Monday, September 12, 2022

Previous | Next

• Royal Society of Canada honours six Waterloo researchers
• Nominations now open for the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision
• Changes to Toronto's public transit system would eliminate barriers, retain riders
• The future-ready workforce series: the future of working together
• Centre for Career Action focus groups and other notes

Royal Society of Canada honours six Waterloo researchers

This article was originally published on the Office of Research website.

Six University of Waterloo researchers have been honoured by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC).

Five new Fellows and one new College Member are among 156 other Canadian researchers elected by their peers for outstanding scholarly, scientific, and artistic achievement announced by the RSC.

Waterloo's new Royal Society of Canada Fellows

Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (School of Environment, Enterprise and Development) is a pioneering full professor and renowned jurist in sustainable development law and governance, advancing solutions to climate change, natural resources degradation and other critical global sustainability challenges while interactionally informing UN treaty design and compliance. As international award-winning CISDL Senior Director, her ground-breaking scholarly publications include the textbook Sustainable Development Law (OUP 2004, 2024); Athena’s Treaties (OUP 2021) and the Implementing Treaties for Sustainable Development series (CUP 2008-).

Carl Haas (Civil and Environmental Engineering) has contributed seminal new knowledge in the principles behind, the interdependencies among and the circular economic applications of computer vision, mixed reality, building information modeling and human-robotic-systems. Key barriers in the way of moving toward a circular economy in the built environment include the scale, complexity, and uncertainty associated with constructing, maintaining and deconstructing our built environment. His contributions improve complex, built environment systems’ performance.

Randy Allen Harris (English Language and Literature) researches the intersection of rhetoric, linguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Waterloo, where he is a Professor of English Language and Literature and Director of the multinational, multisectoral, and multidisciplinary research project, the Rhetoricon Database. His books include The Linguistics Wars (“outstanding”—Nature), Rhetoric and Incommensurability (“a real tour de force”—International Studies in the Philosophy of Science), and the pathbreaking Voice Interaction Design (“supremely practical”— ACM Books).

Richard Hughson (Kinesiology and Health Sciences) is Schlegel Research Chair in Vascular Aging and Brain Health in the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging. His NASA award-winning research revealed accelerated vascular aging for astronauts on the International Space Station and implications for vascular aging on Earth. His pioneering work on human cardiorespiratory adaptations to exercise and physical inactivity continues to profoundly influence research directions in Canada and around the world.

Anita Layton (Applied Mathematics) is an internationally acclaimed authority and leading researcher in mathematical medicine and biology. She has solved long-standing problems in scientific computing and renal physiology. She is recognized for her pioneering contributions to computational methods for fluidstructure interaction problems, and to mathematical modeling of mammalian physiology and pathophysiology, including the first sexspecific models of kidney physiology and blood pressure regulation.

Waterloo's new Royal Society of Canada College Member

Kristina R. Llewellyn (Social Development Studies, Renison University College) is one of Canada’s leading scholars in history and education whose research tackles vital questions in teaching, oral history, and justice. Author and co-editor of four books, including Democracy’s Angels: The Work of Women Teachers and the award-winning Oral History, Education, and Justice, she is a publicly engaged commentator on education issues, promoting nuanced understandings and practices of history, teaching, and learning for an equitable society.

Nominations now open for the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision

A message from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA), in collaboration with the Graduate Student Association (GSA-UW), established this award to recognize exemplary faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in graduate student supervision, through being a mentor, advisor, role model, humanist and a strategist who exemplifies a high level of energy and ingenuity.

Nominations are initiated by a current or former graduate student who is/was directly supervised by the faculty member. Recipients of this prestigious award receive $1,000.

Looking for inspiration? A list of previous graduate supervision winners can be found online.

The nomination deadline is November 12. Full nomination requirements can be found on the Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision web page.

Changes to Toronto's public transit system would eliminate barriers, retain riders

This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

People who rely on public transit in Toronto will eventually have to choose different means of transportation if they can afford it or risk isolation unless the current system improves, a new study found.

The research from the University of Waterloo indicates that a lack of attention to core riders— meaning those dependent on public transportation—further marginalizes and creates mobility barriers that impede participation in public life.

Making public transit a viable option for vulnerable users aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals of building resilient communities that are environmentally stable and progressively working toward reducing inequalities in marginalized populations.

Khairunnabila Prayitno, a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo and Markus Moos, a professor in the School of Planning at Waterloo, examined transit use by core users in Toronto to determine the issues they face.

“Core public transportation users are usually those of lower income and often people from equity deserving populations who have no other option but to use public transportation,” said Prayitno. “Because of transit marketing, public transportation services are tailored to choice riders, that is, people who have another option for transportation.”

The study identified key issues core users face on public transportation, such as poor integration with travel networks, wait times, costs, safety concerns, lack of comfort and transit services failing to meet their needs.

“Based on the experiences documented, we suspect that most if not all study participants would eventually move or switch away from public transit if income permits,” Prayitno said. “This is due to shortcomings of the transit system given their travel needs.”

When riders are lost from transit systems, it adds more cars on roads, contributing further to congestion and carbon emissions, counter to Sustainable Development Goals, the authors explain.    

To improve transit equity in Toronto and increase ridership, the researchers recommend a reassessment of travel networks to connect homes of core riders better with the rest of the city. This move includes incorporating an equitable, fair pricing framework based on ability to pay, improved accessibility and safety measures within and around transit stops, and evaluation of the quality of transit service for all members of the public. 

The study appears in the Canadian Planning and Policy journal.

The future-ready workforce series: the future of working together

A message from Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE).

Registration for the next Future-Ready Workforce Series is now open. In this upcoming session, researchers from Waterloo’s Work-Learn Institute (WxL) will highlight recent findings about the importance of social interaction.

You’ll also hear from Industry leaders at Vidyard about their experience developing strong teams and organizational networks in remote and hybrid work settings.   

Register now for the next Future-ready workforce series on September 21, 2022 at 1:00 p.m.  

Centre for Career Action focus groups and other notes

The Centre for Career Action (CCA) is inviting students to participate in focus groups this September. "We are asking for your feedback and thoughts about CCA services, resources and programming – whether you’ve used them or not," says a note from CCA. "All focus group participants will have $25 added to their WatCard. Learn more and register through the form: https://forms.gle/XJP1vL91YkSmiyz37."

On September 17 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Renison University College will be hosting the annual One Sky Festival, which brings together performers from across Ontario to share cultural food, fashion, and traditions. This is a free event and all are welcome.