Thursday, August 26, 2021

The beloved pets supporting us through the pandemic

By Nancy Silcox (BA '74, MA '76). This article was originally published in the Spring issue of Waterloo Magazine.

Among the lingering memories of my student years at the University of Waterloo is an image of a man and a dog.

They were fixtures of campus life, travelling between the Arts Lecture Hall, Hagey Hall and the Dana Porter Library. While the name of the man has been long lost to memory, the dog, a pert Irish Terrier named Teddy, remains vivid more than 50 years later.

Here was a beloved pet going to work with his human. Perhaps to the individual’s office? Perhaps to a classroom? Wholly unique during the era, this memory endures.

Who would have predicted a pandemic would turn fond memory to ambition? Who would have imagined that the lumbering presence of a 170-pound St. Bernard named Ralph, an intuitive Bernedoodle called Memphis and a ginger cat tagged Pouces would transform a plan?

As words like coronavirus and COVID-19 intruded into daily speech last year the concept of Workin’ Like a Dog; Doin’ Nuthin’ Like a Cat: Canadian Pets who go to the Office was born. What had been initially envisioned as a Canada-wide landscape of pets in the workplace became a tribute to the unconditional love, companionship and inspiration they bring in a world of loss, fear and isolation.

Ralph the therapy dog

Inspired by the kindly personality of her beloved St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog, Cindy Jantzi of Gadshill, Ont. chose the psychiatric unit of the Stratford General Hospital as their placement.

“What makes Ralph a great therapy dog is that he’s not selective,” Jantzi says. “He doesn’t have favourites.” She recalls how “one patient told me that when he woke up that morning, he was so low he was going to stay in bed all day. But then he remembered it was 'Ralph Day' and he didn’t want to miss that.”

COVID-19 measures over the past year have limited the appearance of pets in the workplace — especially in long-term care homes and hospitals. It seems that humans are not the only ones to miss the interaction.

To ease the pain of separation for both Ralph and his many fans, Yantzi takes her gentle giant on drive-bys past the long-term care home he also visits. “We drive right up to the windows of the dining room and the residents wave to him.”

Memphis the classroom assistant

Teaching school is a challenge at the best of times, but add a disability to the mix and it calls for extra support. When Salem Public School teacher Beth Whysall was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis she applied to her Board to have an assistant. And so Memphis, her beloved Bernedoodle joined the classroom routine.

Little could Whysall have predicted how the personable pooch would also assist her in classroom management.

The return to a COVID-masked, socially-distanced school in September 2020 expanded Memphis’ role. More than one truancy problem has been solved thanks to the support dog. “Memphis misses you when you aren’t here to give him his treat,” offers Whysall. And chances are the truant is back at school regularly.

Controlling classroom exuberance is in Memphis’ bag of tricks too. “Too much noise hurts Memphis’ ears and he won’t want to come back,” warns Teacher. Problem solved!

Pouces the trucker cat

When long-distance trucker, Sean Litwack of Vaudreil, Quebec, decided to ask permission of his employer, CJ Transport to welcome his cat Pouces on board, it was “emotional support” he was looking for.

“Driving can be stressful and of course, very lonely. Then you look over to the passenger seat and there’s your pet upside down on the seat and any angry or sad feelings are gone.”

The isolation of COVID-19 has only added to the stresses of the long-distance trucker. “Pouces is the best thing that ever happened to me,” Litwack says.

Copies of Workin’ Like a Dog; Doin’ Nuthin’ Like a Cat: Canadian Pets who go to the Office can be purchased through Words Worth Books in Waterloo or by contacting Nancy Silcox at silcox@cwisp.ca

Tamer Ozsu wins societal infrastructure award

This article was originally published on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.

University Professor M. Tamer Özsu has received the 2022 IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, an honour conferred for significant technological achievements and contributions that establish, develop and proliferate innovative societal infrastructure systems through the application of information technology with an emphasis on distributed computing systems.

He was selected for this award for his many contributions to data science infrastructure and distributed data management. 

M. Tamer Özsu, a University Professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, is no stranger to prestigious awards and international academic acclaim.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is also an elected member of Science Academy, Turkey and a member of Sigma Xi.

He received the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from CS Can | Info Can, and in 2020 was named a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, a title awarded to scholars of the highest international reputation. In 2021, he was named for the third time a Cheriton Faculty Fellow, a prestigious recognition that supports the research of leading faculty members at the Cheriton School of Computer Science.

“Congratulations to Tamer on receiving this prestigious recognition from IEEE,” said Raouf Boutaba, Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “As a major contributor to distributed data management, his innovations, sustained research and leadership have undoubtedly shaped the field.”

The IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award, sponsored by Hitachi, Ltd. and the IEEE Computer Society, consists of a bronze medal, a certificate, and a $10,000 USD cash prize. The award will be presented at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, tentatively scheduled to take place in May 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The IEEE Innovation in Societal Infrastructure Award was established in 2011. 

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

Researchers developing new cancer treatments with high-intensity focused ultrasound

Researchers are bringing the use of acoustic waves to target and destroy cancerous tumours closer to reality.

While doctors have used low-intensity ultrasound as a medical imaging tool since the 1950s, experts at the University of Waterloo are using and extending models that help capture how high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) can work on a cellular level.

Led by Siv Sivaloganathan, an applied mathematician and researcher with the Centre for Math Medicine at the Fields Institute, the study found by running mathematical models in computer simulations that fundamental problems in the technology can be solved without any risk to actual patients. 

Sivaloganathan, together with his graduate students June Murley, Kevin Jiang and postdoctoral fellow Maryam Ghasemi, creates the mathematical models used by engineers and doctors to put HIFU into practice. He said his colleagues in other fields are interested in the same problems, “but we’re coming at this from different directions”.

“My side of it is to use mathematics and computer simulations to develop a solid model that others can take and use in labs or clinical settings. And although the models are not nearly as complex as human organs and tissue, the simulations give a huge head start for clinical trials.”

One of the obstacles that Sivaloganathan is currently working to overcome is that in targeting cancers, HIFU also poses risks to healthy tissue. When HIFU is being used to destroy tumours or cancerous lesions, the hope is that good tissue won’t be destroyed. The same applies when focusing the intense acoustic waves on a tumour on the bone where lots of heat energy gets released. Sivaloganathan and his colleagues are working to understand how the heat dissipates and if it damages the bone marrow.

Other researchers working with Sivaloganathan include engineers, who are building the physical technology, and medical doctors, in particular, James Drake, chief surgeon at Hospital for Sick Children, looking at the practical application of HIFU in clinical settings.

Sivaloganathan believes HIFU will make significant changes in cancer treatments and other medical procedures and treatments. HIFU is already finding practical application in the treatment of some prostate cancers.

“It’s an area that I think is going to take center stage in clinical medicine,” he said. “It doesn’t have the negative side effects of radiation therapy or chemotherapy. There are no side effects other than the effect of heat, which we are working on right now. It also has applications as a new way to break up blood clots and even to administer drugs.”

Sivaloganathan’s new research paper on math modelling for HIFU, “Dimension estimate of uniform attractor for a model of high intensity focussed ultrasound-induced thermotherapy,” with co-authors Messoud Efendiyev and June Murley, was recently published in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.

Pick up a writing group mug at the WCC and other notes

Attention grads and undergrads: The Writing and Communication Centre is hosting a Mug Pick-up Day. It takes place tomorrow, August 27, for the writing group participants. "Meet us at the South Campus Hall concourse from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.," says a note from WCC. "Please email your completed stamp card to Nadine Fladd or bring it in with you when you come to pick up your mug."

Human Resources reports that the following job posting was posted yesterday in error:

• 2021-7063, Senior Director Alumni Relations, Advancement, USG 15

This position will be reposted at a later date. HR regrets the error.

On a similar note, Human Resources is announcing an additional available regular full-time position:

• 2021-7086 Patient Care Coordinator, USG 5

The updated list of available positions is viewable on the UWaterloo Talent Acquisition System (iCIMS).