On time and on budget: That was the message at the Waterloo Stratford campus update on March 27. The new building (above) will open its doors at the end of the summer to accommodate the second class of Master of Digital Experience Innovation students and the first class of Global Business and Digital Arts students in September, with a grand opening to be held on October 16. Attendees at the update event were told that the campus has received over 400 applications for 60 spaces in the undergraduate program. Photograph by James Wilkinson.

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WOW Awards honour uWaterloo women

with material from Karen Kawawada and Carol Truemner

Three members of the uWaterloo community were honoured last Wednesday night at the annual Women of Waterloo Region (WOW) awards event at the Waterloo Inn. The Women of Waterloo awards have six categories: Education, Entrepreneur, Creative Arts, Technology and Science, Community Engagement, and WOW Factor. The recognition event gives each award winner the opportunity to recognize someone who has inspired and mentored her in her career.

Geography and environmental management professor Jean Andrey (right, photo by Tina Geisel of capertures.com and SNAP KW) was honoured with an award in the education category.

“I feel very honored to be recognized in this way,” says Andrey. “Teaching really is its own reward; the way that students' eyes light up when they understand something for the first time or question something that they had previously accepted. The roster of award winners was most impressive, and it is really special to be included in this circle of amazing women.”

In a nomination letter, Brock University geography professor Marilyne Jollineau called Andrey the most outstanding and most influential teacher she ever had.

As a graduate student, Jollineau was one of Andrey’s teaching assistants. “I was able to observe Jean’s teaching style and soon realized that her teaching philosophy largely focused on teaching her students how to think rather than what to think,” she wrote. “I modelled my teaching style after hers.”

Systems design engineering professor Maud Gorbet (left, photo by Dawn Taylor-Gilders, SNAP KW) was awarded for her work in the community in the Science and Technology category. Professor Gorbet is an expert in the area of biomaterials and their use for applications such as the contact lens and her research focuses on developing novel materials and assessing biocompatibility of materials.

She was recognized for her leadership in bringing the FIRST Lego League (FLL) program to the Waterloo region that has resulted in children between the ages of nine and 14 becoming excited about science and technology. FLL provides team-based design challenges that the children solve using programmable LEGO MINDSTORMS playsets. She has worked to expand the program and, as a result of her efforts, the region now has close to 20 teams with about 200 children participating in the FLL. She was instrumental in organizing the FLL Provincial Qualifier Tournament in Waterloo in 2010 and 2011. Thanks to her efforts, Waterloo Region will be hosting a Provincial Regional Championship in 2012.

"I love what I do," Gorbet said in a statement. "I am passionate about my research and I love talking about it and being able to promote science and technology in a fun way in outreach activities."

Kim Jernigan (right, photo by Dawne Taylor-Gilders of SNAP KW), long-time editor of the Waterloo-published literary magazine The New Quarterly, won in the Creative Arts category. "She has brought national attention to regional writers and supported the local arts scene through her work on the Boards of the Waterloo Region Arts Council, the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, and the One Book, One Community initiative," the WOW award citation reads.

Jernigan is a lecturer at St. Jerome's University, which houses The New Quarterly, and has also taught at the Writing Centre.

"I was so pleased and gratified that my colleagues at the magazine saw fit to nominate me for such an honour and to be in the company of so many smart and giving women," Jernigan told The Daily Bulletin. "I am also grateful that it gave me in turn an opportunity to sing the praises of retired SJU professor Peter Hinchcliffe —the astute, erudite, and quietly supportive man who was for many years my co-editor at TNQ and who remains a source of good counsel and friendship."

This event marked the fourth year that the WOW awards have been issued. The other winners were Deepa Takhar for Entrepreneur, Tracy Van Kalsbeek for Community Engagement, and Alison Fraser and Tana Nash for WOW factor.

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Encrypt your mobile devices, memo urges

A memo from the provost outlines important information about encryption for mobile devices.

"Many of you will have seen reports from sister institutions of sensitive information being disclosed, leading to reputational embarrassment and damage, and substantial remedial work in notifying those whose personal information was disclosed," provost Geoff McBoyle wrote in a memo distributed March 20. "A significant area of vulnerability involves mobile devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones), many of which contain information classified by Policy 8 as restricted, such as student marks, your personal information, and so on."

"In order to protect this information in the event that your mobile device is lost or stolen, its internal storage, as well as any peripheral storage devices used, must be encrypted."

Information on how to do so can be found on IST's website, and the provost recommends contacting your local help desks or computing support providers for assistance. The Computing Help and Information Place is also a resource. Call ahead at extension 84357 to arrange a time to drop your device off.

"More generally, while much of the current focus is on security of digital information, it is equally important to ensure that sensitive information that is in paper or other non-electronic form is also kept secure, and that only those who are authorized to access such information are able to do so," the memo concludes.

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