Wednesday, May 22, 2019

University supports launch of community-wide bike share pilot

A message from the Sustainability Office.

Need to get across campus in a hurry? Want to make your public transit connection easier? Looking to swing to Uptown for lunch?

Waterloo has signed an agreement with Dropbike to operate a bike sharing service on campus that will make these trips easier. The program is part of a region-wide pilot, so the bikes can travel seamlessly on and off campus between any of the network hubs.

Bikes can be rented out at affordable rates on an hourly basis using the Dropbike smartphone app for IOS and Android devices. The app allows users to locate nearby bikes and unlock a bike to start a trip. All of the technology is on the bike.

“We are excited to launch the Dropbike service,” says Mat Thijssen, the University of Waterloo’s Sustainability Manager. “With ION launching and continual improvements to local transit, micro-mobility solutions like bike sharing are an important tool to help solve the ‘first and last mile problem’ and enable more sustainable travel choices.”

Waterloo will start with three campus “hubs” for bikes, at DC, STC, and DWE beginning the week of May 20. Over the coming weeks, this will expand to a network of 10-15 hubs across campus, with up to 100 bikes.

The Dropbike model allows for program flexibility, as bikes can be returned to any of the hub locations on or off-campus, or locked to an appropriate existing bike rack if a hub is too far away.

To end a trip, the app requires a user to take a picture of the bike parked in a hub or locked to an appropriate bike rack within the service area. This discourages bikes from being brought indoors or discarded on roads and walkways. Users will be warned through the app if they do not park their bike in an appropriate location.

“I am thankful for many partners who helped enable the service, including Grounds, Parking, and the local municipalities and Region of Waterloo,” says Thijssen.

The program pilot will run until October.

For more information, visit the Sustainability Office’s Transportation page, or visit the Dropbike website.

No risk, no reward: Waterloo leads in actuarial rankings

This article was originally published on the Statistics and Actuarial Science website.

The University Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Global Research Rankings of Actuarial Science and Risk Management and Insurance has ranked the University of Waterloo the number one non-business, degree-granting school worldwide. Waterloo was ranked first in both the number of papers in the leading risk and insurance journal, as well as in the top four leading actuarial journals.

“I am extremely proud of the results of the UNL rankings,” said Stefan Steiner, Chair of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. “Ranking first worldwide in the non-business school list is testament to the strong research happening at the University of Waterloo.”

With an article count of eight in the Journal of Risk and Insurance between 2014-20188, Waterloo’s score was 3.83 – 1.33 above the University of Ulm (Germany) in the second position. For the same time period, Waterloo had 78 articles across the following publications: Insurance Mathematics and Economics; North American Actuarial Journal; ASTIN Bulletin: The Journal of the International Actuarial Association; and the Scandinavian Actuarial Journal. This resulted in a score of 50.58 – 28.66 points above the University of Hong Kong in the second position for non-business schools. Waterloo also was the top for all schools – business and non-business – across the four leading actuarial journals.

The rankings database tracks all papers published in the five leading journals published since 1990. UNL takes the cumulative number of the faculties’ publications in journals for the top 20 North American and top 50 worldwide business and non-business institutions. Ameritas Life Insurance Corporation provides funding for the rankings database.

Donna Strickland speaks at Rochester, other notes

University of Rochester President Rich Feldman confers the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award to Donna Strickland, Nobel Laureate and Professor of Physics, University of Waterloo. Photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester.

Professor Donna Strickland, an alumnus of the University of Rochester, delivered the institution's Commencement address on Sunday, May 19. She spoke at the University’s doctoral ceremony on Saturday, May 18, where she received the Rochester Distinguished Scholar Award, which recognizes doctoral alumni who have led distinguished careers in academia, private enterprise, public service and the arts.

If you're looking for a healthy, sustainable way to get around this spring, The Bike Centre is holding a second-hand bike auction today at noon in the Student Life Centre (SLC) Great Hall. 

"Bikes featured at the auction are retrieved by the Bike Centre through their legal theft program, where bikes abandoned on campus are collected to promote a cleaner campus," says an article on the Feds website. "Each bike will start at $80 with the going price depending on how popular a particular bike is. All proceeds will go toward the Bike Centre in their goal to enhance active transportation on campus."

The Waterloo Centre for German Studies (WCGS) is hosting An Evening with Author Benedict Wells at the KW Art Gallery on Thursday, May 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Wells has been making a name for himself with novels such as Becks letzter Sommer from 2008 (also a film starring Christian Ulmen) and Vom Ende der Einsamkeit from 2016. This latter novel won the 2016 European Union Prize for Literature and is his first book to appear in English (The End of Loneliness, translated by Charlotte Collins).

Wells will be reading in both German and English from Vom Ende der Einsamkeit/The End of Loneliness, followed by a Q&A.

For more information visit the WCGS website. 

There's still time to apply for the Staff International Experience Fund (SIEF). 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, and winning proposals could see up to $7,000 in funding.

The deadline is Friday, May 24 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.

Speaking of deadlines, the deadline for completing the Employee Engagement Survey has been extended until Wednesday, May 29, 2019. To complete the survey, find the reminder email from KF Surveys Canada in your inbox and click on the link provided.

UW Blooms is happening on Monday, May 27 in the Student Life Centre's multipurpose room, running from 10:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Members of the University community are invited to drop off and pick up plants, seeds, containers and other garden-related items, free of charge, at this event, which promotes gardening.