Friday, July 22, 2022

Celebrating more than 130 years of service to Waterloo

Kinesiology and Health Sciences retirees Janet Coulter, Laurie Jones, Denise Hay and Jing Ouyang (not pictured)

A message from Kinesiology and Health Sciences (KHS).

The Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences (KHS) commemorated the retirement of four exceptional long-time staff members last week: Laurie Jones, Jing Ouyang, Janet Coulter and Denise Hay. Together, they have worked at the University for more than 130 years, with 110 of them in KHS.

Laurie Jones started as a student in 1976 and became staff in 1980, retiring in 2021. She taught and supported many classes and labs and mentored faculty and graduate student in both the biochemistry and physiology academic and research labs. She was a skilled lab instructor, dedicated to ensuring students received the best possible academic experience and understood the material. As one of her former colleagues noted, she provided such excellent student support that a line of students outside Laurie’s office was the norm.

Jing Ouyang retired in 2021 after almost 23 years in the Department. She had been trained as a medical doctor in China, and while in the Department, supported the research programs of many faculty, especially in the Physiology and Nutrition group – including that of the current chair, Russ Tupling, as he was starting out as a student and young researcher. She was also well-known for having a gentle touch with blood and muscle sampling and for being a stickler for high-quality work in the biochemistry lab.

Janet Coulter retired this past January after more than 36 years in the Department, most recently as undergraduate program manager. A humorous “Top 5 list of things no one has ever said of Janet” included: Janet’s voice gets on my nerves (no. 5), Does Janet ever stop complaining? (no. 4), and Janet gave me the wrong advice again! (no. 3). Instead, her friendly and welcoming disposition, coupled with clear advice, made her an invaluable advisor and program manager.

Denise Hay is the most recent retiree, having worked for more than 30 years at the University until this July, most recently as graduate studies and department coordinator. For this event, Professor Bill McIlroy prepared an ‘academic paper’ titled “Denise Hay is Awesome! An Annotated Review.” Using longitudinal observational case-report methodology, the findings showed that, among other things, Denise’s support and concern for graduate students and faculty members were greatly appreciated: Her office would be filled with gifts from students and staff just before the December holidays. She was also praised for her patience and ability to revive plants.

All four staff members will be greatly missed, but the Department thanks them for their loyal service and wishes them well in their retirement.

The best and the brightest

By Rose Simone. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

It’s all about reputation, which is all about quality. 

It was the reputation of the University of Waterloo’s computer science school that attracted Raouf Boutaba to a faculty position 23 years ago. Today, he is the director of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, a school that punches far above its weight in international rankings and draws top students and faculty researchers from around the world. 

Boutaba’s academic career started in Europe, and after arriving in Canada, he took positions in Montreal and Toronto. But Waterloo drew him in because of its reputation and quality of research.  

“For my own research, I needed to work with the type of students that Waterloo had,” Boutaba says, who has a background in electrical and computer engineering as well as computer science. “Waterloo had the students who were building software systems and so I thought that this was the best place in Canada for me to be.” 

The school consistently shows up in national and international rankings.  

Waterloo computer science is in the top 25 out of more than 1,400 universities around the world, according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings. In the Maclean’s 2022 rankings of Canadian universities, computer science at Waterloo was number one for the second year in a row. With more than 4,000 undergraduate students and 400 graduate students, it’s also a big program in terms of enrollment. 

Beyond the numbers 

But, as Boutaba says, it’s not just about numbers. 

“Quality of education and research is our goal. If you shine in your education and research, then students and faculty will want to come.” 

Waterloo definitely attracts the best and the brightest. The school gets so many applications that the average entry grade is “phenomenally high,” Boutaba says. “That creates a virtuous circle that reinforces itself over time,” he adds. “Having good undergraduate and graduate students helps us attract good faculty and that in turn helps to attract good students.” 

Boutaba says there isn’t a single “secret ingredient” for building such a world-renowned computer science school. Instead, “there are many ingredients in play together and tied to each other.” 

The co-op education component that mixes academics with work experience is one well-known ingredient. “There is a very high demand from industry to get our co-op students to spend their work terms in these companies,” Boutaba says. Many of those students end up with permanent job offers even before they graduate. 

“Many of them end up in leadership positions in academia and industry,” which adds to Waterloo’s global reputation, he says. 

History of innovation 

A major factor in making computer science at Waterloo a success is that the university encourages and facilitates interactions with industry. Long before it was fashionable in academia, entrepreneurship was in the DNA of the University of Waterloo. It started with the support of industry and forward-thinking government officials who were concerned that Canada was falling behind as technology advanced after the Second World War. 

“Today, the interaction with industry provides our faculty the ability to access real-world problems,” Boutaba says. “Our faculty work with a wide variety of companies, sometimes doing research contracts and often creating genuine collaborations with corporate staff.” 

That out-of-the-box thinking and entrepreneurial spirit thrived in Waterloo’s computer science school from its inception, Boutaba says.  

It drew people like Wes Graham and Don Cowan, who won funding to bring the IBM 360/75 to Waterloo in the 1960s. At the time, it was the biggest computer in Canada and the same model that was used by NASA to send astronauts to the moon. “That really helped put Waterloo on the map,” Boutaba says.  

Those same computer science pioneers started to build software that became entire companies. Watcom, a company that Graham co-founded, was the first of many spinoff companies from the university. 

Entrepreneurial spirit 

The spirit of entrepreneurship thrived in the computer science school alongside its growth in other parts of the university. It led to liberal intellectual property policies that give researchers ownership of their patents. The result was the growth of more than two dozen successful spinoff companies, including big corporations such as OpenText and Maplesoft. 

In that sense, computer science at Waterloo seeded the growing Waterloo Region technology hub that we see today, Boutaba says. 

Computer science has come a long way in the 55 years since the school was established, but it has no intention of sitting on its laurels. 

Today computer science students and faculty members are involved in every area of computer science research, from artificial intelligence and quantum computing to blockchain and bioinformatics. Boutaba hopes the school’s reputation will continue to rise along with the quality of its research and education. 

“We hold a top spot in the rankings for research and scholarship, and that’s important. But while being in the top 25 schools internationally is commendable, we are ambitious, and in the future, we hope to be in the top 20.” 

PhD students invited to come work in GSPA

A message from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA).

Are you a current PhD student at the University of Waterloo looking to support Waterloo's Professional Skills Foundations program? 

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs is hiring a Graduate Professional Skills Program Specialist for the fall 2022 and winter 2023 terms (8 months total commitment required). 

The Graduate Professional Skills Program Specialist supports the GSPA-led Professional Skills Foundations program for University of Waterloo graduate students. The specialist is responsible for working with graduate students on their professional developments goals, as well as organizing and facilitating other programming and initiatives for graduate students, as needed.

Interested in applying?  Review the job details and apply by Monday August 8.

Laura Ingram receives the 2021 WUSA Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Science website.

Laura Ingram, a Chemistry Lecturer and Undergraduate Advisor, has been awarded the 2021 WUSA Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Waterloo Undergraduate Association.

She is an engaging instructor who promotes and practices evidence-based teaching and learning strategies. Her knowledge about current teaching and learning approaches in higher education allows her to successfully integrate educational technologies into the classroom and laboratory.

“Dr. Ingram deserves this award because she genuinely engages her students in all aspects and concepts of chemistry. She always tries her best to uplift us and make us feel less stressed and relaxed whenever quizzes/tests/examinations are approaching. Her teaching style is fantastic, she includes active recall methods before every lecture and extra practice after every unit/module. She truly is an amazing professor and made my transition from high school into university less stressful and more fun!” 

Ingram also co-developed an online learning platform, OpenScience, that provides free online lessons in general chemistry, covering topics from the Canadian 11^th and 12^th grade curricula. Each lesson is designed to work as a stand-alone topic and contains several interactive elements to help students learn. Ingram was also awarded a 2018 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s PromoScience grant to expand the program.

Ingram is also the current Science Teaching Fellow for the Department of Chemistry. The Science Teaching Fellows meet regularly and work with the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) to determine best teaching practices and how to best achieve the teaching related goals of the Faculty of Science strategic plan. They organize teaching and learning workshops and retreats for their department, develop new teaching inititatives, advise students, staff and faculty and connect teaching staff and faculty with on-campus resources.

Ingram is the first Chemistry recipient of the award. Previous Faculty of Science recipients of WUSA's Teaching Award are: Josh Neufeld (Biology), Brenda Lee (Physics & Astronomy), Rohan Jayasundera (Physics & Astronomy) and Robert Mann (Physics & Astronomy). 

WUSA’s Teaching Award is a yearly award that celebrates professors who have displayed quality teaching, shown commitment to student success, and looked beyond the classroom. This is also the only award presented by the University of Waterloo Senate selected entirely by undergraduate students.

In addition to Ingram, two other individuals were recognized for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate learning this year - Anton Mosonov (Math) and Nick Ray (Arts).

The UW community has a dedication to academic achievement and to creating a culture that fosters, supports and celebrates teaching excellence. Excellent teaching creates excellent student life for our members. 

Congratulations Laura!