Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Monitoring public health trends on COVID-19

A message from Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor and James W.E. Rush, Vice-President, Academic & Provost.

Since we last wrote to you in June announcing the suspension of the requirement to wear a mask on our campuses, the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to evolve, and public health trends are also evolving with it.

We continue to track the latest data from the Ontario’s Science Table on COVID-19 which indicates that the province has entered a new, seventh wave of infections this summer driven by the latest Omicron variant. Waterloo Region is also experiencing this latest increase in infections, though the rate of infections in our region is currently amongst the lowest province wide. While there has been a small increase in hospitalizations at this time, ICU admissions remain stable. However, the health system continues to be challenged due to staffing shortages and the backlog of cases.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, the course of this virus is very difficult to predict, so we are continuing to regularly track the data and evidence very closely. Any decisions about our operations will continue to be based on that data and evidence, in consultation with public health authorities and other institutions. We will continue this close monitoring and make decisions regarding the need for any specific measures for the fall term closer to its start. We are fully expecting to have in person classes and events for the fall term.

Last week, the Government of Ontario, acting on advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, made COVID-19 vaccination second booster shots available for anyone over the age of 18. We urge you to ensure your vaccination status is up to date as this is one of the most effective defenses you, and our community, have. Also please register your status with Campus Checkin (https://campuscheckin.uwaterloo.ca). Up-to-date information on our community’s vaccination status will help us make informed decisions about health and safety on campus and will ensure you don’t face any disruptions if a requirement to be vaccinated to come to the University is brought back.

Experts from across public health and healthcare fields agree that getting third or fourth doses of a COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible is important because vaccination offers the best protection against the severe illness, hospitalization and death. You can book your booster dose on the provincial vaccination portal or by booking with Health Services.

Health Canada has approved vaccines for very young children that will be available in Ontario soon. Dr Kelly Grindrod from the School of Pharmacy recently shared excellent resources for families on the new pediatric vaccines, and we encourage you to share these resources with anyone who has questions regarding vaccinations for young children.

As we are faced with this latest rise in cases, we want to emphasize the value of wearing a tight-fitting, well-constructed mask in indoor settings. Though the current suspension of the requirement to wear a mask will continue, we are a mask friendly campus and strongly encourage everyone in our community to wear a mask in crowded spaces or whenever you choose.

We’ll continue to monitor the public health trends and data very closely in the coming weeks and you can expect to hear an update on plans for the Fall term in mid-to-late August.

We hope you are making the most of the summer and can enjoy some time with friends and family.

Three Waterloo graduates receive top awards for environmental engineering research

A message from the Faculty of Engineering.

Three recent graduates from the Water Science, Technology & Policy group (WaterSTP) in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo have received three of four top international awards for best Master’s thesis research, marking the first time so many awards have been secured from the two associations by one group in a competition year.

Kelsey Kundert, MASc graduate and Senior Engineer in the City of Calgary, and Nik Knezic, MSc graduate and current PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo, won first and second place in the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Academic Achievement Awards for best Master’s thesis. In addition, Omar Chowdhury, also an MSc graduate, received the top award for best Master’s thesis from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). These prestigious awards recognize the most outstanding Master’s thesis research from a competitive pool of international applicants.

Kundert’s thesis focused on coupled chemically-assisted filtration (CCAF) investigating approaches for increasing filter resilience during drinking water treatment to ensure that public health is protected from waterborne pathogens.

Knezic’s thesis focused on innovative approaches for proactively limiting the growth of harmful algal blooms in drinking water reservoirs—such blooms pose one of the greatest climate change threats to drinking water security globally.

Chowdhury received recognition for his thesis which included the development of a “Threshold Microplastics Concentration” framework to provide utilities and regulators with a science-based, easily updatable approach for screening drinking water systems to indicate whether existing treatment is sufficient for managing potential health risks attributable to waterborne microplastics or more detailed risk assessment and management strategies are needed.

The three recipients were all supervised by Dr. Monica Emelko who holds the Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology & Policy. Knezic was co-supervised by Dr. Mike Stone of the Department of Geography & Environmental Management while Chowdhury was co-supervised by Dr. Bill Anderson, who is a Research Professor in Civil & Environmental Engineering. Knezic and Kunder are members of the forWater Network, a pan-Canadian interdisciplinary network focused on drinking water source water protection on forested landscapes. They indicated that the unique cross-collaboration of WaterSTP, the forWater Network, and a pan-Canadian network of water industry partners supported their innovative research projects resulting in their award.

Graduate students from top universities globally are nominated for conducting outstanding environmental science and engineering (AEESP) and water-related (AWWA) research program. The awards were presented at the respective Association conferences in St. Louis and San Antonio in June 2022.

UWSA Member vote on updated MOA now open

A message from the University of Waterloo Staff Association.

Starting in spring 2021, the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) hosted a series of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) consultation sessions that were attended by over 500 UW staff attendees. The sessions were developed and hosted to assist in ensuring that UW staff were informed of the updates to the MOA. The UWSA extends its thanks to everyone who attended and asked questions. We value your engagement with this important process.

If you didn’t make it to any of these sessions, you can review the presentation (PDF) describing how the existing MOA (PDF) benefits UW staff, as well as improvements in the updated MOA (PDF). You can view questions asked by attendees, along with responses, in the FAQ section of the MOA Consultation web page. 

As noted in this 2021 News item, the UWSA had hoped to hold a vote last year to gauge Member support for the MOA updates. After working through some final revisions, the Member vote is now open. On July 14, 2022, UWSA Members received an email invitation to participate in the online vote. The email was sent by the University Secretariat with the subject line "MOA Vote Now Open". If you are a UWSA Member and you did not receive an invitation to vote, please contact us.

The updated MOA has been developed over the past several years by staff, for staff. Compared to our current MOA, which was adopted in 2008, the updated MOA strengthens the UWSA, so we can better advocate for improved staff working conditions. We appreciate your support throughout the past several years, and we encourage you to contact us about this or any other work done by the UWSA on your behalf.

Your Voice Starts Here!

Integrative teaching in high school

By Jude Okonkwo. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Humans throughout history have dreamed of reaching out and touching the stars. Thanks to a unique collaboration with the University of Waterloo, Students at Riverview Highschool in New Brunswick can do just that — with a little help from a ladder.

Project LEO, standing for Light Embodied Odyssey, and named after the constellation, is a suspended columnar interactive light sculpture that responds to movement.                                                                                                          

Students at Riverview have been learning remotely from Rob Gorbet, associate professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo and his brother Matt, a partner in Gorbet Design, about science, electronics, coding, emotion, and form. They have applied it all by creating LEO, a hands-on project that incorporates all these elements of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM).

Gorbet is working with Riverview’s award-winning science teacher Ian Fogarty to help his high school students use interdisciplinary knowledge to make connections across their courses by engaging in an interactive design project.

“Students mention the feeling of empowerment they get from making a thing and putting it out in the world,” says Gorbet. “After being involved, they have talked about seeing themselves and their interests in more connected, higher-dimensional ways.”

Right to Left: Professor Rob Gorbet and his brother Matt, a partner in Gorbet Design.

Gorbet’s goal as a Knowledge Integration (KI) professor is to challenge both students and the school system to rethink the labels they put on themselves. LEO is one example of how integrative projects might change how schools teach by helping advance cognitive development and critical thinking skills by encouraging synthesis of ideas. The project, displayed in Riverview's main entrance, serves as a catalyst for conversation and brings different social groups together to encourage discussions about art, science, and education.

The project started in 2020-21, with the first cohort using the form language and electronics from Waterloo’s Living Architecture Systems Group to construct the first column. They focussed primarily on designing the light behaviours to represent different human emotions. In the 2021-22 school year two more columns were designed by students.  This time they focussed on fabrication technology and sculptural aspects to design and make their own science-inspired forms for the columns.

Project LEO Installation at Riverview Highschool in New Brunswick

With more columns still to build, the project will continue for another few years. The students’ imaginations are boundless: might future iterations be able to read and respond to human emotions by using a camera and Artificial Intelligence (AI)?  How might the sculpture reflect the environment, for example the tides in the nearby Bay of Fundy?  As they are completed, each column of the project is raised in specific relation to the others to represent the constellation LEO, a tribute to the school’s lion mascot, and to the students’ ideas and efforts coming together to spawn a whole new creation.

Hopefully, this project will open the door for incoming and outgoing students to come up with more involved innovative ideas that will change the way they think of themselves and the world around them.

Learn more about project LEO: https://livingarchitecturesystems.com/project/riverview-column/

Learn more about the LASG: https://livingarchitecturesystems.com/about

More about Knowledge Integration: https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/knowledge-integration