Tuesday, November 22, 2022

Giving Tuesday is one week away

A message from the Office of Advancement.

This Giving Tuesday, November 29, people around the world will come together in support of their communities and the causes they love, to create a better world for all.

Last year was a record-breaking year for Waterloo’s Giving Tuesday campaign, with just over 1,300 alumni, parents, faculty, staff, retirees and friends donating more than $597,000 to support our students. This year we want to smash that record with at least 1,500 people donating $650,000 or more.

With 43 challenges to choose from, are you up for the challenge?

Long-time Waterloo employees are giving back on Giving Tuesday

A message from Co-operative and Experiential Education.

Giving Tuesday is one week away. For the Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) team, the focus is on creating more donor-funded co-op jobs in the non-profit sector.

The Co-op for Community fund directly supports students. It funds meaningful co-op jobs for Waterloo students, from all disciplines, at non-profits. Scott (BES ‘84, MA ‘88) and Linda (BA ’81) Davis are both long-time CEE staff members and big believers in the cause.

As Giving Tuesday challenge champions, they’ve committed $5,000 to the Co-op for Community Fund. Once 70 individuals donate to the fund on Tuesday, November 29, it will unlock Scott and Linda’s $5,000 donation.  

To recognize Scott’s upcoming retirement, the couple encourages colleagues and friends to donate to the Co-op for Community Fund on Giving Tuesday. CEE is hosting a retirement celebration for Scott on Giving Tuesday (November 29) at Fed Hall.  

“I’d like to see our entire staff contribute to the Co-op for Community fund,” says Scott, faculty relations manager, CEE. “It's an opportunity for us to put our money where our mouth is.”    

Read and watch more about Scott and Linda Davis and the impact they’ve made at CEE. 

A community of builders

A message from Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor. This article originally appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of Waterloo Magazine.

In 1957, a group of local community leaders imagined a new university built to tackle the pressing challenges of our community and country in a period of intense global change. Integrating academic excellence with work-integrated learning, our institution’s founders laid the foundation for an unconventional university that continued to evolve into the research-intensive and world-class university we are today.     

The theme of this issue of the Waterloo Magazine — The Builders — is especially inspiring at a time when our institution is embarking on a visioning exercise to steer our evolution. Waterloo at 100 is an exercise to move us beyond five-year planning cycles toward a longer-term vision that will answer: What do we as an institution aspire to become by our 100th anniversary in 2057?  

Much like the original builders of the University of Waterloo, we face a rapidly changing world marked by complex global challenges, including exponential technological change, a global pandemic, the climate crisis, changing geopolitical dynamics and other global forces. We can honour the legacy of the generations before us by being unconventional again through imagining a bold future that addresses humanity’s most pressing challenges.   

Our people are the designers, connectors and builders of our future. Every day across our campuses, I see individuals and teams taking on challenges with enthusiasm and focus that inspires others along the way. Within the pages of this magazine, you’ll discover how Waterloo faculty, researchers, students, staff and alumni are changing lives and communities through creativity, unconventional thinking and collaboration. From saving lives through mathematical models to championing equity to help build a more just society, innovators within our University of Waterloo community exemplify the spirit and values needed to define the future we wish for humanity and help to propel us there.

Drawing on the unconventional spirit that has been at our core since the University of Waterloo’s founding, I invite you to contribute your bold ideas to help evolve our institution as we build a better future. 

Last call to endorse a scholar for a funded postdoc appointment

A message from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Applications are closing on December 1 for 2023 Waterloo postdoctoral funding programs. Prospective scholars must have support / endorsement from a University of Waterloo researcher well before this deadline to ensure reference letters and application forms are submitted by this date. If you have received a Letter of Intent form from a recent PhD graduate or have someone in mind for one of the three programs outlined below, please submit your endorsement form as soon as possible.

• Provost’s Program for Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Scholars
• Provost’s Program for Black and Indigenous Postdoctoral Scholars
• AMTD Waterloo Global Talent Postdoctoral Fellowship

Please visit the University of Waterloo Postdoc Funding web page for more details on the application process and program requirements.

Save the date for Metaverse Safety Week: December 10 to 15

By Gillian Dabrowski, Centre for Extended Learning.

Remember the 1990s, when we asked ourselves what the Internet was? Fast forward to 2022, and the question becomes “What is the metaverse?”

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse is a marketing term used to describe any Internet activity involving 3D. The metaverse advances the Internet into virtual worlds that can be used for human communication and services. Nike has a metaverse called Nikeland, for example, where people connect to have fun in a branded community. Over the next decade or so, virtual worlds could be linked together the way websites today are linked between servers.  

The building blocks of the metaverse include extended reality (XR) technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which are also referred to collectively as immersive technologies. You can access the metaverse on a mobile device, on a desktop, or with a VR headset. Using a headset to access a virtual world will make you feel like you are actually “there” inside the digital world. Sophisticated metaverse platforms will be accessed with devices like headsets in areas such as industrial training.

The Government of Barbados has an embassy in the metaverse. Speculators are buying digital land in virtual worlds in anticipation of a future gold rush. Fashion entities like Gucci are paving the way for digital fashion to explode as a commodity in the metaverse marketplace. Will people pay money for accessories for their avatars (the digital people users embody in virtual worlds)? What else will be bought and sold in the metaverse of the future?

The metaverse landscape is bustling with opportunity, and there is much for businesses, industries, educators, researchers, and students alike to discover. What will be the future workforce need of this burgeoning ecosystem? On the flip side, metaverse technologies are advancing rapidly, before policy-makers have had a chance to understand them fully. If you consider the challenges we face with privacy and security because of the last wave of emerging technologies such as social media, the prospect of new technologies where privacy and security challenges are exacerbated is scary.

How can we prepare for what’s to come? What does the metaverse mean for the advancement of equity, diversity, and inclusivity? If you want to talk about these questions or want an introduction to the metaverse, consider attending a session from a metaverse awareness raising campaign as part of Metaverse Safety Week from December 10 to 15. There may even be a session you would like to watch online with your students.

How can I learn more?

To learn more about metaverse technologies, visit the Extended Reality (XR) page of UW’s Centre for Extended Learning Open Resource Repository. If you have questions about the Metaverse Safety Week awareness campaign or want to become involved, please contact Gillian Dabrowski (gillian.dabrowski@uwaterloo.ca) from the Centre for Extended Learning.

End of Term concerts begin and other notes

The Music Department's ensemble end-of-term concerts kick off tomorrow with Orchestra@uwaterloo: Music from the Cold.

Garnet Zhao, runner up in the last Orchestra Concerto & Aria competition, will be performing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 with the orchestra. Daniel Warren is the Music Director for the orchestra, which consists of students and staff from all six Faculties.

The concert takes place on Wednesday, November 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian in UpTown Waterloo. Admission is free.

Today, the Games Institute will be hosting a panel discussion on games and education with Drs. Jason Hawreliak (Brock University, Waterloo English Language and Literature Alum), Kristina R. Llewellyn (Social Development Studies), Jennifer R. Whitson (Sociology and Legal Studies and Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) and Steve Wilcox (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo English Language and Literature alumnus) entitled A Discussion on Games and Education.

"How can games and virtual reality be used to improve how we teach Canadian history and other complex topics?" asks a note from the Games Institute. "How is teaching game design different than teaching game studies? How are they the same? Are educators effectively preparing students to find roles in the highly competitive games industry? Are students who receive training to work in games finding jobs? Or are they leaving the games industry soon after they begin?"

These four experts will address these questions and more during this moderated panel discussion about the state of games and education.

The event is being held in-person in East Campus 1 at 1:00 p.m. as well as virtually via Teams. Masks will be required for in-person attendees.

The Gender and Social Justice department is hosting Translating Policy into Practice: Sexual Violence Policies and the University on Thursday, November 24.

The event features Dr. Jen Chisholm, Faculty of Gender and Women’s Studies, Lakehead University, Dr. Rita Gardiner, Faculty of Education, Western University, Dr. Hayley Finn, Brescia University College, and Kasey Egan, Western University as well as Ravita Surajbali, Planning and Program Evaluation Specialist, Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office.

The event takes place with refreshments from 11:30 a.m. to 11:50 a.m. in HH 335, with the event proper taking place from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. in HH 373, or remotely via Zoom.

The Sustainability Office will host its ninth-annual Eco Summit to showcase sustainability achievements, celebrate progress, and build connections for the year ahead with the campus community. This year, the summit will focus on ways we can work together to connect sustainability to our own skills, careers, and unique roles at Waterloo – whether that’s living, working, or learning.

This year’s event will feature remarks from Bruce Frayne, Dean of Environment and Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor and will see the launch of 2022 Environmental Sustainability Report. Additionally, there will be panel discussions with student and employee sustainability leaders, interactive activities and networking opportunities.

The event will take place on Wednesday, November 23 from 12 noon to 4:00 p.m. in Fed Hall. Lunch and refreshments will be provided. All members of the campus community are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Virtual Cooking Show for United Way: Tired of making the same old meals? Want to try something new, but not sure how? Join Chef Mark Meinzinger for a one-hour virtual cooking show and learn how to make three delicious appetizers in time for the holiday season. Register here for the November 30 event.