February 7, 2002

Thursday, February 7, 2002

FASS, not starring Humphrey Bogart
Briefing planned for webmasters
Looking ahead to the grad conference
Events for today (and tomorrow)

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

FASS, not starring Humphrey Bogart

Michael Smyth, Alison Luby and Carrie Palesh are among the cast of thousands -- well, dozens anyway -- in this year's FASS. Photo by FASS producer Michael Brown.

It hasn't been forty years in the wilderness for FASS -- more like forty years in the funhouse. And FASS for 2002 should be just as memorable as the annual shows of the past -- "Alice in Wonderloo", "The Peasants' Revolt", and all the others, right back to the naive "FASS Nite" variety shows of the 1960s. "We've been entertaining UW with variety and musical comedy since 1962," organizers boast. "We're a live cartoon on stage!"

This year's production is "Dial F for FASS", described as a film noir murder-mystery-comedy. It'll be staged tonight, tomorrow and Saturday in the Humanities Theatre. (And I apologize for saying in yesterday's Bulletin that the show was in the Theatre of the Arts.)

Says this year's president of the FASS Theatre Company, John Milne: "We're hoping to attract a lot of people who maybe haven't been to see FASS for a while. I've heard people all across campus say that they used to go see FASS but haven't for a number of years due to the content of some of the shows. I would urge them to give it another try this year."

Number, please
FASS producer Michael Brown announces a contest for tickets to this year's FASS show. "To enter, you have to know the answer to a skill-testing question: 'What number am I thinking of?' The first 8 people to email fasscontest@m.supermathie.net with the subject of the message being 'entrant's userid -- answer' that have the correct number will receive a free pair of tickets to a showing of FASS! If there's not enough entrants, I'll select the 8 closest entries. Here's a hint: You can find the answer somewhere on the FASS webpage."
After all, FASS is supposed to be for everybody at UW -- the initials stand for Faculty, Alumni, Staff and Students. (In UW's early days the A was for Administration, but the past class of FASS became so loyal to the show that "alumni" were slipped in a decade ago.)

Performances are tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m., Friday at 7:00 and 10:00. The Humanities box office (888-4908) has tickets, at $4 for tonight, $8 for Friday and Saturday. Milne also notes that there will be a 40th anniversary FASS party on Saturday, "starting at about 5 p.m." Details are on the FASS web site.

[Aerial view of crowd]
The job fair held yesterday at Waterloo's RIM Park drew more than just a few people. "I don't have any stats yet as to the number of students who attended, but it was so busy that I could not make my way down the centre aisle," writes Olaf Naese of UW's co-op and career services department, who took the photo.

Briefing planned for webmasters

People responsible for UW web sites -- there are several hundred "sites", depending on your definition -- are being invited to a "technical issues overview session" on Tuesday as the next step in bringing a common style to the university's web presence.

Says Jesse Rodgers, web developer here in information and public affairs: "New standards for University of Waterloo web pages have recently been put out for discussion. While meeting the minimum standard is quite easy, achieving the 'gold standard' may necessitate more thought being given to the structure and navigation of your site. You will also need to use tools more advanced than a basic HTML editor.

"If you are a developer of a UW web site, you are invited to attend this technical issues overview session." He says the session will include these topics, to be covered by people who have already been through the process of creating web sites that meet the "gold standard":

pros and cons of using top and side menu bars to facilitate site navigation
design considerations for selecting navigation bar items and drop-down menu topics
development tool selection; what tools work best for creating navigation bars, for laying out pages, and for creating drop-down menus
what can be done to help you in your task of creating "gold standard" pages, possibly including a library of components, such as empty navigation bars, blank buttons, etc., and page creation workshops.

This technical issues session will be held Tuesday, February 12, 10:30 a.m. to noon, in Math and Computer room 2009.

Meanwhile, a 24-hour-long usability survey was offered on the UW home page yesterday and overnight. (It's finished now, although there might be another one some future day.) No results have been compiled yet from users' ratings and comments.

Looking ahead to the grad conference -- a letter from the dean of graduate studies

This year's Annual Graduate Student Research Conference -- April 1-5, 2002 -- has once again been organized by a dedicated and enthusiastic group of graduate students with support from the Graduate Student Association and the University Graduate Studies Office. Thanks to the hard work of the conference organizers and the support of UW Graduate Students, "Sharing Discovery" has become the largest Graduate Student Conference at an Ontario/Canadian University. We are extremely proud of this achievement.

Many of our graduate students are invited each year to present their research at national and international conferences throughout the world. The UW conference provides these students and others with an exciting opportunity to share their accomplishments with the University campus and surrounding community.

Over the five days, over 180 UW graduate students will participate in conference activities with an oral or poster presentation. These presentations will reflect the broad and varying interests of our graduate students from all faculties on campus. The presentations are organized under the five research themes developed in the University of Waterloo Strategic Research Plan: Materials and Systems; Health; Information Technology; Innovation, Society and Culture; and the Environment.

This year's conference will open with an address from Amit Chakma, Vice-President, Academic and Provost. Each afternoon session will open with an address from some of UW's top researchers in their fields. This year's speakers, and recipients of UW's Excellence in Research Awards, are Richard Hughson, Michel Gingras, Murray Moo-Young, and George Dixon. In addition, Paul Guild, Vice-President, University Research, and Douglas Sparkes of Management Sciences, will speak about UW Innovate, a newly launched University of Waterloo company whose goal is to "establish the best infrastructure for entrepreneurship in Canada".

These keynote speakers, combined with 146 oral presentations and 38 poster displays by UW graduate students, will make this year's conference a most informative and exciting event!

Last year's conference provided an enriching opportunity for participants to explore emerging ideas and technologies as well as to forge research partnerships and friendships that crossed the discipline boundaries. We hope Conference 2002 will once again act as a catalyst to promote and foster new ideas and encourage collaboration by providing even greater opportunities to share discovery!

Events for today (and tomorrow)

I'm told that Angelo Graham is marking his 30th anniversary on the UW staff today. Graham formerly worked in the library's facilities unit and is now with the UW safety office. His is a familiar face all over campus, and certainly in my office, where he's been in and out lately bringing me a series of new-model chairs to test.

With voting about to begin in the Federation of Students election, candidates have just a couple more open meetings with the voters to face. They'll speak and answer questions today at 11:45 in the lobby of Carl Pollock Hall, and Friday morning at 10:00 in the Student Life Centre. (Apparently the meeting in Mackenzie King Village, which had been announced for tonight, was held last night instead.)

Lawyer, ethicist and genetics expert Bartha Knoppers gave the first of this year's Pascal Lectures last night, and will give the second one tonight at 8:00 in the Theatre of the Arts. Topic: "Biotechnology and Policy Making". She'll also give a seminar on "The Human Genome, Human Dignity and Benefit Sharing" at 12:30 today in Biology I room 370. Admission to both events is free.

Two visitors from the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction, one of the units of the new Canadian Institutes of Health Research, will give a presentation this afternoon. "All researchers potentially involved with the Institute are invited," says a memo from the UW research office, "not only members of biomedical and clinical departments but also members of the relevant social science departments, as well as those in epidemiological/health related research who might have an interest; students and post docs are welcome to attend." The session runs from 1:30 to 3:30 in Needles Hall room 3001.

Engineering students currently at UW on an exchange from the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg will give a presentation at 4:30 this afternoon (Rod Coutts Engineering Lecture Hall room 110). Says one of them, Jan Schomerus: "We will introduce the engineering exchange program with TUHH and give you a picture of TUHH and Hamburg. Thousands of unanswered questions on your mind? Don't miss this. Free snacks provided."

Here's something you perhaps didn't know went on at UW. Says a note from the Student Life Centre: "The drumming circle meets every Thursday, 4:30 to 6:30, and every Sunday, 7 to 9 p.m."

Mohamed Elmasry, professor of electrical and computer engineering, will talk tonight about his new book, Spiritual Fitness for Life. The book and its author were featured in the Daily Bulletin and the Gazette late in January. Tonight's talk starts at 7:00 in Davis Centre room 1302; everyone is welcome.

The architecture school lecture series "24 Academic Positions" continues tonight (7:00, Environmental Studies II room 280) with "a manifesto and exhibition" by faculty member Marie Paule Macdonald under the title (without capital letters) "engaged/disengaged architecture".

The Spanish Club is hosting Latin night at the Bombshelter pub tonight, and I don't think we're talking puer amat puellam. "A free dance lesson (salsa and merengue) will be offered free of charge starting at 8 p.m.," writes Rita Palacios. "Everyone is welcome. Admission is free." And after the lessons, I gather, the hot dancing starts. . . .

The drama department's "Absurd Person Plural", three one-act absurdist plays, continues tonight at 8:00 in Studio 180 in the Humanities building. Future performances are tomorrow and Friday, then February 13-16. And despite what I said yesterday, the place to buy tickets is not the drama department offices, but the Humanities box office, phone 888-4908.

On tap for tomorrow:

An informal information session about graduate study in engineering and what goes on in the various departments there, 3 to 6 p.m., University Club.
"Reading the Bible: Hope and Jubilee", a talk by Lee Cormie of the University of Toronto, 7:30 p.m., St. Jerome's University.
The beginning of this weekend's "Iced in Black" festival of African-Canadian film, being held in the Davis Centre.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
February 7, 1974: Undergraduates elect Andrew Telegdi to be president of the Federation of Students. February 7, 1978: The board of governors approves rent increases of 12.8 to 13.2 per cent in the Married Student Apartments, despite pleas from picketers outside Needles Hall.