Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Executive actions at Orientation and beyond

It's Wednesday, September 6. Do you know where your President is?

If not, perhaps this biweekly update on the activities of the University of Waterloo's President and Vice-Chancellor Feridun Hamdullahpur will help.

President Hamdullahpur spent Labour Day weekend welcoming new students to campus as part of Orientation 2017. On Saturday, September 2, President Hamdullahpur spoke at International Orientation at Fed Hall. On Sunday, September 3, Feridun participated in Warrior Welcome and Family Send-Off activities at the PAC and Fed Hall. On Monday, September 4, the president spoke at Transfer and Exchange/Study Abroad student orientation in the Science Teaching Complex and later that day took in the Waterloo vs. York football game, cheering on the football team (and getting a photo with King Warrior), before heading off to another round of Warrior Welcome and Family Send-Off events. Feridun also spoke at Graduate Student Orientation on Tuesday afternoon.

So what's next for the president?

On Monday, September 11, Feridun will be welcoming delegates to an international water conference, The Role of Water Technology Innovation in the Blue Economy. The conference is being hosted by the Water Institute and takes place from Sunday, September 10 to Wednesday, September 13.

Later that day, the president will be donning an apron and grabbing a BBQ flipper to help serve food to 2,500 students at the President and Senior Staff Luncheon, held on the Davis Centre quad from noon to 1:30 p.m., or whenever the burgers run out. President Hamdullahpur and members of the University's executive council will welcome new and returning students while serving barbecue-style food (both meat and vegetarian options) as part of Welcome Week.

On Wednesday, September 13, Feridun will deliver opening remarks at the AquaHacking 2017 hackathon, held in conjunction with the international water research conference, at Fed Hall.

On Thursday, September 14, Feridun will host Hacking the Future, the 2017 Waterloo Innovation Summit, bringing greetings on behalf of the University to the event's opening session Thursday morning at 8:45 a.m. Check the Waterloo Innovation Summit website for more information about the roster of exciting speakers. 

Also, beginning next week, Feridun will be embarking upon a series of visits to first-year lectures across all faculties, so keep an eye out in a lecture hall near you between September 12 and October 3.

Growing a business with first work-term co-op students

When Nadesh Shanmuganathan launched his Mississauga-based software company in 2001 to develop a platform for loan management for the insurance industry, he turned to the Waterloo co-op program. He hired two first work-term students to transform his objectives into a concrete solution to help clients manage their loan portfolios.

“David and Tom will always be remembered and acknowledged by the principals as instrumental to the launch of Third Eye Solutions,” Shanmuganathan says of his first two co-op students. “These were two young students who were dedicated, loyal and shared the vision of creating something that will benefit many. Both of them had creativity and excellent work ethic.”

Sixteen years later, Third Eye Solutions has grown to be the largest exporter of insurance premium financing software to the United States. Shanmuganathan’s commitment to hiring first work-term co-op students has continued since then.

“First work term co-op students are eager to learn and embrace the opportunities provided to them. Their inexperience is shadowed by their drive and eagerness to excel,” he says. “I find they are more open to take on learning a new subject matter with passion and retain what they learn during rest of their career. It's a rewarding experience to see a student with zero experience leave at the end of the term with confidence and gratitude for the opportunity provided.”

Third Eye Solutions takes pride in having been able to act as a career launching pad for its co-ops. Many have gone on to work for well-known Silicon Valley companies and one student has even gone on to become a leading computer scientist in quantum computing.

Visit Third Eye Solutions’ website for more information about the company.

Bringing the history of Waterloo Optometry into focus

This is an excerpt of an article originally posted on the Innovation 60 blog in recognition of the 60^th Anniversary of the University of Waterloo.

In the early sixties, the College of Optometry of Ontario, Canada’s only English speaking Optometry program, was held in only two modest buildings at 138 and 140 St George Street, in the heart of Toronto. The reality was that the St. George Street buildings were bursting at the seams as 4 years of an optometry program within a space measuring only 15,600 square feet. Back then, the full-time faculty only included three; Dean Ted Fisher, Walwyn Long, and Clair Bobier. Later joined by William Lyle, the first of the faculty to have a PhD. Soon the program received the right to provide the Doctor of Optometry degree and so the next step was to seek a location within a university.

We all now know the university and the faculty which adopted Optometry in 1967, the young and ambitious University of Waterloo, which had only begun 10 years previously. It was the scientific discipline of Physiological Optics (now called Vision Science) which then underpinned the optometry curriculum that highlighted the point that Optometry was a profession. The report that resulted in the move of the College of Optometry to the University of Waterloo, titled “Report of the Senate Committee, University of Waterloo on Optometric Education in the University”, recommended that an optometry program be developed at the University of Waterloo in the Faculty of Science. The positive recommendation rested on the recognition that optometry is a “mature and sophisticated discipline based on a recognized body of scientific knowledge and appropriate for study at the university level”. The creation of a program and department in optometry in postgraduate work would provide training and courses for additional university teachers and students in optometry, will increase knowledge of vision problems and care, and will make available a body of resource personnel in matters of vision at UW. In addition, a new optometry clinic can service the university and community.   

In the early years in its new home, the School of Optometry was diffusely spread throughout the campus, with offices in the math building, research laboratories in the basement of the Biology building, and the clinic was in the old Waterloo post office, in downtown (uptown) Waterloo.  However, it was a step forward from the fraternity house in Toronto.

Read the rest of the article on the Innovation 60 blog.

Wednesday's notes

UW Fitness is offering Waterloo staff and faculty several specialized once weekly small group exercise programs in addition to their regular twice weekly small group personal training. Thanks to funding from the UW Staff Association’s Staff Excellence Fund, Waterloo staff receive a 50 percent discount on all fitness program registrations (includes "Learn To" programs and Small Group Personal Training). Take advantage of the private on campus facility under the guidance of certified staff.  

Please see the UW Fitness website for more details and scheduling. Click on “Learn To program” in the right side bar. This will take you to info on Small Group Personal Training and Learn To programs. Email fitness@uwaterloo.ca to register or call ext. 36841 for more information. Spaces are limited and new programs are starting

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Bazaarvoice, TD Bank and TD Lab, Broadway Technology, ecobee, Oliver Wyman, Communitech, Manulife Financial (Actuarial), Hatch, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Thomson Reuters Canada, McKinsey & Company, Kiewit, Wattpad, Intact Financial Corporation (Actuarial), Pacific Life Re, Connected Lab, Dealer-FX, Heap, Wish, Suncor Energy, Capital One - Tech, Aviva Canada, RL Solutions, CGI, BMO Financial Group, Asana, EY, Assuris, Public Accounting Information Night, StackAdapt, Facebook, Inc., Arup & Deloitte Management Services LP.

Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.