Monday, January 11, 2016

Elections for Presidential Nominating Committee

Voting will begin on Monday, January 18 as University of Waterloo faculty and staff elect representatives for three seats on the Presidential Nominating Committee.

Two separate elections will open next Monday:

• Faculty-at-large representative: regular faculty members will be asked to vote for two (2) faculty-at-large representatives on the committee. The following faculty members have been nominated for these positions: Jonathan Blay (School of Pharmacy), Melanie Campbell (Physics and Astronomy), Claudio Canizares (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Ian Goulden (Combinatorics and Optimization), Sally Gunz (School of Accounting and Finance), Spiro Karigiannis (Pure Mathematics), and En-Hui Yang (Electrical and Computer Engineering). Candidates’ statements are available on the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel website.
• Staff representative: regular ongoing staff members will be asked to vote for one (1) staff representative on the committee. The following staff members have been nominated for this position: Jennifer Kieffer (Institutional Analysis & Planning), Luke Kuzio (Procurement & Contract Services), Christopher Pringle (Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering), Chris Read (Associate Provost, Students), and Murray Zink (Waterloo Professional Development). Candidates’ statements are available on the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel website.

Voting will take place online for regular ongoing staff and faculty, while ballots will be mailed to unionized staff members.

Other regular ongoing staff and faculty will be receiving an e-mail with voting information. Please refer to your respective e-mail or paper ballot for more information, or the Nominations and Elections page on the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel website.

Across campus, Waterloo supports refugees

Members of the University community have recently been engaging in efforts to support refugees.

In the weeks since President Hamdullahpur first updated campus on activities being undertaken to assist refugees, a number of additional efforts have come to light. 

Some of these initiatives include:

• A recent gift to Renison University College launched a fund to support English language learning for Syrian refugees in the region.  This fund will cover tuition for individuals taking courses at Renison through the English Language Institute (ELI);
• Waterloo’s Federation of Students are organizing a food and clothing drive to provide goods to refugees arriving in Waterloo Region;
• Conrad Grebel University College continues to work on a number of refugee related initiatives building on the Mennonite heritage of the College and an impulse to respond to those in need;
• A number of students, faculty and staff are volunteering their skills and time to act as translators, helping to bridge the language gap for refugee arriving in Waterloo Region; and
•  OneHome, which started as a course project for fourth year Global Business and Digital Arts students in Stratford, has grown into a full fundraising effort to support and provide necessities for Syrian refugees. 

If you would like to learn more about how to get involved, you can visit the Federation of Students Volunteer Centre for volunteer opportunities within Waterloo Region and Waterloo Region Welcomes Refugees for information regarding other way to help support these efforts.

The grandest of stands rise in the PAC

The first phase of renovations to the Physical Activities Complex is almost complete with the installation of new black and gold bleachers, which have replaced the “fossilized” wooden retractable seating.

If everything goes according to plan, the seats will be ready for action by Wednesday, January 13, just in time for the Warriors basketball teams to host their first home game of 2016 against McMaster.

According to an update from Athletics, access to the Blue Activity area and Warrior Zone will reopen as of Thursday, January 14.

The new, branded bleachers are part of an overhaul of Athletics’ infrastructure that includes new directional signage and other improvements arising from a $1.2M commitment from the University. Students matched the funds with an additional $1.2M for additional renovation work of the high-volume student recreational area.

The Waterloo Region Record has an article that features the bleachers. 

Your vital signs: now through a scanner, darkly

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a revolutionary system for monitoring vital signs that could lead to improved detection and prevention of some cardiovascular issues, as well as greater independence for older adults.

Using patent-pending technology called Coded Hemodynamic Imaging, the device is the first portable system that monitors a patient's blood flow at multiple arterial points simultaneously and without direct contact with the skin. It is ideal for assessing patients with painful burns, highly contagious diseases, or infants in neonatal intensive care whose tiny fingers make traditional monitoring difficult.

"Traditional systems in wide use now take one blood pulse reading at one spot on the body. This device acts like many virtual sensors that measure blood flow behaviour on various parts of the body. The device relays measurements from all of these pulse points to a computer for continuous monitoring," said Robert Amelard, a PhD candidate in systems design engineering and recipient of the prestigious Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). "By way of comparison, think of measuring the traffic flow across an entire city rather than through one intersection."

Continuous data collection at different parts of the body provides a more complete picture of what’s happening in the body. Whole-body imaging opens doors for advanced monitoring that can’t be done with the traditional, single-point methods.

“Since the device can also scan multiple patients individually at once and from a distance, consider the potential in mass emergency scenarios or long-term care homes,” said Professor Alexander Wong, of the Faculty of Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Medical Imaging Systems. “This technology provides for a more predictive approach to monitor vitals and the potential for its use is extensive, such as indicating arterial blockages that might otherwise go undetected, or warning older adults who risk falling as a result of getting dizzy when they stand.”

Professor Alexander Wong and Robert Amelard at the Schlegel-University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging analyzing blood-flow data extracted with their new touchless device, pictured right. (Credit: UWaterloo/Fred Hunsberger)

Amelard won an AGE-WELL award in Technology and Aging earlier this year to support the development of his system to help enhance or maintain older adults’ independence. He is the lead author of the recent paper in Nature’s Scientific Reports that details part of the technology behind the device.

Winter Welcome Week, WatITis, and other notes

“The Federation of Students will be hosting Winter Welcome Week from January 11 to 15," writes Jacqueline Martinz. "All undergraduates are able to attend the free events."

"Welcome Week will begin with a Warrior Breakfast at 9:00 a.m. in SLC 1109. Food is limited, so students should hurry over! Other events include the New Year’s Resolutions Fair for those who are determined to make 2016 the best year yet. NYE 2.0 will be held at The Bombshelter Pub for anyone who missed the night, or is eager to relive it." 

More information about the full schedule of events is available online.

The WatITis Committee is inviting members of the University to actively participate in this year's WatITis conference as a committee member. There are two sub-committees—logistics and programming—that are seeking members.

"Your participation will be required the day before and the day of the conference," says the announcement from the WatITis Committee. "Depending on the sub-committee, your participation will vary on the time of year".

For more information, please contact committee co-chairs Jennifer Matheson - jenn.matheson@uwaterloo.ca or Adam Savage -asavage@uwaterloo.ca as soon as possible.

UW Fitness, located in the Manulife Wellness Centre and Lyle Hallman Institute for Health Promotion, offers small group personal training sessions for UW staff and faculty (these sessions are not open to students). These twice-per-week exercise sessions include cardiovascular exercise, resistance/weight training, and flexibility exercises under the certified exercise physiologist in a private and encouraging environment right here on campus. 

The new sessions start January 11 through to January 14. To sign up for a 6 or 7 week session please visit the UW Fitness website, send an e-email to fitness@uwaterloo.ca or call ext. 36841.