Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Acrobatic performance shows the art of image science

The wires of state-of-the-art Christie Digital projectors have been crossed with circus high wires in a new innovative artistic endeavour featuring Waterloo students.

Sara Greenberg, an MASc student in Systems Design Engineering, has paired her thesis work on tracking the human body from depth images to her passion in the circus arts. Over the last year, Greenberg, fellow graduate student and PhD candidate Audrey Chung and Waterloo alumna Valerie Arthur have combined these disparate interests into multimedia performance art pieces that fuse computational vision and intelligence technologies developed in the Vision and Image Processing Research Group with a unique brand of high-flying artistic flair.

The performance piece, Auras, is a science-art crossover aerial live performance that artistically explores pendulum motion, elastic and inelastic collisions, and orbital relationships through the interaction of two human bodies. It was choreographed and performed by Greenberg and Arthur, with live projection mapping created by Greenberg and executed by Chung.

The Auras piece has been performed at the Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto showcase in September, where it earned the Emerging Artist honour.

Greenberg also recently performed at the Hercinia Arts October Art Party on Friday, October 28 and is scheduled to perform at Cirque-It in Toronto on December 1.

Greenberg and Chung are graduate students in the Vision and Image Processing Research Group. 

An Inside Scoop on WaterlooWorks

​by Clare Cummins

This January, WaterlooWorks will officially replace JobMine and other CECA administrative systems. As the implementation date nears, the WaterlooWorks team is working hard to finalize the technology, processes, communications and training material.

Students, employers and CECA staff can look forward to a variety of enhancements with the new system, including 24/7 access and an improved user interface.

We recently sat down with Danielle Poirier, a second-year Arts and Business student who has had a first-hand look at the new system during her co-op term as a technical writer on the WaterlooWorks team.

Question: Tell me a little bit about your job and how you interact with WaterlooWorks.

Danielle: I create, edit and update student and employer help documents for WaterlooWorks. I also facilitate staff training events like webinars and hands-on sessions. I work on several projects at a time and my priorities are constantly shifting, which is an exciting and refreshing way to approach work. There is no boring routine to fall into. New and exciting projects are being developed every day that I get to help out with.  

Q: Was WaterlooWorks easy to get used to?

D: Yes, it’s very user-friendly. It took me one or two sessions at most. The system is similar enough to how JobMine was organized in that it’s really easy to find the pages you want and need. I’ve been working with WaterlooWorks for almost three months, and have developed a clear understanding of the system; not only as a student, but in the role of a test employer and CECA staff member. Obviously, students won’t need to know the depth that I know, but the system is so easy to use that they will pick up the concepts and layout extremely quickly. That said, if they need help, I wrote some of the help documents to assist anyone if they need support!

Q: What did you learn working on the WaterlooWorks team that other students might not know yet?

D: I can’t wait to use it as a student looking for a work term. I know that next term, the job search process is going to be so much easier! I’m sure finding and applying to jobs will be much simpler thanks to the advanced search functionality. I’m also happy to know a bit more about what it takes to put together a system of this size – I’ve been involved in some really cool meetings and really got a sense of the types, and amount of, decisions that need to be made. It was cool to see how much actually goes in to developing the help material and the training sessions, and getting to be a part of that.

Q: What feature(s) are you most excited about?

D: It’s hard to pick just one. They are all so cool! The 24/7 access is pretty sweet. You don’t have to stress about taking screen shots of job postings the night before to review for your interview first thing in the morning. The search functionality is also really helpful. You can filter out jobs that aren’t applicable, or ones you don’t qualify for and mark the ones you aren’t interested in, which is going to save students a lot of time. Also, the maps are really cool. I always look my jobs up on Google maps anyway, but now WaterlooWorks can do that for me. Oh and one more- the back button works!

For more information about the system and to learn more about the benefits of WaterlooWorks, visit CECA's Systems Strategy website.

COP22 Climate Change Summit drop-in info sessions

The University is sending five students to this year’s COP22 UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco later this week. The students are from four faculties – Environment, Science, Arts and Engineering – all with diverse opinions of climate change and what actions are needed in the coming years.

If you’re interested in learning more about the steps being taken to make a global environmental impact, you are invited to attend an information session today to share your views with the delegates who will be representing Waterloo on the world stage.

At the information sessions, attendees can learn about the conference, Canada's role in the climate talks and give your feedback to the Waterloo delegation.

The drop-in sessions will be held:

• From 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the EV3 lobby; and
• From 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the SCL Vendor Alley.

Input from students, faculty and staff is welcome.

You can also follow the delegation during the conference, which will be held from November 7 to 18 on Twitter: @ClimateStudents.

Wednesday's notes

Human Resources has announced the following faculty retirements, effective October 1, 2016:

• Professor Helen Campbell, who started her career at Waterloo in June 1998 as research associate professor, retires from the School of Public Health and Health Systems/Propel
• Professor Paul Thagard, who joined Waterloo in July 1992 and retires as Professor in the Philosophy department

The following staff members retired effective October 1, 2016:

• Diane Wojnowski, who started at the University in September 1992, retires from housekeeping in Village 1;
• Anna Belan, who joined Waterloo in August 2001, retires as housekeeper in Housing and Residences;
• George Keta, who began working at the University in January 1986, retires as Building Serviceperson in Plant Operations;
• Mary Ellen Acorn, who started at Waterloo in February 1977, retires as Research Finance Manager in the Office of Research.

The following staff retired effective November 1, 2016:

• Letitia Burca, who began working at Waterloo in February 2008, retires as Custodian II in Plant Operations;
• Jane Holbrook, who started at the University in September 2003, retires as Senior Instructional Developer, Blended Learning at the Centre for Teaching Excellence;
• Hoa Mloc Phuong, who began working at Waterloo in January 1990, retires as Cook in Food Services.

The following faculty members retired as of November 1, 2016:

• Professor James Frank, who joined the University in 1982. Frank was a professor of kinesiology at Waterloo from 1982 to 2005, serving as Chair of the Department of Kinesiology from 1992 to 1998, and as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies from 2000 to 2003. From 2006 to 2011, he served as Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Windsor. Frank returned to Waterloo to serve as the Vice-President, Academic and Dean at St. Jerome's University from 2011 to 2013, and was Interim Associate Provost, Graduate Studies from July 2014 to June 2016. He retires as Professor of Kinesiology.
• Professor Peter Forsyth, who started at Waterloo in June 1987, retires as Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science.

Congratulations all!

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include KPMG and Ernst & Young. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.

Here are some more Halloween photos from across campus:

A collage from the annual Psychology Monster Mash, with all proceeds from the bake sale and whodunnit murder mystery going to the United Way.

Housing and Residences:

The Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship & Technology Centre: