Monday, August 10, 2020

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• Supporting international students abroad to enter Canada
• Access 830,000 library items through new HathiTrust service
• Q and A with the experts: the efficacy of tracing apps
• Friday's notes

Volunteers needed for fall move-in

"As the fall term approaches, Campus Housing is preparing for another busy move in," wrote Chris Read, associate provost, students in a memo circulated to faculty and staff this morning. "However, this year, we face new challenges in implementing procedures to ensure the process is safe for each student."

"Typically held over three days on Labour Day weekend, this year’s move in will take place between August 24 and September 4. Due to increased safety measures, each resident will only be permitted to have one companion to assist them during their move in. As such, we need your help."

"I invite you to join me and the many people involved in welcoming our fall 2020 incoming class, and their families, to the University of Waterloo. We want to ensure our students are safe but also feel welcomed and connected to campus."

Members of the University community can get involved by volunteering to be one of the daily 15-25 volunteers needed during the move in period. Each volunteer shift is 2 hours in length.

• Volunteer duties include:
  • Active Screening volunteers: As an active screening volunteer, you are the first point of contact when our residents arrive on campus. Your role will be to welcome them to UWaterloo, ensure that they have the appropriate move in appointment based on their arrival time, and verify that those arriving have completed their pre-arrival active screening questionnaire and are safe to move in. Please note that active screening volunteers will be outside for the duration of their shift and will be asked to wear a non-medical face covering.
  • Directional volunteers: As a wayfinding volunteer, you’ll be a friendly face helping our residents follow the right path to their right destination. Your role will be to help point people in the right direction to find the right parking lot, building, or suite. Please note that wayfinding volunteers will be outside for the duration of their shift and will be asked to wear a non-medical face covering
  • Sanitization volunteers: As a sanitization volunteer, you’ll be helping our residents keep their new home safe by asking them to sanitize their hands as soon as they enter their building. You will be standing by a hand sanitizing dispenser and encouraging all those who enter to sanitize their hands effectively. Please note that sanitization volunteers will be inside for the duration of their shift and will be asked to wear a non-medical face covering.

Volunteers will attend a virtual training session on August 17 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. If you are unable to make the training, you will receive the recording of this training.

Sign up online to volunteer.

Concept's Pandemic Challenge Fund winners named

Concept has unveiled their Pandemic Challenge Fund, where Waterloo students could participate in virtual workshops and connect with innovation coaches.

“Back in May, when the call went out to participate in The Pandemic Challenge, University of Waterloo students were quick to answer,” said a post on Concept’s blog. “We had 69 different teams opt-in made up of over 130 students from across all faculties and academic levels. These entrepreneurial students worked their way through the challenge doing extensive research, attending workshops, meeting with coaches, and committing to solving global problems. After a semester of hard work, we opened applications to the Pandemic Challenge Fund and encouraged them to apply so they could receive grant funding to continue working on their ideas.”

These students had the opportunity to develop and pitch their ideas at the Pandemic Challenge Fund to potentially receive $3,000 in funding support.

“The winning teams showed that they had thoroughly researched the problem at hand, and had come with a realistic and deployable solution,” says Concept’s blog post. “Our judges also considered the sustainability of their solution, and the future it had in a post COVID world.”

The winners are:

Decomp 

Watch video on YouTube

Decomp is a plastic waste disposal solution that adopts the growth of microbes inside a bioreactor technology, which then sorts, shreds and organically degrades plastics within weeks.  

“Due to health concerns associated with the current pandemic, we’re seeing a surge in single use plastics from mask to gloves to take away containers,” Gabriel Saunders says, one of the team members at Decomp. “Not all plastics are recyclable and only plastics with low threshold of contamination can be recycled.” 

Decomp aims to enable material recovery facilities (MRFs) to achieve their diversion rate mandates. Through the use of bioreactor technology, plastic can be organically degraded in weeks as opposed to the hundreds or even thousands of years it takes for plastic to naturally degrade. 

Its interdisciplinary team of master students comprise of three different backgrounds — biochemistry, marketing and chemical engineering — all from the University of Waterloo. The $3,000 from the pandemic challenge will be used to help fund Decomp’s first prototype.  

OpenMeal 

Watch video on YouTube

OpenMeal is a company that supports local restaurants and individuals who were impacted by COVID-19. Its diverse team involves two Waterloo students — Iris Guo, an Accounting and Financial Management student, and Ethan Rivers-Garcia, a Science and Business student.  

“During the pandemic, over 50 per cent of all Chinese restaurants have closed their doors due to discrimination,” Iris Guo says, product lead at OpenMeal. “On the other hand, food banks are being overwhelmed with a record-height of 14 per cent unemployment rate due to massive layoffs and low-income households suffered the most.” 

OpenMeal’s mission is to bridge the gap between food-insecure individuals and financially stricken restaurants. Donors will be able to donate to a universal pool which will then be equally distributed to partner restaurants, while Diners will be given $20 meal credits to purchase meals from a restaurant of their choice through the OpenMeal website. The $3,000 fund will help provide 300 meals to support the widespread issue of food-insecurity.

OpenRace 

Watch video on YouTube

OpenRace is the first real-time virtual running app that allows users connect and find motivation from other runners. While event organizers have the opportunity to increase revenue, reach a larger audience and provide a more interactive online race through the use of the OpenRace app. 

Due to the pandemic, around 40,000 running events were cancelled in the United States alone. Meanwhile, businesses may go bankrupt without the additional support in the event of more cancellations in 2021. 

“OpenRace is creating a feature specifically for event organizers. Where runners will check into the event just like would at an in-person race, enter the event page, press play, wait for the countdown to hit zero and run,” Matthew Ciance says, Co-founder and CEO of OpenRace, and  a Management Engineering student. 

Through the app, runners will receive updates during the race on the status of their position, pace, distance and time. According to Ciance, the $3,000 fund will help with product development to reach their nearby goals and further support event organizers.  

"Thank you to everyone who participated in the Pandemic Challenge, and all the units on campus that made this possible!" says a statement from Concept. "We could not have done this without the work and dedication of Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, GreenHouse, Problem Lab, University of Waterloo Library, and the Centre for Peace Advancement. As is being shown around the world through this pandemic, it's amazing what we can accomplish when we work together."