Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Funding for state-of-the-art Science complex

from the Office of Media Relations

A rendering of the new Science Complex at Waterloo.

The University of Waterloo will build a state-of-the-art Science Complex to grow capacity for cutting-edge research, experiential education and science-based entrepreneurship thanks to a $24.7 million contribution from the Government of Canada.

The new $95 million Science Complex will expand laboratory space at Waterloo by more than 40,000 square feet for innovation in bio-based chemistry, materials and nanoscience, quantitative biology, metagenomics and synthetic biology.

“Waterloo’s reputation for innovation is rooted in the world-class research that takes place here. Today’s investment in the Science Complex will allow us to build new facilities that will support innovation in emerging fields of science,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor at Waterloo. “The investment also allows us to expand capacity to support world-leading experiential learning with hands-on lab experience as well as fostering a new strain of science-based entrepreneurs though our Velocity Science program.”

The 215,000 square foot complex will provide significant additional teaching space to meet growing demand for undergraduate and graduate students and critically adds space for new undergraduate programs in materials and nanoscience and bio-based chemistry.

Continue reading the full story.

Tales of a Teacher: Cyntha Struthers

​by Kelly Stone. This is the fourth of five Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories that will appear in the Daily Bulletin.

I always assumed teaching math couldn’t be that enjoyable: all those numbers and equations spinning dizzily in one’s head. However, my opinion of teaching math has changed after speaking with Dr. Cyntha Struthers, who offers courses in both probability and statistics, and who is currently the Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Mathematics. When I asked Struthers why she loves teaching, her eye-opening response was, “You put me in front of a classroom, and there’s this switch that goes off – it’s show time! So I actually have a lot of fun teaching.”

When teaching foundational courses in Statistics to over 600 students, making concepts understandable is essential. As Struthers explains, “because these courses are so fundamental, and because they are the first courses that students see, they’ve got to be the best they can be.” Struthers recently did a major revision to the STAT 231 course notes to make this mandatory course more appealing to her students. Making such revisions takes time, but Struthers is motivated by the opportunity to communicate new ideas and to help students who are struggling. Getting a student to enjoy the course by the end of the term is a powerful incentive for Struthers to keep enhancing her teaching practice. 

... Continue reading this story

Students win electric vehicle challenge

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Engineering's news site.

A Waterloo Engineering Team  won the 2015 Electric Mobility Canada Student Competition, an event co-sponsored by AddÉnergie and Electric Mobility Canada. The award came with a $4,500 charging station for Waterloo.

At the competition held in Halifax teams were presented with an electric vehicle (EV) power train configuration and battery charging issue to resolve. Each team prepared a presentation of its issue, a solution and a plan for adoption. The Waterloo team proposed a Metal/Air – LiIon Hybrid vehicle as the technical solution.

Waterloo’s eight-member team was made up of chemical engineering and mechanical engineering undergraduates who are members of the University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT). Team advisors were Michael Fowler, a chemical engineering professor, and Caixia (Megan) Wang, a chemical engineering master's candidate. 

Community of advisors group kicks off tomorrow

The University of Waterloo’s new Community of Advisors Coffee Chats will start tomorrow and then continue to take place the first Wednesday of every month from 8:45-9:45am.

Tomorrow's discussion will take place CPH 1346 Multimedia Lab (near POETS), with Byron Weber Becker presenting to the group on the Advising Student Information System (ASIS) and the Online Academic Tools (OAT) database. Full event details available online.

Interested parties can direct questions to:

•          Sara Houston (AHS)
•          Devon MacDonald and Tatum Bizony (Arts)
•          Karen Dyck and Bill Owen (Engineering)
•          Carol Knipe (Environment)
•          Andrew Beltaos and Lori Case (Math)
•          Stephen Woods (Science)
•          Heather Westmorland and Katie Schulz (SSO)