Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Waterloo Innovation Summit has disruptive aims

Some of the world’s foremost thinkers on disruptive technologies will gather at the University of Waterloo this September to discuss Canada’s role in the world’s next economy.

Joining Canadian business, government and academic leaders at this year’s Waterloo Innovation Summit will be influential speakers from some of the world’s most cutting-edge companies and innovative schools of thought.

Among the confirmed keynote speakers at this year’s summit, titled Hacking the Future, are Tesla’s JB Straubel, Jared Cohen, president of Jigsaw, and Amber Case, cyborg anthropologist and fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.

Bloomberg TV’s Amanda Lang and Michael Serbinis, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of LEAGUE, will co-chair the three-day event celebrating its fifth year.

“Our world is a rapidly changing place — from politics to our climate, from cybersecurity to our day-to-day activities, like driving to work,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur. “It’s critical that we transform, adapt and that takes insight and collaboration.

“As the University of Waterloo celebrates 60 years of innovation, we are delighted to provide this opportunity for these provocative and important discussions.”

In addition to keynote discussions, the 48-hour event will feature a diverse range of speakers from several industries, including:

• Sandeep Chennakeshu, president of BlackBerry Technology Solutions,
• Melissa Hathaway, cybersecurity advisor to two U.S. administrations,
• Tom Waller, senior vice-president of Whitespace, lululemon’s innovation team,
• Thomas Dolby, entrepreneur and a pioneer in the electronic music industry,
• Cindy Fagen, COO of SAP Labs Canada

Hacking the Future takes place September 13 through 15 at the University of Waterloo and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. Registration information and a complete list of speakers is available on the Waterloo Innovation Summit website.

Presented in collaboration with community partners, attendees also have the option to join the Innovation Ecosystem Tour on September 13.

New fleet copiers coming to an office near you

As daily work tasks go, copying, scanning and printing are about as exciting as nightly flossing.

But this summer, Retail Services is rolling out a whole new generation of multifunctional fleet copiers and printers to clients across Waterloo’s campus – complete with futuristic names such as VersaLink B405 and AltaLink C8045 – that will make the activities easier and faster for staff, and also for students using a revamped uPrint service.  

On June 8 and 9, curious users were able to check out the new Xerox machines during demo days at the Davis Centre Fishbowl.

“It went well. It was all positive,” says John Jaray, manager of Campus Tech who oversees the fleet of multifunction machines. “There’s a short learning curve on these new machines, so everyone gets up to speed quickly.”

The new models will replace the 412 existing machines found in nearly every department and will be in place by August. Not only do they offer touchscreen technology (the screens even pivot to make them more accessible), users will eventually be able to download apps onto the copiers that allow them to browse online and print selected pages, as well as translate documents into different languages.

And because Jaray’s team will have remote access to each machine, users experiencing a problem can get help without waiting for a troubleshooter to arrive in person.

“We can take over the panel and basically walk people through it,” says Jaray.

What hasn’t changed? The level of service and ease of use on the administrative side. Fleet clients don’t have to juggle multiple contracts with outside vendors or stock up on toner. This service is based on cost-per-copy. All the department has to look after is refilling the paper trays. Everything else is taken care of.

Lucas Mason, technical support assistant for the provost’s office, has used Retail Services fleet copiers for years, and worked with John Jaray to get his workflow scanning set up. He says working with an on-campus partner has meant that not only does he receive responses about requests within minutes, the parts he orders show up quickly too. “Anything I ever need, it’s just a quick phone call or email. They take care of me right away,” Mason says.

Students will be noticing some changes to their printing and copying services too this fall when uPrint is updated to incorporate new WatCard technology. They’ll soon be able to send documents to one of 53 multifunctional machines on campus for printing using tap technology. Each job, which is held in a queue, is only released when they tap at the copier where they stand.

Colour copies through uPrint will be 10 percent cheaper, making printing on campus even more in line with student budgets.

“It’s ‘find-me’ printing,” says Jaray, of the popular service, which is expected to hit nearly four million copies in 2017. “It’s going to be a lot better for students all around.”