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New anti-racism unit added to EDI-RO
This article originally appeared in The Catalyst e-newsletter.
A new unit has been incorporated into the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-racism office (EDI-RO). The Anti-racism unit will provide strategic leadership to the university community to assist in effecting change through anti-racism policies, programs, practice. The overall purpose is to confront and dismantle oppressive structures to facilitate transformational change.
Under the direction of Jennisha Wilson, the successful candidate for the Director of Anti-racism position, the unit will also be responsible for oversight on delivering key anti-racism policy and strategic initiatives that support EDI-RO’s policy directions and priorities.
Wilson joined the University of Waterloo as the senior manager of Anti-racism response in June 2021. Since then, she has demonstrated her ability to apply anti-racism and anti-oppression lenses to managing, coaching, and mentoring staff on proven practices to address anti-racism and discrimination complaints and grievances. Wilson has also provided and facilitated anti-violence competency and capacity building.
The new Director of Anti-racism also brings over a decade of experience focused on anti-human trafficking, race and gender equity, inclusion, and Indigenous relations work within institutions, non-for-profits and community settings. Wilson is a founding member of the Black, Indigenous People of Colour Strategic Advisory Committee for the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women.
Wilson previously worked closely with Inuit Living in Ontario, as the Alluriarniq Program Manager at Tungasuvvingat Inuit, where she was instrumental in designing, implementing and growing the first Inuit-specific anti-human trafficking program in Canada. During her time as the Alluriarniq Program Manager, she worked with over 20 local, provincial and federal partners to advance the Inuit reality in the area of anti-violence.
In 2018, Wilson spoke as an institutional witness for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and 2-Spirited people and the House of Commons. Wilson's lived experiences as a Canadian of Afro-Indo Jamaican heritage, coupled with her professional experience in leadership, project management, program development and conflict mediation skills, have afforded her a perspective and skills to address systems of oppression.
“I am pleased to congratulate Jennisha Wilson on her recent appointment as Director of Anti-racism in the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism office,” said Dr. Christopher Taylor, associate vice-president, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism office. “Jennisha brings a wealth of experience to the role, and I look forward to her support in continuing to build and sustain a more inclusive environment at the institution.”
“I’m excited to start this new position,” Wilson said. “I look forward to developing innovative processes to positively influence and improve anti-racism policies and operations by strengthening outcomes for a wide range of diverse peoples and supporting recovery from the traumas of racial discrimination, exploitation and violence.”
A Waterloo student's Blue Origin story
By Brian Caldwell. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.
An experiment inspired by Silly String and built by a first-year engineering student at the University of Waterloo is scheduled to travel into space today aboard a Blue Origin rocket.
Olivia Ye, who is studying mechatronics engineering, was still in high school in her hometown of Newmarket when she participated in an online Shad Canada program two years ago that will culminate with a launch in Texas.
“Knowing that something you made is being sent to space is truly an awesome feeling,” she said.
The experiment built by engineering student Olivia Ye had to fit into a four-by-four-by-eight-inch box.
Ye was on a 10-member team of high school students that won a challenge during a Shad program in the summer of 2020 to develop a research experiment to be conducted in microgravity aboard New Shepard, one of Blue Origin’s reusable rockets.
Competing against 600 other students from across Canada, Ye and her teammates started out brainstorming around the use of Silly String, but couldn’t come up with an experiment to meet a requirement that it have both scientific and social impact.
Their research on the chemistry of Silly String, however, led to the discovery of a 2009 experiment by the European Space Agency on the stability of foam in space and a winning idea was born.
Ye, her teammates and mentors including Dr. Shawna Pandya, a Canadian physician and scientist-astronaut candidate, and Aaron Persad, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have since refined a project meant to make better polyurethane foam in the microgravity of space.
“When solid foam is created on Earth, the fluids are dragged down by gravity, which affects bubble formation and its material properties,” Ye said.
Project had to fit into small box
“Our goal is to create foam in reduced microgravity and compare its material properties, such as its tensile strength and heat resistance, against a control foam created on Earth.”
Packed into a four-by-four-by-eight-inch box, the experiment – to be automatically triggered by flight data sent via a wired connection – is one of 36 payloads from academia, research institutions and students around the world scheduled to travel into space Aug. 31 on an unmanned flight.
Ye, who got some help along the way from mechatronics engineering classmate Andy Meng, also a participant in the Shad program in 2020, eventually hopes to combine interests in space exploration and robotics in her career.
(l-r) Dr. Shawna Pandya, Deborah Currie of Shad Canada and Olivia Ye.
'A payload we are proud of'
In the meantime, her role as lead student engineer for the project has taught her valuable lessons on the social, medical and engineering aspects of space, as well as how to create mechanical, electrical and software systems capable of surviving the fluctuating g-forces and vibrations of space flight.
“It was a challenge to ensure that the payload would be able to withstand these conditions to carry out the original foam experiment while staying within a very tight volume and mass budget,” Ye said. “We were able to work through these issues and create a payload that we are proud of.”
The successful effort has also been exciting for Deborah Currie, the point person for Shad, who picked the finished product up from Ye and carefully packed it in materials including – fittingly – polyurethane foam to ensure it shipped safely to Texas for the launch.
'A highlight of my career'
"Working closely with Olivia and her teammates over the last two years and watching their winning idea come to life as an actual payload experiment that will fly to space has been a highlight of my career," she said.
The other members of the team, dubbed Mous4Inc., are: Alex Balbino, Sophia Caranci, Zamaan Hussein, Mia Medic, Deo Narayan, Zadian St-Gelais, Shreya Voore, Annika Waschke and Tina Zou.
Shad, a key partner on the project, provides a live-in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) enrichment program for students in grades 10 and 11.
Blue Origin is a private company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2000 with a vision of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth.
Banner image credit: Blue Origin media gallery.
Call for abstracts open for Student Mental Health Research Conference
A message from Campus Wellness.
The University of Waterloo's Student Mental Health Research Conference will be taking place on Wednesday, October 19th, 2022, during Thrive. The goal of this event is to bring together members of the Waterloo community to share knowledge, connect researchers, and promote mental wellness. We are inviting submissions for presentations on student and emerging adult mental health, with an emphasis on the following key themes:
- Promotion of mental health-care strategies;
- Suicide prevention;
- Impact of trauma and sexual violence;
- Equity and mental wellness e.g., effects of inequities on the mental health of equity-deserving groups such as Indigenous, Black and other racialized people, LGBTQAI2S+, people with disabilities;
- Harm reduction approaches to substance use; and
- Impact of COVID-19 and mental health.
We will be accepting submissions from members of the UWaterloo community until 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, September 14th, 2022. Visit the Thrive website to submit your abstract.
Hybrid work and technology guidelines for fall 2022
A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST)
To support University employees who will be working both in the office and remotely during the Fall 2022 term, Information Systems & Technology (IST) has updated the hybrid work and technology guidelines. Read more about the recommended meeting guidelines, meeting styles and hybrid meeting resources, work equipment guidelines, and secure computing practices. Still have questions or concerns? Don’t hesitate to contact the IST Service Desk. Guidelines may be added throughout the term as necessary.
Additional resources
- Work from Home (WFH) Guidelines
- Staying connected while working remotely
- Privacy and Remote Meetings
Any questions or concerns can be submitted to the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.
Weight loss study still seeking participants and other notes
There's still time to sign up for an exercise and weight loss study organized by researchers from the Metabolism, Exercise Training and Sex Differences (METS) lab in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. Researchers are seeking sedentary, overweight males and females aged 18-45 years for a research study investigating whether the addition of two nutritional supplements to an exercise regime can improve the effects of exercise training on ‘high-quality weight loss’.
If you are interested in participating in this study or have any questions, please contact Jennifer Wilkinson, Department of Kinesiology at 905-414-7897 or j7wilkin@uwaterloo.ca.
Waterloo International is issuing a call for faculty and staff members who interested in applying to participate in an Erasmus+ Teaching/Training Mobility experience at the University of Graz, Austria. This opportunity involves one 5-day experience for a staff or faculty member to be taken before July 31, 2023 for the purposes of exchange and shared professional development/teaching. Please visit the International Opportunities page for more information. The deadline to apply is September 30, 2022.