Thursday, February 11, 2021

Kinesiology neuroscientist to research Parkinson's with new investigator award

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Health website.

Kinesiology Professor Kaylena Ehgoetz Martens has received a New Investigator Award from Parkinson Canada, worth $90,000 over two years. Ehgoetz Martens, a neuroscientist, will further study our understanding of how anxiety contributes to freezing of gait in order to develop technological solutions to predict freezing in advance, when patients are in their home settings.

“Freezing of gait is one of the most debilitating clinical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease that embodies this emotional-motor interaction,” Ehgoetz Martens said. “This award will allow me to continue the momentum that we have gained in understanding the underlying mechanisms of freezing of gait. In turn, we hope to uncover novel and more effective ways to rehabilitate or treat freezing of gait, which greatly impacts mobility and quality of life for people living with Parkinson’s disease.”

Ehgoetz Martens has been studying the role anxiety plays in the freezing of gait for the past decade, completing graduate studies at Waterloo, followed by postdoctoral training in Sydney, Australia. She returned to Waterloo in July 2019 as an assistant professor and continues to study how the brain controls movement and how this process fails with disease.

Ehgoetz Martens’ research combines movement kinematics, functional neuroimaging, psychophysiology and cognitive neuroscience to uncover the neural basis of gait and cognitive-emotional interactions in health and disease.

Her research project with Parkinson Canada will formally start in October, with the end goal to determine whether different sub-types of freezing of gait exist, and to provide recommendations for cognitive strategies that will help alleviate the issue. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Jen Boger in Systems Engineering, Arash Arami in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and George Shaker in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology helped facilitate these collaborations for this funded research.

Read more about her research with Parkinson Canada.

Winter 2021 student survey now open

A message from the Keep Learning Team.

The Winter 2021 Student Survey opened on our campus on Monday, February 8 for all undergraduate students and course-based masters students.

The survey will help Waterloo understand students’ experience with remote or online learning and inform our approach to remote teaching.

All undergraduate and course-based masters students received an email via their @uwaterloo.ca account inviting them to participate in the 15 to 20 minute survey. Students who submit their survey responses will be entered into draws for a chance to win a) one of 25 W Store prize packs (valued at $500) and b) one of 50 $100 gift certificates. The survey closes February 19.

In response to students’ feedback from the Spring 2020 survey:

• We designed and shared online learning resources to help students transition to a remote / online learning environment
• We streamlined and updated online resources on the current student pathway
• Several Faculties established online teaching task forces in each faculty to adjust courses that are hardest to teach remotely

Visit our Winter 2021 Student Survey website for more information on the survey. For more information about this project at Waterloo, contact Jana Carson, Senior Manager at Institutional Analysis and Planning (IAP).

Virtual International Women's Day Breakfast to be held March 8

The University of Waterloo will be hosting a virtual International Women's Day Breakfast event on March 8, 2021.

"Women’s voices have always been powerful, relevant and necessary," says the event's promotional material. "Our rapidly changing world is creating new spaces and opportunities for these voices to have an impact."
 
"Join us for a very special University of Waterloo 2021 International Women’s Day breakfast as we discuss how diversity and equity are critical to exponential shifts in science, technology, entrepreneurship, and social change. Be uplifted and challenged as we come together to cultivate a spirit of radical optimism about our future." 

Speaking at the event will be:

• President Feridun Hamdullahpur;
• Angela Saini, keynote speaker, science journalist, author and broadcaster
• Ziya Tong, panel moderator and author, The Reality Bubble
• Dr. Janét Aizenstros, panelist, entrepreneur and winner, 2020 WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneur;
• Trishala Pillai, panelist, director of Strategy, Rumie and advisor, Greenhouse social innovation discovery lab.

Registration is now open.

Be sure to bring your own breakfast to this virtual event, which runs from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Human Resources provides tax slip information update

Human Resources recently sent a message to employees about their T4/T4A tax forms for 2020 and has asked them to ensure their personal information is up to date.

T4 and T4A tax forms for 2020 will be available online through Workday by February 28, 2021.

“To ensure the information included on your tax form is correct, please confirm your personal information in Workday is accurate and up to date,” says the memo from HR.

This can be done as follows:

1. Validate your mailing address information and update if necessary.
2. If your Social Insurance Number (SIN) has changed (from a temporary SIN beginning with ‘9’ to a permanent resident SIN), provide your updated SIN.
3. Validate your preferred method to receive your tax forms and update if necessary.

“Please contact payroll@uwaterloo.ca for support if you do not have access to Workday and need to update your information, or if you have questions on how to update information in Workday,” says the HR memo.

These actions are required prior to February 15, 2021. Human Resources notes that 2-factor authentication (2FA) will be required to access Workday.

HR is also letting employees know that information regarding the issuance of T2200 forms, the Declaration of Conditions of Employment for Working at home Due to COVID-19, for University of Waterloo employees will be provided in the coming weeks.

Additionally, HR notes that Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) deductions started again in January for employees who earned more than the CPP and EI maximum earnings in 2020. 2021 rates and maximums are as follows:

• 2021 CPP maximum earnings $61,600; contribution rate 5.45 per cent; maximum annual employee contribution $3,166.45.
• 2021 EI maximum earnings $56,300; employee premium rate 1.58 per cent; maximum annual employee premium $889.54.

T4A tax forms for scholarships/bursaries issued through Student Finance will be available in Quest, says the HR memo. “Address and SIN changes in Quest will not be reflected in Workday,” the memo continues. “If you are a student who will be receiving a T4/T4A from Human Resources and a T4A through Quest and your information has changed, you must update your address and SIN in both systems. Information on how to view and update your personal information and SIN in Quest can be found at the following links:

• How do I view or update my personal information?
• How do I view or submit my Social Insurance Number?”

Please contact payroll@uwaterloo.ca for support if you do not have access to Workday or have questions on how to update information in Workday.