September 16, 2002

Monday, September 16, 2002

UW backs the innovation agenda
New students get business boot camp
Monthly winners in Keystone draw
The Daily Bulletin bulletin board

Editor:
Chris Redmond
credmond@uwaterloo.ca

Conference this week on Nigerian scams

UW backs the innovation agenda

UW "is prepared to take on some challenging new initiatives" as Canada adopts the government's proposed "innovation strategy", says a draft report to be considerd by UW's senate tonight.

The senate meets tonight
Also on the agenda for tonight's senate meeting:

The annual report of the University Tenure and Promotion Advisory Committee.
A report from provost Amit Chakma about "externally funded curricular initiatives", including the recent Microsoft Alliance.
"Significant changes" to the curriculum in civil, environmental and geological engineering.
The senate -- UW's top academic governing body -- meets monthly. Tonight's meeting is scheduled to start at 4:30 in Needles Hall room 3001.
"As a research-intensive institution committed to discovering new knowledge and finding ways it can be used for the benefit of society," the report says, "UW believes it can make truly significant contributions towards the innovation agenda to ensure a strong economy for all Canadians."

[Guild] The document, currently labelled "Draft Version 5", was written by Paul Guild (left), UW's vice-president (university research). It's a response to the two "white papers" issued by Ottawa earlier this year, and bears the title "Response to the Challenge". (The national body for universities, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, has also issued an "action plan" in response to the white papers.)

"Now," says Guild's report, "entrepreneurship -- like the co-op education program before it -- is set to become a defining characteristic of this university. . . . We present the following proposals in which we strive to seek transformative innovation that would involve academe, industry and governments at all levels. . . . The aim is to have an impact on a national scale."

Here are some of the things the document says UW "is prepared" to do, or can do if governments will provide the funding:

Academic entrepreneurship that will become a defining characteristic of UW, and a national entrepreneurship institute will set a new standard for such practice in Canada
Co-op Education that will be significantly transformed through graduate level programs, distance delivery of curriculum, and research into the effective operation of cooperative education
With continued support from all levels of government and the private sector, Waterloo Region will achieve its goal to be recognized by 2010 as one of 10 community clusters in Canada.
A cluster accelerator in UW's Research and Technology Park will enable academic institutions in the region to collaborate to contribute more than $5 billion of economic benefit to the region by 2010.
A collaborative model for commercialization of academic research will foster inter-institutional co-operation.
The number of graduate students to receive advanced degrees from UW will increase at the rate of seven per cent annually from 2002 to 2010.
The number of international visa students attending UW will increase five-fold from 2002 to 2010.
Two examples of strategic infrastructures (biometrics for security, and civil infrastructures) will be researched with the aim of overcoming existing barriers to innovation and economic prosperity in specific sectors.
A number of specialized training initiatives to include Advanced Training in Intellectual Property Management; Professional Certificate in Technological Innovation Management; National Undergraduate Option in Management of Technology; Professional and Practitioner Conference in Technological Innovation Management; Student-organized National Business Plan Challenge.

Says the report: "In general, from this UW proposal we anticipate these initiatives will Increase significantly the number of Canadians in the workforce who understand and manage innovation and technological change; Increase greatly Canadian firms that are eager and able to participate in the commercialization of innovation; Establish a new standard of excellence for the commercialization of academic research; Legitimize and propagate entrepreneurship as a formal study and pursuit in academe; Attract and retain talent from abroad."

The remaining 20 pages of the report go into detail, talking -- for example -- about the kinds of things that can happen in the new north campus research and technology park, the involvement of more international students in co-op programs, and a possible program to support entrepreneurial students while they're still in high school.

New students get business boot camp -- from the UW news bureau

Seeking to attract students at an early stage in their university careers, UW Innovate Inc. at the University of Waterloo is launching an initiative geared towards first-year students.

A one-day Frosh Boot Camp event has been introduced and will be held at Federation Hall this Saturday, September 21, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The four-hour camp will include an address by Kevin Crowley, business editor of The Record, as well as highlights of several successes by current entrepreneurial students.

The camp will not only expose first-year students to the numerous activities, programs and groups that promote entrepreneurial spirit within the university, but it will also provide them with the opportunity to speak one-on-one with representatives from enterprising UW groups.

UW Innovate Inc, a wholly-owned, not-for-profit subsidiary of the university whose mandate is to foster a culture of innovation on campus, is dedicated to the development of entrepreneurs and their ventures through seminars, workout sessions, hands-on activities, and events such as Frosh Boot Camps.

Monthly winners in Keystone draw

Winners of September's Keystone draw have been announced, with the lucky names picked from among the donors to the UW Keystone Campaign.

Prize vouchers will be mailed, the development office says, to the 10 September winners:

Agnes Janzen, library, Tim Horton's coffee maker sponsored by food services;
Jennifer Lorette, development and alumni affairs, and Fatima Costa, same department, each a $25 gift certificate sponsored by food services;
James Dyal, retired faculty, gift certificate for a wash, cut, blow dry sponsored by Apple II Hairstylists;
Jiahua Chen, statistics and actuarial science, $10 gift certificate sponsored by Angie's Kitchen;
Keith Hipel, systems design engineering, and another anonymous donor: each a $15 gift certificate for Ground Zero sponsored by the Federation of Students;
Joe Cascagnette, athletics and recreational services, book prize sponsored by retail services;
George Dixon, faculty of science, $25 gift certificate sponsored by Marbles Restaurant;
Linda Bluhm, human resources, $25 travel voucher sponsored by Thomas Cook Travel.

Each month, names of Keystone donors are drawn for prizes.

The Keystone Campaign is the on-campus division of Campaign Waterloo, aimed at collecting $4.5 million for the university by 2007, from faculty, staff and retirees. To make a donation and to qualify for the monthly draws, employees and retirees can visit the Keystone web site or call ext. 5422.

The next draw is scheduled for the first week in October.

The Day of Atonement
Jews at UW and around the world today mark Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the year in the Jewish calendar.
UW's published regulations include a paragraph about students who are unable to write exams or tests on the scheduled day because of a religious holiday. There is no explicit regulation about class attendance on a religious holiday, but the same principles are traditionally applied.

The Daily Bulletin bulletin board

Co-op students take note: in most programs, work reports from the spring work term are due today, at 4 p.m. Tomorrow, students who are planning to go out on work terms starting in January should pick up the master copy of their co-op record in Needles Hall after 10 a.m.

A couple of sessions are planned today that will be of interest to future accountants. For most of the day, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., there's a drop-in session in Humanities room 177C: "Drop by to pick up information, have any questions answered, or just find out more about becoming a Certifiedf Management Accountant." Then from 6 to 7:30 p.m. there's a more formal information session in Davis Centre room 1302, starring Ray Darke of Scotiabank.

The Monday noon-hour series of "Ideas and Issues" lectures at Kitchener Public Librarh is under way again, and today's speaker is Brent Hall of the UW school of planning. He'll talk -- at 12:00 at KPL's main branch -- about "Computer Mapping and the Internet".

The "Chinese drama club", an organization that's new to me, has the Humanities Theatre booked for a show tonight: "Time Warp 2002", starting at 8 p.m.

Tomorrow brings registration in "instructional" programs in campus recreation, including aquatics, racquet sorts, fitness classes, weight training, first aid, bike maintenance, bouldering, golf, yoga, even Irish dance. Check the CR web site for details, but the general principle is that you pick up a registration ticket in the PAC tomorrow morning (8:15 to 11:00), then register at the time and place stated on the ticket. Registration for staff and faculty fitness programs will be from noon to 1 p.m. tomorrow at the PAC.

The Bike Centre, based in the lower level of the Student Life Centre, will hold a bike auction tomorrow, in the oudoor "atrium" facing Math and Computer (or inside the glass walls if the weather is bad). "All the bikes will be out for a preview by noon," I'm told, "with the bidding getting under way at 12:30. As always, a good variety of road and mountain bikes in all sizes, and all in rideable condition, will be available. Sales are by cash or cheque only."

A preparation course for the looming TOEFL -- that's Test of English as a Foreign Language -- starts tomorrow and runs through late November, the international students office says. "This 10-week course is held every Tuesday and Thursday from 2:00 to 4:30." There's a $150 fee, "payable in cash", and registration is at the international students office in Needles Hall.

Rhodes Scholarship applications for 2003 are available in the graduate studies office in Needles Hall, a memo announces. "The scholarships are tenable at the University of Oxford. Rhodes Scholars receive full support for two years with a possible renewal for a third year. . . . Candidates may apply either in the province in which they are ordinarily resident or in the province in which they have attended university. Qualities of both integrity or character and province intellectual academic attainment of a high standard are the most important requirements. The applicants will be interviewed by a university committee, which will select applications to be forwarded to the Rhodes Committee." More information is available from Elaine Garner, egarner@uwaterloo.ca.

The registrar's office says spring term marks, for both undergraduate and graduate students, became available on-line during the weekend. Find them through Quest.

And . . . if you were hoping to use the Matthews Hall elevator today, to celebrate its return to service after repairs, hope again. "The job has not progressed as well as expected," says Rick Zalagenas of plant operations, and he's predicting at least another week of down time.

CAR

TODAY IN UW HISTORY
September 16, 1968: New in their league, the football Warriors play an exhibition game against the Alberta Golden Bears at Seagram Stadium.