Thursday, August 23, 2018

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• Schulich Leader Scholarship winners named
• Single and Sexy to celebrate 30 years
• Negative perceptions of retirement fuel negative outcomes, study says
• Road closure taking place today

Schulich Leader Scholarship winners named

By Lucas Dunlop. The full version of this article originally appeared on Waterloo Stories

Four first-year students finding their way to campus this September will be doing so with an extra spring in their step — one worth between $80,000 and $100,000.

The four students are winners of Schulich Leader Scholarships, the largest scholarships for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs in Canada.  The incoming Schulich Leaders distinguished themselves with high grades, leadership roles in their communities, and participation in entrepreneurial ventures.

Read more about the four University of Waterloo winners below:

David Gu

David Gu is a high school student with a variety of interests and a lot of passion. He has launched a startup called LearnVR that helps beginner programmers learn about Virtual and Augmented reality. Gu also created a smartphone-based augmented reality platform to help train health professionals. He has spoken at conferences about his products and has won hackathons. He created a virtual reality software platform to improve exercise for seniors, winning a Grand Prize at the MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon. At high school, Gu started two clubs, became the first student at his school to take four Higher Level IB courses concurrently and wrote programs to help visualize molecular structures and practise second languages online — all while maintaining a 98 per cent average. He achieved the highest graduating average in his year, and received the Governor General’s Academic Medal.  When asked about future career prospects, David responded: “I am passionate about innovation and changing the world with technology. With the help of the Schulich Leader Scholarship, I can bring my entrepreneurship to next level. My goal for my future career is to solve the world's most pressing problems with technology and innovation.”

Atif Mahmud

As a high school student, Atif Mahmud explored academic opportunities that most undergraduates don’t get to experience. Mahmud completed a full-time undergraduate level research assistantship, and also collaborated with members of multiple faculties on his own personal projects. He is CEO and lead developer for Flowi, a startup based in Waterloo that is an advertising solution for businesses located in dense city centres. It allows local businesses to send push notifications for deals from nearby stores if the user is connected to the free Wi-Fi network. Mahmud also developed a machine learning model to predict harmful algal blooms in fresh and saltwater ecosystems. This project, called NeurAlgae, has been recognized by the Canada-Wide Science Fair and is currently being considered for adoption in national waters through cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When asked how he balances all of these many responsibilities, he responded “For me, balance comes down to finding enjoyment in everything you do, I try to be an optimist and focus on intrinsic metrics for my own success. That way I can always gauge how I’m doing without focusing on what other people think. In terms of specific strategies, I have one that I live by: don’t multitask. Focusing my energy into only one thing at a time has done wonders for my mental health and helped me find balance in my everyday life.”

Robin Wen

Robin Wen has not only smashed academic expectations, he has also achieved many personal goals in his two shorts years in Canada. Wen immigrated to Saskatchewan in 2016, and describes his initial English language abilities as “far from being proficient for regular academic purposes.” He worked hard to improve those skills, and eventually became the first student to be accepted into the SAGE program in grade 12 at his school; a program focused on advanced-level topics in English and the Humanities. On top of vastly improving his English skills, Wen also displayed his mastery of the AP curriculums of his STEM courses. He achieved the highest score on his calculus, chemistry, statistics, and two physics AP exams nationally. He was the National Champion for the 2017 Fermat Contest, ran by Waterloo’s own Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing. In addition to this contest, Wen has also qualified for the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad in both 2017 and 2018. When asked what he wants to do after his undergrad, Wen said “It is my current aim to become a physics professor, but I am also open-minded about other various options. Besides physics and math, I take interest in a great variety of fields and subjects, so I would love to explore my potential during my five-year undergraduate study.”

Advait Maybhate

Advait Maybhate has excelled academically and athletically throughout high school. On top of maintaining an excellent average, Maybhate practised karate to improve his physical fitness, and placed 3^rd in the Kitchener-Waterloo Meibukan Karate Tournament in 2016. Outside of school, Maybhate created an algorithm to identify DNA sequence motifs, which detected known motifs 10 times faster than the standard approach. This project won him a silver medal and the Statistics Society of Canada Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair. He also participated in hackathons, and won the “Best Use of CockroachDB” award for creating SumNotes, a program that automatically summarizes lectures based on speech-to-text technology. When asked how he became passionate about computer science, Maybhate said: “In Grade 4, one of my classmates used Scratch, a block-based modular graphical programming language, to create an animated presentation. This event inspired me to play with Scratch and create my very own jetpack platformer game. Later on, in Grade 6, I registered for the University of Waterloo’s online CS Circles course, which was a great introduction to Python as a programming language. Nothing is impossible in the world of computer science. You can make people fly or create evil, pink and fluffy unicorns that rule the world.”

Single and Sexy to celebrate 30 years

2018 marks the 30^th anniversary of the creation of Single and Sexy, the play produced by Campus Wellness and supported by various departments and community organizations that is performed during Orientation. 

The play, written by students with input from Campus Wellness, replaces the traditional orientation lecture with a high energy, entertaining, non-judgmental, powerful presentation of scenarios and attitudes first-year students may witness or experience.

“Single & Sexy utilizes a peer-to-peer approached and educational theatre to provide valuable information and resources to first-year students," says Manager, Health Education and Promotion Sandra Gibson. "This approach allows students to witness through theatre how to manage difficult situations, where to go for support, and how certain behaviours may affect others."

The 30^th Anniversary premiere performance is set for Friday, August 31 at 10:45 a.m. Campus Wellness welcomes Waterloo staff and faculty, friends and family, and community members to attend and support this important endeavour. To reserve your tickets, check the Eventbrite listing.

Negative perceptions of retirement fuel negative outcomes, study says

This article originally appeared on the Statistics and Actuarial Science website.

Not only do Canadians nearing retirement or already retired expect to work longer, but a majority of them believe they’ll have low liquid retirement assets.

PhD candidate Saisai Zhang and professors Mary Hardy and David Saunders conducted the 2016 Ontario Retirement Survey (ORS). The report examines the retirement concerns and risk preferences of 1,000 randomly selected Ontario pre-retirees and retirees aged 50 to 80.

Previously pre-retirees estimated that they would retire around the age of 60. Now on average pre-retirees expect to retire at 65. Despite the fact that these subjects will have five more years to work, they’re also likely to live longer. The survey found that the respondents are underestimating the chances that they will survive to the age of 95, which could hamper their financial security late in life.

The majority of respondents already have concerns about their financial security with 61 percent of respondents expecting that they will have low liquid retirement assets. More alarmingly, 10 percent of respondents anticipate having less than $25,000 in total liquid and property retirement assets.

“Canadians nearing retirement, or already retired, are not optimistic about their financial futures,” said Hardy. “As our retirement population grows, governments and plan sponsors need to make sure that there are checkpoints in place to protect Canada’s economic security.”

Respondents were also asked about income expectations, bequest motives, positions on life annuities, as well as the likelihood of seeking professional financial advice when planning for retirement.

After analyzing responses, the researchers discovered three key areas of interest that require further observation. With more research on the preferences and objectives of Canadian retirees, the level of wealth in retirement or pre-retirement savings, as well as the difference between expectations and experience of retired Canadians, it could help ensure the financial well-being of all Canadians.  

The paper, Retirement Consumption, Risk Perception and Planning Objectives, was released by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries on June 29.

Road closure taking place today

Plant Operations is reporting that University Avenue will be closed to both lanes of traffic from the main University entrance & Seagram Drive to Phillip Street from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM today as water main work is being carried out.