Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Faculty, staff celebrate employment milestones

by Susan Fish.

The annual recognition reception for new members of the University community celebrating milestone employment anniversaries takes place tonight, and new members of the 25-Year, 35-Year, and 45-Year Clubs will be presented with an award for their dedication and years of service at the Physical Activities Complex.

79 employees, faculty and staff alike, will be officially welcomed to the club tonight, and in honour of the celebration event, the Daily Bulletin has asked a few of them to reflect on their time at the University:

Cindy Howe, Administrative Coordinator, Engineering Exchanges

Although Cindy Howe loves her job and says working at UWaterloo for 35 years has gone quickly, the administrative coordinator for the Faculty of Engineering Exchanges is passionate about getting out of her comfort zone on a regular basis.

“I love that I can play a part in helping students experience different cultures around the world,” says Cindy, who cites engineering professor Dr. Jerzy Pindera as inspirational: Pindera, who established the first UWaterloo engineering exchanges in Germany, spent time in two concentration campus during WW2 and vowed that if he survived, he would do all he could to encourage young people to get to know people of other cultures.  He once told Cindy, “if people get to really know people and especially people of other cultures, then hate cannot survive.” 

“I keep a clipping of his story near my desk and when I look at it I’m reminded of why exchange programs are so important.”

Although numbers vary, approximately 90 to 150 engineering students go out from while another 125 to 200 come to Waterloo Engineering each year.

Cindy, whose father worked as a UWaterloo electrician for many years, began her career as a receptionist and moved to other roles before joining the engineering undergraduate office in 1991. As responsibilities within the department grew, Cindy eventually focused on exchanges.

She gets out of her own comfort zone through music, tap dancing, leading dance classes (on and off campus), yoga, traveling and even indulges in some escapism by reading murder mysteries. “There is nothing quite like a good whodunnit!”

“I get to travel the world without leaving my office because our own students as well as visiting students share their stories with me”.  As a rule, students who plan to go on exchange already have that desire to stretch their comfort zones. I feel blessed that I get to meet so many amazing young people.”

John McPhee, Professor, Systems Design Engineering

For someone who has always liked things that move—a ball, a robot or a high jumper--to his surprise, John McPhee is celebrating his 25^th anniversary of staying in one place, as a systems design engineering professor at UWaterloo.

He reflects on what hasn’t changed at the university: “Undergrads are still enthusiastic and terribly smart, teaching me with the questions they ask. My colleagues are still very collegial.” Other things have changed: “Obviously there are more emails and fewer parking spots. Expectations for professors have changed—we’re much busier and there is less time for hallway conversations or quiet thinking. There are more female engineers. In 1992, I had to focus on computational engineering because I shared a small lab with two other professors and there wasn’t the space for physical experiments. Today we have tremendous new labs.”

A father of three children who also love motion and sports, outside of work John is busy in the “chauffeur years” but also finds time to play golf and hockey, only recently giving up soccer and basketball after an injury.

And while the motion of objects is predictable, not everything is.  For instance, John observes that his work as a science advisor for Golf Digest spun off into other opportunities, including the campus deployment of a golf simulator he uses for research and the golf team uses for practice. “Sometimes things go in unpredictable directions and opportunities,” he concludes.

Margaret Burnett, Administrative Officer, Department of Kinesiology

While Margaret Burnett, administrative officer in the department of kinesiology, celebrates 35 years working at UWaterloo, she’s actually been here since 1975, doing both her undergraduate and Master’s degree at UWaterloo. Waterloo is also a family affair— Marg’s husband did a Master’s in kinesiology here, while their three children have taken degrees at the university.

Marg feels lucky to be part of the department where the discipline of kinesiology was born, noting it has changed significantly even during her time. She says her former research supervisor Dr. Howard Green laughed that the program began with “fat calipers and a bicycle”. During Marg’s time at the university, she has been excited to work with new forms of technology and visionary faculty members.

While Marg did not expect to work in an administrative role, she says “I have enjoyed being able to witness great work at all levels and to facilitate its progress by making sure resources were in place.”

Outside of work, Marg is equally active, spending time with her family, gardening, hiking, camping, canoeing, volunteering, sewing, quilting, skiing, and spending time with longtime friends.

She also says, “I enjoy going to work every day and it’s an honour to work with great staff and faculty, and to know that we are working together, as our website says, to optimize health, prevent injury and illness, and extend quality of life for people.”

Ramona Bobocel, Professor, Psychology Department

Growing up in a small Alberta farming community as the youngest of seven daughters, Ramona Bobocel observed discrimination, particularly against women and First Nations people, and struggled to understand why. Discovering at university that discrimination was a central question within the discipline of psychology, she decided to pursue research in this field.

After a BSc at University of Alberta, and an MA and a PhD at University of Western Ontario, she came to UWaterloo in 1992 to a department that she describes as a “powerhouse.” Here, she began teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, and developed her research program, now focused on workplace fairness. In her own area of industrial/organizational psychology, Ramona has worked to double the faculty group during her 25-year history.  She is particularly proud of her many students now in faculty positions or working in organizations to improve employees’ quality of life.

In addition to her scientific contributions, Ramona has served on numerous university committees and is Past President of the Canadian Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She has also been honoured nationally as a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and internationally as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

Ramona appreciates having spent her career at an institution that continues to prioritize research and teaching excellence. She says that “UW Psychology is a world-class department because we have been able to replace excellent retiring faculty with exceptional young scholars” and “we have outstanding staff who support our research and teaching.” 

Ramona’s husband joined UWaterloo’s Department of Psychology in 2003. Outside of work, she says that they love to travel, often piggybacking family trips with their teen son onto academic conferences.

Executive Director of Co-operative Education named

“I’m very pleased to announce that Ross Johnston will assume the role of Executive Director, Co-operative Education, effective June 19,” writes Associate Provost, Co-operative and Experiential Education Peggy Jarvie in a memo circulated last week.

“Ross came to the University of Waterloo in 2009, after a corporate career spanning three countries,” continues Jarvie. “Since then, he has led the employment relations team through a period of reorganization and substantial growth, developing and implementing strategies and practices that have retained and attracted co-op employers, supported students and their supervisors on work terms, and contributed to strong co-op employment results. Ross has contributed to several collaborative initiatives across the University community, and currently sits on the boards of Canadian and US co-operative education associations. A proven leader with a strong base of experience, Ross’ energy and enthusiasm for co-op situates the University well for continued growth and innovation.”

The refined role of Executive Director, Co-operative Education was announced during a reorganization of the experiential education unit in February 2017. 

“In the new role of executive director, co-operative education, Ross will provide leadership in co-op in an environment of increasing focus on experiential education by government, media and the public. Areas reporting to Ross include employment relations, student and faculty relations, and communications and marketing. Operations and the centre for career action continue to report to me.  Recruitment of a new director of employment relations to replace Ross will begin soon.”

“Please join me in congratulating Ross on his new role,” Jarvie concludes. 

Computer Science remembers Arnie Dyck

This tribute was originally posted on the School of Computer Science news site.

It is with great sorrow that we announce that our long-time friend and dear colleague, Arnie Dyck, passed away on June 8, 2017 after a brief illness. He was 72.

Born in Virgil, Ontario, in the heart of Niagara Region, Arnie was raised on a fruit farm where he developed the traditional Mennonite work ethic rooted in productive labour. In 1963, he left Virgil to attend the University of Waterloo to earn a Bachelor of Mathematics in 1968, followed by a Master of Mathematics in 1969.

After graduating, Arnie was hired as a lecturer by Professor Don Cowan, the first chair of the new Applied Analysis and Computer Science Department. As a fledgling department, among its early challenges was finding qualified instructors to teach the burgeoning number of undergraduate students eager to master a new and rapidly evolving discipline. With colleague Peter Brillinger, Arnie developed, expanded and delivered the department’s early curriculum, helping to establish Waterloo as Canada’s epicentre of computer science excellence.

In 1985, Arnie, Jay Black and Shirley Fenton redesigned CS 100, the introductory computer science course for students in other faculties. The re-imagined course was a dramatic departure from the previous way of teaching computer science, shifting emphasis from instruction rooted in programming to one that centred on using productivity software at a time when personal computers were just becoming available. Since it was first offered, tens of thousands of Waterloo students have completed CS 100.

Arnie introduced the practicum in first-year computer science courses. This pedagogical model — a precursor to the flipped classroom — reverses a course’s lecture and work components. Lectures were first given to large groups of students, who were then split into small groups to solve complex programming challenges. Such an instructional model is both time and resource intensive, but Arnie felt that putting concepts into practice early would reap the greatest pedagogic rewards.

Arnie Dyck with students in the MacJANET lab in the Mathematics and Computer building circa 1986.

Arnie was the Computer Science Department’s first academic advisor and later the Mathematics Faculty’s Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies from 1987 to 1991. He guided undergraduate computer science students on the courses to take and when to take them, ensuring that degree and specialization requirements were met. He authored several introductory textbooks on Fortran, WATFIV-S and Pascal, and published articles periodically on computer science education.

During his tenure, Arnie was promoted from Lecturer to Assistant Professor to Associate Professor and retired from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science in September 2007. After retirement, he continued working at Waterloo as the Associate Dean for Co-operative Studies in the Faculty of Mathematics, a position he held until 2011.

Numerous colleagues at the School of Computer Science and in the Dean’s office described Arnie as a pleasure to work with, as much a valued colleague as a dear friend who was unfailingly professional, respectful and above all kind and empathetic. Arnie believed strongly in students, in their potential and in guiding them to success.

Arnie and his wife Louisa moved in 2011 to Cobble Hill, a small town on Vancouver Island, to be nearer to their two children. Our thoughts are with Arnie’s family — wife Louisa, daughter Whitney and son-in-law Scott Flynn, son Andrew and daughter-in-law Bojana, and their two children, Stefan and Damian.

Appointment of the University Registrar

"I am delighted to inform you that Catherine Newell Kelly has been appointed as University Registrar," wrote Ian Orchard, Vice President Academic and Provost, in a memo that circulated in the Registrar's office on Monday.

Cathy will take up her new position on August 1, 2017. She began her career at the University of Waterloo in 1996 in what was then known as Distance and Continuing Education. Cathy helped to shepherd the office through the transition from correspondence (cassette tapes and notes) to online delivery—enabling a better learning experience for students regardless of their location. Cathy was actively engaged in the original implementation of Quest, ensuring that processes and functionality supported the unique needs of distant learners. Cathy became the Director in 2005 and The Centre for Extended Learning is now among the largest online learning operations in Ontario and beyond, supporting over 40,000 course registrations annually.

Cathy served for many years on the Executives of the Ontario Council for University Lifelong Learning (President, 2006-07), and the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (President, 2012-13). She has been an active member of several University committees, including the Academic Programming Strategic Theme steering committee, Leadership Forum Advisory Committee, Pension and Benefits Committee, Undergrad Operations, and several others.

Most recently, Cathy helped to shape and launch the Ministry’s eCampusOntario, serving as its inaugural Executive Director from 2015-2016 on loan from Waterloo.

Cathy completed her BA (Economics) at Waterloo (1993) and then her Master of Business Administration at Laurier (1995). She looks forward to bringing her passion for Waterloo, its students, staff, and faculty to the amazing team in the Registrar’s Office!

Ian Orchard would like to extend his gratitude to Maureen Jones for stepping in to act as Interim University Registrar.

Tuesday's notes

Note that the PhD oral defence notice for Drew Weatherhead's "The role of social information in infants' and toddlers' linguistic representation," was posted without specifying its time in Friday's edition of the Daily Bulletin. The defence will be delivered on Wednesday, June 21, at 1:00 p.m..