Thursday, November 23, 2023

Register for Research Talks about rising inflation and interest rates and what it means for societal health

A message from the Office of Research.

Join the next Research Talks on Tuesday, December 5, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., where a panel of experts will discuss societal health impacts of rising inflation and interest rates.

Panelists and topics include:

• Jean-Paul Lam (Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Waterloo): Exploring inflation, central bank communications and the relationship between business cycles and health outcomes.
• Ellen MacEachen (Professor; Director, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo): The consequences of higher costs for low wage workers.
• Joe Mancini, LLD ’19 (Director, The Working Centre): The social impact of unaffordable housing.

The event will take place at the Apollo Cinema in Kitchener and is open to Waterloo faculty, staff, students and the general public. Please register to attend.

Employees will celebrate career milestones next week

University of Waterloo community members celebrating employment milestones will be honoured at an Employee Years of Service Reception on Tuesday, November 28 in Fed Hall.

Employees will be recognized for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and even 45 years at the reception, which will be hosted by President Vivek Goel and Chief Human Resources Officer Michelle Hollis.

Here's the milestone breakdown:

• 172 recipients are celebrating their 5-year milestone (2018);

Ishan Abeywardena; Jengiz (Jess) Ahmet; Victor Angad; Iva Badjari; Catherine Balcerzak; Lesia Bandura; Amber Beaudoin; Caroline Bhaskar; Harriet Bigas; Patty Bisch; Joshua Bolender; Ryan Branidis; Pamela Braza Pitman; Cory Brown; Kristin Brown; Mark Bruvelaitis; Emily Burgess; Thomas Cauduro; Limei Chen; Tiffany Chen; Laura Cherian; Jeuk Choy; Victoria Chu; Paulina Cisneros Colin; Rex Coffin; Michael F. Cole; Susan Corkill; Elissa Cressman; Jonathan Cressman; Tracey Crewe; Branca Da Costa; Andrea DeCarlo; Carry Derome; Kanchan Dhiman; Nick Di Benedetto; Wendy Diel; Jamie Doerbecker; Paige Doherty; John Donohue; Yufei Du; Maha Eid; Reem El Mugammar; Krista Elena; Yingchen Fan; Melissa Fehrenbach; Dilce Ferrera Alvarez; Graydon Filiatrault; Robert Forsyth; Julia Fraser; Harold Godwin; Curtis Goodbrand; Nancy Goucher; Troy Grandy; Nicole Guenther; Wendy Hague; Thomas Harding; Angela Hare; Matthew Hargreaves; Nichola Harrilall; Linda Heck; Nina Heinig; Natalie Heldsinger; Gina Hickman; Joshua Hogan; Gregory Holloway; Andrew Hopf; Shelley Huisken-Coniglio; Megan Jermyn; Ryon Jones; Robert Judd; Jennifer Kelebuda; Lorna Kelly; Jill Kennedy-Petricca; Samantha Sul Hee Kim; Chris Kleven; Ally Knepper; Stacey Koch; Konstantin Krivtsov; Dyanne Kuhlmann; Alyssa Kuron; Delores Lanni; Robert Laurin; Carolyn Lee; Khadija Lee-Dandie; Amelia Leschuk; Xianling Li; Casaundra Locke; Amanda Lockhart; Stephanie Longeway; Man Emma Luo; Zainab Mahmood; Nick Manning; Ken Manson; Nicole Marcogliese; Evan Martin; Thomas Mazurek; Ashley McCarthy; Jessica McCormick; Colin McCrea; Jacqueline Mcgann; Diana McGaughey; Neil McKay; Madisson Mckellar; Norah McRae; Cherisse Mike; Jessica Miller; Gina Moreno; Saviour Mutakwa; Erika Mutimura; Meryl Norris; Kaitlin O'Brien; Jasmin Ouellette; Marcie Parrott; Philipa Paulo; Michael Pereira; Marjory Phillips; Brad Thomas Bryon; Plata Helen Player; Denise Porter; Rachel Pridham; Maija-Liisa Puddle; Jared Rank; Melinda Recchia; Lauren Reed; Alexandra Rideout; Trevor Ridgway; Angus Rogerson; Heather Root; Colin Russell; Jason Santo; Ashley Schatz; Karl Schuett; Jacqueline Schwantz; Jenna Scott; Onkar Sehmi; Ashley Sent-Doux; Mitra Seyedahmad; Kristin Shantz; Puneet Sharma; Brian Shillingford; Eva Skuza; Spencer Small; Alonzo Smith; Nick Springate; Samantha St. Amand; Michelle St-Amour; Clare Stevens; Kerry Stryker; Oleg Stukalov; Tracey Szarka; David Thiessen; Emmanuel Ugwuegbula; Chantal Vallis; Erin Van Der Meulen; Kendra Vandecamp; Andriana Vanezi; Caitlin Vaux; Peggy Ventura; Sonya Walton; Lauren Weber; Johanna Whitson; Robyn Wilkinson; Jen Wilson; Sandy Wong; Darren Wynes; Eugenia Xenos Anderson; Li Nan Xu; Emilia Zakarian; Melissa Zettel; Lei Zhang; Yibei Zhao; Yifei Zhao; and Zhi Zheng.

• 89 recipients are celebrating their 10-year milestone (2013);

Zorina Alexander; Sarindra Andrianasolo; Agata Antkiewicz; Sherri Anne Arsenault; Herbert Balagtas; Ursula Barnett; Tyler Batchelor; Edward Bauer; Sergey Bobkin; Gregory Bobnis; Lisa Brackenridge; Nancy Brittenden; Sabine Bruckeder; Janice Bruin; Nedeljka Neda Buconjic; Brigitte Marie Bujold; Tzong Cha; Jeffrey Chamberlain; Diane Chiasson; Harilal Chotara; Veralicia Contreras; Mary Culham; Darlene Dakin; Catherine Demers; Shona Dunseith; Dick Duplessie; Jasmin English; Stephanie Facca; Jean Flanagan; Sue Fraser; Dave Gall; Julio Gonzalez; Patricia Gruber; Lee Hornberger; Celeste Horne; Emily Hudson; Wanda Hunt; Cathy Kalbfleisch; Rosemary Killeen; Corrine Krauss; Joseph Kwan; Denise Lachaine; Na Lin; Cathy Logan-Dickie; Laura Christine Maple; Megan Martin; Christina McDougall; Adam Patrick Adair McFarlane; Kelly McManus; Carlos Medina; Zachary Mercer; Melanie Misanchuk; Matthew Morgan; Debbie Murray; Elizabeth  Ney; Djura Novta; Andrea Olson; Darius Panta; Amanda Pickett; Stephanie Pitton; Janelle Rainville; Sandra Ramautarsingh; Sandip Randhawa; Stacy Reda; Sarah Carol Robertson; Elizabeth Rogers; Durdica Roglic; Rusmir Salihspahic; Lucyna (Lucy) Satora-Wczesniak; Kyle Scholz; Gregory Smith; Kathleen Smyth; Kayla Snyder; Siobhan Stables; Allan Starr; Jodi Szimanski; Terence Tang; Claire Taylor; Gwen teBoekhorst; Sam Toman; Kim Tremblay; Jack Truong; Rubia Velasquez; Timothy Weber-Kraljevski; Catherine Wessels; Christine West; Laura Wilson; and Amy Woroch.

• 71 recipients are celebrating their 15-year milestone (2008);

Mary Lynne Bartlett; Marcella Benson; Steve Bradley; Laura Bredahl; Gary Brock; Shari Carter;  Amanda Connolly; Patricia Coutsos; Richard Cramm; Yunping Peter Cui; Katherine Dal Castel; Rochelle Davies; Kristen Deckert; Anthea Dunne; Andri Efstathiou; Peggy Eichinger; Joanna Eidse; Gonenc Fenton; Kateri Galloway-Downie; Maryann Gaspic; Suhair Gilbert; Erin Gillespie;  Julie Maria Goll; Christine Goucher; Neil Griffett; Pamela Hurvid; Hoang Huynh; Robin Jardin; John Kemp; Dale Kentner; Ryan King; Kimberly Kuntz; Heather Lang; Hong-Tim Law; Nadeem Lawji; Sara Leblanc; Xing Liao; Eric Luvisotto; Jennifer Marie Mackay; Julie MacMillan; Daman Mann; Aida Martinez; James McCarthy; Stephanie McCoy; Madeleine Noble; Miguel Novo; Heidi Panchaud; Zivojin Pantic; Sara Perkins; Thiam Phouthonephackdy; Mary Power; Mirjana Radulovic; Erin Rellinger Smith; Christopher Roopram; Rina Salazar; Leslie Schaefer; Julie Shikaze; Larisa Smyk; Robin Stadelbauer; Sara Stewart; Tanya Strong; Katherine Szigeti; Andrew Thompson; Danijela Vukancic; Dongliang Lucy Wang; Jennifer Weigel; Kyle Werth; Udaya Wettasinghe; Linda Wheat; Mike Willson; Erin Windibank; and Mi Yan.

• 44 recipients are celebrating their 20-year milestone (2003);

Scott Anderson; Malgorzata Brestovacki; Ruzica Cvjeticanin; Mary Catherine Damphouse; Michael Ditty; Elizabeth Doede; Ceylan Enver; Mike Gaspic; Sandra Gibson; Sheila Goodwin; Vanessa Hall; Joy Harris; David Hinton; Devon Hutchinson; Linda Jackson; Lori Jacobs; Robert Kaptein; Sandra Keys; Michael Kobe; Lori Kraemer; Martha Lauzon; Katherine Lithgow; Sylvia Maier; Ramon Mayorga; Sharon McFarlane; Gillian McKenzie-Yorke; Julie Mulvey; Susan Oestreich; Kevin Paxman; Dean Perkins; Tanya Pompilio; Antony Prokopich; Ana Reyes; Christopher Shantz; Richard Smith; Silvia Stalzer; Jeremy Steffler; Jason Testart; Rui Tome; Sarah Tyrrell; Lorie Weinstein; Valerie Wilson; Jonathan Woodcock; and Pia Zeni.

• 50 recipients are celebrating their 25-year milestone (1998);

Margaret Adaran; Andrew Barker; Marshall Bingeman; Slavica Bogdanovic; Alison Boyd; Stephen Brooks; Catherine Burns; Jun Cai; Trevor Charles; Lance Chase; Melissa Conrad; Eva Dodsworth; Michelle Douglas; Donald Duff-McCracken; Cheryl Duxbury; Donna Foreman-Braun; Liping Fu; Wendy Gauthier; Guang Gong; Mary Anne Hardy; Sharon Heenan; Ranjini Jha; Deborah Jones; Lyndon Jones; Graham Leiher; Tallen Leung; Rui Lopes; Alfred Menezes; Elizabeth Monachan; Richard Morrison; Brian Orend; Dragica Pavlovic; Judene Pretti; Kevin Rampersad; Jeff Rice; Ian Rowlands; Martin Ryan; Manoj Sachdev; Sam Schmidt; Mark Seasons; Ravindra Singh; Andrew Smith; Sue Stathopulos; Paul Thompson; Clayton Tucker; Pastor Vaca; Troy Vasiga; Andrew Ward; Richard Witzke; and Michael Worswick.

• 15 recipients are celebrating their 30-year milestone (1993);

Mary Bland; Claudio Canizares; Rita Cherkewski; Richard Cook; Edward Danhousen; Wendy Fritz; Tadeusz Gorecki; Anwarul Hasan; Penelope Haxell; Douglas Hirst; Peter Huck; Amir Khandani; Stephen Mann; Cathy Stein; and Weihua Zhuang.

• 15 recipients are celebrating their 35-year milestone (1988);

Dag Balzer; Melissa Baxter; Scott Davis; Annette Dietrich; Matthew Erickson; Karen Ertel; George Labahn; Gary Molson; Janusz Pawliszyn; Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam; Prabhakar Ragde; Mary Robertson; Kelly Wilker; Christina Yee; and Karen Anderson.

• 4 recipients are celebrating their 40-year milestone (1983);

Jefim Boritz; Gordon Cormack; Trien Nguyen; and Shirley Springall.

• And 1 recipient is celebrating their 45-year milestone (1978).

Celebrating 45 years will be Gabriel Moreira, Personnel Truck Driver. Congratulations on hitting this remarkable career milestone!

The reception will feature brief remarks, hors d’oeurves and a complimentary beverage. Years of Service recipients will receive a W Store gift card in recognition of their service to the University.

Facilitating international collaboration

 A message from Waterloo International in support of International Education Week. 

The University of Waterloo has built strong international partnerships based on shared interests with institutions around the world. As an example, the University of Waterloo and the University of Twente have been working to build a strategic relationship over the past decade, including a delegation to the University of Twente led by President Goel in July 2022. Building on this momentum, the institutions recently launched a Strategic Collaboration Grant (SCG) competition, an opportunity for faculty members at both institutions to establish and/or to deepen meaningful research collaborations. This is but one example of the depth and scope of building international relationships and the impact it can lead to for both partners.  

Details about the SCG program can be found on the International Opportunities page. 

Changes to Duo two-factor authentication user interface coming November 29

A message from Information Systems & Technology (IST).

On November 29, the current Duo 2FA prompt screen and user interface will be updated, resulting in a new look and feel. While end users are not required to take any action, one of the more noticeable changes will be the relocation of the device management portal, which will be accessible at the bottom of the Duo prompt, making it easier for users to manage their devices (e.g., add and remove devices). 

Have questions about this upcoming change? Questions about this work, including those from application admins, may be submitted via the IST Help Portal. Note, the existing IST Knowledge Base guides will be updated to support this change. 

GreenHouse announces winter term winners of the Social Impact Fund

A message from the United College’s GreenHouse.

This week, GreenHouse hosted their 30^th Social Impact Showcase to celebrate the amazing work that GreenHouse students have accomplished throughout their social innovation journeys. This term, 10 teams pitched and 6 were awarded funding to support their ventures from the Social Impact Fund, established by United College in 2014.

And the winners are…

Real Research, awarded $500, is providing undergraduate students with valuable research experience and is led by Ria Menon (Faculty of Science).

WhereCafe, awarded $1,500, is using artificial and authentic intelligence to empower solo female travellers to travel the world safely and is led by Nethy Sudswong (Faculty of Engineering) and Carla Castaneda.

Braille-Buddy, awarded $1,500, is designing computer-vision powered braille books to help low-vision individuals learn braille independently and is led by Shaahana Naufal, Julia Turner, Mathurah Ravigulan, and Ayla Orucevic (Faculty of Engineering).

Rising SheFarmers, awarded $2,000, is empowering rural women in Ghana to farm mushrooms for income and is led by Lydia Madintin Konlan (Faculty of Engineering).

Patient Companion, awarded $5,000, is improving the communication between nurses and patients and is led by Christy Lee (Faculty of Engineering).

Safi, awarded $8,000, is building a pasteurization tool that ensures transparency in the milk supply chain in East Africa and is led by Miraal Kabir, Martin Turuta, and Daria Margarit (Faculty of Math).

Over 1,600 community members also voted in the People’s Choice Awards and selected Rising SheFarmers as the winner of an additional $1,000.

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Fall 2023 Social Impact Showcase and thank you to all the support from the University of Waterloo community. Cheers to our students and their continued success!