Tuesday, February 7, 2023

GRADflix winners named

A message from Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA)

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the 2023 GRADflix competition.

On January 31, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs hosted its fifth annual GRADflix Showcase, a hybrid red-carpet event featuring the 25 best 60-second videos made by graduate students to describe their research.

After a tough deliberation, a judging panel comprising Tania Del Motto (GreenHouse), Nam Kiwanuka (TVO), Matt Regehr (Creative Studio), and Candace Stewart-Smith (Centre for Career Action) selected four winning videos that best exemplified and communicated the amazing research being carried out by UWaterloo grad students. For the first time ever, they also selected a winner for a Social Impact award. This prize has been sponsored by GreenHouse and is awarded for the research video representing the most compelling social impact story. Last but certainly not least, our audience decided the People’s Choice Award winner live during the 2023 GRADflix showcase.

The winners are:

• First place - $750 prize; and People's Choice - $250 prize: Andrew Stella, MASc student from the Department of Chemical Engineering, for his video: Robust, wearable sensors for firefighters made using conductive polymers

• Second place - $500 prize: Caitlin Laidlaw, MES student from the School of Geography and Environmental Management, for her video: Local attitudes towards snow leopards in western Nepal
• Third place - $250 prize: Chuan Tian (Ben) Zhang, MASc student from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for his video: Sensor malfunction detection
• Fourth place - $250 prize: Kiran Dhuga, MSc student in the School of Public Health Sciences, for her video: Parental depressive symptoms and physical-mental multimorbidity in children
• Social Impact - $250 prize: Chi-en (Amy) Tai, MASc student from the department of Systems Design Engineering, for her video: Improved treatment of breast cancer 

All of this year’s GRADflix videos can now be viewed online.

Extended Reality Community of Practice event tomorrow

A message from the Centre for Extended Learning and the Centre for Teaching Excellence.

The Centre for Extended Learning and the Centre for Teaching Excellence organize termly events to raise awareness about extended reality (XR) technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). We invite you to register for the upcoming XR CoP event.

Sharing Ideas and Brainstorming (CTE7511)

Please join us for a session designed to bring those interested in XR on campus together to share ideas, discuss current projects, and engage in brainstorming centered around Extended Reality technologies such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality. The event will provide an opportunity for faculty members to learn from each other's experiences, ask questions, and share their expertise. This event is a great opportunity for instructors and staff to network and collaborate with their peers to advance the use of extended reality in higher education. All levels of experience and interest welcome.

The event takes place Wednesday, February 8 from 11:00 a.m. to 12 noon, and is open to everyone in the campus community. It will be hosted online via Microsoft Teams. Registration is closed, but please contact Gillian Dabrowski (gdabrows@uwaterloo.ca) to participate.

Q and A with the experts: Bill 56, Fewer Floods Safer Ontario Act 2022

Severe weather in 2022 caused $3.1 billion in insured damage – making it the 3rd worst year for insured damage in Canadian history. Kathryn Bakos of the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation discusses the recently tabled Bill 56, which addresses the need to prevent residential basement flooding – the most financially costly climate disaster impacting Ontario.  

What are the costs of climate change-related weather events in Canada?  

Extreme weather risk is becoming more severe and costly across Canada. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada (2023), insured damage for severe weather events reached $3.1 billion in 2022. This ranks as the third worst year for extreme weather-insured losses in Canadian history.  

In Ontario, residential flooding - specifically basement flooding - is the most financially costly climate disaster. The average cost of a flooded basement is $43,000, yet insurance coverage cap limits for basement flooding have generally decreased into the zone of $10,000 - 20,000. If a basement floods, with a cap limit of $10,000, an Ontario homeowner would be on the line for $30,000. 

Over the period 2010-2020, homes across Canada experienced an 8.2 percent reduction in sold price in communities impacted by catastrophic flooding; this trend is true in Ontario. In addition, 10 percent of Canadian homes are uninsurable relative to basement flood risk.

What is Bill 56, and what problems is it trying to solve? 

Flooding puts Ontario residents’ homes, and financial security, in peril. In response,  homeowners and renters need guidance to reduce these risks. 

Bill 56 calls for the last week of March each year to be Flood Awareness Week in Ontario. In addition, the Bill requires the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to publish information on a government website about flooding issues and supports distributing the infographic “Three Steps to Home Flood Protection”  to homeowners in their yearly Property Tax Notices. 

Since the Government of Ontario does not currently provide sufficient flooding education and prevention tools to Ontarians, a comprehensive educational campaign would help educate homeowners and renters on ways to prevent basement flooding.

What are some benefits of the Bill? Are there any drawbacks?

The benefits of Bill 56 include only an upside for homeowners and renters in Ontario. 

By creating a residential flood risk awareness program, homeowners and renters across Ontario will be better equipped to avoid the otherwise unrelenting costs of flooding.

Kathryn Bakos is the Director of the Climate Finance and Science Program at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation.

Join Waterloo Womxn + Nonbinary Wednesdays and beat the winter blues

A message from the W3+ Coordinating Crew.

W3+ (Waterloo Womxn + Nonbinary Wednesdays) is a space to meet, network, and learn from other womxn and nonbinary folks working at the University of Waterloo. Join our listserv and/or Teams channel to connect and learn about a variety of virtual and in-person events. All womxn and nonbinary staff, faculty, grad students, and postdocs are welcome.

Events are always free and have included:

• Roundtables on Blackness in Academia, reproductive health policy, digital storytelling, and managing screentime
• Informal chats about self-care and community-care, fitness, and project management
• Yoga, walks, skill-shares, and picnics

Visit bit.ly/w3-plus for more information or to join (UW login required).

We can’t wait to meet you!

P.S. Wondering why we spell womxn with an “x”? It signals our commitment to making a warm, supportive space for a wide range of gender identities and racial backgrounds—especially those that the most visible women’s groups and spaces have tended to ignore. Check out this quick explainer (including some critiques of the term) by the UCI Womxn’s Center.

Board of Governors meets today and other notes

Daniel Legault of the Special Constable Services snapped this pic of inspirational snow art on the Douglas Wright Engineering exterior wall. it's nice to know there are such artists among us.

The University's Board of Governors has its first meeting of 2023 today at 1:30 p.m. in NH 3407. Among the agenda items:

• A motion to approve sabbatical and special leaves in accordance with policy 3 – Sabbatical and Other Leaves for Faculty Members;
• A motion to approve the student services fees for all full-time and part-time undergraduate and graduate students effective 1 May 2023; and
• A motion to approve campus housing 2023/24 residence fee rates, effective Fall 2023.

From the Board's various committees:

• A motion to approve a revised project budget of $50.34 million (previous approval was $45.25 million) for the Waterloo Eye Institute and that the project proceed to final design and tender;
• A motion to approve the Math 4 building constructed using a Construction Management form of contract rather than the previously contemplated Stipulated Price Contract form of agreement;
• A motion to approve the appointment of Diamond Schmitt Architects Inc. (DSAI) as the prime consultants to prepare design and construction documents for a proposed 500-bed undergraduate student residence;
• A motion to approve the Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) Group to provide an open-ended real estate fund (CBRE Global Alpha) for the Registered Pension Plan (RPP), the university endowment fund, and the IQC trust fund;
• A motion to approve amendments to the Statement of Investment Policies and Procedures for the University of Waterloo Endowment;
• A motion to approve the 2023/24 Tuition Fee changes and Co-op Fee for 23/24;

The Board will also hear an update on the Strategic Plan: Talent, featuring a panel discussion on the Indigenization of curriculum and anti-racist pedagogies.

The full agenda and supporting documentation is available on the Secretariat's website.