Friday, September 15, 2017

Waterloo Innovation Summit continues today

The second day of the Waterloo Innovation Summit began with registration and breakfast at the Shopify Plus space inside the former Seagram Museum, adjacent to the CIGI Campus.

The final day of the 2017 Waterloo Innovation Summit picks up at the Centre for International Governance Innovation this morning with opening remarks from conference co-chair Amanda Lang.

NRC President Iain Stewart, Alex Benay, Canada's Chief Information Officer and Ontario’s Assistant Director of Delivery and User Experience Amy Swenson will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Disruption in Government: Beyond Innovation Policy."

Following the panel discussion, security expert Melissa Hathaway will deliver her presentation "Cybersecurity: Can Policy Keep Up?"

Conference co-chair Michael Serbinis and Ted Livingston, founder of Kik, will discuss the topic "Cryptocurrency for an Open Future."

Following a networking break, conference strategic director Nikolas Badminton will introduce Tom Waller, senior vice president of Whitespace, whose talk is entitled "Competitive Product Innovation to Drive Growth."

The final session of the morning is a panel discussion entitled "From Startup to Scale Up: The Ultimate Adaptation" with Carol Leaman CEO of Axonify, Vitaly Pecherskiy, co-founder of StackAdapt and moderator Kim Morouney of the Lazaridis Institute.

Tesla's Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel will then deliver the keynote address entitled "What Lies Ahead in the Drive to Disruptive Technology?" and participate in a Q&A session with Amanda Lang.

The conference will conclude in the afternoon with brief remarks from Vice-President, University Relations Sandra Banks and conference co-chairs Amanda Lang and Michael Serbinis.

Follow along on social media with the hashtag #WINS17 and check the Waterloo Innovation Summit website for real-time updates and recaps of the signature events. You can also download the official WINS17 app from the App Store, Google Play, or from CrowdCompass.

Highlights from Day One of WINS17

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Electronic musician Thomas Dolby blinds them with science at the Waterloo Innovation Summit on Thursday.

Day one of the Waterloo Innovation Summit saw over 300 business, government and academic leaders converge in Waterloo for thoughtful and provocative discussions on the defining trends of our time. Check out the video highlights from the first day:

Doors Open to feature 60th anniversary lecture

Doors Open Waterloo Region is holding their 15^th annual Free Talk on Saturday, September 16 and is inviting the whole community to join in.

In this illustrated talk, entitled "60 Years at Waterloo: Perspectives of a University from a Corn Field to Architectural Traditions," Ken McLaughlin, distinguished professor emeritus and the University of Waterloo’s official historian, will tell the story of the development of the 1,000-acre campus, and its impact in Waterloo and beyond.

Celebrating this anniversary year, Special Collections & Archives on the first floor of the iconic Dana Porter Library building will open from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. for behind-the-scenes tours of the facility and an overview of its more than 300 collections, including the University of Waterloo Archives.

There is no registration required for this event, which takes place at 1:00 p.m. in the Dana Porter Library's FLEX lab (LIB 329). Register to reserve a spot at this free event.

This year's Doors Open Waterloo Region is celebrating Canada 150 and Ontario 150, and its theme is Identity + Innovation.

So what else is open for Doors Open on campus, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you:

The Science Teaching Complex is inviting the community through its doors from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday. Experience hands-on science activities and guided tours, listen to mini-lectures on various science topics, and meet with student clubs at this new home for Waterloo Science students that provides them with the resources they need to succeed. Check the event listing for a complete rundown of activities.

Another Free Talk entitled Attractors will take place at 2:00 p.m. at the University of Waterloo's School of Pharmacy on Victoria Street in downtown Kitchener. Speaking will be Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects, one of Canada’s top architects, and lead in the design of both the School of Pharmacy and McMaster's DeGroote School of Medicine next door, who will talk about the philosophy and the collaboration that produced works like University of Waterloo Pharmacy, an icon in the evolving Kitchener-Waterloo landscape. He will discuss the ability of design to shift the perception of what an institution is and wants to be. This talk is presented in partnership with Waterloo's School of Architecture, which is celebrating 50 years in 2017.

The Agfa HealthCare and Cora Building in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park, the CIGI Campus and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in uptown Waterloo, the McMaster University Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in downtown Kitchener will also be among the 50 sites participating in Doors Open Waterloo Region.

Postdoc Appreciation Week and other notes

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) is pleased to announce that the University of Waterloo is one of 90+ institutions across Canada and the United States taking part in National Postdoc Appreciation Week from September 18 to September 22. This is Waterloo’s second annual event – last year, we hosted the largest event in Canada!

To show appreciation for University of Waterloo postdocs, GSPA has:

• Planned several professional development, social and wellness events throughout Postdoc Appreciation Week
• Sent Waterloo postdocs a small gift and an invitation to participate in Postdoc Appreciation Week activities
• Launched a #UWaterlooPostdoc photo contest

Please encourage postdocs to visit the Postdoctoral Affairs website for more information, and to attend Postdoc Appreciation Week events.  Feel free to show your love for postdocs via social media, too, but be sure to use hashtag #UWaterlooPostdoc!

Employee career development workshops are once again available through the Centre for Career Action. All sessions run over the lunch hour and take place in the Tatham Centre.

The following workshops will run this fall term. Employees interested in attending are encouraged to register early, as spaces are limited. 

• Résumé Tips (Wednesday, September 27)
• Interviews: Preparing for Questions (Tuesday, October 24)
• Discover Your Career Values (Thursday, November 16)

Coffee and treats will be served at all sessions and attendees are welcome to bring their lunch.

The Centre for Career Action provides workshops and confidential individual career advising at no cost to University of Waterloo employees who are in regular appointments or temporary assignments of one year or longer. This service falls under the University of Waterloo’s strategic Robust Employer-Employee Relationship theme, in which one of the objectives is to “enable staff to fulfill their potential in a career at the university.”

View the full schedule and register today!

For more information, contact the Employee Career Advisor at extension 31003.