Thursday, March 2, 2023

Announcing the University of Waterloo’s Institutional RDM Strategy

A message from the Office of the VP Research and International

The University of Waterloo’s Institutional Research Data Management (RDM) Strategy has been published and is now available on our RDM Institutional Strategy website. It represents a milestone in a long journey. The RDM co-chairs, Alison Hitchens (Library) and Ian Milligan (Office of Research) genuinely hope that researchers across campus see themselves and their important work reflected in the document.

The RDM strategy has the vision of “data management amplifying research excellence.” It is informed by the seven principles of collaboration, respect for diversity, reciprocity, ease, integrity, and commitment. With the strategy published, attention now turns to implementation, which will take the shape of coordination of services, incentivization, expansion of knowledge, promotion, and investment in expertise and technical infrastructure. Stay tuned as we put strategy into practice!

Given the richness and diversity of research across our community, it should come as no surprise to learn that it took a village to assemble the strategy. Special thanks to our sponsors, the Vice-President Research and International Charmaine Dean, the University Librarian Beth Namachchivaya, and the Chief Information Officer Bruce Campbell. We would also like to thank members of the RDM Working Group, the RDM Advisory Board, our focus groups, and everybody who completed our cross-campus survey or participated in an interview.

With the publication of our RDM Institutional Strategy, the University of Waterloo has achieved the institutional strategy milestone in the Tri-Agency Research Data Management Policy. But the co-chairs sincerely hope that the community will agree that RDM is more than compliance, but rather a way to foster truly excellent and transformative research.

We look forward to working with you all as implementation takes shape across our campus.

Register for Pivot-RP training on March 9

The next virtual Pivot-RP workshop for Faculty and graduate students is scheduled for Thursday, March 9 from 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.

In this workshop the facilitator will discuss the key functionality of Pivot-RP for researchers. In a few slides they will describe what Pivot-RP is then move into a live demo, covering topics such as claiming your profile, searching for funding, tracking, sharing and exporting funding opportunities, and highlighting available resources. The virtual workshop will end with a Q & A.

Please register to take part in this session and to receive a link for the workshop. If you are not available for the webinar, helpful training videos and other resources can be found on the Pivot-RP webpage. You can also visit Pivot-RP’s support page to access additional resources.

Contact or-pivot-rp@uwaterloo.ca for Pivot-RP questions.

Save Your Vision Month: Optometry provides multi-locations to provide access for all

Save Your Vision Month is an important time to reiterate how optometrists go beyond vision correction prescription by providing the delivery of essential health care. That the work optometrists do is critical to a patient’s overall health regimen, including preventive care.

Eye health and preventative care is of upmost importance to the School of Optometry and Vision Science (UWOVS). This is one reason we have a multi-clinic approach with locations in both Waterloo and Kitchener, as part of the School’s strategic goals in ensuring inclusive access to all in the community.

While the main clinic at the Waterloo campus houses services like the George and Judy Woo Centre for Sight Enhancement, offering rehabilitation and therapy for low vision, the Kitchener clinic located in the Health Sciences Campus,  has a focus on helping those who are typically underserved in the community.

"We have a wide range of patients, some of which include newcomers to our community, such as refugees,” says Dr. Lisa Woo, clinic head at the UWOVS Health Science Optometry Clinic in Kitchener. “We also provide eye care to those who are precariously housed, especially because they may not have access to other forms of healthcare.We have all groups of patients, and we are very proud of being able to provide care to these different groups.”

There are many reasons that impact your eye health that need to be taken into consideration to preserve your eyesight. That is why UWOVS promotes access to anyone who needs an eye exam. Comprehensive eye exams are important to maintaining not only the overall health of your eyes but is also a tool for early detection of conditions and diseases that lead to vision loss.  

“For a complaint of blurry vision, there is so much more we need to know about this,” says Dr. Woo. “Was this a sudden change or was this gradual? Is this impacting seeing in the distance or up-close? Are there any other symptoms with it? How is the patient’s general health?”

Early detection not only of eye disease and conditions but also of other chronic disease and conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, leads to early management in slowing down the progression or preventing vision loss altogether. With that, it can also help slow down the progression of conditions and diseases that impact your overall health. That is why it is also important to get your eyes checked regularly starting at a very young age.

"We see patients as young as six months, sometimes even sooner if needed,” says Dr. Woo. “We make sure the eyes are aligned and that there are no abnormalities to the ocular health.”

Ideally, regular testing every one to two years is important, regardless of age. For children under 18, a yearly exam is the best to monitor refractive error changes that occur mostly during this age group. Also, for those over the age of 40, an annual checkup is necessary as your vision starts to change again, and you are at risk for various health conditions.

Comprehensive eye exams are not the only way you can save your vision. Eating healthy foods filled with nutrients can help lower the risk of eye problems. Ensuring you are protecting your eyes when out in the sunlight is a major factor as well. Preventing and treating dry eyes, a very common condition for all ages, are important steps for good vision and comfort. Additionally, limiting your electronic use, such as computers, smartphones, and tablets, can help reduce eyestrain.

If you are interested in booking any appointment at either our main campus clinic or our clinic located in downtown Kitchener on Victoria Street, you can do so here: https://wei.uwaterloo.ca/make-appointment

Preparing businesses for the quantum era

By Kaitlin O’Brien. This article is part of the Global Futures series, originally published on Waterloo News.

Cyberattacks and data breaches are an invisible but growing threat that is becoming more commonplace against the landscape of technological growth and development. Many of today’s digital environments are still using outdated operating methods that were implemented in the early days of the internet. To combat the risks posed by cybersecurity threats, research on quantum computers and cryptography has emerged as a vital tool for digital protection.

Dr. Michele Mosca is a professor in Combinatorics and Optimization at the University of Waterloo and a faculty member at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC). IQC is a world-leading facility at the University that is not only dedicated to ground-breaking research but has spun out more than 17 quantum startups. The institute is a main driver for why Waterloo region is referred to as Canada’s quantum valley.

Mosca is developing practical digital system cryptography that is secure against quantum attacks. In addition to cutting edge research, Mosca is also co-founder and CEO of evolutionQ, an enterprise focused on preparing organizations for the quantum security attacks of tomorrow.

The need for quantum-safe cybersecurity is now

As we enter the quantum era, the risks to our digital environments are imminent and sophisticated, and we must proactively face this reality to maintain the availability, trustworthiness and integrity of our virtual spaces. If systems fail or go offline unexpectedly, the consequences are both disruptive and more crucially, they could halt critical infrastructures altogether.

Mosca aims to use cryptography, the study of secure communications techniques, to enable us to use untrusted media and entities while still trusting the results.

“Cryptography allows us to leverage the power of digital infrastructures and at the same time thwart attempts by adversaries to compromise the confidentiality or integrity of the information being handled by those infrastructures or to illicitly gain control of connected devices,” Mosca says.

His company is enabling organizations to prepare themselves for quantum computers. The enterprise helps organizations future-proof their digital systems by migrating to quantum-safe cryptography to protect against the threat posed by quantum computers.

“The cryptography we use to protect our digital infrastructures must be secure against tomorrow’s attacks as well as today’s,” Mosca says. “Quantum technology is part of tomorrow’s technology landscape, and thus we must evolve our cryptography to be secure in the era with quantum technologies.”

Mosca’s academic and enterprise goals in cryptography are centred on moving from solely defending against specific known attacks, toward developing a strong “cyber immune system.” This is a proactive system that can better detect and respond to new and unforeseen threats at the outset to better deal with tomorrow’s unexpected challenges.

Getting businesses quantum ready

Quantum readiness is essential but requires companies to commit to a journey to be quantum safe sooner rather than later. Championing such causes in the context of large-scale organizations is daunting, especially when the threat is invisible, and the current approach to safety and security is typically reactive. Adversaries are deliberately trying to violate systems, and they have the tools to do it. Companies need to do more to evaluate the risks of emerging threats to data security that are systemic and potentially unrecoverable.

Mosca is developing a solution for global vendor independence to make it easier to scale quantum cryptography systems to a global level.

“There is a bit of a moral hazard when it comes to building up our cyber immune system. It's not always rewarded,” Mosca says. “There’s no perfect way to sound the alarm on this impending threat, but we need to get better at talking about it and taking action.”

evolutionQ continues to expand and work closely with businesses to educate and support them through the migration to quantum-safe cryptography. Mosca hopes that businesses and organizations will heed the warnings and act now to implement reliable quantum-safe cybersecurity products and services before it’s too late.

Students combine creative and professional writing in new program

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Arts news site.

“We noticed in the last five to seven years a real increase in interest in creative writing courses. Students were asking for them, and our courses were always full with waitlists,” says Dr. Victoria Lamont, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies. Given the increased demand, the department of English Language and Literature is launching a new major this fall in Creative and Professional Writing (CPW). The unique program will allow students to pursue a broad range of writing genres, including fiction, drama, graphic narratives, business communication, editing and digital design.

Developing the program

“[The program] was sort of a perfect storm of different things,” Lamont notes. With growing interest from students and the ongoing popularity of the creative writing specialization and diploma offering, a more robust program felt like a natural progression.

At the same time, faculty members in the English department were becoming published creative writers, now boasting an impressive list of achievements and specializations. Dr. Sarah Tolmie began writing novels and poetry inspired by her work as a Medievalist, and her poetry collection The Art of Dying was shortlisted for The Griffin Poetry Prize. Dr. Jennifer Harris published her first children’s picture book and now has a multi-book deal. Lecturer and alumna Carry Snyder was a Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize and a Governor General’s Award finalist for her fiction. Dr. Lamees Al Ethari published a memoir and continues to mentor women who are writers and immigrants through The X Page. And that’s just to name a few.

Another factor was the English department at St. Jerome’s University and their longstanding history of teaching creative writing. In addition to working regularly with creative writers in the community, St. Jerome’s also hosts a reading series that brings Canadian writers to campus and is home to the literary journal The New Quarterly. “[Our partnership with them] was really important in us knowing that we could introduce a new major and have the support behind it,” notes Lamont.

This combination of student interest, faculty talent and organizational support led to three years of research, development, negotiation and approvals to launch the new major. “A lot of people had to come together for this to happen,” adds Lamont.

Taking a hybrid approach

During her initial research into creative writing programs, Lamont was surprised by the lack of programs in Canada that linked creative and professional writing. “It struck me as a bit odd because I don't think it's a total myth that it takes a long time to get established as a creative writer,” she says. “And so what do you do in the meantime? How do you feed yourself?”

In conversations with writers and students, Lamont and her colleagues also kept hearing about the importance of creative writers being able to negotiate with publishers and market themselves; on the other hand, they heard about technical writers and advertisers drawing on creative approaches. “When I teach professional writing courses, creative writing principles are always part of the conversation,” says Dr. Andrea Jonahs, a lecturer who holds an MFA in Nonfiction Writing. “The ability to tell stories, create word pictures, and stir emotion, for example, are necessary for persuasive communication. Likewise, in my creative writing classes students create art, but their creative impulses must still be attentive to their audience.”

The Creative and Professional Writing major aims to bring these often separated but complementary modalities together in order to train students to be skilled, well-rounded and agile writers. “It speaks to a nexus that is highly valued,” Jonahs notes. “Students who earn the CPW will acquire more than just strong writing skills – their writing will be animated by their distinct voice and creative energy, which will not only prepare them for the job market but set them apart.”