Thursday, July 8, 2021

Refresh of COVID-19 signage across campus begins

As part of the preparations for an expanded return to campus in September, Plant Operations has started to remove existing COVID-19 signage from common areas such as classrooms, washrooms, study spaces and elevators.

The project to update COVID-19 signage across campus involves the Safety Office, Plant Operations, Central Stores, the Registrar’s Office and the Space Planning Office under the Deputy Provost (Integrated Planning and Budgeting).

Fresh signage will be installed beginning July 19 and will last several weeks. Signage on main building entrances will remain in place to communicate entrance requirements and will be updated in August. 

In the interim, employees and students should continue to follow physical distancing requirements and complete their daily self-assessment on Campus Check-In.  

Registration open for Indigenous Studies courses at Renison

A message from Renison University College.

Registration for our Fall 2021 Indigenous Studies courses is now open. We are running both ‘Reconciliation: Discussions and Implications for Settler Peoples’ and ‘Myth Busting (Part One): Deconstructing Indigenous-Canadian Relationships’. Learn more about how you can participate in the Reconciliation process in Canada and actively engage in decolonization. Register today: https://uwaterloo.ca/cape/indigenous-studies.

Join us on Wednesday, July 28 at 12:00 noon via Zoom for an info session on Renison University College’s credit-free course 'Reconciliation: Discursions and Implications for Settler Peoples' (IS 110). At the session, you’ll meet the instructor Kelly Laurila who will overview the course and answer any of your questions. For details and to register for the information session: https://uwaterloo.ca/community-and-professional-education/indigenous-studies/learn-more-about-reconciliation-canada.

How to outrun a bully: Build a startup for math learning

This article was originally published in the Spring 2021 issue of Waterloo Magazine.

Travis Ratnam (BASc ’06) remembers the first time he felt self-conscious about his grades. In elementary school the classroom bully went through everyone’s report cards, “trying to figure out who the dumbest kid was and concluded it was me.”

Ratnam’s father stepped up to tutor his son in math, helping Ratnam gradually build his confidence until he was at the top of his class. It was a turning point: “Could this mean that I could maybe do well in other subjects as well?”

When Ratnam graduated from high school he was awarded a Governor General’s Academic Medal, one Canada’s most prestigious academic honours.

Today, as the co-founder and CEO of Knowledgehook, Ratnam is using lessons learned from that early setback to help other children. Knowledgehook is a software platform that uses artificial intelligence to help teachers uncover each student’s unique learning needs.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools online in 2020, the company partnered with the Government of Ontario to make the Knowledgehook Open Access platform available to every student and teacher in the province.

Later that year, Knowledgehook raised $20 million in funding as educators, parents and leaders searched for new ways to meet students’ needs for online math learning. The company has won a Google Game Changer Award and has been named a BNN Bloomberg Top Disruptor.

While Ratnam maximized his own learning by asking questions and getting feedback after every class, he stresses that Knowledgehook empowers teachers by identifying where each student is struggling and offers supports to help.

Ratnam built the company with fellow engineering alumnus Lambo Jayapalan (BSE ’07), Knowledgehook’s chief technology officer. They connected on campus in 2004 after a devastating tsunami hit Southeast Asia – they’re both of Sri Lankan descent and wanted to find ways to help the recovery efforts.

The pair have been collaborating ever since. “I was the talkative ideas guy. So, it’s ‘Lambo, can you build this?’ and his reply was always, ‘I can build whatever you want.’”

Ratnam said Knowledgehook wasn’t designed to replicate what worked for him. Instead, the goal is to harness the spirit behind his own education for the benefit of each individual learner.

“It’s about empowering people and helping them find their purpose in life, and helping them be a part of our story of advancing humanity.” 

MFA thesis exhibitions and other notes

The Department of Fine Arts and the University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) are inviting members of the University community to explore the work of Master of Fine Arts candidates Carrie Perreault and Maria Simmons from July 8 to 24.

Carrie Perreault
Pacing the House

Pacing the House is an exhibition of sculptures and drawings that use material inquiry to reframe childhood trauma into a state of investigation. By surveying the work through a feminist approach to autotheory, Perreault temporarily suspends the doubt she has thrown into the stories she has told herself and instead articulates them by creating objects and installations that reflect these conceptual intensions. Her practice involves a mode of creation—embodied disassociation at time—that sits between emotional immediacy and a process of gathering what has been lost. Using repetition and the multiple as a meditative mechanism provides grounding. The groupings of objects that make up the individual artworks fend off ideas of scarcity and provide manageable space for frightening experiences.

Carrie Perreault’s recent exhibitions and projects include period of adjustment, Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines; and Show.19, Cambridge Art Galleries, curated by Iga Janik. In 2019, she published 'period of adjustment', a poster/pamphlet with essays by Sky Gooden and Lucy R. Lippard, and ‘The Artist Cookbook Vol. 1’, featuring 52 artist’s favourite recipes, with Vol. 2 set for release in Fall 2021. Perreault has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). She also serves as a member of the Executive Committee on the York South-Western Tenant Union. Carie Perreault lives and works in Toronto/Tkaronto.

The Centre for Ocular Research & Education is currently seeking children/adolescents ages 6-18 to participate in a study assessing the eyes’ focus through a novel spectacle lens designed slow down myopia's progression (nearsightedness). This new study will include 1 in-clinic visit lasting less than <2 hours, that includes standard eye exam procedures. Eligible participants will receive $40 upon study completion. For more information visit www.COREstudies.ca/ash.  

All studies conducted at CORE have been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee. To be the first to know about new CORE studies, make a participant profile at https://prescreen.uwaterloo.ca/star_tracker/index.php/volunteers. 

Warriors Custom Varsity Apparel is on sale from July 7 to 21, according to a notice from Print + Retail Solutions. Show your Warriors pride with the line-up of customizable apparel including dry-fit tees, Nike Hyper Dry Hooded Long Sleeves and Nike fleece hoodies from W Store. Please note that this will be your only opportunity this year to purchase sport specific black and gold gear. Order today at www.gowarriorsgo.ca/customapparel.