Thursday, January 21, 2016

Prime Minister gives Waterloo props on world stage

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau singled out the University of Waterloo for being a great source of “brilliant minds and brilliant ideas” in a speech delivered yesterday to world leaders and business elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Why does a Silicon Valley entrepreneur look to Waterloo as a great source of brilliant minds and brilliant ideas? Well, it has high intellectual standards, of course,” said Trudeau. “And it values entrepreneurship. But diversity is its indispensable ingredient."

“Their students come from everywhere. Fully half the graduate engineering students are international. And the University of Waterloo’s domestic students are drawn from Canada’s student population — one of the most diverse in the world,” he added.

Trudeau and several of his cabinet ministers are at the annual summit in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland with the world’s top leaders in collaborative activities focused on shaping global, regional and industry agendas.

Trudeau prefaced his remarks by reminding world leaders that the president of Y Combinator, a major Silicon Valley startup funder, named the University of Waterloo as a school that “stood out as a source of graduates with sparkling new ideas.”

Trudeau’s speech stressed to the world leaders that diversity is the foundation of all innovation.

“Many of you have reached out to me recently in thanks for Canada’s compassionate response to the Syrian refugee crisis.  But let me tell you something. When I welcomed those families to Toronto last month, I welcomed them as new Canadians and as the future of the Canadian economy,” said Trudeau.

“Diversity isn't just sound social policy. Diversity is the engine of invention. It generates creativity that enriches the world.”

This year's summit is focused on the idea of the "fourth industrial revolution," the idea that rapid technological innovation will drive a new era of change in the global economy. In introducing Trudeau, Professor Klaus Schwab, executive chair of the World Economic Forum, said, “I couldn’t imagine anyone who could represent more the world that will come out of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Following his remarks to forum members, Trudeau was scheduled to sit down with George Soros, the famed international financier, as well as officials with Facebook and Microsoft.

CTE launches events for new faculty

A message from the Centre for Teaching Excellence.

The Centre for Teaching Excellence is hosting its winter term New Faculty Teaching Day on Friday, January 22. This day is intended for those new faculty members that arrived after (or missed) our August Teaching Orientation Days and is comprised of three of our four core new faculty workshops (Who are Our Learners, Classroom Dynamics and Engagement, and Assessment for Learning). The fourth core workshop, Course Design Fundamentals, will be offered as a part of our regular winter term programming, and can be completed on February 2, 2016.

In addition to the workshops, the New Faculty Planning Committee is hosting a New Faculty Welcome Luncheon midday at the University Club from 12:30 to 2:15 pm. During the luncheon new faculty will have the opportunity to meet members of some key Academic Support Units on campus as well as their own new faculty cohort group. The teaching workshops are scheduled around the luncheon. 

Talk explores human-computer gender bias

The Special Advisor to the President on Women’s and Gender Issues and the FAUW Status of Women and Equity Committee have announced the next speakers in this year’s Gender and Equity Scholarship Series and are inviting members of the University committee to attend the first lecture, which will be held on Tuesday, January 26 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in MC 5501.

English Language and Literature and Systems Design Engineering PhD candidate Adam Bradley and MA student Cayley MacArthur of the Games Institute will present a talk entitled “Gendered or neutral? Considering the Language of HCI.”

“The human-computer interaction (HCI) community appears at first glance to be gender neutral in that we often select gender non-specific words when referring to people in our writing,” says the talk’s abstract. “However, like many professions, we still face diversity challenges that have inspired research considering questions of gender equality in HCI. We join this body of research by conducting a study that explores whether the language used in our papers to describe people is actually perceived as gender neutral.”

“In this seminar, we will present a Mechanical Turk study that explores how the most common words that have been used to refer to people in recent HCI literature are received by non-experts. An analysis of the proceedings of CHI 2014, HCI’s top conference featuring nearly 1000 papers, shows that the top five “people words” are: user, participant, person, designer, and researcher. While we may intend the language that we use within our community to be neutral, our method can be used to help determine whether this is the case. We offer an increased understanding of the perception of HCI’s people words and discuss the challenges this poses to our community in striving toward gender inclusiveness.” 

The Gender and Equity Scholarship Series intends to assist not only with the promotion of gender and equity research currently being conducted at the University of Waterloo, but also with the creation of networking opportunities for equity minded faculty on campus. Light refreshments and desserts will be served.   

Sever Ties referendum and other notes

You may have heard that there is currently a student referendum underway concerning the University's academic links with several institutes of higher learning in Israel.

Last October, a group called Ethical Collaboration gathered signatures on a petition and delivered it to the Federation of Students, who after verifying the petition triggered a referendum in accordance with the organization's bylaws.

The referendum question is as follows:

"Do you think the University of Waterloo should sever ties with the following institutions due to their complicity in violations of the human rights of Palestinians: University of Haifa, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science?"

Students proceeded to form Yes and No committees. The referendum campaign began on January 10 and runs until January 25. Electronic voting takes place from January 25 to January 27.

“The Federation of Students is hosting the Sever Ties Debate today from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre Great Hall," writes the Federation's Jacqueline Martinz. "This is an opportunity for anyone interested in learning more about the two perspectives to get informed, ask questions, and make their voice heard. More information about the debate and the referendum is available online.”

The event will be livestreamed.

This from the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA): "There is a vacancy on the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) committee (Policy 67).

"Advisory to the Associate Provost, Human Resources, the EAP Committee consists of a representative from each of the Faculty and Staff Associations and CUPE Local 793 and from the following University departments: Counselling Services, Health Services, Human Resources. The Committee's terms of reference include promoting EAP, reporting generally on its use and developing recommendations to improve its effectiveness.

"The EAP Policy is currently under review and we anticipate significant changes. This is a very good opportunity for someone to get meaningfully involved. For more information about this contact Michael Herz, UWSA President at mherz@uwaterloo.ca or x33227.

"If you are interested in applying for the position above, please submit the online web form for committee membership or fill out and send a printed copy to the chair of UWSA Nominating Committee, Gail Spencer at uwsanominate@uwaterloo.ca (DC 3609) by February 1, 2016."

Treat-a-Grams are now on sale! Send a sweet treat to a colleague and support Women in STEM Scholarships at Waterloo. Visit the Keystone Campaign’s Treat-a-Gram page for details. Hurry — orders are due by Thursday, February 4!

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