Friday, July 10, 2015

Waterloo welcomes incoming classes to campus

Over the next few days Waterloo is welcoming over 1,800 new members to our campus community. Over 900 new students (along with their family members) will attend AHS 101, Engineering 101, Environment 101 and Science 101 to learn about their first year at Waterloo and how they can make a successful transition to university life.

AHS 101, Engineering 101, Environment 101 and Science 101 are one-day events that invite new students and their families to come to campus before classes start. Students and their families will engage in programming identified by each faculty as important for a successful transition. For example, students will learn about program and faculty expectations, attend a first-year lecture, learn note taking and problem solving strategies that are specific to their faculty, and meet upper-year students, advisors and professors. In addition, students will learn how to navigate Waterloo systems like Quest and Student Portal, and have an opportunity to pick up their WatCard before the rush of September. By the end of the day, students and their families will have been introduced to a range of Waterloo and faculty-specific services and supports, providing an understanding of the many ways Waterloo works together as a community to support their success.

The faculties, student services, student societies, and the Federation of Students have been instrumental in creating these opportunities for our new students and we are all looking forward to meeting and welcoming our incoming class. If you’re on campus on Saturday, July 11 and Wednesday, July 15, and happen to see some of our new students and their families, make sure you say hello and welcome them to Waterloo.

Velocity Fund finalists announced

Ten startups will be competing for four $25,000 prizes on July 23 at the Velocity Fund Finals.

The finalists are:

• Black Box Technology – Using nanotechnology, Black Box Technology is creating an optical fingerprint for authentication and the prevention of counterfeiting.
• Grasp – Grasp is a biometric bike lock that secures a bike in seconds and is easily managed through the Grasp software platform and app.
• Knote – Knote has developed a Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence based system to eliminate the frustrations of note taking and studying.
• Lani – If you have a 3D print job to do, Lani analyzes and estimates prices and shows you all available printers depending on the quality and materials you have selected.
• Marangoni Optics – Marangoni is implementing a novel process control method for electronics component fabrication.
• OneSet – OneSet users share, like, follow and engage with each other’s content and the app provides a simple on-the-go solution for new workouts and workout ideas.
• PneuEquip – PneuEquip is building compact and safe workout equipment for condo/apartment residents that relies on air pressure to mimic traditional plate weight.
• Sales Ninja – The #1 door to door sales productivity suite for collecting lead information and store it in the cloud. The app gamifies internal sales competition to keep teams motivated and engaged.
• Site2Site – The Site2Site mobile platform takes field information from mobile employees and integrates it with payroll and job reporting. The platform collects and analyzes data to create an editable ready-to-send invoice.
• Varden Labs – Ideal for business campuses and private residences, Varden Labs is creating electric shuttles that capture the benefits of autonomous vehicles in more controlled environments.

The event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall. Registration details are on the Velocity site.

Tours of the universe a community draw

This is the latest in a series of #UWCommunity stories that feature Waterloo in the community.

This Wednesday, members of our community came to campus to take part in two fascinating science-themed tours.

The Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Environmental and Information Technology is currently home to a prehistoric playhouse, offering free Dinosaur Tours from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. every Wednesday throughout the month of July. Open to people of all ages, no matter what your level of learning, the museum continues to amaze the general public, elementary and high school groups, and university students alike with interesting facts, new information, and authentic historical findings. 

Stephanie Feeney, Assistant Museum Curator acknowledges the invaluable experience these tours offer our regional community: 

“Our Dinosaur Tours are one of the best ways to teach children and community members about dinosaurs. When they visit the Earth Sciences Museum, they get to see, touch and hold real dinosaur fossils and skeletons, which they find so exciting."

Free public tours of the Gustav Bakos Observatory also captivated our community’s curiosity this week. The observatory has been in operation since 1967, housing a twelve inch telescope used for research on visual binary stars and undergraduate assignments. Open to the public on the first Wednesday of each month, the tours offer community members a chance to look through the university’s telescope, engage in a short talk on astronomy and ask experts questions, followed by a quick trip around the dome. 

Michel Fich, Director of the Observatory and professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Waterloo, understands the value of inviting our community to this unique monthly event:

"We provide the public with a wonderful opportunity to learn some astronomy and look at the sky in greater detail with their own eyes so they can share our excitement in studying the Universe."

You can share in that excitement soon by checking out next month’s tour on Wednesday, August 12 at 9:00 p.m.

Friday's notes

The A Cappella Club is holding two concerts on Friday, July 24, and Saturday, July 25 at 7:30 p.m. at Humanities Theatre. 

Quest will be offline between 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 15 and 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 16 as maintenance is carried out on the database server. During this time, Quest will be unavailable.