Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Welcome Back Waterloo guide and video now available

The University has produced new resources to help employees and students prepare for a safe, staged return to campus.

President Feridun Hamdullahpur announced the release of the Welcome Back Waterloo guide and safety video in a memo circulated to campus yesterday morning.

"As we navigate the changing realities of education and research during a global pandemic, the health and safety of our students and employees continues to be our primary focus," the president writes. "Teams across the University have been working diligently to prepare for a safe and gradual return, informed by public health advice and best practices."

"In light of our new reality, campus will look a little different when you return. I am pleased to share new resources to help you learn what to expect and how you can help keep our campus community safe and healthy."

The Welcome Back Waterloo Guide outlines the University’s plans and the steps that students and employees can take as they prepare to return. It will continue to be updated as plans and the campus environment evolve.

The short video helps students coming to campus prepare for a unique fall term.

"We all have an important part to play in limiting the risk of COVID-19 and maintaining the safety of our campus community," President Hamdullahpur writes. "It is up to each and every one of us to follow public health guidance and the recommendations in this guide, and to respect each other as we return and share the space on our campuses."

The University’s Return to Campus group continues to review proposals to manage more employees returning to campus. Employees who have been working from home will continue to do so until they have received further direction from the University and have been advised by their manager to return. Anyone with questions is invited to contact coronavirus@uwaterloo.ca. 

Waterloo Innovation Summit takes on the innovation imperative today

The second edition of this summer's virtual Waterloo Innovation Summit Speaker Series is underway this morning.

The digital revolution was well underway when the global pandemic hit, accelerating the need for change. With no sector or industry immune to its impact, most organizations now look to reset, rebuild and rebound.

"During this pandemic of unimaginable scale and disruption, we also find ourselves in the midst of a second crisis — a global economic recession," says the event's promotional material. "While government leaders and policymakers make strategic decisions to navigate this downturn, we set our sights on the critical role innovation and entrepreneurship will play in driving the future economy of Canada."

Reset. Rebuild. Rebound. | The innovation imperative will feature moderator Randall Lane and a panel of speakers including:

• Adrien Côté, Executive Director, Velocity;
• Harleen Kaur, Co-Founder and CEO, Ground News;
• Eric Migicovsky, Founder, Pebble, and Forbes 30 under 30 2014;
• Sandra Banks,  Vice-President, University Relations; and
• Charmaine Dean, Vice-President, Research and International.

The event begins at 9:00 a.m. today.

Waterloo health tech startup receives Clinton Foundation grant

Emre co-founders Danial Betres, Victoria Li and Jon Dhanapala.

A health technology startup from the GreenHouse social impact incubator at St. Paul’s University College at the University of Waterloo has been awarded a grant from the Clinton Foundation’s COVID-19 Student Action Fund.

Their cloud-based medical-record system, Emre, seeks to support medical professionals in providing high-quality healthcare to displacement and refugee camps in developing nations. Danial Betres, Victoria Li and Jon Dhanapala rose above 1,400 other applicants to win one of 38 grants. All three are alumni of management engineering at Waterloo who were made aware of the fund opportunity through their biweekly mentorship from GreenHouse.

“We have really enjoyed becoming part of the GreenHouse community since we started to build our prototype in January,” said Jon Dhanapala, Emre co-founder. “They’re a great resource and have been instrumental in helping us make good connections to launch our product.”

Through the fund, Emre was able to secure seed funding and has the opportunity to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2021 program, including an invitation to attend the CGI U annual event at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland from April 9 to 11, 2021.

“We're happy that our work has been acknowledged by such a reputable organization,” said Dhanapala. “It’s very exciting to have the opportunity to really get our idea off the ground with its support.”

Emre started as a capstone design project last July. But since then, COVID-19 has really shed light on how important it is to have the appropriate technology at the front lines of the healthcare system.

“Unreliable health care record-keeping plagues a vast majority of displacement and refugee camps, making it difficult to gain an understanding of the health state of an individual or population,” said Dhanapala. “We aim to help solve this issue.”

Emre plans to use the funding to help with travel and software expenses to pilot the system in a medical clinic within an Iraqi displacement camp.

New streaming service available to support academic courses

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

As announced in July 2019, after a review of the Media Resources service structure and after a continued decline in use of physical media resources, Information Systems & Technology (IST) integrated the service, previously located in MC, with the IST Service Desk located in the Davis Centre Library. Moving the most commonly used physical titles to a central campus location with extended service hours improved access to these resources, but one of the most important outcomes of this review was increasing the availability and selection of media streaming services for academic purposes.

The most recent improvement to the Media Resources service, and a step in supporting our commitment, is the addition of Kanopy, an on-demand video streaming service that will provide University of Waterloo Instructors with a diverse catalogue of films and documentaries for use in their academic courses. The existing media streaming sites will continue to be available for use. 

Please visit the IST website to read the full Kanopy announcement, or visit the IST Knowledge Base to get started with Kanopy.