Future students see UW tomorrow

There's a new stop on the itinerary tomorrow as future students tour the university during the annual Campus Day open house.

"Our department is participating for the first time in its history," says Eman Al Abadleh, a graduate student in management sciences. Until now, the department's flagship programs have been at the graduate level, but this fall the first students will be admitted into the undergraduate program in management engineering.

As a result, it's welcoming Campus Day visitors — 18-year-olds and their parents — along with the other departments in engineering and the five other faculties. "I and other students and professors will be available to answer questions," says Al Abadleh, who will be posted tomorrow on the first floor of Carl Pollock Hall near the engineering undergraduate office.

Turnout for Campus Day each year is in the vicinity of 5,000 people, but depends partly on the weather. Tomorrow's balmy forecast could mean a busy day. "Visitors will be parking in lot X, some in C and some at UW Place," says Kim McKee of the visitors' centre in South Campus Hall, who's coordinating the day-long event with support from faculty, staff and student volunteers. "Our goal," she says, "is to provide visitors with detailed information about the programs they've applied to and show them what life is like at the University of Waterloo."

Greeters will be out at an early hour, directing visitors to the Student Life Centre, which will be action central all day, and to the buildings where they can meet faculty or staff, attend presentations and tour the facilities. General campus tours will leave from the SLC from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. tomorrow, and between 9 and 3 there will be information booths about admission procedures, athletics, residences, libraries, student finances and other hot issues.

Key information sessions are scheduled on "financing your education" (11:00 and 1:00 in the SLC), co-op education (12:00 and 2:00 in the Humanities Theatre), and residence life (9:00 and 12:00 in the SLC).

The residences will be open for tours, kinesiology plans a lab tour in Matthews Hall, environmental studies has an "academic fair" ready to open at 10 a.m., software engineers will demonstrate Lego robots in the great hall of the Davis Centre, the Science Society is planning a barbecue, and the church colleges will be welcoming visitors. Details of tomorrow's offerings are on the "Findoutmore" web site and are listed in a brochure that will be handed out to visitors.

The Architecture building in Cambridge will also welcome Campus Day visitors tomorrow starting at 9:30 a.m.

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More campus news, dark and early

Emilie Smith (pictured left) and Karen So "did an incredible job", says Chantel Franklin of the UW alumni office, organizing UW's first-ever GradFest, held Wednesday and Thursday in the Davis Centre. They posed with UW president David Johnston at the reception that wound up the two-day event. "Both are graduating this June," says Franklin, whose specialty is work with young alumni, "and organized this two-day transitional program for their fellow graduating students. Hundreds of graduating students stopped by the GradFest booths and attended information sessions."

Construction equipment will soon be at work on the southern part of the main campus again, with fencing expected to go up this week around the site for the new accountancy wing of Hagey Hall. "Site setup will begin during the week of March 12, weather permitting," says Don Haffner of the plant operations department. "Hoarding will be erected and some temporary walkways will be installed along the south side of Arts Lecture. There will be some disruption to the regular flow of pedestrian traffic. Building access will be maintained as much as possible." The $12 million wing will amount to 52,000 square feet, increasing the size of the existing Hagey Hall (Humanities building) by almost 50 per cent. An official groundbreaking ceremony is set for March 27 at 11 a.m., and anticipated completion of the wing is in the spring of 2008.

“The UW Food Bank needs your help!” writes Shiue Lin Pang, an actuarial science student who is one of the coordinators of that Federation of Students service. The agency will be running “a focused 3-day Food Drive” March 21-23, and invites people to plan their contributions now. “We will aim,” says Pang, “to collect as many food, cash and Sobeys/Zehrs receipt donations as possible. During the Winter term we receive the most visitors; however, our food supply is running very low and we have already limited the food to our visitors.” There will be a booth in the Student Life Centre on those days: 2:00 to 3:30 on the Wednesday, 11:30 to 3:30 on the Thursday and 11:30 to 2:30 on the Friday. Pang notes that food collection bins are also located throughout the campus, and Sobeys and Zehrs grocery tape collection boxes are at various student society offices. Especially helpful food donations include canned meat or seafood, boxes or bags of pasta, and canned stew. “However, any non-perishable food, cash or grocery tape donation would be warmly accepted.”

The engineering faculty's e-newsletter reports that Catherine Rosenberg, a wireless and networking researcher and the chair of the electrical and computer engineering department, will serve on the scientific board of the France-Telecom Group. "The board," it says, "guides the technological evolution of the FT Group, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators." FT has its headquarters in Paris, where Rosenberg did her doctoral work at the Université de Paris XI Orsay.

And more from the e-newsletter: "Master of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology student Jennifer Yorke was one of three entrepreneurs who won $1,000 awards in the 2007 iGNITION $1K Pitch Competition held at Wilfrid Laurier University earlier this year. Yorke's idea: SimplyStyle.com, an online service which provides personal clothing suggestions and links clients to retailers. Yorke will move on to the $50,000 LaunchPad competition, which MBET students swept last year."

A lecture by Gerald McMaster of the Art Gallery of Ontario, sponsored by the UW gallery and originally scheduled for today, was postponed recently and will be given March 26 at 4 p.m. in the Humanities Theatre. • The continuing education office will offer "The Art of Negotiation" as a two-day workshop this Wednesday and Thursday. • Co-op students who aren't yet matched with jobs for the spring term will be checking JobMine regularly over the days ahead, as new interview cycles are beginning, with rankings available every Tuesday and Thursday evening until mid-April.

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Researcher in 'multicultural Canada'

“The scholarships I was awarded enabled me to do my best in academics without financial worry,” says Sunita Shankar (right). “I want to give something back to UW so others have similar opportunities.”

That's why Shankar, of UW's school of optometry, is a donor to the Keystone Campaign, and it's also why she is featured in this month's profile on the Keystone web site.

"After completing a PhD in Psychology-Behavioural Neuroscience in 2000," the profile notes, "Sunita became a Post-doctoral Fellow and then a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Optometry. She splits her time as a research supervisor in a busy lab and teaching an Optometry course called the Neurophysiology of Vision. Sunita’s research focuses on improving the effectiveness of vision screening measures and assessing the link between vision status and literacy skills of young children."

Shankar, it says, "loves the opportunity to interact with students through both aspects of her job. She also thrives on the brainstorming sessions that she has with her colleagues that help to formulate and tackle new research questions."

What makes you proud to work at UW? "I value the intellectual atmosphere, bright students, helpful staff, colleagues conducting innovative research, and the many good friends I have made at UW. I am proud to work at the School of Optometry because of its excellent reputation and top-notch research and I enjoy the challenge of teaching the very bright Optometry students."

Why do you feel the university needs funds today? "With more and more students making a choice to go to university and shrinking help from the government, UW needs funds to keep up its quality of teaching and research."

Have you lived in any interesting places? "I was born in Kerala, India. I was an Army brat and experienced growing up in many cities. I also lived with my husband and sons in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for four years prior to coming to Canada. All the travel and accompanying cultural experiences have helped me to fit in well in a multicultural Canada and diverse campus."

CAR

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