Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Campus Wellness launches student health survey

A message from Campus Wellness.

Beginning January 15, the University of Waterloo will be participating in the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey. The NCHA survey is intended to gather information about students’ health habits, behaviours, and perceptions.

Survey topics include sexual behaviour and contraception, physical and mental health, safety and violence, and alcohol, tobacco, and substances. Campus Wellness (Health Services and Counselling Services) will use the data to determine student healthcare needs, develop relevant health programming and resources, and design wellness strategies at Waterloo.

A random sample of 18,000 University of Waterloo students, including both undergraduate and graduate students, will receive an email invitation to participate in the survey. The confidential online survey will be open for three weeks.

Approximately 40 Canadian post-secondary institutions are participating in the National College Health Assessment. Results of the Waterloo health assessment will be announced in spring 2019, while Ontario and Canadian reference group data will be available later this year.

Please direct questions about the NCHA student survey to Walter Mittelstaedt, director, Campus Wellness, or Sandra Gibson, manager, health education and promotion.

All aboard: work-travel opportunities for Waterloo staff

A message from Human Resources and Waterloo International.

Are you looking to further your professional development through idea-exchange and learning alongside counterparts at other universities, colleges, research institutions or industry-partner organizations?

Join HR and Waterloo International for a brown bag lunch information session on staff work-travel opportunities at Waterloo. 

Attendees will learn about the Staff Enhancement Experience (SEE) Canada Grant and the Staff International Experience Fund (SIEF), and have an opportunity to hear from past winners about their experiences. A question and answer period will help employees identify the right program for their own professional development needs. 

To find out more, please register for the brown bag lunch information session taking place on Tuesday February 12 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Davis Centre 1301.

For more information, visit the SEE Canada Grant and the Staff International Experience Fund (SIEF) websites.

If you have questions about the grant(s), email seecanada@uwaterloo.ca for SEE Canada or tmunro@uwaterloo.ca for SIEF.

$10 million for team that can develop best avatar system

Students, researchers, and entrepreneurs interested in robotics and artificial intelligence are invited to an information session on campus to learn about the ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition.

The four-year-long global competition challenges team to develop an avatar system that will transport a human’s sense, actions, and presence to a remote location in real time. ANA Avatar XPRIZE will award $10 million to the winning team.

The information session will take place on Thursday, January 24 in the Engineering 7 atrium from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Registration begins at 5:45 p.m. Social to follow until 9:00 p.m.

Those interested can register for the information session on Eventbrite.

Ryan Gariepy, CTO of Clearpath Robotics, and Kerstin Dautenhahn of the University of Waterloo Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Laboratory will speak at the event.

XPRIZE has designed and launched a series of high-profile competitions in fields including space, oceans, health, environment, transportation, and robotics. With the upcoming avatar competition, the organizers challenge teams to break down the barriers of time and space to allow a person to physically interact with an environment miles away.

“The winning team will integrate multiple emerging technologies to develop a physical, non- autonomous Avatar System with which an operator can see, hear, and interact within a remote environment in a manner that feels as if they are truly there,” the contest website reads.

The organizers see potential for avatars to be used in various scenarios such as health care, disaster relief and for critical maintenance or repairs.

Learn more about the competition on the Avatar XPRIZE website.

Feds nomination deadline approaches; other notes

The nomination period for the Federation of Students’ elections are coming to a close on January 17 at 4:00 p.m. Do you know undergraduate students who could be Waterloo’s next leaders? Encourage them to run in Feds elections.

All interested graduate students are invited to attend an organizing meeting for the Waterloo Institute of Complexity and Innovation, which will be held on Tuesday, January 15 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in EV3 4327. "All are encouraged to join for our organizing meeting on complex systems," says a note from WICI. "We will set our priorities for building a more deeply engaged community of scholars over the course of the term. This will include planning for a graduate “Complexity Café,” identifying research foci and collaborations, and prioritizing projects."

RSVPs are appreciated, and if you would like to be a part of the discussion, but cannot make it for any reason, please send an email to kirsten@kirstenwright.ca.

The first installment of 2019's LGBTQ+ Making Spaces workshops takes place on Friday, January 25 at 12:30 p.m. in NH 3308. Sponsored by the Equity Office, the Making Spaces program is a framework for creating affirming spaces on campus and fostering interpersonal relationships through education and training on aspects of social identity. Community members partake in training and a registration process to become Space Makers, ambassadors of equity. The program launched as a pilot in fall 2016. Check the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion events page to sign up for the winter 2019 workshops.

The Feds Winter Welcome Week continues today with "We Got Game," a free arcade extravaganza in the SLC's lower atrium. The event, which features Fortnite, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Call of Duty, and more sports games than you can snap a towel at, runs from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. today. And tonight the fun goes from virtual to reality with "Warriors on Ice" at the CIF arena, which features a free skate and free Beavertails from 8:00 p.m. to midnight.