Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Advancing equity and inclusion in contract research and commercialization at Waterloo

A message from the Office of Research.

The Office of Research is partnering with Canadian Equality Consulting (CEC) to build an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy and action plan, including Indigenous initiatives. The focus is to increase access and engagement for those who are currently pursuing or who are interested in pursuing commercialization and contract industry research opportunities. The strategy will focus specifically on researchers from equity-deserving groups (women, people beyond the gender binary, 2SLGBTQ+, Indigenous Peoples, people from racialized communities, and people with disabilities).

CEC is inviting researchers (i.e., faculty members, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates) who are interested in or have participated in contract research or commercialization activities to attend a webinar to learn more about this work, including the process and details on the consultations with people who identify as a member of an equity-deserving group.

The webinar will be 30-minutes in length and will be hosted on Thursday, April 28 at 12:15pm. Please register for the webinar.

W Store renovations and impacts to campus community

A message from Print + Retail Solutions.

Over the last two years, Print + Retail Solutions has continued to evaluate our retail strategies to optimize our spaces and service levels across campus, while also taking into consideration market trends and ongoing customer feedback. Based on this, as of Monday, April 25, W Store | Course Materials + Supplies in South Campus Hall will be closed to in-store shopping to prepare for a renovation project. This project will continue throughout the spring term and is scheduled to be completed by mid-August, in time for fall preparations and students returning to classes.

The goal of this renovation is to enhance customers’ shopping experience through improved product fixtures and cosmetic upgrades. W Store is also using this renovation as an opportunity to respond to market changes and customer feedback.

The educational publishing industry has continued to accelerate their move towards offering digital learning tools and platforms, which has impacted the requirement for printed materials at the beginning of each term. In fact, one of the largest publishers is transitioning to a “digital only” strategy.

Additionally, since March of 2020, there has been a shift towards online ordering that has continued since the re-opening of W Store | Course Materials + Supplies. Over the last two years, students have expressed that the convenience of online ordering and the delivery models offered during the pandemic are preferable.

In response to these shifts, W Store has decided to remove self-serve in-person shopping of most course materials, effective immediately. Normal inventory levels well be maintained, however, and course materials, textbooks and digital materials will continue to be available for purchase through wstore.ca.

Students will still have many options for delivery of their required course materials including: pick-up in South Campus Hall, shipping to an on-campus student residence front desk (available for students that live in Campus Housing), or shipping off campus to a preferred address. Access codes for digital options will continue to be emailed from wstore@uwaterloo.ca.

W Store is committed to responding thoughtfully to market changes and customer feedback. The department has served students diligently each term, offering them the choice between print and digital options when feasible, and delivering on our mission to be the trusted source for services and products essential to the advancement of knowledge, student success and an enriched campus experience. This change will allow the Print + Retail Solutions team to meet students’ needs even more effectively in the future as they adapt to the rapid evolution of the course materials landscape and the changing expectations of students.

For questions related to the renovation or the decision to transition to exclusively online ordering for course materials, please contact Ryan Jacobs, Director, Print + Retail Solutions (rjacobs@uwaterloo.ca).

The pipes, the pipes are calling for the Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies

By Carol Truemner. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Launched to assist the City of Waterloo with a disintegrating household pipe problem in the 1990s, the University’s Centre of Advancement of Trenchless Technologies (CATT) is closing its doors at the end of this month.

Housed in Waterloo Engineering, the centre has addressed critical issues facing underground infrastructure installation, assessment, repair and renewal since 1994 starting with the failing black pipe lateral issue many Waterloo residents experienced.

Installed years earlier, the pipes built out of paper and filled with coal tar bitumen were not able to withstand the massive volumes of hot water needed to run newer appliances including dishwashers.  

Comprised of a group of university, municipal, industrial, business and government agencies working together, the Waterloo centre has grown into an international leader in trenchless research and professional education, said Mark Knight, CATT’s executive director for over 20 years.

Last fall, CATT’s governing board began a review of the centre to ensure it was still relevant to its members in a changing and growing industry. 

The board consulted with many industry professionals including Alireza Bayat, a University of Alberta civil and environmental engineering professor and a Waterloo Engineering alumnus whose graduate work was supervised by Knight, a civil and environmental engineering professor.

The cross-country discussions led to the establishment of the Canadian Underground Infrastructure Innovation Centre at U of A and the closure of CATT.

The new centre to be headed by Bayat (PhD ’09, civil engineering), the NSERC Associate Industrial Research Chair in Underground Trenchless Construction and a Ralph Haas/Stantec Fellow in Civil Engineering, is envisioned to become a national and international leader in sustainable underground infrastructure innovation, research and education.

CATT’s last event will be the 2022 Trenchless Technology Road Show it is hosting this week in Kelowna, BC.

A win-win

While CATT will no longer exist, the ongoing underground research Knight and his team are working on including the testing and design of liners used to rehabilitate pressure pipelines will not only continue but be expanded.

Knight describes the new centre as a win-win for everyone involved, including CATT members who have laid the foundation for the future.

“Although the location and name are changing, it is important to note that CATT’s original vision and mandate will carry on and evolve,” said Knight. “CATT members will work with and fully support U of A’s centre.”

Participants needed for contact lens wearer imaging study

A message from the Centre for Ocular Research and Education (Core).

The Centre for Ocular Research and Education (CORE) is currently recruiting contact lens wearers for a study to image cells on the front surface of the eye. These cells play an important role in keeping your eyes healthy. We are looking for participants who experience discomfort while wearing lenses, and those who do not experience any discomfort with lens wear. The study will take place at the University of Waterloo and consist of 6.5 hours of clinical appointments. Participants will receive $130 upon study completion. For more information regarding this study visit www.corestudies.ca/setter.

All studies through CORE have been approved through a University of Waterloo Ethics Research Committee. To register to be part of CORE’s participant database and be the first to know about new studies, profiles can be created at www.corestudies.ca.

Notes as exams come to an end

The winter term's final examination period wraps up today.

Registered students can begin to view their unofficial term grades in Quest as of Wednesday, April 27.

The spring co-operative work term as well as lectures and classes for the spring term will begin on Monday, May 2.

The 2022 Vision Science Graduate Research Studies Conference takes place today and tomorrow. The Vision Science Graduate Research Conference is an annual event that allows graduate students to showcase their research. This year the Larkworthy Memorial keynote speaker is Dr. Anne Innis Dagg. The conference will be taking place in the OPT 347 conference theatre.

The next Water Institute WaterTalks event, Analytic element method solutions extend computational frontiers in interdisciplinary hydrosciences and beyond, will be presented by David R. Steward on Wednesday, April 27, at 2:00 p.m.

"How can analytic solutions help us to better understand the problems we face in earth sciences, civil engineering and related applications?  New advances using the Analytic Element Method (AEM) employ straightforward mathematical methods to achieve nearly-exact solutions, and extend the frontier of computational methods. Wide-ranging examples are presented for problems in: groundwater/surface water interactions, well hydraulics, fractures and heterogeneities with groundwater flow, vadose zone processes in heterogeneous soils, and capture zones to identify the source of groundwater uptake by plants."

David Steward holds the Walter B. Booth Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at North Dakota State University. Professor Steward leads a research program addressing the grand challenge of water resources for society through two complementary approaches. One research focus is interdisciplinary water resources studies with collaborations across colleges of agriculture, architecture, arts and sciences, education, engineering, and veterinary medicine.