Monday, December 11, 2023

Uniting against gender-based violence

By Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor. This is an excerpt of an article originally posted on Waterloo News.

The global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence came to a close yesterday. However, we all share a collective responsibility to continue this activism beyond these 16 days. Gender-based violence happens in our own community and around the world. It is only when we stand together, raise awareness and take action that we have a chance to end this type of violence. 

In September, the Region of Waterloo joined nearly 50 Ontario municipalities in declaring intimate partner violence an epidemic. The statistics are alarming. Every day, police in our region respond to 17 domestic violence calls per day. Over 60,000 calls related to intimate partner violence have been made to police in the past 10 years. According to the World Health Organization, gender-based violence affects 1 in 3 women worldwide.  

In June, this violence permeated onto our campus when members of our community were injured in a gender studies class in a hate-motivated attack related to gender expression and gender identity. The attack came less than a year after the murder of alumni Sarah Inam as a result of intimate partner violence in 2022. 

As an institution, the University of Waterloo is committed to creating inclusive, safe and welcoming environments for all members of our community. It takes action by everyone to end this violence.  

Voices across our faculties and campuses are advocating in many ways to raise awareness and draw attention to issues related to this violence. Earlier this week, Waterloo’s Engineering hosted its annual memorial ceremony recognizing Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. Arts along with the Office of Research recently launched the Antagonism and Intimidation in Academia Speaker Series that will culminate with an international conference this summer. The Urgency of Social Justice Speaker Series, which takes place monthly, also provides a platform to discuss these important issues.  

Read the rest of the article on Waterloo News

Soon you'll be able to track your travel-related carbon emissions

A message from the Sustainability Office and Finance.

As part of Waterloo’s climate action plan, Shift:Neutral, the University committed to explore tools and guidelines that would reduce business travel where possible, and improve tracking. To engage the UWaterloo community directly in the effort of tracking and reducing emissions, Finance and the Sustainability Office have collaborated to add a new voluntary field in Concur titled “carbon emissions” that asks claimants who have booked and purchased their airfare out of pocket to voluntarily calculate and include the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their UW travel. This field will be active in Concur as of January 1, 2024.

Completion of the carbon emissions field in Concur is voluntary, however, we strongly encourage all claimants to take a few extra seconds to fill this out and help campus better understand the greenhouse gas impact from our air travel. This calculator takes less than 30 seconds for most simple trips, and for longer complicated trips with many layovers/stops, may take a minute or two at most. 

To complete this field, claimants should use the emissions calculator developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Claimants will need to input into the calculator the following information: 

• Departure city;
• Destination city;
• Any additional destination cities if it was not a direct flight;
• Number of passengers;
• Class of flight (i.e., Economy/Premium); and
• Whether it was a round trip or one way. 

All information collected through the voluntary field will be anonymous, including removing all personally identifying details, and information cannot be tied back to a user or department.

To learn more about this initiative, visit the Air Travel section of the Sustainability Office’s website. Questions or feedback can be sent to sustainability@uwaterloo.ca.

Dr. John McPhee receives prestigious OSPE Gold Medal award

This article was originally published on the Systems Design Engineering website.

Dr. John McPhee, professor of systems design engineering was recognized with the highest honour from the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) for his outstanding contribution to the engineering profession.

McPhee, a Canada Research Chair in Biomechatronic Systems Dynamics, is the 2023 recipient of the Gold Medal Award, OSPE’s highest honour. This is the first Gold Medal awarded since 2019, and McPhee is the first recipient of this award from the University of Waterloo in over 33 years. He received the award at the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards (OPEA) gala on November 4 in Toronto.

The premier award of the association recognizes conscientious commitment to public service, technical excellence, and outstanding professional leadership. This will be the first Gold Medal awarded since 2019, as the esteemed award is only given when an outstanding candidate is nominated.

As Canada’s leading expert in system dynamics, McPhee has had a pervasive impact on the engineering practice. His ground-breaking graph-theoretic methods have been commercialized and applied to multiple fields including stroke rehabilitation robots, sports engineering, autonomous vehicles, and surgical planning. As an educator, he supervises one of the largest research groups on systems dynamics. He was instrumental in the design of two of Waterloo’s most competitive and innovative undergraduate programs, the Biomedical Engineering program and the Mechatronics Engineering program.

Go to Dr. John McPhee P.Eng. | Professional Engineers Gold Medal Awardee OPEA 2023 for OSPE’s announcement of the Gold Medal award.

Dr. Anita Taylor to step in as Acting AVP EDI-R while Dr. Christopher Taylor on sabbatical

From January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, Dr. Anita Taylor will be assuming the role of Acting Associate Vice-President of the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism (EDI-R) during Dr. Christopher Taylor’s planned sabbatical leave during the same time period. Dr. Taylor will return to his AVP duties July 1, 2024.

As the Senior Director, Strategic and Institutional Priorities in the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism, Anita has led the strategic direction of the department and ensured that its priorities have been successfully implemented. Her expertise and experience were instrumental in advancing the mission of the University’s President’s Anti-Racism Taskforce and the implementation of those initiatives.

In addition, with Anita’s support and leadership, the EDI-R team has advanced various important initiatives such as the EDI-R Community of Practice, Inclusive Washrooms, Menstrual Equity, the Program Areas Lead initiative, the Sankofa Pathways to University, the Gender Equity Lecture Series, the Amplify Podcast, and the Black Excellence Orientation Series. Over the next few months, the team will be involved in organizing the Inter-Institutional Forum of the Scarborough National Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education that will be taking place on May 9 & 10, as the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University will be hosting.

“Christopher has created an amazing team and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” remarks Anita. “I want to thank him for his mentorship and guidance, which has prepared me well for temporarily stepping into his role while he’s away. I’m excited to continue where he left off in these important initiatives and I wish him well on his sabbatical.”

Monday's notes

Special Collections & Archives will be closed for on-site appointments from Monday, December 11 until January 8, 2024, according to a note from the Library. Contact archives@uwaterloo.ca for virtual reference and research support before and after the University’s winter break closure (December 23, 2023 to January 1, 2024).

The Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB) is accepting applications for its seventh annual Seed Fund. The CBB Seed Fund is designed to empower and advance CBB's vision and mission, encourage multi-disciplinary research initiatives across UWaterloo faculties, and facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations that involve partners from diverse institutions, sectors, and jurisdictions. Successful applicants can receive up to $10,000 for projects in the core stream. Additionally, recipients can be awarded up to $15,000 for projects in one of CBB's three priority funding pools: Health and Medical Professional Development priority funding pool, Access to Data priority funding pool, and Equitable Access to Healthcare priority funding pool. Visit the CBB Seed funding webpage to learn more and apply today.

Finally, just a reminder that the third-annual UWaterloo menorah lighting event will take place today from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the SLC patio.