Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Pearl Sullivan reappointed as Dean of Engineering

"It is my pleasure to announce the reappointment of Professor Pearl Sullivan as dean of the Faculty of Engineering for a second term of three years, commencing on July 1, 2017," writes Vice-President, Academic & Provost Ian Orchard in a memo circulated last week. "This reappointment was recommended by the nominating committee established under Policy 45 and has been approved by Senate and the Board of Governors."

Professor Sullivan came to University of Waterloo in 2004 as a professor of mechanical engineering and served as chair of the mechanical and mechatronics engineering department from 2006 until January 2012. She is the founding director of Waterloo's collaborative graduate program in nanotechnology within the Faculties of Engineering and Science. In 2009, she received the Outstanding Performance Award from Waterloo, and twice received the University of New Brunswick Faculty Merit Award for Excellence. She was the first woman to be appointed Dean of Engineering at Waterloo, and just the fourth woman in Canada to head an engineering faculty.

"I am delighted that Pearl is willing to continue as dean," writes the provost. "As a highly regarded scholar and educator as well as an experienced administrator and leader, she established herself as a valued member of the senior administrative team in her first term, and her reappointment enjoys support both within and outside the Faculty of Engineering.  She will surely have the support of the university community in leading the Faculty of Engineering to be a truly world-class school of engineering, and a destination of choice for outstanding students, faculty, staff and partners around the globe."

Registration open for fourth annual Eco-Summit

Join the UW Sustainability Office and Sustainable Campus Initiative on the afternoon of July 12 for Waterloo’s fourth-annual Eco-Summit! Each year the Eco-Summit brings together students, staff, faculty, and community partners with an interest in sustainability to build relationships, inspire action, and celebrate progress.

This year’s event will feature:

• A keynote presentation from Frances Edmonds, Head of Sustainability at HP Canada;
• Case studies from students, staff, and faculty around campus;
• Closing comments and Green Office certificate presentations from Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Waterloo.

Please visit the registration page to confirm your attendance, view the schedule, and learn about the speakers.

New online management system will support researchers

A message from the Office of Research

A new, high quality system that will reduce the amount of time spent on administrative work will be available for researchers to use beginning September 27.

Pure is a web-based, research management, networking, and expertise discovery system. During the initial phase of the launch, three modules will be in place:

1. The Portal module will create rich researcher profiles easily, with minimal researcher involvement. The profiles will be auto populated with researcher’s publications through Pure’s internal publication validation service. Profiles are discoverable online, enabling researchers to be discovered by, and find, potential collaborators.
2. The Funding Discovery module will improve the process of finding and applying to funding opportunities, with the added benefit of receiving notifications for deadlines and other opportunities.
3. The Reporting module will enable in-depth reporting and analytics of publications, research outputs and citation data, publicizing researcher expertise and increasing visibility across the research community.

Supported by the Research Support Fund, Pure was purchased to make it easier for researchers to focus on research. Researchers will be able to showcase accomplishments and encourage collaboration by promoting research activities and expertise. Other features include the ability to compile a complete view of research outputs from a variety of external sources, increase data accuracy and efficiency through validated publication imports from many online sources, and integration with both internal and external systems, such as OFIS, UW Scholar, and a variety of publication sources.

As development continues, researchers will have access to additional modules like CV and Awards Management. The CV module will allow electronic integration of CVs to the Canadian Common CV website. The Awards Management module will streamline the current Office of Research cover sheet process with an electronic version for more convenient and faster signature approvals, tracking and reporting.

For more information about Pure, please visit the Research Gateway Program website.

Remembering Paul Critchley

​A message from Co-operative and Experiential Education

Retired co-op placement officer Paul Critchley passed away on Thursday, June 22 at Grand River Hospital.

Paul enjoyed many years at the University of Waterloo at a time when the concept of co-operative education was very new. He was instrumental in expanding the program and he applied his skills as a patient mentor to hundreds of students from all walks of life.

Paul attended the University of Waterloo where he graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies (1971) and a degree in Architecture (1973). He played an instrumental role in designing many of Guelph's most recognized buildings, including St. John's Church, the National Trust Building on St. George's Square, L'Ecole St. Rene Goupil, the Victoria Road Recreation Centre, the Royal Plaza, the Wellington Hotel and the King Edward Hotel.

His favourite work was building schools as it supported his father's value of education and provided an opportunity to work with what he called "top-notch" colleagues.

Paul enjoyed people, tradition, a good party and a quiet cup of tea. Fun, funny and playful, he loved every minute of life. He will be remembered for his kind, patient and gentle way. A funeral Service will be held at Gilbert MacIntyre & Son Funeral Home, Hart Chapel, 1099 Gordon St., Guelph, on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at 1:00 p.m.

Tuesday's notes

Black, gold and proud: President Feridun Hamdullahpur joined the University of Waterloo's delegation at this year's Toronto Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25. President Hamdullahpur marched alongside representatives from the Federation of Students, the Glow Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity, and Waterloo students, faculty and staff.

There's still time to register for the Fourth Annual UWSA golf social tournament, scheduled to take place on Thursday, July 6 at the Foxwood Country Club in Baden. The tournament is open to everyone, and registration for UWSA and retiree association members is $60. For information on how to register visit the UWSA website. The cost includes 9 holes of golf, cart and a BBQ dinner.

Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering PhD student Chris Salisbury received the R.E. Peterson Award for the best paper published in the Journal of Dynamic Behavior of Materials. Salisbury's paper was entitled “Deformation Mechanics of a Non-linear Hyper-viscoelastic Porous Material, Parts I&II: Testing and Constitutive Modeling of Non-porous Polychloroprene.” Professors Fue-Sang and Duane Cronin were Salisbury's PhD supervisors and co-authors of the 2015 journal article.

Salisbury completed his doctorate at Waterloo in 2011 and currently works for the Department of National Defence in Canada in the area of Explosive Ordnance Disposal.

The Federation of Students, in collaboration with the Waterloo Aboriginal Education Centre and Aboriginal Students Association, would like to invite members of the University community to attend a special event to mark the installation of a land acknowledgement plaque at the Student Life Centre.

The plaque acknowledges that the University of Waterloo—and specifically the Federation of Students’ operations at the SLC—is situated on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnawbe and Haudenosaunee peoples.

The ceremony takes place on Friday, June 30 at 1:30 p.m. outside the Ring Road entrance of the Student Life Centre and will include traditional songs and remarks from President Feridun Hamdullahpur, the Federation of Students, the Waterloo Aboriginal Education Centre and the Aboriginal Students Association and the Honourable Bardish Chagger. The plaque will be installed outside the entrance to the Student Life Centre.