Wednesday, September 27, 2017

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• A thank-you to Orientation volunteers
• Libro Prosperity Fund supports St. Paul's GreenHouse
• Gear up for this weekend's Game Jam
• Cheriton Research Symposium and other notes

A thank-you to Orientation volunteers

"As we settle into the fall term, I want to personally thank you for supporting our incoming students as they transition to Waterloo," writes President and Vice-Chancellor Feridun Hamdullahpur in a mass email circulated to faculty and staff this morning. "Whether you volunteered at Family Welcome events, wore a Here to Help button, participated in an Orientation event, or simply shared a friendly smile with a new student, your efforts are appreciated."

More than 500 staff and faculty members volunteered along with 1,250 student leaders to make Orientation happen this year.

First-year Orientation helps prepare all incoming first-year students with faculty-customized programming and campus-wide events to bring new students together. 89 percent of incoming first-year students participated in 7 days of Orientation, which included more than 90 events.

Other Orientation numbers:

• International Orientation took place over 3 days and involved more than 660 students;
• 164 students took part in Out-of-Province/American student orientation programming;
• Transfer and Exchange Orientation involved more than 330 students;
• More than 850 students participated in Graduate Orientation, a conference-style event with 18 different sessions.

During the first days of Orientation, parents and families participated in a special session to hear about useful tips and strategies to support their student's transition and an official welcome event with faculty and staff. Over three days, there were five events involving 300+ parents and other family members.

"Orientation is a key part of our comprehensive approach to new student transition along with Faculty 101 Days and other ongoing programs and supports," the president writes. "Thank you all for your support in the success of Orientation 2017! I look forward to an exciting and rewarding fall term." 

Libro Prosperity Fund supports St. Paul's GreenHouse

Libro Credit Union awarded $35,000 to St. Paul’s GreenHouse from its Prosperity Fund earlier this month, a program which recognizes initiatives that focus on regional economic development, money smarts, and youth leadership.

The funds will be used to invest in new Discovery Labs and the Big Ideas Challenge to help more students come up with impactful ideas for social good. It is the second time that GreenHouse has received this funding.

“We’re passionate about investing in our communities,” said Martin Kihle, a Libro regional manager for Kitchener-Waterloo. “It’s not just about dollars and cents for us, but about how we conduct business. We salute you for doing good in our communities.”

Director of GreenHouse Tania Del Matto said “The timing couldn’t be better. We’re starting to incorporate Discovery Labs into our brand-new space, which will give support to students in identifying and understanding pressing problems to solve, as well as training and skill development on design thinking practices.”

She added, “These labs will allow for students and community members to co-design early-stage prototypes and provide pathways for these ideas to be incubated in GreenHouse, thereby resulting in more impactful projects and ventures.”

Partners who are scheduled to be part of the Discovery Labs include Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network, KidsAbility, and the Waterloo Global Science Initiative.

This grant will also help the continued growth of the Big Ideas Challenge, a competition that creates Fellowship opportunities for student entrepreneurs to receive in-depth coaching and funding to further develop their ideas and initiatives.

Gear up for this weekend's Game Jam

This weekend The Games Institute will be hosting the Fall 2017 Game Jam from Friday, September 29 at 4:30 p.m. to Sunday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. This event affords attendees with the amazing opportunity to learn, make and play.

Learn about the creation of games and game design from GI and leading experts in this industry. Take the opportunity to make your own game from scratch while receiving helpful advice from the GI mentors.

The opportunities are endless when it comes to what you can make over the weekend, whether it’s constructing game characters and narrative, to developing gameful art or coding your own game prototype, this event has something for everyone.

Toward the end of the weekend you’ll be able to try out some of the games that were made at the DIY event, and you’ll also be able to receive feedback from local game experts.

If you’re curious to know what kinds of games are created as a result of our Game Jams, look no further.

If you’re interested in attending this event, follow these steps:

Step 1: All event attendees are required to pre-register before the event online through the Eventbrite page.

Step 2: Submit payment through the University of Waterloo Shopify channel.

The Games Institute hopes to see you at the event!

Cheriton Research Symposium and other notes

The Cheriton School of Computer Science is hosting the annual Cheriton Research Symposium this Thursday and Friday in the Davis Centre. 

The symposium features a number of talks, panel discussions, and poster presentation, and includes a keynote address by Professor David R. Cheriton of Stanford University, whose $25 million gift in 2005 led to the renaming of Waterloo's School of Computer Science in his honour. Cheriton's remarks are entitled The Age of Incompetence and Software Evolution.

Posters by David R. Cheriton Graduate Scholarship recipients will be on display in the Great Hall, Davis Centre from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily.

The Arts Undergraduate Office will be closed on the following dates:

• Wednesday, September 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.;
• Friday, September 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Tableau Software, Uken Games, Arista Networks, Morneau Shepell, Procter and Gamble, Avanade Inc., CPPIB, Yahoo, Bosch Rexroth Canada Corp., NVIDIA, NexJ Systems, Electronic Arts, Klenzoid Canada Inc., Aviva Canada, Zynga, Labatt, Yelp, RSA Canada, Sortable and Accompass. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.