As summer produce starts coming out, it’s exciting to see our long-planted seeds also bearing early fruit. On June 7, we held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Waterloo Eye Institute. It was wonderful to see hundreds of people, including The Right Honorable David Johnston, honorary chair of our Seeing Beyond 20/20 campaign steering committee, come out to celebrate with us. We can’t wait to have infrastructure that truly supports our national leadership in eye and vision education, research and patient care.
The following day, we held the Eye Data & AI Summit in collaboration with the Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB), Waterloo.AI, Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Health. It was wonderful to hear from and talk to a variety of experts about how we can put together a national eye data repository for AI-driven vision care policy and innovation.
All this happened at the same time as Alumni CE Weekend, when we welcomed nearly 90 registrants, mostly alumni, for continuing education, networking and celebration. A highlight was presenting the 2024 Alumni of Honour Awards. The Oktoberfest dinner in June was also great fun, as was the Saturday social that brought together CE participants, reunion guests and Eye Data & AI Summit participants.
The following weekend was convocation, our graduation celebration and spring awards ceremony. It’s always heartwarming to see our new graduates celebrating their success and looking forward to their professional journeys. We will miss every one of our students but can’t wait to see all the great things they’ll accomplish.
To all alumni, whether brand new or longstanding: Please keep in touch. Keep your contact information updated so we can continue to send you newsletters and updates from the School. We also love hearing what’s exciting in your lives – births, marriages, accolades, milestones – any of life’s adventures. You can contact us directly or use the Class Notes form. Check out this issue’s Class Notes to learn what other alumni have been doing.
This newsletter also features a new company started by longtime professor Dr. Paul Murphy and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Ehsan Zare Bidaki. ThermOcular AI is based on the duo’s research on ocular surface temperature and is working to commercialize a device that can quickly and non-invasively screen patients for dry eye disease.
You can also read about Dr. Stephen Tait (OD’79), one of our clinical supervisors, who retired recently. If he ever mentored you – and that will be many of you, since he was here for 40 years – you’ll know what a kind and knowledgeable teacher he was.
Hope you enjoy the newsletter.
All the best,
Dr. Stanley Woo
Director, School of Optometry & Vision Science
