Friday, November 15, 2024

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• A Waterloo legacy 40 years in the making
• New community of practice for sustainability curriculum integration launches
• Finding the intersection between science and art
• Data Science at Waterloo second in Canada in QS World Subject Rankings
• Innovation Arena grand opening and other notes

A Waterloo legacy 40 years in the making

Barry Matsui (BMath ’89), Noah Matsui (MAcc ’19), Ruhuni de Alwis (BA ’89, BMath ’89), and Jacob Matsui (MAcc ’21).

By Matthew King. This is the latest article published on Waterloo Magazine.

The University of Waterloo has profoundly shaped every aspect of Ruhuni de Alwis’s (BA ’89, BMath ’89) life, from career foundation to personal relationships.

Through Waterloo’s co-op program, de Alwis built a thriving career, met her partner, Barry Matsui (BMath ’89) and forged lifelong friendships – she says she has more than 50 close friends who all keep in touch. 

It’s because of these experiences that she chooses to give back today. Through generous donations to the Waterloo Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE) fund, de Alwis continues to support programming so students can access work-integrated learning opportunities, including co-op.

Read how Waterloo has shaped her life in the Waterloo Magazine.

New community of practice for sustainability curriculum integration launches

A message from the Sustainability Office.

Faculty members and instructors are invited to join an inaugural meeting of a new Community of Practice for Integrating Sustainability in the Curriculum.

Over the past year, Waterloo has been strengthening supports for deeper integration of sustainability into any program of study, recognizing the major global changes underway that will affect learners from all career paths.

The community of practice is an opportunity for curriculum developers and instructors who are interested in teaching sustainability to connect with and learn from others across campus, foster collaborations, and accelerate efforts.

The initial meeting will take place on November 27, from 1:00-2:30pm, in EIT 3142, with a focus on casual networking and sharing input on how the community can develop.

Whether you are already teaching about sustainability or just thinking about it, all faculty members and instructors are welcome to join and chat sustainability over coffee and snacks! Registration is available on the Sustainability in Curriculum website.

The event is made possible through a collaboration between the Teaching Innovation Incubator, Sustainability Office, and Centre for Teaching Excellence.

Finding the intersection between science and art

By Nicola Kelly. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

Waterloo graduate Kiyoumars Zarshenas (PhD ’23) has been named a winner of the Science Exposed 2024 Jury Prize sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) with a striking image captured with a scanning electron microscope.  

The Science Exposed contest highlights photos of Canadian research to foster interest and curiosity in the sciences. Each year, 20 images are selected as finalists for the English contest and showcased by various means, including exhibitions.  

Zarshenas’s winning image offers a glimpse into the heart of his innovation: a structured membrane with intricate layers resembling the white sponges you might find in the ocean. What makes it special is that the support layer at the bottom has lots of tiny holes, while the top layer is a finely tuned nanoscale dense layer made of nanomaterials — far too small to see with the naked eye.  

Zarshenas used liquid nitrogen to freeze the membrane and then fractured it to take an image of the cross-section. Inspired by nature, he processed the image to highlight its structure.  

“Membranes are commonly used to filter out unwanted elements,” Zarshenas says. “In our bodies, our kidneys are like membranes that filter our blood and remove waste; by looking at that example, people can better understand membranes as filters and why they’re important.” 

The membrane that inspired the image was the subject of his postdoctoral research at Waterloo, which focused on developing membranes for environmental and energy applications. Zarshenas previously won the Science Action competition sponsored by NSERC and the Fonds de Recherche du Quebec for a video describing his PhD research on membranes designed for water filtration and mineral recovery. 

“Industry needs to capture people’s interests, hiring marketing firms to create media to sell their products. During my time at Waterloo, I was encouraged to develop side skills that could be useful for future employment. In my case, I developed my presentation skills and artistic side through these competitions.” 

Zarshenas decided to pursue a PhD in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Waterloo because of the state-of-the-art lab facilities and the opportunities to improve his research skills.  

After completing his PhD, Zarshenas worked as a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Michael Pope’s 2D Materials and Electrochemical Devices Lab.

He’s now a scientist in the laboratory of advanced separation (LAS) at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) a European research and innovation laboratory working on membrane scale-up for carbon capture and gas separation applications. 

Zarshenas does not consider himself a serious photographer, although he is an expert in electron microscopy imaging, skills he used for his award-winning image. In his mind, art and science are connected. He thinks this perspective will serve him well when presenting his work in academia or industry. 

“I'm always trying to connect with people and bring attention to science. Images and video are the tools that enable me to make science relatable. For example, my expertise is in filtration using membranes and I can capture people's imagination with that image to share what is at the core of filtration. That’s my inspiration, using visuals and words to describe my research,” Zarshenas says.” Winning the award makes me happy because I feel that people connected to my image and research.” 

By capturing the intricacies of his work through the lens of an artist, Zarshenas inspires others to appreciate the hidden beauty in science and the vital role it plays in tackling environmental challenges. 

Data Science at Waterloo second in Canada in QS World Subject Rankings

This article was originally published on the Data Science website.

A recently released update to the QS subject ranking for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence puts the University of Waterloo second in Canada and 40^th globally. 

The results are part of the annual QS World University Rankings by Subject, which rank approximately 1,600 universities in 54 disciplines. Indicators for the subject rankings are drawn from a peer review survey, employer survey, citations data and collaboration data. 

“The new rankings from QS show the ways that data scientists at Waterloo are leading innovation in the field and providing opportunities for our students to learn from the absolute best,” said M. Tamer Özsu, co-director of the Graduate Data Science Program and a professor of computer science. “Achieving this recognition only five years since the start of the program shows it’s an exciting time to be working in data science and artificial intelligence at Waterloo.” 

Along with undergraduate specializations, recent years have seen the growth of new master’s programs in data science, including the hugely popular Master of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (MDSAI). The program is unique, in that it offers a graduate-level co-operative and experiential educational component, allowing students to gain valuable on-the-job training. 

Data science research and teaching at Waterloo is at the intersection of the University’s traditional strengths in computer science, statistics and optimization. The field is set to take on even greater prominence at Waterloo through new labs and teaching spaces in the Faculty of Math’s new M4 building. 

“Data science and artificial intelligence is an area that we’re seeing more and more students taking an interest in,” said Yuying Li, co-director of the Graduate Data Science Program and a professor of computer science. “Many of our top undergrad students in computer science and statistics are looking at data science when they are considering graduate programs, especially because the skills they gain are in such high demand by industry.” 

“Our interdisciplinary MDSAI program attracts students in other STEM fields as well, since it naturally broadens students’ undergrad training, providing a path into the exiting field of data science. We expect to see this interest continuing to grow,” Li said.  

Check out  the full methodology  on the QS World University Rankings website.  

Innovation Arena grand opening and other notes

University, government and community leaders will gather in downtown Kitchener this morning for the grand opening of the Innovation Arena. The Innovation Arena is a dynamic new collaboration space that brings together leading health innovators with Velocity to accelerate Waterloo region's thriving health care sector. The new space features specialized capabilities to drive health innovation and connects innovators across all sectors. The Innovation Arena will foster cross-sector collaboration, support emerging businesses and transform technologies into real-world solutions. The grand opening ceremony takes place at 10:30 a.m. at 280 Joseph Street in Kitchener.

We're on the cusp of a major traffic headache for the rest of the month: All lanes of Columbia Street are set to be closed between Hagey Boulevard and Phillip Street beginning Monday, November 18 to Saturday, November 30 as an underground high-voltage electrical duct bank is installed as part of the Waterloo Eye Institute construction project.

Plant Operations reports that vehicle and bicycle traffic will be diverted to alternate routes, and as for pedestrians, sidewalks will be affected on the north and south sides of the street for some of the interruptions.

The Region of Waterloo suggests that eastbound traffic take Hagey Boulevard to Wes Graham Way to Bearinger Road to Albert Street, while westbound traffic can take Albert to Bearinger to Wes Graham to Hagey. There's no official word yet on whether the Columbia Street East Campus entrance will be open to local traffic, so Q Lot pass holders may have to play it by ear and use the Phillip Street entrance(s) instead.

To those of you behind the wheel next week: good luck.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian blog series entitled How to Secure and Control Confluence Access for Different Teams and Audiences.