The Daily Bulletin is published by Internal and Leadership Communications, part of University Communications
Contact us at bulletin@uwaterloo.ca
Submission guidelines
78,000+ vaccine doses
By Alana Rigby. This article was originally published in the fall 2021 issue of Waterloo Magazine.
It became known as the happiest place on Earth.
The Health Sciences Campus COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic was a place of connection – an exciting step toward ending the pandemic.
Led by the Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team, it was housed in the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy in downtown Kitchener between March and August 2021. It became a beacon of hope and an opportunity for dozens of Waterloo alumni to find purpose in some of the most difficult days of the pandemic’s third wave.
“Partnering to support the clinic was essential for us,” says Andrea Edington, Hallman director of the School of Pharmacy. “Our community has been nothing but welcoming since our School opened in 2009. We were thrilled to give back by lending our space and expertise to this important cause.”
The clinic saw tears of joy from people who had been separated from loved ones and smiles behind the masks of alumni who felt connected to the global effort to save lives.
Smiles and selfies
When Ai-Leng Foong-Reichert (PharmD ’18, PhD in progress) oversaw vaccine preparation at the clinic, not a day went by without people expressing gratitude.
Foong-Reichert found renewed strength from being back in the School of Pharmacy at a time when completing her degree remotely was wearing on her.
“I’d stop and think: ‘Here I am, carrying out this specific task, seeing people’s joy, and there are people just like me doing this same task in vaccine clinics all around the world.’ It was a humbling realization.”
Foong-Reichert was moved by the sight of an older man struggling to take a selfie after his vaccine. “I smiled because I knew he was sending it to his grandchildren. That sense of relief and excitement, getting back to some sort of normal – it’s what connected us all.”
Doing his part to end the pandemic
Joey Champigny (PharmD ’20) was one of many pharmacy alumni who worked at the Health Sciences Campus clinic. “I remember sitting in the lecture hall learning about infectious disease,” Champigny says. “I never thought that later I’d be sitting in that same seat, giving someone a COVID-19 vaccine.”
Champigny was an immunizer and trained local health-care provider on vaccine preparation. “I was completing a residency and working part-time, but I knew I had to support the clinic,” he says. “I didn’t want to look back and think I could’ve done more to end the pandemic.”
Contributing as a family
Ryan Tennant (BAS ’19, MASc ’21, PhD in progress) grew up in a family of extroverts, so when he heard the vaccine clinic was looking for volunteers, he wanted to get his whole family involved.
Along with his parents Dave (BES ’79) and Sherri and his sister Lia (BSc ’13, MSc ’16), Tennant guided people from the parking lot to check-in stations, answered questions and provided support to patients and staff.
“I met people I hadn’t seen in years: former teachers and school friends. My shifts were full of those ‘small world’ moments connecting with people,” Tennant says.
His volunteer experience also inspired Tennant’s PhD research. The engineering student, working with many collaborators, designed an app to improve workflow in the clinic and minimize wasted resources.
Tennant hopes the app can be used in clinics around the world: “It’s been invigorating to design a solution that’s so immediately useful.”
Leadathon addresses the grand challenges of Canadian Engineering
On Saturday, November 6, 2021, the University of Guelph and the University of Waterloo hosted the first engineering Leadathon, the culmination of a project supported by the D2L Innovation Guild, and built upon the foundations of the Student Leadership Program at Waterloo and the Guelph Engineering Leadership (GEL) Program.
The Leadathon was a national competition held online, aimed at developing the leadership mindset in engineering students looking to solve the complex socio-technical challenges facing the world today. Leading the project was a team of three faculty: John Donald (University of Guelph), Christine Moresoli (University of Waterloo) and Nadine Ibrahim (University of Waterloo); and five engineering students: Tiana Bressan, Sania Azim, Grace Ly (University of Guelph), Monika Mikhail and Melissa Martin (University of Waterloo). On event day, an additional 9 student facilitators and 11 judges from multiple Canadian institutions helped support the event.
Centered around the six Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges (CEGC) identified by Engineering Deans Canada, the six CEGCs are:
- Resilient infrastructure
- Access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy
- Access to safe water in all communities
- Inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities
- Inclusive and sustainable industrialization
- Access to affordable and inclusive STEM education
Participating student teams were prompted to create a ‘Decade of Action’ plan to address a selected CEGC to make Canada a better place.
Teams had an hour and a half to create, finalize and submit their ‘Decade of Action’ plan. They focused on creating relevant, creative and realistic solutions and goals to address their selected CEGC while keeping design and communication in mind for their submission. All teams prepared engaging presentations with well structured goals and solutions, impressing the judges with their creativity and innovation.
Overall, this inaugural Leadathon was a great success, with students noting that working with their teams they gained leadership and teamwork skills and developed a better understanding on how to generate ideas to address the complexity of the CEGCs. One student participant noted that the leadership skills they developed included “thinking quick, creatively, critically, and profoundly to map CEGCs; explaining and justifying my personal recommendations/thoughts in the breakout sessions, while also listening to others.” A total 173 students participated from 11 Canadian Universities, making up 33 teams with three teams receiving prizes for the best overall, most innovative, and most applicable plans. The teams in each category were:
Best overall: Resilient infrastructure
Almog Waisenberg, Alex Wang, Christopher Ungureanu, and Mark Bastianello (York University)
Most applicable: Affordable, reliable and sustainable energy
Aditi Maheshwari, Lauren Streitmatter, and Cassey Shao (University of Toronto)
Most innovative: Access to affordable and inclusive STEM education
Minjeong Kang, Mayokun Moses ((University of Manitoba), Steven Hoa-Le, Ausad Kahlon, Janush Loganathan (York University).
Improving perceptions of emerging technologies can help ease strain on health-care systems
This article was originally published on Waterloo News.
More attention must be paid to improving perceptions of emerging technologies like AI-powered symptom checkers, which could ease the strain on health-care systems, according to a recent study.
Symptom checkers are online platforms that help with self-triage based on a range of inputted symptoms and demographic details.
The study, led by University of Waterloo researchers, found that “tech seekers,” people who are open to technology but perceive a lack of access to it, are the most likely to want to use the technology—more than “tech acceptors,” people who are both open to it and perceive it to be accessible.
The least likely group of people to adopt the tool are “tech rejectors,” those who do not view it as accessible and have a negative view of AI. In between were “skeptics,” who have concerns about trust and output quality, and “unsure acceptors,” who do not perceive access to be an issue but have negative perceptions about AI.
“These findings should be of great interest—or concern—to the three active arms of any health-care system that intends to use AI-driven symptom checkers: prospective patients, medical experts and developers of AI-driven symptom checkers,” said co-author Ashok Chaurasia, a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences. “This study highlights the need for more collaboration between these groups to improve AI models and their perception within the general population and medical experts.”
Stephanie Aboueid, the study’s lead author and a School of Public Health Sciences graduate, said, “This technology is very promising in the health-care sector, given that it has the potential to reduce unnecessary medical visits and address the lack of access to primary care providers.”
The researchers surveyed 1,305 university students aged 18 to 34 who had never used a symptom checker before the study. They gathered data on trust, usefulness, credibility, demonstrability, output quality, perspectives about AI, ease of use and accessibility for the analysis.
“Symptom checkers are important because they speak to the younger generation who value timeliness and convenience,” Aboueid said. “They are not just a fad, as we’ve seen with Babylon, for example, which recently went public and has been adopted by various health institutions.
Aboueid said the researchers used university-aged responders for the study because they are typically eager adopters of technology. Because of the age group studied, high education levels and good health status, additional studies are needed in other populations with wider age ranges, education and health levels, the researchers said.
The study, “Latent classes associated with the intention to use a symptom checker for self-triage,” was co-authored by Waterloo researchers Stephanie Aboueid, Samantha Meyer, James Wallace and Ashok Chaurasia and published in the journal PLOS One.
Writing and Communication Centre releases annual report
A message from the Writing and Communication Centre (WCC).
The Writing and Communication Centre (WCC) is excited to announce the release of our 2020-21 Annual Report. During an unusual and challenging year, the WCC continued to support students, postdocs, and faculty in all of their academic, research, and professional communication activities.
As we did last year and going forward, the WCC will be publishing our annual reports in a digital format to prioritize accessibility, cost-efficiency, and sustainability. The 2020-2021 Annual Report is now available on our website.
IST celebrates Sandra Laughlin
"Please join me in congratulating Sandra Laughlin on her upcoming retirement," writes Lisa Tomalty, Manager, Customer Relations and Support in Information Systems and Technology (IST). "Sandra’s last day of work will be December 23, 2021."
"Sandra has been a staff member at the University of Waterloo for over 39 years. She joined IST (Department of Computing Services) in 1982 as an I/O Operator. In 2003, Sandra took on the role of Site License Software Coordinator in IST. As part of this role, she was responsible for procuring and renewing software licenses and arranging contracts with large numbers of vendors, for IT staff, faculties and labs. She also taught and assisted with Skills for the Electronic Workplace (SEW) courses. Later she also took on roles of co-chair of our Professional Development Advisory Group (PDAG) and was responsible for facilitating and arranging many of the excellent IT sessions we have enjoyed on Friday mornings, as well as the role of coordinator of our IT Professional Development (ITPD) program."
"Over her years of service, Sandra has interacted with staff, faculty and students across campus, as well as with many of our vendors, including Microsoft, Oracle, and Softchoice, among others," Tomalty continues. "Sandra is a respected and valued colleague in IST and across campus. Her friendly and efficient approach to her work and interactions, as well as her attention to detail, dedication and sense of humor, will be greatly missed."
"On behalf of everyone in IST and many across campus, I would like to thank Sandra for her dedication to the University of Waterloo, her clients and colleagues. We wish Sandra all the best in retirement."