management and in optimization, two areas of strength in the department’s management engineering undergraduate program. 

“It will help open doors for our undergraduates to focus their training in these key areas through design projects and co-op,” he said.

The software centre has grown in its first year from one to 30 staff and includes a number of Waterloo graduates. They and other Dematic team members are currently working on two research projects with the University, funded by a federal Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) grant and a provincial Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) grant. In addition, Dematic is participating in and supporting the University’s co-op education program. 

“Our research develops innovative tools and value-added solutions using analytics and optimization approaches that will advance knowledge in supply chain optimization and directly benefit Dematic,” said Fatma Gzara of Waterloo’s Management Sciences department, the principal investigator on both grants.

Dematic’s research projects focus on two areas. One is looking at developing an algorithm for mixed-case palletization—primarily in the grocery industry—while the other is working to build an operational analytics product.