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2018 United Way campaign reaches goal
A message from the United Way campaign.
Thanks to the generosity of the University of Waterloo community, the United Way campaign has met and surpassed our 2018 goal of raising $270,000. Whether you donated, volunteered or attended United Way events, you made a difference in your community and we want to thank you.
The 2018 campaign kicked off in October with Go Red Day and continued with the second annual Souper Thursday. Campus departments and units kept the excitement going by hosting bake sales, pie-throwing competitions and silent auctions.
While we’re lucky to have a creative campus who help us raise funds with events, the success of this annual campaign still relies heavily on individual donations. As you think ahead to your 2019 charitable contributions, please consider keeping or adding the University of Waterloo’s United Way campaign. Pledging an ongoing monthly payroll deduction is one easy way to support this important community work year-round.
Omnitruncated dodecaplex a dimensional delight
by Ryon Jones
Students, faculty and staff from across the university’s campus converged on the Math 3 Atrium on Friday, January 25 to contribute to the building of a three-dimensional projection of a four-dimensional polytope.
The mathematical artefact, called an omnitruncated dodecaplex, is currently suspended from the M3 Atrium ceiling as a piece of art for all to enjoy.
This “barn raising” of the omnitruncated dodecaplex was an opportunity for students to learn in a hands-on manner about geometry. It took 21,360 Zometool parts to build the 35 kg artefact.
The project was the brainchild of Professor Benoit Charbonneau. Charbonneau explained to the Daily Bulletin why he decided to build the artefact.
“There are not a lot of opportunities to see mathematics very visibly,” Charbonneau said. “Often times in classrooms you see a lot of things about literacy, but not about numeracy, about mathematics. What we are building is a geometric shape that is very symmetric, and people’s minds are very attracted to symmetry.
“So, we are creating a piece of art that is very symmetric, but it is actually a mathematical object with a lot of structure, and everyone can appreciate the beauty of this in the same way they can appreciate a symphony or something like that. The hope is that students and visitors will just want to know a little bit more about mathematics.”
The omnitruncated dodecaplex is a convex regular four-dimensional polytope built from 120 dodecahedral cells and constructed by truncating all vertices, edges, and faces of the dodecaplex. It has 14,400 vertices, 28,800 edges, 17,040 polygonal faces and 2,640 cells.
Charbonneau was joined in the construction exercise by many of his undergraduate and graduate students, and several math faculty members. Also, turning out to help put the pieces together or show support, were Kim Gingerich, Executive Officer, Academic, Kevin Hare, vice dean of Math, Francis Poulin, associate dean of Math, undergraduate, Christiane Lemieux, association dean of Math, graduate, David McKinnon, chair of the Department of Pure Mathematics, members of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, Math Faculty Computing Facility, the Centre for Extended Learning, the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, the Dean of Mathematics Office, Physics 1B students and local students as young as grade five who had a professional development day.
Aviation careers take off and other notes
The University of Waterloo Aviation Society is hosting the inaugural Aviation Career Day on Wednesday, January 30, with the main event taking place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. in QNC 0101. This event will include panels with major aviation employers and alumni, with approximately 150 attendees. There will also be sessions from the Centre for Career Action to help aviation students at the University of Waterloo advance their careers.
It's that time of year again: FASS Auditions get underway this week. FASS, which stands for Faculty, Alumni, Staff, and Students, bills itself as "a social group that occasionally puts on a play," and true to their word, they have staged many productions since the group's inception in 1962.
The audition schedule is as follows:
- Wednesday, January 30, 6:00 p.m., HH 123
- Thursday, January 31, 6:00 p.m., HH 336
- Friday, February 1, 6:00 p.m., HH 119
For more information, check out the FASS website.