Monday, October 23, 2023

Register for faculty member and graduate student Pivot-RP training taking place on November 9

A message from the Office of Research.

The next virtual Pivot-RP workshop for faculty members and graduate students is scheduled for Thursday, November 9 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. via MS Teams.

In this workshop, the facilitator will present 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 final 30 minutes will be dedicated to a Q&A with the facilitator.

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.

Please direct any Pivot-RP questions to or-pivot-rp@uwaterloo.ca. 

Maclean's ranks computer science at Waterloo number one nationally for fourth year in a row

This article was originally published on the Cheriton School of Computer Science website.

The Cheriton School of Computer Science has been ranked number one nationally for the fourth year in a row, according to the Maclean’s 2024 university rankings released on October 12. Based on program reputation in computer science, Waterloo shared the podium for first place with the University of Toronto, and based on research reputation, shared the podium for first with the University of Toronto and UBC.

“I am extremely pleased to see that computer science at Waterloo is again in the top spot nationally,” said Raouf Boutaba, Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “We are extremely fortunate to have a virtuous circle of talent in play in which our reputation in computer science attracts the best students and faculty to study and work at the Cheriton School of Computer Science, and the excellence of our students and faculty is precisely why our School has this reputation.”

This year marks Maclean’s 33^rd annual university rankings, continuing a mandate established in 1991 to provide essential information in a comprehensive package to help students choose the university that best meets their needs.

The results of the Maclean’s 2024 university rankings were released on October 12, 2023. 

Maclean’s ranks institutions in five broad areas based on 12 performance indicators, allocating a weight to each indicator. Figures for the ranked universities include data from their federated and affiliated institutions. The rankings use the most recent and publicly available data. Find out more about Maclean’s university program ranking methodology for 2024.

What Were You Wearing? exhibit confronts myths about sexual violence

A message from the Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office (SVPRO).

The Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Office (SVPRO), in partnership with the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence Treatment Centre (SADVTC), is bringing the What Were You Wearing? Art Exhibit to UWaterloo. The exhibit is based on student-survivor descriptions of the clothes they were wearing when they were sexually assaulted. Sexual assault survivors are often asked, “what were you wearing?”, implying that what someone is wearing is the cause of their assault.

This myth about sexual violence is used to blame survivors and justify the actions of those who cause harm. Survivors are never to blame for their sexual assault. The intent of this exhibit is to bring awareness and attention to the pervasiveness of victim blaming and the harm and trauma it causes.

The “What Were You Wearing?” Art Exhibit was inspired by Dr. Mary Simmerling’s poem, What I was Wearing, and was created at the University of Arkansas in 2013 by Jen Brockman and Dr. Mary Wyandt-Hiebert.

UWaterloo’s exhibit can be found in the SLC multi-purpose room on Tuesday, October 24 and Wednesday, October 25 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Everyone is welcome. Engage with the exhibit at your own pace.

Questions can be directed to Stacey Jacobs via email at s3jacobs@uwaterloo.ca.

David Sprott Distinguished Lecture in Statistics and Actuarial Science set for Friday

A message from Statistics and Actuarial Science.

Please join us for the upcoming David Sprott Distinguished Lecture with Jeffrey Rosenthal on Friday, October 27, as he discusses his talk on Speeding up Metropolis using Theorems.

Jeffrey Rosenthal is a professor of Statistics at the University of Toronto, specializing in Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. He received his BSc from the University of Toronto, and his PhD in Mathematics from Harvard University. He was awarded the 2006 CRM-SSC Prize, the 2007 COPSS Presidents' Award, the 2013 SSC Gold Medal, and fellowship of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and of the Royal Society of Canada. He has published over one hundred research papers and five books (including the bestseller Struck by Lightning: The Curious World of Probabilities). His website is www.probability.ca.

Learn more on the Statistics and Actuarial Science website.

Celebrating Open Access Week with the Library, Senate meets today, and other notes

"The Open Access movement seeks to promote free and open online access to academic information, such as research articles and data," says a message from the Library. "As portals to accessing information, libraries are key partners in the open access movement. Learn more about Open Access and how the Library supports the Waterloo community or register to join us for our Open Access Week events at Dana Porter tomorrow."

The University's Senate meets today at 3:30 p.m. in NH 3407. Among the agenda items:

• A motion that Senate elect Helena Shilomboleni as a member of Senate Undergraduate Council, term to 30 April 2024, and Kevin White as a member of Senate Graduate & Research Council, term to 30 April 2025; and
• A motion that Senate endorse the establishment of a term-limited pilot of a curriculum subcommittee for Senate Undergraduate Council; and
• a number of reports and updates received for information.

President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel will give Senate an progress report on the Strategic Plan 2022-23 and Institutional Key Performance Indicators. Vice-President, Academic and Provost James Rush will deliver an update on the University's operating budget. Dean of Health Lili Liu will deliver a faculty update.

The full October Senate agenda can be found on the Secretariat's website.

The Student Health Pharmacy in the basement of the Student Life Centre is reporting that flu shots will be available with no appointment needed daily from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Please call 519-746-4500 for more info or dial extension 33784. You can also register online at studenthealthpharmacy.ca.

The Student Health Pharmacy is also reporting that COVID booster shots will be available beginning today, October 23.

The Office of the Vice-President, Research and International is inviting interested researchers to submit applications to Round 5 of the UW Interdisciplinary Trailblazer Fund. Teams of two or more regular faculty members from different disciplines at any career stage are eligible. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are strongly encouraged to apply.

Check the Find funding | Research website for more information (scroll down to "internally funded awards" for specifics about the Interdisciplinary Trailblazer fund).

General questions or comments can be directed to Alfred Yu, Assistant Vice-President, Research and International at alfred.yu@uwaterloo.ca, while questions related to forms or submissions can be directed to Andrew Barker at andrew.barker@uwaterloo.ca.