Thursday, July 9, 2020

Waterloo celebrates eight Vanier Scholars

A message from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA).

The 2020 Vanier scholarship results have been released, and eight of our Waterloo doctoral students are recipients of this prestigious award. The Government of Canada launched the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program in 2008 to strengthen Canada's ability to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health.

Waterloo’s eight Vanier recipients are:

• Finnian Gray, a PhD student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
• Christian Ieritano, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry.
• Janet Jones, a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy.
• Asif Abdullah Khan, a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer
• Serena McDiarmid, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology. McDiarmid’s
• Justin Muffit, a PhD student in the Department of Geography and Environmental Management.  
• Lauren Smith, a PhD student in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability.
• Spencer Weinstein, a PhD student in the Department of Biology.

Congratulations to all our Vanier winners, and best of luck on your research.

Get ready to Go Beyond the Headlines next week to discuss inequities

The second lecture in the Beyond the Headlines Online Community Lecture Series will take place on Wednesday, July 15. Members of the community are invited to join the University of Waterloo in partnership with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo to go Beyond The Headlines to discuss the realities unfolding in our post-COVID world.

This community lecture is entitled “Responding to inequity in our post-COVID world."

"The pandemic has exposed issues of equity in our society such as the value of work, gender roles, universal basic income and racial profiling," says a note from the event organizers. "University of Waterloo researchers will explore whether our post-COVID society may be more responsive, or more divisive."

Panelists include:

• Katy Fulfer, Assistant Professor in Philosophy; 
• Mikal Skuterud, Professor in Economics; and
• Christopher Taylor, Lecturer in History.

Moderating the discussion will be Craig Norris, host for CBC Radio One 89.1 Kitchener-Waterloo, The Morning Edition and In The Key of C. The event takes place Wednesday, July 15 from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m.

Remembering Professor John Beatty

This is an excerppt of an article originally published on the School of Computer Science website.

John Cabeen Beatty III passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early morning of July 2, 2020 at his home on Gabriola Island, British Columbia. He was born in New York City on November 27, 1947. His father was a lawyer and later a member of the Oregon State Legislature and a judge. His mother was a founding research scientist at the Oregon Primate Research Center whose public service included membership on the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council under three consecutive governors. John devoted his career to computer science. He was first and foremost a teacher and a scholar. He had a life-long love of books and was a voracious reader, especially of American history and political and economic theory and analysis.

John grew up in Portland, Oregon, living with his family in their home on Council Crest and attending public schools. He enrolled in Princeton University, graduating with an AB in Mathematics in 1969, and then earned a doctorate in Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977. He lived in Oakland, California, and worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1969 through 1977 as a mathematical programmer and computer scientist before joining the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1978 as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science. He retired in 2010 and moved to Gabriola Island where he quickly settled into the pace of island life and rekindled his childhood affection for poodles.

His home was filled with books and computers. Always the tinkerer, he took delight in figuring out how to automate just about anything one could imagine. During a two-year leave from university starting in the early 1990s, John served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Malawi, where he helped introduce computers into the local school system. In recent years he was a volunteer driver for GERTI, Gabriola Island’s community bus service. Throughout his life he closely followed current events and kept abreast of a wide range of topics in science and technology. He could often be heard quoting from Shakespeare. A favourite was Glendower’s “I can call the spirits from the vasty deep” and Hotspur’s reply “Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come, when you do call for them?” from King Henry IV, Part 1, of course spoken in an appropriate stage voice.

John’s interests in computer science ranged from the theoretical to the practical, focusing at first on formal language theory and then on computer graphics, especially techniques for accurate colour reproduction and the use of spline mathematics to model and render curved lines and surfaces for computer-aided design and animation. In addition to authoring or co-authoring a number of scholarly research papers and a graduate textbook on splines, he was a devoted teacher in a variety of courses. In this role he mentored many graduate and undergraduate students. His PhD dissertation involved formal language theory. John taught a course in that for a number of years, showing up for the first lecture in a tuxedo with white gloves, befitting the topic. In the later years of his career he taught a number of courses designed to introduce non-majors to the art and practice of computer programming.

He was a co-founder of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at the University of Waterloo, and he served in a number of leadership roles in the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH), including Co-Chair of the SIGGRAPH ’83 conference, Editor-in-Chief for the SIGGRAPH Newsletter, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal ACM Transactions on Graphics. He was a tireless proof reader. Many students came to understand that their papers would be returned covered in red ink with John’s suggestions for better grammar and clearer, more precise wording.

John brought this same dedication and attention to detail to his own work, as a researcher, as a teacher, and as an administrator. John was not averse to challenging authority, although he did so only when suitably provoked. Upon being informed that the university thought it best to have an in-house maintenance contract for the lab’s half-a-million-dollar computer, he sent off a memo that simply said “Our lab recently had four RS-232C cables made in-house. None of them worked. A VAX 11/780 is significantly more complex than an RS-232C cable. Need I say more?” The lab was allowed to contract out for maintenance.

Generations of students benefited from his guidance and wisdom. One student remembers John “in my very short list of favourite professors, and later friends. When I think of John the word ‘genuine’ comes to mind. He loved to help. He loved to share. Despite his great intellect there was zero pretentiousness, zero hubris. It was a gift to know him. . . . John and others made the environment where we could thrive.” Another student recalled “I think I came away with as many valuable life lessons as academic. Those were very special years to me, in large part due to the warmth and spirit of John.”

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

Lecturer Reeps the benefits and other notable notes

A Waterloo lecturer has won the Green Communities Canada Outstanding Board member award for his work at Reep Green Solutions. Michael Wood, continuing lecturer and associate director of undergraduate studies in the Faculty of Environment's School of Environment, Enterpris e and Development (SEED) "has shown exceptional leadership in guiding the organization though both calm and stormy waters," according to a recent Reep Green Solutions press release. "Michael brings the right balance of get-down-to-work and take-time-to-laugh to his role as Chair. He seeks and recognizes everyone’s contributions, and ensures the Board is productive and collegial. Michael also actively supports Reep staff. Executive Director Mary Jane Patterson especially appreciates the practical and ethical perspective he brings to all endeavors and interactions. During these challenging times, Reep couldn’t be in better hands." Wood currently serves as chair of Reep's board.

The Outstanding Board member award is for a "board member who has demonstrated through his/her work and achievements the strongest commitment to a Green Community providing exceptional stewardship to the organization." Green Communities Canada is a national umbrella group for community-based environmental non-profit organizations. 

The Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging is hiring an Education Manager. The role will be leading the development, implementation and delivery of educational programs and resources designed to serve the needs of older adults. Deadline to apply is July 14, learn more here: http://ow.ly/WWOP50Ao7CX.