Friday, June 24, 2022

WISA's first Annual General Meeting takes place today

Today, Provost Dr. James Rush addressed an audience of more than 100 faculty, industry, and government guests at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics.  The provost highlighted the alignment with WISA activities with the strategic plan of the University of Waterloo including:

• The approval and upcoming September 2022 launch of the Collaborative Aeronautics Program (CAP), which is a new interdisciplinary graduate program that will enhance existing Masters and Doctoral programs with a foundational understanding of aeronautics. The CAP includes academic units from all 6 faculties as well as a network of industry and government partners.
• WISA’s announcement of an upcoming 1-day conference and trade show called the Sustainable Aeronautics Summit which will be held at the Region of Waterloo International Airport (YKF) on October 5, 2022 to promote knowledge translation.
• The results of the WISA Design Competition, which challenged teams of students to propose architectural designs for the flight school of the future, prioritizing the sustainability of flight operations.

Watch a Youtube video about the University of Waterloo's Collaborative Aeuronautics Program (CAP):

University of Waterloo team receives funding to investigate the lack of family-sized apartment housing in Waterloo

This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Three researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment have been awarded funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to work with the community to investigate the lack of family-sized apartment housing despite the recent building boom in the Region of Waterloo.

The affordable housing crisis in Waterloo Region is especially apparent for families due to a lack of suitable low-rise, high-density housing such as low-rise multi-bedroom apartments, row houses, and townhomes.

“These kinds of units are referred to as ‘the missing middle,’” said School of Planning professor Dawn Parker. She added that providing more suitable housing for families in high-density areas such as the central transit corridor would permit a greater number of residents to “grow in place” and have access to transit-oriented development. It would also help the Region to get closer to its carbon reduction goals.  

“We are so excited and grateful to the many partners who have been willing to come to the table to collaboratively explore potential solutions to our deeply complex local housing challenges,” Parker said. “Our research builds on our previous productive partnerships and adds valuable new collaborators in the for-profit and non-profits development sectors.”

Professor Parker, Sean Geobey, and Martine August, all professors at Waterloo, have been developing a three-year project titled, “Why did the ‘Missing Middle’ miss the Train?”

By working at the grassroots level with the development industry, the community and public officials, the team hopes to explore local barriers explaining the “missing middle” and identify feasible and efficient potential solutions, such as developing a “missing middle” site plan and finance typologies. Finally, they will test the solutions using land and housing market simulations. 

Waterloo Region, in particular, offers a rich backdrop for the work. In 2019 its ION light-rail transit in Waterloo Region was launched with the mission to move people and intensify land use. Those objectives have been reached as more than 2.6 billion dollars were invested in the corridor, allowing more high-rise residential buildings to be developed. However, at the same time as the development, housing in Waterloo Region became much less affordable.

“Developers primarily built single bedroom units to maximize margins, “said Parker. “These units served the Region’s young tech sector workers but failed to meet the needs of families, who are being pinched by increasing demand for a finite number of detached and semi-detached homes.”

The team's research directly relates to provincial and federal government calls to identify housing supply barriers, as well as solutions.  The team’s research is also in line with the Faculty of Environments Strategic Plan by collaborating with external partners to shape their research agenda and co-create and mobilize knowledge.

Waterloo faculty members elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering

This article was originally featured on the Office of Research's website.

Seven University of Waterloo faculty members spanning the Faculties of Engineering, Mathematics, and Environment, have been elected as Fellows to the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE).

The CAE is the national institution through which individuals, who have made outstanding contributions to engineering in Canada, provide strategic advice on matters of critical importance to Canada and to Canadians. Fellows of the CAE are nominated and elected by their peers, in view of their distinguished achievements and career-long service and are committed to ensuring that Canada’s engineering expertise and experience are applied to the benefit of all Canadians.

The newly elected Fellows are:

David Clausi

David Clausi is a Professor in Systems Design Engineering and the Associate Dean of Research & External Partnerships (ADR) for Engineering. He is a renowned computer vision expert who has made exceptional research, entrepreneurship, and leadership contributions in multiple fields including biomechanics, biomedical, remote sensing, and sports analytics. A highly accomplished researcher, inventor and scholar, he has designed algorithms to interpret satellite imagery, detect skin cancer, model embryonic development, and automate ice hockey analytics. As ADR, he has strategically grown Waterloo Engineering and taken leadership to raise the University’s research profile.

Duane Cronin

Duane Cronin is a Professor in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, a Canada Research Chair in Trauma Biomechanics and Injury Prevention, and an internationally recognized expert in trauma biomechanics, human body modelling (HBM), and material characterization. He established a new Canadian research program to link materials, impact, and trauma biomechanics research, significantly advancing the fields of crash safety and protection of humans in extreme environments. Professor Cronin and his team have developed leading computational HBMs used globally by industry, government and academics to improve human safety. Professor Cronin’s high level of scholarship and dramatic impact on the academic community and industry demonstrates his global presence and the impact of innovative research to save lives.

Karim Karim

Karim Sallaudin Karim is a Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Associate Vice-President, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship, and a Founder and the Chief Technology Officer of KA Imaging. Professor Karim both pioneered innovative X-ray technologies and then led the commercialization effort via KA Imaging. His research has led to the world’s first portable, dual energy X-ray detector, with superior accuracy that enables early disease detection of cardiopulmonary and musculoskeletal disorders. The technology is now used in hospitals in seven countries to replace black and white X-rays. Professor Karim has 250 academic publications and 80 international patents.

Jonathan Jun Li

Jonathan Li is a Professor in Geography and Environmental Management and a world-class researcher in geomatics and remote sensing. His pioneering contributions in AI-based earth-observation image understanding have substantially impacted the development of high-definition mapping technology in Canada and beyond. His innovations include the generalized point-cloud descriptors and the intelligent point-cloud to 3D model convertors, which have significantly advanced the field of 3D vision. He has published 320+ journal papers and trained 120+ graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He received the Samuel Gamble Award and the Geomatica Award. He is the President-elect of the Canadian Institute of Geomatics and a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada.

Ming Li

Ming Li is a University Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science. He is recognized for his contributions in building large-scale bioinformatics systems that have enabled modern proteomics projects worldwide, his contributions in designing an antibody sequencing pipeline that has helped to enable a modern antibody sequencing industry, his contributions to significantly improving de novo sequencing accuracy which is key to enable personalized cancer immunotherapy, and his contributions to a modern information theory Kolmogorov complexity via his book “An introduction to Kolmogorov complexity and its applications” that is read and cited widely and has impacted people’s conception of modern information as well as applications of the such understanding to engineering, technology, and science.

Maria Anna Polak

Maria Anna Polak is a Professor and University Research Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is renowned in the field of structural engineering, with pioneering contributions to the design and testing of concrete and reinforced concrete structures. Her innovations include new technologies for the retrofit of concrete slabs, powerful analysis tools for evaluation and testing of design standards, global structural damage assessment methods, and fibre-reinforced polymers. Implemented worldwide, Professor Polak’s work has directly contributed to international standards for infrastructure design. She sits on numerous international standards committees, is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute and the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and is recipient of prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships.

Zhongchao Tan

Chao Tan is a Professor in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and an international authority on filtration and separation technologies. His scholarly publications have reached $1.7 million downloads globally; his award-winning research and innovation significantly strengthened Canada’s global leadership in sustainability, including a major patent licensed by Enersul Inc. As a visionary leader, Professor Tan spearheaded multiple platforms, creating a positive and inclusive environment for knowledge mobilization, talent exchange, and training of the next generation of young engineers with a global vision. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and received numerous other scholarship-based awards; his innovative teaching method and textbooks also won him multiple teaching awards.

Colouring outside the lines

By Brian Caldwell. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

A graduate of the Waterloo School of Architecture has been recognized by a national organization for young entrepreneurs for her work to make fashion greener.

Iris Redinger (BAS ’21) was one of five winners of Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards honoured at a recent event in Montreal for her Waterloo-based startup company, Material Futures.

Supported by several entrepreneurial programs at the University of Waterloo, including Velocity and the Engineer of the Future Fund, Redinger launched the company in 2018 to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

Iris Redinger graduated last year from the Waterloo School of Architecture.

Her innovative solution uses micro-organisms to produce all-natural, biodegradable dyes, essentially growing colour that can be easily substituted in existing manufacturing processes. She hopes to launch commercial products based on the technology, which also has potential applications in industries including cosmetics and plastics, next year.

The awards recognize former Mitacs interns who turn research discoveries into businesses that impact the lives of Canadians.

“To build on Canada’s growing success, we need to mobilize and invest in the best,” François-Philippe Champagne, the federal minister of innovation, science and industry, said in a media release announcing the awards.

'All possible through the architectural program'

Redinger, who won in the Environmental Entrepreneur category, learned to sew at a young age and got invaluable insight into the fashion industry during a co-op term with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen in her first year of studies at Waterloo.

Her experience included work on a dress that was shown during Paris Fashion Week and is now part of the collection at the Royal Ontario Museum.

“That was my first exposure to the fashion world and that was all possible through the architectural program,” Redinger said in a recent media interview.

Mitacs, a non-profit organization backed by federal and provincial governments, is dedicated to fostering growth and innovation in Canada by leveraging research from academic institutions.

Main photo by Dilara Baltaci from Pexels.

Friday's Notes

Last week, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, publicly announced the second phase of funding for the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) for Ontario projects. The Knowledge Development and Exchange (KDE) Hub, housed at Renison University College, is pleased to share that this announcement included $2 million of funding for the KDE Hub. This funding supports the KDE Hub’s work to advance mental health promotion for young Canadians, particularly those who are part of vulnerable populations. Learn more about the KDE Hub.

The next PDAG seminar takes place today from 9:00 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. "WCMS 3 - Migrate and be GREAT" will feature presenter Charlotte Armstrong and moderator Stephen Markan. The event takes place on Microsoft Teams.

The seminar will explore the migration from WCMS 2 to WCMS 3. This migration is more than switching Drupal versions and design. For a successful migration there is a review, preparation and backend tweaking. Charlotte will provide an overview of the process and provide guidance on how to get from 2 to 3 successfully.

Charlotte Armstrong has worked in guiding administrative and technical change for much of her career. Charlotte is currently part of the IST DCA Web Development team (reporting to Joe Kwan) as a Client Support Specialist. Charlotte’s team works with website leads and site owners to prepare, migrate and remediate sites as they move through the switch from WCMS 2 to WCMS 3. Outside of IST, Charlotte has been an active community member involved in groups and events such as Nerd Nite KW and Dance Mix 90's at THEMUSEUM.

This session will be recorded and shared on MS Teams via the PDAG Channel.