Monday, May 25, 2015

Professor gets $1.65M grant to CREATE

The University of Waterloo received a federal grant announced last week to develop a training program that will help drive innovation in areas as diverse as automotive, aerospace, energy, manufacturing and healthcare. It will provide the knowledge and skills required to engineer the next generation of cyber-physical systems, such as autonomous vehicles that network with one another.

Professor Krzysztof Czarnecki, in collaboration with some of the world’s top researchers in product-line engineering and leading Canadian automotive, aerospace and software companies, will develop a training model for graduate students that will integrate courses in software, computer, mechatronic and systems engineering.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada awarded the project $1.65 million over six years from its Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program.

“Cyber-physical systems are penetrating every aspect of our lives and will transform how we interact with the physical world,” said Czarnecki, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Waterloo. “These systems enable new types of medical devices, smart renewable energy systems, intelligent homes and safer and cleaner airplanes. The ability to engineer model-based, product-line systems is critical for Canada’s international competitiveness.”

The Waterloo students will benefit from the industry partnerships through research-intensive internships at partnering firms. Select students will receive specialized training in automotive and aerospace systems, two of the areas key to Canada’s high-tech leadership.

“University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering has always been an academic leader in advancing Canadian capabilities in emerging and disruptive technologies,” said Pearl Sullivan, dean of the Faculty of Engineering. “With this initiative, we will engineer the next generation of cyber-physical systems, a major part of the Internet of Things vision, leveraging connectivity and technology to support societal needs and grow the economy.”

CREATE grants support the training of teams of exceptional students and postdoctoral fellows and encourage collaboration while addressing important scientific challenges in areas of research priority for Canada.

Test the Discover Graduate Studies website, win a prize

The Graduate Studies Office invites undergraduate and graduate students, staff, faculty and other members of Waterloo’s community to help test the usability of the current Discover Graduate Studies website.  The test will take about 5 minutes. There are no wrong answers; the test is designed to assess the effectiveness of the website’s layout by focusing on the way users navigate the site.

As a thank you for your time, volunteer testers will be eligible to win one of three Amazon gift cards worth $100 CAD.

The test runs until June 5. The prize draw will be held in mid-June. Take the test now. 

Nominations open for Faculty-at-large Senate seat

The Secretariat and Office of General Counsel has issued a call for nominations for a faculty-at-large seat on Senate.

One faculty member will be elected by and from the members of the faculty of the University, with a term ending April 30, 2018.

Completed nomination forms should be submitted to the Secretariat & Office of General Counsel, Needles Hall, Room 3060, no later than 3:00 p.m., Monday, June 15. At least five nominators are required in each case.

Elections will follow if necessary.

Library hosts open-access journal workshop

A message from the Library.

If you have interest in starting your own online open-access journal but don't know where to start, or if you've started a journal but need to develop some of the soft skills required to be successful, or if the whole process seems overwhelming, then the Library has the perfect workshop for you.

Create an online open-access scholarly journal: a hands-on workshop is a one-day workshop that will discuss the major components required to launch an open-access journal using the Open Journal System (OJS) platform. It will involve several modules, each consisting of a lecture presentation by a knowledgeable expert, followed by an interactive group exercise that will provide program participants with hands-on experience, increase awareness of the challenges of journal creation and management, and enhance understanding of mechanisms necessary to create a successful journal.

Workshop modules include:

• Module 1: Building the Foundation
• Module 2: Getting Started
• Module 3: The Online Journal System (OJS) and Other Publishing Platforms
• Module 4: “So you have a journal – now what?” 

The workshop will take place on June 17 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in LIB 329.

If you are interested, please RSVP as soon as possible by June 2 to Tim Ireland by sending an email to tireland@uwaterloo.ca or by calling extension 35061.

Please indicate if you have any particular accessibility requirements. Dana Porter Library has wheelchair ramps outside the main entrance and elevators within the building.

The registration cap is 20 groups (you can register as a group of one, two, or three people). Instead of a registration fee, the Library requests that you bring something to share at the workshop's morning and afternoon breaks. Please include a list of ingredients if possible. If there is a particular challenge you are facing in regards to creating a journal, please let us know so we can make sure to include it in the workshop (if possible).

Visit the Library News and Events website for more details.

Monday's notes

The Undergraduate School on Experimental Quantum Information Processing (USEQIP) is up and running this week at the Institute for Quantum Computing.

USEQIP is a summer school for undergraduate students that runs from May 25 to June 5, a two-week program on the theoretical and experimental study of quantum information aimed primarily at students one year away from completing their undergraduate studies. The lectures and experiments are geared toward students in engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, though all interested students are invited to apply. 

The program will consist of lectures introducing quantum information theory and experimental approaches to quantum devices, followed by more than 30 hours of hands-on exploration of Quantum Information Processing (QIP) using the experimental facilities of the institute.

There are usually about 25 students enrolled in the program.

Waterloo's Confucius Institute at Renison University College is organizing a cultural event beginning on Saturday, May 30 to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the Second World War.

The opening day of the Chinese Book and Photo Exhibition to Commemorate the 70^th Anniversary of World War II will feature an opening ceremony, a public cultural exchange forum with scholars from China and Canada, and lunch for invitees and registered participants.

The exhibit, open to the public, will showcase 200 books and 100 photos that illustrate the heroic efforts of those involved in the Second World War. It aims to highlight the 70^th anniversary of the world’s victory over fascism, the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Canada over the last 45 years, and recent cultural exchanges between the two countries. 

The exhibit will also focus on Canadian physician Dr. Henry Norman Bethune.

The opening ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. and the exhibit runs until June 2 in the Lusi Wong Library.

On Saturday, June 6, Engineering is will host the fourth annual Waterloo High School EV Challenge, an endurance race and engineering design competition where high school students race the cars they have designed and built through a temporary street course set up on Waterloo’s East Campus.

There are two races scheduled – one for the 12 volt vehicles at 11:00 a.m., and the feature race at 1:15 p.m. for the 24 volt competitors. Winning these 1 hour endurance races requires a well-designed car and a skilled driver. The race winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony at 3:15 p.m.

Partnering with the race again this year is the Trillium Auto Dealers Association, who will display the winning car at the 2016 Toronto International Auto Show. Other sponsors include Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, the Dean of Engineering, Navitas, CRS and Interstate Batteries.

The public is welcome to watch the races, visit with the teams in the pits, and explore some of Waterloo’s student teams and electric vehicle research. Admission and parking for the event are free.

The event organizers are still looking for volunteers to help set-up the track and monitor the race. Volunteers can register on the Electrical Vehicle Challenge website.

In addition, access to the East Campus lots will be limited during the competition. Access to EC1 and EC3 will be maintained, but EC2 will be cut off from the parking lot by the race course, particularly between 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:15 to 3:15 p..m when the race is running.

Plant Operations is serving notice that elevator 49-1 at the School of Pharmacy will be out of service on Thursday, May 28 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. while maintenance work is carried out.

Canadian Blood Services will be holding a donor clinic on campus in the Student Life Centre from Tuesday, May 26 to Thursday, May 28 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. They are also looking for student, staff and faculty volunteers. Anyone interested in helping out can contact Andrea Davies, coordinator of volunteer resources by email at andrea.davies@blood.ca or by calling (toll free) 1-866-537-7700 extension 5867.

The David Johnston Research + Technology Park would like to extend an invitation to the campus community to come out and enjoy local gourmet food trucks parked daily at TechTown and to enjoy the patio for the sunny weather and the TechTown atrium for those not-so-sunny days. The full season's food truck's schedule can be viewed on the R+T Park's website. (Photograph by Darcy Casselman.)