Monday, January 16, 2017

An update on accessibility at Waterloo

by Kenton Needham, Director of Human Resources

Accessibility is an important part of our culture and community. When people think about accessibility, many believe that it relates to barriers in our physical environment and related accommodations such as automatic door openers or curb cutouts. But accessibility is much broader and speaks to the University’s ability to provide an equal experience to all students and employees regardless of their age, creed, disability, marital/family status, sex, gender, race, and sexual orientation. Accessibility is really about inclusivity and a culture of respect for others.    

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) defines areas of compliance for the University as it relates to customer service, transportation, employment, information and communications, and public spaces. The legislation continues to evolve and the Ontario government is in the process of developing two new standards in the AODA: (i) health and (ii) education. In 2016, responsibility within the University for accessibility, as it relates to persons with disabilities, transitioned to Human Resources from AccessAbility Services.

With this shift, it is Human Resources’ goal to remain in line with legislation, and to ensure that the University is not only compliant but also recognized as a leader in accessibility for persons with disabilities. To support that goal, Human Resources recruited Joyce Barlow as the AODA Specialist to lead this initiative. Since beginning her employment with the University last July, Joyce has quickly developed a good understanding of the University’s current state of compliance through consultation with stakeholders across the campus and from that, is developing an AODA strategy that ultimately will improve accessibility standards within the University through a collaborative and sustainable approach.

As part of the transition from AccessAbility Services to Human Resources, when an individual now uses the Accessibility link on the University homepage, they will be directed to the Accessibility at Waterloo pages on the Human Resources website. These pages provide a central point for information on accessibility-related topics within the University, including available support services, campus accessibility, and legislatively required documents. The content aligns with the University’s central commitment to creating an inclusive community and offering support for persons with disabilities campus-wide, in addition to students. 

Staff and faculty with questions or concerns related to accessibility should contact Joyce Barlow, AODA Specialist at extension 30520. Students should continue to contact AccessAbility Services for academic accommodations.

Please feel free to forward any suggestions or feedback you may have regarding the website to hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca.

Tenth incoming Pharmacy class welcomed at white coat ceremony

On January 5, the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy invited friends and family to celebrate the tenth pharmacy class, Rx2020.

In front of a full auditorium, 120 students crossed the stage to don their white coats and begin their journey to becoming pharmacists. The white coat is a symbol of the professionalism, knowledge, and trust that pharmacists embody. The students are helped into their coats by practicing members of their future profession, including School of Pharmacy alumni and representatives from both local and national pharmacist associations.

Community values at the heart of being a pharmacist

The values of community were celebrated by each of the ceremony’s speakers. President Feridun Hamdullahpur welcomed Rx2020 to the University of Waterloo, reminding the students that 2017 is also the University’s 60^th Anniversary, and Dean of Science Bob Lemieux congratulated students on joining a leading Faculty of Science.

The representatives from pharmacy associations also spoke to the value of community in the work of pharmacists. They reminded students that pharmacy is a collaborative profession where bonds are formed between patient and pharmacist and amongst pharmacists and their many colleagues in the healthcare environment. The speakers of the night represented many pharmacy organizations, from national groups like the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, to the Ontario College of Pharmacists (OCP) and Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) at the provincial level, and the local Region of Waterloo Pharmacists Association.

“Listening to the speeches from all the pharmacy professionals was very inspiring,” said first year student Alisa Zhang. “We're all a little nervous in our first week, but the words of so many accomplished pharmacists helped me remember why I want to be here and that we have so much to look forward to!”

For these new students, perhaps the most important community was the one represented by Melanie Sanderson, President of the Society of Pharmacy Students: the community of fellow students.

“I can say that my success in pharmacy school and the reason that I’m up here speaking is due to my wonderful classmates,” said Sanderson. “Pharmacy school can be challenging, and it definitely has its ups and downs, but if you work together I can promise you that these next four years will be rewarding and full of success.”

The School of Pharmacy is grateful to the sponsors that support this event each year: Scotiabank, TEVA Pfizer, and the OPA who generously provided the white coats for students. A new sponsor this year, the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists – Ontario Branch supplied engraved nametags that were pinned to each coat.

Adding barcodes to medical images to enhance searchability

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Professor Hamid Tizhoosh has been working on both medical images and artificial neural networks for two decades. Only recently he and his students at the Laboratory for Knowledge Inference in Medical Image Analysis (KIMIA Lab) were able to exploit the advances in machine learning to tag medical images with ‘deep barcodes’, an idea that can revolutionize diagnostic imaging.

“if we can generate a barcode for each image that uniquely represent that image, let say a mammogram, or a pathology scan, then we can also easily find similar images,” says Tizhoosh. Similar cases retrieved and displayed to clinical experts (e.g., radiologists, pathologists) along with biopsy reports and treatment results can indeed immensely reduce diagnostic error; comparing the image with similar cases from the past is basically “virtual” peer review, a technology that is missing and bitterly needed in medical image analysis.

Tizhoosh was facing some challenges on the way to develop a platform for using deep learning for medical image identification. “Training a deep network with large number of images is a huge problem if you do not have computational resources to do it,” says Tizhoosh. However, he recently received a research award from Microsoft that enables him to use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform for his experiments.

“That’s fantastic news for KIMIA Lab,” he says. “We finally have access to state-of-the-art GPU and distributed computing to finalize our experiments.”  The award enables KIMIA Lab to use the Azure resources equivalent to $20,000 USD. 

Deadline for Staff Conference proposals today

Organizational & Human Development (OHD) is inviting proposals for workshop sessions for the 10th annual staff conference taking place on April 5 and 6. Session proposals should be for a stimulating or interactive learning experience focused on professional and/or personal development of employees at the University of Waterloo. The workshop or presentation should include discussion items, activities, and/or other methods of engagement, along with clear learning objectives or outcomes. If you have an idea for a workshop or presentation, we would love to hear from you!

Potential workshop themes for 2017 include: 

• Leadership
• Team building/working in teams
• Leading change
• Wellness
• Process improvement
• Mental health
• Communication
• Leveraging technology/innovation
• Supporting students
• Community outreach and engagement/corporate and social responsibility
• Sustainability
• New or forthcoming initiatives for employees
• Waterloo’s 60^th anniversary/institutional history
• Other suggestions are welcome!

If you are interested, please preview the submission guidelines and sample form (PDF) to assist in drafting your proposal and to be aware of important information and expectations.

Once complete, please use the online form to submit your session proposal for the 2017 Conference.

For questions about the conference or submitting a proposal, please contact Mark Lisetto-Smith, Coordinator, Communications & Events, Organizational & Human Development, (519) 888-4567 ext. 38257.