![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, October 6, 2003
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
Howard Green and Donald Ranney have been collaborating on a study into repetitive strain injuries (RSI) in the workplace and work-related myalgia (muscle pain). A common denominator of such injuries is that the activity is performed repetitively over many hours at low intensities and frequently in a restricted environment.
That could involve a computer operator, a supermarket cashier or a sewing machine operator experiencing a problem with pain in the shoulder, neck, forearms, backs of the hands or wrists. It could also be violinist whose bowing shoulder becomes, over the years, racked with pain. Or a baseball pitcher, used to throwing hard year after year, who suddenly finds it painful to keep doing so.
| Read the complete news release |
Green and Ranney feel their particular skills and knowledge -- Ranney is a medical doctor, a clinician, and Green is a physiologist long interested in muscle fibre, mechanics and biochemistry, how it is structured, how it works and what can go wrong with it -- have led them along a promising path toward a better understanding of RSI.
Anyone who has RSI in the forearm, neck or shoulder region, and is interested in volunteering for the study, is invited to call 888-4567, ext. 7230.
![[Gilani]](http://www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/employers/uwrecruiter/current/images/muneer.jpg)
Muneer's major project was expected
to take two to three months, but he finished it in one! The project
consisted of improving the efficiency of a program that is used to model
post-retirement benefit plan costs. Time was not the only expectation
that he surpassed; he also changed the program so that it more
accurately estimates the impact of factors affecting post-retirement
benefit plans.
Although Gilani (right) has worked for Towers Perrin in other cities such as New York and Toronto on past terms, he feels that his time in Calgary was the most "mutually beneficial". Muneer credits his success in part to his boss, Lucinda McMaster, recalling that she "treated me with the idea in mind that I would be a future employee. The people at Towers Perrin acknowledged that I could help them. I was always learning new things. They tailored my brain to serve clients better. This communicative relationship made my work term enjoyable."
He praised McMaster, saying, "She would give me not only the numbers, but she would give me the reason behind them too. I wasn't just a monkey crunching numbers. I had the story behind them. I knew what they were for and why I was doing them. It made me much more responsible for the work that I was doing."
McMaster complimented Muneer's work ethic, saying, "He may have had ten questions to ask, but he would already have thought about the answers, have solutions, and would just be asking for permission." This was especially valuable because "The major thing in our industry is we need to be efficient," she explains. As consultants, co-op students are a great help because they can take on projects and work on them for long periods of time. Muneer learned a great deal at Towers Perrin even doing simple activities such as filling out time sheets. He had to account for each hour of the day describing what he had spent his time working on -- great practice for when he becomes an actuary. He explains, "You can't doddle around for an hour and then write on your sheet, doddling -- 1hr. You don't have time to waste."
Ready or Not? Literacy Skills and Post-Secondary Education identifies two categories of students who abandon their schooling after secondary studies: those whose level of literacy prevents them from continuing their post-secondary education, as well as those whose degree of literacy is sufficient but who abandon their studies due to a lack of interest.
According to J. Douglas Willms, co-author of the report with Patrick Flanagan, "students who are at risk could benefit from guidance-counselling sessions; others simply need more information on the financial and personal advantages of having a post-secondary education."
"This report enhances our knowledge of the factors that influence access to post-secondary education and fosters positive attitudes towards schooling," said Norman Riddell, executive director of the Foundation. "Its conclusions will allow us to identify ways of helping students."
The report is based on data from two world-renowned studies: the International Adult Literacy Survey and the Programme for International Student Assessment, both written by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Ready or Not? Literacy Skills and Post-Secondary Education can be downloaded from the Foundation's Web site.
The Day of AtonementJews 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. |
Elisabeth Burr of the University of Duisburg will speak at 10:30 (in the Flex Lab, Dana Porter Library) on "What Can Data-Driven Linguistics Tell Us About Culture?" . . . Paul Parker of the geography department is the noon-hour speaker today (on "Energy Efficiency in the Home") at the Kitchener Public Library downtown. . . . The career services seminar series today presents "Interview Skills: The Basics" (3:30) and "Preparing for Questions" (4:30). . . .
Renovations are planned in the Davis Centre library, says a memo from the "Renovations Planning Team", and two open forums about the project will be held today. "Please come out and share your ideas and concerns about the DC library," the memo says. The forums -- each to last about 30 minutes -- will start at 11:00 and 1:00 in the Davis library conference room. "If you can't attend, e-mail your ideas to us at libDInfoCom@library or leave them with the Davis Library Information Desk staff."
FibreTech Telecommunications will hold the launch of its planned "wi-fi" wireless Internet service at 11:00 this morning at McGinnis Front Row restaurant just east of campus. The firm is emphasizing wi-fi coverage at McGinnis and the many other restaurants in the cluster of plazas at University Avenue and Phillip Street, but in fact the current free trial is expected to cover an area of some 4 square kilometres northeast of the campus.
The executive committee of the UW senate will meet at 3:30 today in Needles Hall room 3004, to set the agenda for the October 20 meeting of the full senate. Among the proposed agenda items is a presentation on "Dealing with the Double Cohort -- Lessons Learned".
People from the Responsible Gambling Council of Ontario will be on campus this week with displays and other attractions. They'll be in the Student Life Centre at midday today through Friday, the student services office says, and at dinner time they'll be either in the SLC or in one of the residence cafeterias. "What they are promoting is responsible gambling," Karyne Velez of student services explains, so naturally they're offering a draw prize: "win $1,500 for tuition, as well as other items!"
The local chapter of Engineers Without Borders will hold a general meeting at 6:00 in the Davis Centre "fishbowl" lounge. Russ Groves, vice-president (projects) of EWB Canada, will speak about EWB projects that are under way.
Tomorrow and Wednesday will bring the annual fall round of visits from faculties of education and teachers' colleges, chiefly from across Ontario. A detailed schedule is on the career services web site.
Student awards office still busyThere are lineups every afternoon in Needles Hall, as the student awards office is coping with record business. "Applications are up 14% compared to last year at this time," writes coordinator Martha Foulds, "and our actual assessments are up 12%, which equates to approximately 418 more students in our lines to pick up loan funds."In addition, she notes, although all the staff in the office deal with face-to-face customers during the first few days of the term, some have now gone back to doing the necessary paperwork ("inputting all of the documentation that was received"). And a lot of overtime is being worked. Even so, "we do need to close our lines every afternoon -- that has been happening around 3 p.m. lately -- to ensure that only students who will be served by 4 p.m. wait in line." As a further step, "in order to meet the next critical OSAP deadline" for loan documents, the student awards office will be closed this Wednesday, so all the staff can concentrate on data entry. |
Lisa Loiselle of UW's Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program writes thus: "We are currently collecting data to help us create an on-line education tool that will help to teach and inform people about Alzheimer Disease . . . to build an interactive, web-based education module related to Alzheimer Disease and other dementias. The survey results will help us identify gaps in people's knowledge so that we can provide useful information, and will also help us build user profiles so that the tool will be user friendly." She'd like more people to answer the survey, which is available online.
The staff association is putting together a bus trip to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, scheduled for Saturday, November 15. The price of $74 (or $80 for non-members) includes not just the bus but reserved tickets to the final equestrian jumping event of this year's Horse Show, the Big Ben Challenge. Tickets are available now -- e-mail tmccartn@uwaterloo.ca -- but I gather they won't last for long.
Finally . . . things are going well, it seems, in the renovated "call centre" that attracts alumni contributions to UW's annual fund. "For the four months ended August 31," writes manager Bob Copeland, "$1,364,509 in new cash and pledges has been raised. Staffing activity is quite brisk at this time (usually the case at the start of a new term). Approximately 30 new student callers will be hired, and the call centre will be at full capacity (17 callers per shift) by October 1. A number of new appeals are in the planning stages including a collaboration with the UW libraries."
CAR