The Daily Bulletin is published by Internal and Leadership Communications, part of University Communications
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Where there's a challenge, Waterloo is on it
A message from Marketing and Brand in University Relations.
Amid ongoing news of world concerns and issues, Waterloo continues to deliver solutions that are making a positive impact.
Now, and over the next few months, look for Waterloo’s latest institutional brand campaign featuring researchers, entrepreneurs, students and alumni. The first flight of stories includes:
- The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, led by faculty member, Suzanne Kearns, is collectively working to create a more sustainable future for global aeronautics.
- Ceragen, a biotech company co-founded by Velocity Resident Danielle Rose, is leveraging deep tech to help farmers increase crop yields.
- Vena Medical, co-founded by Waterloo alumni, Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper, have developed the world’s smallest camera to help surgeons treat stroke patients more quickly.
- MedAtlas, founded by PhD candidate Margaret Mutumba, has launched a digital platform that connects patients to health care specialists across Africa.
- FluidAI, founded by Waterloo grad Youssef Helwa, has created a wireless monitor that detects post-operative complications faster to improve patient outcomes.
In February, a second flight of stories featuring Math, Arts, Engineering and Environment will launch – stay tuned for those details.
Feel free to share these links on LinkedIn and Twitter – and don’t forget to tag Waterloo and/or use the #UWaterloo hashtag.
Nominations open for Honorary Member of the University
Nominations are open for Honorary Member of the University designation, according to a memo circulated to employees this week by the University's president and the chair of the nominating committee.
"The Honorary Member of the University designation recognizes employees for outstanding service to the University as a whole," says the message from Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor and Lynn Judge, Chair, Honorary Member of the University Committee. "It is the highest honour a staff member can attain at the University of Waterloo. For faculty members, it recognizes distinctive administrative or other service to the University (as distinguished from Distinguished Professor Emeritus, which recognizes academic excellence). These achievements are celebrated at Convocation where they inspire those in attendance."
"We invite you to consider nominating a worthy candidate for this honour," the memo continues. "Please note, the University embraces and appreciates diversity and wants to ensure a diverse pool of candidates. With the community’s input we can continue to maintain a substantial pool of deserving individuals whose achievements the University would be delighted to celebrate and honour."
"Guidelines for the awarding of Honorary Member of the University, including selection guidelines, procedures, considerations to make in assessing a candidate’s qualifications, and details on what to submit in a nomination package, can be found on the website for the Honorary Member of the University Committee. You are also welcome to contact the committee secretary, Tim Weber-Kraljevski (tweber@uwaterloo.ca) for information and assistance."
"While nominations can be submitted at anytime, please submit your nomination by 27 January 2023 to be considered at the next Honorary Member of the University Committee meeting."
"Thank you in advance for your contribution to this important tradition," the memo concludes.
Centre for Teaching Excellence services for winter 2023
As the Winter term begins, the Centre for Teaching Excellence would like to remind everyone about our Winter 2023 programs to support the instructional development of Waterloo faculty, staff, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows.
Graduate student programs
Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows interested in developing their knowledge and skills as Teaching Assistants and instructors are encouraged to complete workshops from the Fundamentals of University Teaching program. The Fundamentals program introduces participants to evidence-based teaching strategies and provides hands-on opportunities to practice lesson planning and delivery skills. We are offering many workshops throughout the Winter term, held either online in Zoom or on-campus. Participants can take individual workshops, found on the Fundamentals Events website, or work towards receiving the full Fundamentals certificate.
Faculty programs
We have a variety of online and in-person workshops to support Waterloo instructors offered this term. We are excited to offer workshops related to LEARN, assessing student learning, course design (including flipped classrooms), experiential learning, and feature our NEW Indigenous Knowledges Reading Series. You can look forward to the return of a few signature in-person events such as the Waterloo Assessment Institute and the Teaching Excellence Academy. If you prefer to work at your own pace, we have several self-directed workshops available. We will wrap up our Winter term with the Annual University of Waterloo Teaching and Learning Conference (Call for Proposals now open).
If you have any questions about programming please contact cte@uwaterloo.ca.
United College hosts turkey dinner for Ukrainian students
By Rachel Jou-ter Woort.
This holiday season, more than 30 people gathered at Alumni Hall at United College on the University of Waterloo campus for a holiday meal. The event came to life by the hands of Lisa ter Woort, international account manager and business developer with Co-operative and Experiential Education (CEE), who wanted to ensure the Ukrainian students staying at United College had a way of celebrating the holidays when they were not all able to visit family or see friends over the winter break.
With the help of Halyna Padalko, MA student in Global Governance at University of Waterloo, and Harold Godwin, managing director, Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute, Lisa planned and executed a turkey dinner on December 26, 2022. Many students who were at United College over the winter break helped prepare the turkeys along with traditional Ukrainian dishes.
“It was absolutely amazing to prepare some Ukrainian salads that each of our students used to eat from our childhood for Christmas,” said Padalko on reflection, “It was something more than just Christmas dinner: it was an exchange of our cultures. We tried to go deeper to understand the history of both countries through our meal and how we prepared it.” Many others brought their own dishes to contribute to the event, such as United College Principal, Rick Myers, and his family, who brought homemade chili.
While people were eating, Ukrainian songs and videos played in the background. Some of these videos were directed by students in attendance at the meal. After dinner, students sang Ukrainian carols including the international classic “Carol of the Bells” written by the Ukrainian composer Leontovych.
A call for submissions for 2023's Open Education Week
A message from the Open Scholarship Committee.
The Open Scholarship Committee (OSC) is calling for contributions to Open Education Week, which will take place from March 6 to 10, 2023. Open education is one of the three main components of open scholarship, alongside open access and open data. Open education comprises digital resources, tools, and practices encouraging open sharing within the educational community around the world, with the goal of improving access to and effectiveness of education and advancing equity and accessibility.
The OSC is looking for contributions, either in the form of activities or resources, grouped around the three prongs of open education: resources (e.g. OER), tools (e.g. H5P, Pressbooks, XR), or practices (e.g. equity, inclusion, decolonization, accessibility, copyright) related to opening education. For the purposes of Open Education Week, “open” refers both to materials that have been published with an open license (e.g. Creative Commons, Ontario Commons) or which have been made publicly available in other ways.
Open Education Week activities will be fully online and could include, but are not limited to, presentations (live or pre-recorded, with attendance to answer follow-up questions encouraged), workshops, panels, or demonstrations. Resources could include, but are not limited to, PDFs, slide decks, websites, books, or AV materials (e.g. videos, podcasts). Keeping with the spirit of open, activities will be freely available to interested parties outside of the University of Waterloo community. In addition, presentations or demonstrations may be recorded and presenters/authors are encouraged to make their materials available to the public under an open license, although neither of these is required.
Submissions are due by February 3, 2023. Applicants will be informed of the committee’s decisions at the beginning of February. Please contact kblair@uwaterloo.ca for further information.