Thursday, May 16, 2019

Deadline for Staff International Experience Fund approaching

Did you know that the University offers funding to staff members to go abroad? If you are interested in immersing yourself in a working environment at a University of Waterloo partner institution for one or two weeks, you could be awarded up to $7,000 to fund this learning experience! This is your chance to explore that dream destination while contributing to your professional development.

What is the Staff International Experience Fund?

The Staff International Experience Fund provides staff members with the opportunity to travel to an approved University of Waterloo partner institution to engage in collaborative work. The SIEF is a strategic initiative which supports the international engagement of the university community and is in line with the University’s goal of becoming one of the most internationalized universities in Canada. Speak with your supervisor today to see how the SIEF could enhance your professional development and internationalize your department/unit.

When is the deadline and what does the application entail?

You still have time. The deadline is May 24, 2019 and you’ll need to submit a plan proposal as well as a supporting letter. All details can be found on the Waterloo International webpage.

Students work to expand chaplaincy services on campus

This is an excerpt of a Wellness Champion article originally published on the Campus Wellness website.

Ayana Kawe has been a part of an innovative initiative to bring about positive change in our campus community. Ayana provided leadership to establish the Muslim Chaplaincy Waterloo, with support from the University of Waterloo Chaplains’ Association, to provide services that are sensitive to the Muslim student experience. The Chaplains provide on-campus care sessions free of charge to those who need it.

A student could be experiencing anxiety about fitting their prayer schedule in with their class schedule and other demands...Someone without a background in the intricacies of the religious component might not be able to offer advice that works for a student in that situation.

Students now have the opportunity to speak to someone who understands where they come from in terms of religious beliefs and perspectives on life. “For example, a student could be experiencing anxiety about fitting their prayer schedule in with their class schedule and other demands,” Ayana explains. Someone without a background in the intricacies of the religious component might not be able to offer advice that works for a student in that situation. These services are complementary to the other services available on campus. If a student who is meeting with a Chaplain, who is living with anxiety or depression they would also be referred to Counselling Services where they could receive the necessary level of care.

Currently the program is being completely supported by volunteers, everything from the logistics, to website design to the chaplains themselves. Ayana talks about how they have “a goal to hire someone full-time, because we want this initiative to be sustainable and have an impact beyond [the volunteer’s] time at Waterloo.” They are now fundraising to make this goal possible.

When we asked about the impact he is seeing from the initiative Ayana points out that one impact is “starting a dialogue and making people more comfortable speaking about mental health.” He notes that this is especially true for students with an international background. In his own experience being ethnically Ethiopian, as far as he knows, there isn’t a term for mental health in his native language, Oromo. Some of the effects of this that he has seen on campus range from students who are not comfortable speaking about mental health, to students who will brush problems off despite the impact that mental health concerns are having on them.

Read the rest of the article on the Campus Wellness website.

Global Impact - we are drinking our clothes

This is the sixth in a seven-week series looking at the stories in Waterloo's Global Impact Report.

Each of us ingests plastic microfibres every day in the food we eat and the water we drink. These fibres from our clothing could be poisoning our waterways and food chain on a massive scale. It’s something that’s troubled Lauren Smith, a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Environment, ever since she found out and it inspired a business idea to remove the tiny plastic particles from our water.

Smith co-founded PolyGone Technologies, based in the Velocity Science lab. She and her co-founder have spent thousands of hours testing and perfecting several versions microfibre filters. In doing so, they realized the key to solving this problem is to first develop accurate testing for microfibre detection.

Read more about PolyGone Technologies.

Student team steels itself for national competition

This is an excerpt of an article originally published on the Engineering website.

After spending hundreds of hours working on their steel bridge in the Sedra Student Design Centre, Waterloo civil engineering students are confident they have what will stand up to the competition in Quebec this week.

About a third of Waterloo’s 45-member Steel Bridge Team are taking part in the Canadian National Steel Bridge Competition beginning May 15 at École Polytechnique de Montréal.

Participating students build, tear down and then erect their bridges for a second time during the four-day event.

On the first day, all are on display for judges and others. The action speeds up on the next as each team is timed rebuilding its bridge one steel piece at a time while judges and the other students watch.

In 2018, Waterloo’s team assembled its bridge in 20 minutes. The fastest team took a mere two minutes.  

This week, Waterloo students are aiming to cut their time in about half.

“The most unique thing about our bridge is that its sections connect together by just one bolt per piece,” says Nick Franklin, a third-year civil engineering student and design captain (B-Society). “That should reduce our construction time considerably.”

Read the rest of the article on the Engineering news site.

Thursday's notes

Spring Welcome Week continues today with Sex Toy Bingo from 7:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. in St. Paul's Alumni Hall and the first of two Clubs and Societies Days in the Student Life Centre's lower atrium from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The UWaterloo Intellectual Property Workshop Series concludes today with a panel discussion entitled "What's Next?" Speaking will be Technology Transfer Manager Eric Luvisotto and a panel of Waterloo Commercialization Office (WatCo) clients, who will discuss the on-campus resources or connections that will help take your research, product, technology or idea to the next stage.

The workshop takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in DC 1304.

The Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation (WICI)’s Graduate Student Complexity Seminar & Social takes place tonight at 4:30 p.m. in EV3 3401. This is part of a monthly seminar series where graduate students discuss their complex systems work. This month, Jude H. Kurniawan talks about 'Visualizing different perspectives of energy scenarios.' The 20-minute talk will be followed by 20 minutes of discussion and feedback. Afterwards, everyone who is able is welcome to meet at the Graduate House for food and socializing from 6:00 p.m. onward.