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Today, Waterloo remembers
The University of Waterloo community, along with the rest of the country, will pause for a few moments today to remember Canada's war dead.
"Our commitment to acknowledging the awesome pain of armed conflict is essential to preserving the peace for our generation and those to come," wrote President Feridun Hamdullahpur in a message circulated to campus this morning and posted on his blog. "On November 13, when Remembrance Day is observed in Hong Kong, I will lay a wreath for the University of Waterloo at the Hong Kong Cenotaph. Here, the names of thousands of Canadian and allied service personnel are etched in stone and on the hearts of all who gather to celebrate liberty, and the cost of it."
The official date of the Remembrance Day commemoration is always November 11, the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the guns fell silent at the end of the First World War. Much of Remembrance Day's imagery is connected to that conflict, including the poppies, sold by the Royal Canadian Legion and worn on lapels, that recall the wildflowers that grow in the fields of Flanders, in north Belgium, as mentioned in the famous poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae that is read at many Remembrance Day commemorations.
In accordance with university guidelines, the flags at the University's south entrance will be lowered from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. today.
For those members of the University community looking to mark the occasion on campus, the UW Chaplain's Association has organized a Remembrance Day interfaith service in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall beginning at 10:45 a.m. The service will include music from the University Chamber Choir, prayers for peace from a variety of faith backgrounds, and the traditional 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 a.m. Everyone is welcome.
Other local ceremonies include:
- Waterloo - The parade begins at 10:00 a.m. with the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 530 marching down Regina Street, and the ceremony takes place at the Waterloo Cenotaph at 10:15 a.m. In addition to the traditional Remembrance Day proceedings, a dedication ceremony will be held for a decommissioned Light Armored Vehicle (LAV), which was recently installed near the cenotaph as part of a national monument program.
- Kitchener - This year, the ceremony will be taking place in Carl Zehr Square instead of the Kitchener Cenotaph, with a parade beginning at 10:30 a.m. at the Victoria Park Clock Tower marching to city hall. A special drumhead service will be held at 10:45 a.m.
- Cambridge - There will be a ceremony at the Hespeler Cenotaph at the corner of Queen and Tannery Street at 10:30 a.m., a ceremony at the Cenotaph at 82 Ainslie Street at 11:00 a.m., and a ceremony at the Cenotaph at 334 Westminster Drive North at 11:00 a.m.
- Stratford - A wreath-laying will take place at the Cenotaph on York Street at 9:30 a.m., with a parade beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the Legion Hall on St. Patrick Street that ends at the Cenotaph for the ceremony.
"We will silently acknowledge those Canadians who fell here for freedom, 'whom age shall not weary, nor the years condemn'," Hamdullahpur writes. "Today, I ask and encourage you also to think silently upon those who gave their lives — whether in the World Wars, Korea, Afghanistan, or peacekeeping operations around the globe — so we could live ours free."
St. Paul's unveils gender-neutral washrooms
As part of a recent upgrade to its East Wing washrooms, St. Paul’s has converted all the single-sex washrooms into gender-neutral individual cubicles with private shower, sink, and toilet.
Each floor on the East Wing now has several cubicles, as well as a common area with a sink and vanity countertop. These washrooms are open at all times and no special arrangements are needed to use them.
“We believe our students will be more comfortable with this new configuration, as it allows for maximum privacy and gender doesn’t need to play a role,” said Lindsay Restagno, director of operations at St. Paul’s.
St. Paul’s has also added gender-neutral washrooms in the public part of its campus. The residences in the new wing, to open in September 2017, have private ensuites in each room.
Waterloo dominates at regional ACM conference
This article was originally posted on the School of Computer Science's website.
Waterloo's ACM competition teams dominated at the 2016 Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest East Central North America Regional Programming Contest, held October 29, 2016. The programming contest took place at the University of Windsor and was the qualifying contest for the ACM ICPC World Finals for teams from Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania.
All five of Waterloo's competition teams placed in the top 10, with Waterloo Royal Blue (Jacob Jackson, 2A Computer Science | Timothy Li, 1A Computer Science | Antonio Molina Lovett, 4A Mathematics) placing 1st and solving all 10 problems in 224 minutes.
"I am very proud of the effort all these students put into the competition," said coach Troy Vasiga. "They have practiced every weekend in October and worked extremely well together as teams."
The 2016 ECNA contest saw 126 registered teams competing for first place in the 5-hour, 10 problem contest. The contest included writing algorithms to read input and produce the correct output. The ranking of teams is by number of problems solved, then by penalty time - the number of minutes past the start of the contest when you submit a correct solution to a problem, plus 20 minutes per incorrect submission to a problem.
Every September and October preliminary local competitions are held and are open to all students from all faculties with other competitions occurring throughout the winter and spring terms. Some students come to the University already battle-hardened from the International Olympiad in Informatics, Canadian Computing Olympiad, and Top Coder competitions. Others had learned programming only days before they compete.
Congratulations to all participants and coaches Ondřej Lhoták, Troy Vasiga and student coach Andy Huang for this strong showing.
Waterloo's Royal Blue will represent Waterloo at the ACM ICPC World Finals, to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota, May 2017. They will compete against 130 other teams from around the world who are also the best teams in their particular geographical region.
2016 Competition teams
Royal Blue | 1st place
- Jacob Jackson, 2A Computer Science
- Timothy Li, 1A Computer Science
- Antonio Molina Lovett, 4A Mathematics
Black | 2nd place
- Renato Ferreira, 3B Computer Science
- David Choi, 1st Year Masters, Computer Science
- Ted Ying, 3B Software Engineering
White | 4th place
- Andy Rock, 2A Computer Science
- Jeffrey Xiao, 1A Software Engineering
- Fengyang Wang, 3A Mathematics
Gold | 5th place
- Joakim Blikstad, 1A Computer Science
- Sean Purcell, 2A Software Engineering
- Farbod Yadegarian, 1A Computer Science
Red | 8th place
- Ben Zhang, 2A Computer Science
- Felix Bauckholt, 2B Mathematics
- Nimesh Ghelani, 1st year Masters, Computer Science
Friday's notes
The University of Waterloo delegation's Asia trip continues today, with visits, meetings and agreement signings with Huawei, Tsing Hua Shenzen Campus, Tsinghua Graduate School, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).