Thursday, September 22, 2016

Canada’s largest educational fair is this weekend

A message from Marketing & Undergraduate Recruitment

This week marks the return of the Ontario Universities' Fair (OUF), which will run from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily, starting Friday, September 23 through to Sunday, September 25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) in downtown Toronto. This event continues to grow; last year there were more than 130,000 visitors in attendance. The OUF serves Toronto and the GTA, while the rest of the province can access the University Information Program (UIP) throughout October and November with fair- or presentation-style events in most Ontario regions.

High school students and their parents attend the OUF to talk with students, professors, and representatives from one of Ontario’s 21 universities. Waterloo “boothers” answer questions about programs, admission requirements, student life, and much more. New this year is the “OUF Passport”, a data collection barcode that will allow prospective students to easily share contact and program interest information with their chosen universities.  

In addition to the always-popular Waterloo booth, there will be hourly sessions in Waterloo’s presentation room (Room 718B) where our recruiters will share facts and stories in an engaging multimedia presentation. This year, part of the multimedia is a dramatic ‘trailer’ created by a Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) intern that worked with MUR over the Spring term. Experiential learning in action!

A special thanks should go out to the 600+ students, faculty, and staff who will represent Waterloo at the OUF this weekend.

IQC shows a little patriotism goes a long way

The Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo set a world record for creating a Canadian flag measuring about one one-hundredth the width of a human hair.

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ granted the inaugural award for smallest national flag to the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at Waterloo for the flag measuring 1.178 micrometres in length. It is invisible without the aid of an electron microscope.

Nathan Nelson-Fitzpatrick, nanofabrication process engineer at IQC, led the creation of the flag with assistance from Natalie Prislinger Pinchin, a Waterloo co-op student from the Faculty of Engineering. They created it on a silicon wafer bearing the official logo of the Canada 150 celebrations using an electron beam lithography system in the Quantum NanoFab facility at Waterloo.

“Canada 150 celebrates our past, present and future,” said Tobi Day-Hamilton, associate director of communications and strategic initiatives at IQC. “The future of Canadian technology is firmly set in the quantum world and at the nano-scale, so what better way to celebrate the lead up to 2017 than with a record-setting, nano-scale national flag.”

The record-setting flag was unveiled at IQC’s open house on September 17, which attracted nearly 1,000 visitors. It will also be on display in QUANTUM: The Exhibition, a Canada 150 Fund Signature Initiative, and part of Innovation150, a consortium of five leading Canadian science-outreach organizations. QUANTUM: The Exhibition is a 4,000-square-foot, interactive, travelling exhibit IQC developed highlighting Canada’s leadership in quantum information science and technology.

“I’m delighted that IQC is celebrating Canadian innovation through QUANTUM: The Exhibition and Innovation150,” said Raymond Laflamme, executive director of IQC. “It’s an opportunity to share the transformative technologies resulting from Canadian research and bring quantum computing to fellow Canadians from coast to coast to coast.”

The first of its kind, the exhibition will open at THEMUSEUM in downtown Kitchener on October 14, and then travel to science centres across the country throughout 2017.

Public lecture will examine sexual violence, social justice

Professor Rachel Alicia Griffin will speak at a special lecture next Thursday.

A message from the Equity Office.

Sexual violence, including sexual assault, is more common than many of us realize. It is experienced by women, men, girls and boys and transgender individuals of all age groups. Although sexual assault is prevalent, it remains one of the most underreported violent crimes in Canada. In addition, social attitudes and assumptions, including rape myths and misogynistic beliefs, can downplay the seriousness of sexual violence and discourage survivors from coming forward. Open and honest conversations that challenge these attitudes are essential to combating sexual violence in our communities.

On Thursday, September 29, the UW Equity Office invites you to a public lecture by Professor Rachel Alicia Griffin. The topic of Professor Griffin’s lecture is "Sexual Violence, Social Justice and Compassion." She will share current research findings about prevention of sexual violence and how to support survivors of sexual violence with compassion. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer period and a reception.

Griffin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Utah. Her research interests span Black feminist thought, critical race theory, popular culture, sport, education and sexual violence. In addition to being an award winning scholar, Professor Griffin is an activist who has advocated against sexual violence for more than a decade. She was awarded the 2012 to 2015 Judge William Holmes Cook Professorship by the Office of the Associate Chancellor for Institutional Diversity at SIU and the 2015 Scholar-Activist Award by the Critical Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association.

Join us for Professor Griffin’s lecture on September 29 at the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC) Room 0101. Doors open at 3:15 p.m., and seating will be on a first come, first serve basis. This event is presented along with several on-campus partners.

RSVP for the lecture online.