Wednesday, July 25, 2018

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• Remembering beloved Residence Warden Ron Eydt
• Researchers help answer the medical question we've all asked
• These are the issues: Graduate Studies
• Velocity Fund Finals today and other notes

Remembering beloved Residence Warden Ron Eydt

by Lucas Dunlop

Earlier this week the University of Waterloo community said goodbye to one of its most well-known retirees. Ron Eydt, the 30-year veteran of Waterloo Residences, passed away on July 23, 2018.

Over his three decade long career he worked with 1176 dons. To an outside observer, Ron was just their boss. To them, Ron was a mentor, a trusted advisor, and a friend that they could count on while juggling the many responsibilities that residence dons have.

“Ron didn’t care who you were, how much money you had– a person was a person. It didn’t matter if you were a first year student or, a janitor or the president of the university. You were treated with the same respect.” said Paul Heaslip, a don who worked with Ron from 1982-1984.

In 2012, over 200 of Ron’s former dons came to campus to celebrate his 80^th birthday. On top of that, they managed to raise $25,000 in the span of a few weeks to put towards the goal of having a section of the student health clinic named after Ron and his wife, Betsy.

The reception and funeral for Ron will take place at All Saints Anglican Church in Waterloo on Saturday, July 28th. The reception begins at 10:00 a.m, and the funeral service begins at 11:00 a.m. All members of the University of Waterloo community are welcome to attend.

Researchers help answer the medical question we've all asked

Professor Gladimir Baranoski (left) and his master's student Spencer Van Leeuwen examine computer-generated swatches depicting the effect of Rayleigh scattering in the papillary dermis on the appearance of skin specimens.

by Rose Simone. This is an excerpt of an article originally featured on the Computer Science news site.

Why do our veins look blue when blood is red? This is a seemingly elementary science trivia question, and certainly not one that computer science researchers would be expected to be interested in.

But Spencer Van Leeuwen, who recently completed his Master of Mathematics in Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, and his supervisor Professor Gladimir Baranoski, who heads the Natural Phenomena Simulation Group in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, have recently shed light on exactly why veins look blue.

The question is much more complex than it seems, and by tackling it using computer models that simulate organic structures, Van Leeuwen and Baranoski have elucidated the details how light interacts with the cellular and subcellular parts of the skin and blood to clarify how veins get their bluish appearance.

Ultimately, the work that Van Leeuwen and Baranoski have done in clarifying why veins look blue will add to the knowledge base that is needed for technologies that are capable of non-invasive diagnostic testing. There are some instruments today such as devices that measure the amount of oxygen in the blood without pricking the skin, and people have long dreamed of having a Star Trek-like tricorder that can scan for medical problems in a less invasive way. But for those types of instruments to work well, the fundamental data is important to ensure that the results are accurate.

“What we are doing is contributing to the understanding of what is happening inside our tissues,” Baranoski says.

Simulating how materials absorb and propagate light is known as “appearance modelling,” and can be applied to anything from a table, to a flower or to the human skin and blood, Baranoski says. It has long been an aspect of computer graphics used in computer games, but now it has the potential for a much wider range of applications, far beyond entertainment, he adds. “Computer science has to expand. It has strong potential to help in other areas.”

Decades ago, researchers realized that the bluish colour of veins might have something to do with the scattering of light, particularly a type of scattering known as Rayleigh scattering, which is what causes the sky to look blue. Since blue light has shorter, smaller wavelengths, it is more likely to be scattered when it bumps into molecules of the atmosphere, giving the sky its blue appearance. It was strongly suspected that that Rayleigh scattering, named after British physicist John William Strutt, also known as Lord Rayleigh, was also involved in the bluish appearance of veins.

But the question of exactly what is happening at the cellular and subcellular level to cause the scattering eluded researchers.

Read the rest of the article on the Computer Science website.

These are the issues: Graduate Studies

This is part two of a 7-week series in the Daily Bulletin examining the Strategic Plan Bridge to 2020 issue papers. Have your say and join the Strategic Plan conversation by providing feedback!

When the Graduate Studies advisory group set out to do its work, its goal was to identify and provide substantive background on issues facing graduate studies such that conversation could be facilitated among campus stakeholders.

For the University, graduate students are integral to the delivery of Waterloo's educational objectives of teaching and research. As sessional instructors, teaching assistants, laboratory instructors and in a variety of other roles, graduate students serve as educators, often as part of dynamic teaching teams involving faculty and staff.

Students seek graduate degrees for a wide variety of personal and professional objectives, and a common element among graduate students is their eagerness to learn and their desire to advance their academic capacities.

In this way, the University and the graduate student body benefit from the community to which graduate students, more than 5,800 at last count, contribute.

These thoughts led to a number of questions, namely: 

• How can Waterloo attract and retain the best graduate students, and facilitate the best support possible? and
• What is the appropriate size and composition of Waterloo’s graduate program?

Building a distinctive approach to the graduate experience at Waterloo is one way to attract and retain top graduate talent. Students themselves identify space, wellness, funding, and the quality of relationship with university administrators as key building blocks for that distinctive graduate student experience. Professional development and career-readiness are also important opportunities.

Engaging graduate students in meaningful research with real-world impact is another way to ensure that the graduate student experience at Waterloo is distinctive and attractive. Interdisciplinary research opportunities have emerged as a key motivating factor for graduate students.

Thought-starting questions

• What is the appropriate size and composition of Waterloo’s graduate program? How can Waterloo attract and retain the best graduate students, and facilitate the best support possible?
• How can we build a distinctive approach to the graduate experience at Waterloo?
• How can we engage graduate students more meaningfully in impactful research?

Check out the full issue paper (PDF) on the Bridge to 2020 website.

Join the conversation and provide your feedback on the Graduate Studies issue paper.

Velocity Fund Finals today and other notes

The Velocity Fund Finals take place today in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall. Velocity will be awarding $5K grants to four early-stage student-run startups, as well as four $25K prizes to developed startup companies and a $10K hardware prize to high-growth startups. The four winning companies will also earn a spot in the Velocity Garage. 

Attendees have a chance to win a pair of Beats headphones or a portable Bluetooth speaker, and there will also be a wide variety of Velocity swag to give away to people in the audience.

The competition gets started at 11:00 a.m. in the SLC Great Hall.

There will be a utilities shutdown in the form of loss of electricity on Saturday, July 28th from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in CPH for renovations. The effected areas will be 1327 (EngSoc) and 1321. Plant Operations apologizes for the inconvenience. 

There are no employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions. Visit the Employer Information Session calendar to stay updated.