Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Registration open for annual staff conference

Registration is now open for Organizational & Human Development’s (OHD) annual staff conference. The two-day event features world-class keynotes as well as workshops that help to develop personal and professional growth in Waterloo's employees and further creates a robust, vibrant, and engaged community.

Early registration is recommended as space is limited for certain workshops and for the keynotes. A number of workshops are offered both days for the convenience of attendees, and the keynotes will be video broadcast to an overflow room.

In addition, Information Systems & Technology (IST) and OHD have partnered to launch a new responsive web design (RWD) for the 2016 Staff Conference.

This mobile-first approach to responsive design provides site visitors with an optimal viewing experience; whether browsing from a desktop, tablet or smartphone device, site content is clean, simple, and easy to navigate. The site will allow conference attendees to quickly and easily check everything from event locations and maps to session times and descriptions across multiple devices.

This year the conference workshops will be held in Waterloo's new Science Teaching Complex (STC) and the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC). This move will allow for many more attendees to sign up for individual workshop sessions over the two-day event. The 2016 workshops cover a range of topics suited such as team building, career goals, nutrition, yoga, and more.

Keynote speakers include Samantha and Marc Hurwitz, musician Steven Page, David C. Roberston of the Wharton School, and adventurers and authors Colin and Julie Angus

Online registration closes on March 31.

Students take top awards at engineering competition

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Faculty of Engineering news site.

An easy-to-use system that enables farmers to reduce agricultural water waste through real-time, intelligent irrigation systems cleaned up at this year's Canadian Engineering Competition held at McGill University March 4-6.

Designed by five electrical and computer engineering students, Project Reservoir is comprised of sensors that monitor the real-time soil conditions of the field, a base station that controls irrigation valves and collects sensor data, and a powerful web interface that provides data visualization and irrigation set-up/control functionality.

Ryan Gibson, Austin Cousineau, Ian Murray, Stuart Alldritt and Nicole Jiang won first place in the Innovative Design Competition, the W. R. Petri Engineering Design Award for Technical Excellence, and the CEC Award for Outstanding Environmental Awareness.  

Project Reservoir is a recipient of funding from the Engineer of the Future Trust.

Second place in the Innovative Design Competition went to fourth-year Waterloo nanotechnology engineering students Wenbo Cui, Stuart Murray, Laura Bahlmann and Eric Beauregard for GraFET. The sensor uses a graphene based transistor and a dipole detection method to quickly detect toxic gases.

Read the rest of the article on the Engineering news site.

Centre for Teaching Excellence workshops spring into action

The Centre for Teaching Excellence offers workshops and events on a range of topics. The latest lineup of events include:

• CTE908:  Documenting Your Teaching for Tenure and Promotion, Tuesday, March 29, 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
• CTE760: Enhancing Group Work, Tuesday, April 5, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• CTE686: LEARN User Group, Thursday, April 14, 2016, 12 noon to 1:00 p.m.
• Mapping educational trajectories: What effect does transitioning between online and on-campus courses have on learning?, Friday, April 15, Time and location TBA (no registration required)
• CTE759: Designing Teaching and Learning Research, Wednesday, May 4, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
• CTE601: Instructional Skills Workshop (24 hours), Monday, May 16 to Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day
• CTE656: Getting Started in LEARN, Monday, July 25, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Check out the events page for the full listings of workshops and for instructions on how to sign up.

Also, save the date for the eighth annual Teaching and Learning Conference, set for Thursday, April 28. The theme of this year's conference is “Learning from Challenge and Failure” and the keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Michael Starbird. Registration for the conference is now open.

Varsity sports, game design showcase, other notes

The Warrior Men’s Volleyball team has qualified for the CIS Championship this week in Hamilton. The team will face off against McMaster on Thursday, March 10 at 8:00 p.m. for the quarter-final game.

A Fan Bus is being organized for students. Packages are available for purchase online or in the Athletics office until Wednesday, March 9 at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets for the game can also be purchased from McMaster.

The action will be broadcast live online all weekend long.

While we're on the subject of sports, the Warriors squash teams were active in the finals this past weekend, with two Waterloo men's players facing off in the men’s final. Cameron Seth defeated Blake Reinson to win the Canadian University Championship. Both Seth and Reinson went undefeated throughout the tournament. Overall, the men's team took silver at the tournament.

Women's squash player Marisa Seth took the first spot in the Women's B Final.

The Games Institute, UW International Game Development Association (IGDA), and the UW Game Development Club are hosting the GI Showcase on Thursday, March 10. This event is open to anyone with interests in gaming culture and community or who would like to learn more about it.

Attendees will spend the evening talking with people from the gaming community, including members of the Games Institute. Newly-developed games will be playtested, and participants will have a chance to play other video or tabletop games available at the Games Institute. Refreshments will be provided. There's still time to register on Eventbrite.

The event takes place at the Games Institute's new home in East Campus 1 (EC1).

Renison's East Asian Studies is hosting a lecture by Professor Philip Seaton of Hokkaido University entitled "Pop Culture, History and “Contents Tourism” in Japan."

“In recent years, the phenomenon of people travelling to further an interest in works of popular culture has gained much attention from the tourism industry and researchers alike,” notes the talk’s abstract. “Lord of the Rings locations in New Zealand, Disneyland theme parks, Star Trek Conventions and the Sherlock Holmes museum in London are some of the many well-known examples.”

“In Japan, the phenomenon gained widespread media attention when many Japanese fans of the Korean drama Winter Sonata visited South Korea in 2004. Since 2005, the Japanese government has actively encouraged local authorities to develop tourism assets relating to works of popular culture as a way of enhancing their local identity and tourism brand.”

The term in Japanese used to describe such tourism induced by popular culture is “contents tourism”. The “contents” are the narratives, characters, locations and other creative elements of popular cultural forms such as films, manga, anime and computer games that inspire fans to visit a particular destination.

The lecture, which takes place tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in REN 2106, presents examples of tourism to heritage sites in Japan that has been inspired by recent works of popular culture.

Today in the "where are they now?" department: Former Dean of Environment Deep Saini, who is currently serving as vice-president of the University of Toronto and principal of U of T Mississauga, is heading to Australia to serve as the Vice-Chancellor the University of Canberra.

Here's today's Nutrition Month "Myth vs. Fact" supplied by Health Services Nutritionist Sandra Ace:

Myth: Sugar makes kids hyperactive.

Fact: This myth is so commonly heard that almost everyone believes it. Yet a meta-analysis of clinical trials found sugar did not affect the behaviour of children, although a minor effect on a small subset of children could not be totally ruled out. Even though this conclusion was reach more than twenty years ago, a strong link between sugar and hyperactivity has yet to be established. In spite of this, it is still important to limit the amount of sugar eaten, since having too many sweets contributes extra calories and takes the place of other more nutritious foods. If you feel strongly that a food or group of foods is linked to behaviour changes in your child, discuss it with your family doctor or pediatrician and ask to be referred to a Registered Dietitian for dietary advice.