Daily Bulletin

University of Waterloo -- Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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Thursday, May 8, 1997

Today is the first day of Muharram -- the beginning of a new year, the year 1418, in the Islamic calendar.

Computer engineers gather at UW

The training of computer engineers will be the focus of a conference being held today and tomorrow at UW's conference centre

About 40 professors from universities offering computer engineering degree programs are expected at the biennial Canadian Conference on Computer Engineering Education. "It's a topical conference in view of recent reports on shortages of computer professionals in Canada," says Rudolph Seviora, of UW's electrical and computer engineering department.

Topics to be covered include new initiatives in software engineering education, issues in software engineering, digital hardware education and teaching for the future. The event is being chaired by Jim Field, also of the E&CE department.

The computer engineering discipline deals with the specification, design, implementation, maintenance and support of computer-based systems. It focuses on digital hardware engineering, software engineering, and computer organization and architecture, as well as applications in telecommunications and automatic control. Seviora said the typical computer engineering student has several job offers at graduation, noting that graduates go on to careers in software, telecommunications, and the computer and computer component industries.

The library's new system

An open house tomorrow morning will give the campus more information about the "Voyager" computer system which UW's library -- in partnership with two other university libraries -- is in the process of acquiring. The open house, one in a series of such events sponsored by the information systems and technology department, starts at 10:00 on Friday in Davis Centre room 1302.

Voyager is a product of Endeavor Information Systems, based in Chicago. It's been chosen as the new system for the Tri-University Group, affectionately known as TUG, which includes UW, the University of Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier University.

Says Dave Kibble of IST: "This application, which includes such modules as acquisitions, circulation, cataloguing and a new public catalogue, will replace a combination of acquired legacy and home-grown systems at the three institutions."

At tomorrow's open house, representatives of the Voyager Project Management Group will describe the history of the project and the overall TUG initiative and will provide an overview of the project's status. Tom Owens, the account manager from Endeavor, will be there to provide some background information on the company and demonstrate some of the software. The biggest Voyager site in operation so far is at the library of the University of Rochester.

Funds for disabled students

Here's a passage from the recent Ontario budget that I didn't manage to mention in the Bulletin yesterday:

Too few students with learning disabilities get the help they need to make the transition to college or university. To help these students realize their potential, we will establish pilot projects at the college and university level, the first of their kind, to provide real help to learning disabled students in a meaningful way. Dr. Bette Stephenson, pioneering former Minister of Education and mentor, will head a Task Force to design and implement these projects. We will provide $30 million over the next five years to carry out this initiative and implement the recommendations of the Task Force.

About the budget as a whole, a news release from the Council of Ontario Universities uses words like "welcome" and "encouraging".

"We asked the Minister of Finance to make research and development a top priority for the Government of Ontario, and he has made an encouraging response in his Budget," says UW president James Downey in his capacity as chair of COU this year. "Yesterday's announcement from Queen's Park, together with the federal government's creation of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, gives us the basis for hope that we can recover some lost ground."

On World Red Cross Day

The purchasing department, displaced for the past few weeks by renovations in East Campus Hall, gets to come home today. Says a note from Steve Cook: "We hope to be fully operative by 12:00, but we will be sure to man extension 4501 for any emergencies that might arise."

Graduate students in the department of recreation and leisure studies hold their 5th annual Leisure Research Symposium today, with presentations from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. in Matthews Hall room 1621.

Seedlings, house plants and other growing things are for sale at noontime today at the Dorney Garden outside Environmental Studies II. The fourth annual plant sale, a fund-raiser for development of the garden, starts at 12 noon. (If the rain begins before noon, the sale will be moved inside the Environmental Studies I foyer.)

An evangelical meeting is scheduled for 7:30 tonight in Physics room 145, starring Zhijun Wang, author of many books and editor of Christian Life Quarterly. He's on a Canada-wide "crusade" aimed at Chinese students and scholars, and is brought to campus by a Chinese evangelical group here.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY May 8, 1979: The arts faculty council approves the "principle" of a new kind of co-op program, later to be dubbed "applied studies".

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca -- (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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