ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRES Taking Ideas to Market

Feeding ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRES Taking ideas to market

ACTUARIAL BUCKING SUPERHEROES THE TREND Keeping Canada fiscally safe Where the boys (and girls) are employ. ability. Top ﬁ ve reasons to hire Waterloo:

1. Depth & Breadth of Talent Pool » With over 120 programs of study in all academic disciplines, Waterloo co-op students have the skill and knowledge to meet your comprehensive employment needs in all areas of industry. Hiring a co-op student today contributes to your long-term talent management strategy; the short-term commitment allows you to nurture quality candidates in CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION your recruiting pipeline and assess future permanent hires.

2. World-Class Experience » Recognized as one of the top research universities in Canada, Waterloo has the largest co-op program on the planet, with students currently at work in more than 40 countries. Your talent management needs can be fulﬁ lled with Waterloo students who have gained experience with world-class companies like Research In Motion, Google, Microsoft, Sun Life Financial, Deutsche Bank, and Amazon.

3. Streamlined Process » With over 50 years of experience, the Waterloo co-op process is streamlined and simple. A dedicated co-op representative who understands your employment needs will visit you each term to ensure satisfaction.

4. Freshness & Versatility » Youthful Waterloo brains are connected to current technology as they adapt, thrive, and grow with your organization’s success. Waterloo’s mandatory job-skill development courses prepare students to work independently and contribute immediately.

5. Year-Round Availability & A ordability » You can hire a student to begin work in January, May or September and have a talented new student every four months or, in some cases, extend the timeframe. Waterloo co-op provides a cost-e ective method to ﬁ ll your immediate business needs on a timely basis.

Google has an excellent relationship with uWaterloo, and co-ops have consistently been able to come in and hit the ground running in Google’s fast-paced environment. Even in short amounts of time, Waterloo co-op students make important contributions to Google’s products and culture while gaining incomparable real-world engineering experience.

1. Depth & Breadth of Talent Pool » With over 120 programs of study in all academic disciplines, Waterloo co-op students have the skill and knowledge to meet your TO MARKET WE WILL GO pg. 15 comprehensive employment needs in all areas of industry. The entrepreneurial fire burns hot atW aterloo, where people from undergrads to seasoned professors are keen Hiring a co-op student today contributes to your to move their ideas into the marketplace. Claire Tacon long-term talent management strategy; the short-term commitment allows you to nurture quality candidates in HOW WATERLOO ACTUARIAL SCIENTISTS SAVED CANADA pg. 22 CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION your recruiting pipeline and assess future permanent hires. They don’t wear capes or leap over tall buildings, but Waterloo’s actuarial scientists are superheroes, keeping Canada safe from fiscal disaster. 2. World-Class Experience » Recognized as one of Karen Kawawada the top research universities in Canada, Waterloo has WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T pg. 29 In the developed world, women outnumber men in the largest co-op program on the planet, with students schools and universities. But not at Waterloo. We find currently at work in more than 40 countries. Your talent out why, and what’s being done to restore the balance. Patricia Bow TO MARKET WE WILL GO pg. 15 management needs can be fulﬁ lled with Waterloo students who have gained experience with world-class WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T pg. 29 companies like Research In Motion, Google, Microsoft, Sun Life Financial, Deutsche Bank, and Amazon. HOW WATERLOO 3. Streamlined Process » With over 50 years of ACTUARIAL SCIENTISTS SAVED CANADA experience, the Waterloo co-op process is streamlined pg. 22 and simple. A dedicated co-op representative who understands your employment needs will visit you each term to ensure satisfaction.

5. Year-Round Availability & A ordability » You can hire a student to begin work in January, May or September and have a talented new student every four months or, in some cases, extend the timeframe. Waterloo co-op provides editorial pg. 2 a cost-e ective method to ﬁ ll your immediate business Commentary pg. 3 needs on a timely basis. letters pg. 5

heard on campus pg. 7

Google has an excellent relationship with uWaterloo, and co-ops have Talk of the campus pg. 10 consistently been able to come in and hit the ground running in Google’s Class Notes pg. 34 fast-paced environment. Even in short amounts of time, Waterloo co-op Calendar pg. 39 students make important contributions to Google’s products and culture while gaining incomparable real-world engineering experience. last word pg. 40 On the cover Steven Woods, Engineering Site Director, Google Canada Barbara Macdonald and the other members of the cecs.uwaterloo.ca VeloCity group, 7 Cubed, launched a successful smartphone app in Kitchener’s Communitech Hub. PHOTO: JonathAn Bielaski What's inside 1 « Editorial

THE UNIVERSITY Mastering the art of risk-taking OF WATERLOO MAGAZINE When this university went through an “identity review” a couple of years ago, we came up with a list of characteristics, or attributes, that described Waterloo. And the riskiest of these spring 2011 was, well, risk-taking. publisher MEG BECKEL When we sought stories that illustrated the characteristics, attributes such as “innovative” editor KELLEY TEAHEN and “collaborative” had ideas line-ups as long as Tim Hortons at morning rush. “Risk-taking,” assistant editor however, was tough. It’s comfortable to share a story of a risk that worked: the university’s PATRICIA BOW

creator-owns-it intellectual property policy was a gamble that continues to pay off contributing editors BETH BOHNERT, CHRIS REDMOND handsomely (see “To Market We Will Go,” page 14). But we get nervous labeling a advisory board current “big leap” project, where we don’t yet know the outcome, as something “risky.” Sunshine Chen (BES ’95, BArch ’97) Martin DeGroot (BA ’79, MA ’81, PhD ’95) Waterloo has never been extreme in its risk-taking: there is a quiet caution and sober Chris Harold (BES ’00) AiméE Morrison assessment applied to risk, much like how Waterloo’s lauded actuarial scientists have, Patrick Myles (BA ’87) behind the scenes, helped to keep Canada in less of an economic ex officio pickle than much of the rest of the Western world (see “How JASON COOLMAN Waterloo Actuarial Scientists Saved Canada,” page 22). ELLEN RÉTHORÉ advertising and business manager That mix of careful thought and creative risk-taking is found, ALISON BOYD too, in the people who work at Waterloo. Since my arrival five creative director CHRISTINE GOUCHER years ago, I have been assisted on this magazine, and much design else, by Patricia Bow, who retires this summer. Pat is soft University of Waterloo CREATIVE SERVICES spoken, a true “editor’s editor,” meticulously organized,

careful in all things … and in possession of one of the The University of Waterloo wildest creative imaginations on the planet. Magazine is published twice a year for graduates and friends of the University of Waterloo. When she’s not writing about gender issues in education All material is copyright ©2011, (“Where the Boys Are ... and Aren’t,” page 28) or quantum University of Waterloo, and may be reprinted only with written computing or water research, she writes, on her own time, permission. fiction. This isn’t gentle cup-of-tea fiction. There are shape- Printed in Canada by Commercial Print-Craft Limited shifting assassins and mind-spinning travels from ordinary ISSN 1207-778X

small towns to worlds of myth and legend. “I started out Send editorial correspondence to:

athan B IEL aski o : JO N athan University of Waterloo Magazine trying to write romance fiction, but the body count kept t Communications and Public Affairs getting too high,” Pat once told me, in her gentle, light voice. Ph o University of Waterloo Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1 She has 11 mystery novels published in German (she writes them in English, but 519-888-4567, ext. 35719 email [email protected] they’re published in translation); in the last decade she also has been writing young adult fiction.The Bone Flute was named one of the Ontario Library Association “Best For advertising inquiries call 519-888-4567, ext. 35136 Bets” for Canadian children’s books in 2004. Her latest books, The Prism Blade and Send address changes to: The Ruby Kingdom, are part of a series where cousins Amelia and Simon get drawn Office of Development into epic battles between otherworldly creatures. and Alumni Affairs University of Waterloo Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1 In The Bone Flute, a 12-year-old girl inherits the mysterious role of “Keeper” from Fax 519-746-8932 her great-aunt, part of a long lineage of people who must decide the rightful owner email [email protected] of a mysterious flute. Says one apparition to the girl: “You were the Keeper. You will Waterloo Magazine online: see truths and find paths hidden to others. And sometimes the sight will be a joy to alumni.uwaterloo.ca/alumni/pubs/ magazine.html you and sometimes a grief. That is your gift.”

I hope, in her retirement, Pat will find time to contribute occasionally still to Waterloo Magazine and continue to share her sight with us. She is, to quote FPO The Bone Flute, a “Keeper.”

Kelley Teahen

The Waterloo spirit of entrepreneurialism

Earlier this year, I was asked to contribute expertise and get a head start on their own ideas before the foreword to a collection of essays written graduating; and we offer business and entrepreneurship by some of Waterloo’s most successful entrepre- programs in all our faculties. Our open intellectual neurs. I hesitated for a moment before respond- property policy has helped lay the groundwork for ing to the request. After all, how often is a the smooth transfer of ideas from our campuses to the university president asked to provide the fore- marketplace. As well, by reaching out to international word for a book celebrating entrepreneurship? students while preparing Canadian students for a global world view, we build a critical mass of world-changing When you are privileged to be president ideas starting right here at home. of Waterloo, however, it is a no-brainer. Waterloo is an amazing place for scholarship At the core of this activity is the conviction and research but, at the same time, it is also that supporting innovative ideas means supporting students first and foremost. The success of our an unassuming place focused on providing students in turning their ideas into action depends a collaborative environment that encourages on their academic and personal experiences at entrepreneurialism. Waterloo. With the establishment of our Student This area is known widely for its concentration Success Office, we will improve retention rates from of high-tech innovative businesses, described first to second year and engage in learning support, by the Globe and Mail as a place where “talent, student development, career support, student industry, and post-secondary schools feed off entrepreneurship, applications management, and one another’s energy and ideas to grow ever international student support programs. As you will more innovative and prosperous.” read in the cover story, VeloCity is now growing beyond the residence where it began: there is now This university is mindful of its role in start-up space at the Communitech Hub in downtown sustaining the spirit of entrepreneurialism Kitchener, where student entrepreneurs can rub in our community and putting it into action. shoulders with established players. We are committed to experiential learning and co-operative education, including enterprise Recently, Ontario’s minister of research and innovation, co-op for students who wish to start a business. Glen Murray, said Waterloo is “extraordinary in North We have established programs such as the America, not just Ontario.” There is indeed something Conrad Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship, very special going on here, born of the collaborative and Technology with its unique MBET degree; spirit of this region, and the University of Waterloo – we founded VeloCity, an innovation incubator its students, staff, researchers, and alumni – will where some of our brightest and most continue to play a key role in this success.

motivated students can access industry Feridun Hamdullahpur

Feridun Hamdullahpur has been appointed Waterloo's sixth president, to June 2017. A profile of our new president will appear inWaterloo Magazine’s fall issue.

firsts You’ve been there for all of them. Let Waterloo be their next first!

Bring your future Waterloo students for their first campus visit. findoutmore.uwaterloo.ca/visitus

4 « Letters | write to us

COMMENTS? Please email [email protected] or write to Editor – Waterloo Magazine, Communications and Public Affairs,U niversity of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1

Rotary aided Johnston's journey Thank you for the excellent fall 2010 edition of Waterloo Magazine with articles honouring David Johnston.

In “David Johnston: The all-Canadian,” you noted that Johnston chose a scholarship opportunity at the University of Cambridge in England. I recently learned more about this while reading “Servant General David Johnston” in the January 2011 edition of Rotary Canada. As a Rotarian, I was excited to discover that the Rotary Foundation offered Johnston an Ambassadorial Scholarship to study at Cambridge, and it was the Rotary scholarship he chose.

The Rotary article also mentioned that Johnston became an honorary member of the Rotary Club of Kitchener, soon after moving to Heidelberg, Ontario. He also became a Paul Harris Fellow, which he said was a great honour.

This award was also a great honour to me when I received it from the Rotary Club of High River, Alberta in June 2010. It is named after Paul Harris, the Chicago lawyer who started the Rotary service organization in 1905. According to the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, this award is “in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.”

My Rotary club conferred this honour on me mainly for the monthly Rotary columns I write for the High River Times to give the public a better understanding of what this service organization does locally and globally.

I receive many positive comments from High River’s public about my Rotary reports, which I contribute as a retiree. I know the essays I wrote for University of Waterloo arts courses helped to improve my writing and communication skills.

In my next Rotary column for the High River Times, I will share proudly the knowledge that the latest Governor General of Canada, David Johnston, has Rotary connections.

Maureen McManus, BA ’97

Excellent magazine; shame about the size I enjoy the magazine, especially the last one on David Johnston. Excellent, very well done. I don’t like the size of the magazine. Width is OK, but the length or depth is too long. It doesn’t fit with my other journals. Keep up the good work.

Kenneth Schroeder, BASc ’73

Write to us 5 For me, as both a graduate and a staff member, Waterloo has become a very important part of my life. I’m thrilled to be able to advance the university’s cause. Creating an award for students who contend with disabilities while they complete their degrees, through a gift of life insurance, is one way I can make a difference in the world. – Ildikó Dénes (BSc ’98, Health Studies)

As an advisor in Waterloo’s Office for Persons with Disabilities, Ildikó has the pleasure of working with students every day. Her gift of life insurance to the university will establish the Ildikó Dénes Academic Opportunity Award to help students with visible and non-visible disabilities.

Creating a legacy Planned Giving | Office of Development 200 University Avenue West A gift of life insurance is just one way you can help Waterloo continue Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1 providing one-of-a-kind educational opportunities. The university’s gift planning experts are available to work with you to explore all the To find out more about how you can create a legacy at Waterloo, contact available options and help you achieve your legacy goals. Sharon McKay-Todd at 519-888-4567, ext. 35413 or [email protected] 6 development.uwaterloo.ca/plannedgiving o : C hris ha pm an t Ph o

« Heard on campus

John Mighton, mathematician and award-winning playwright, delivered the 2010 Hagey Lecture in the Humanities Theatre on November 29. The author of The Myth of Ability and The End of Ignorance, he also founded Junior Undiscovered Math Prodigies (JUMP). Here is an excerpt from his lecture, entitled “The High Cost of Intellectual Poverty: How myths about intelligence and talent are slowing human progress.”

Waking kids up to the joy of mathematics

Even though I struggled a great deal in school We would think kids were stunted if they and often compared myself to other students who didn’t see any beauty in a mountain or a star, seemed much more gifted than I was, I would say but we think it’s totally natural for them to I always had a sense of wonder. I was always graduate from high school not seeing any motivated by this sense that the world was beauti- beauty in the invisible laws that underlie ful and mysterious and that there was no end to all of nature. what you would want to learn. And from what I don’t ascribe to any particular religion, but I’ve observed working with thousands of kids, I’ve never felt more spiritual than I have since kids, if they have anything, have that sense of I started studying mathematics, because you wonder: they are born with that sense of wonder. realize the world is unbelievably elegant and And I often say to older kids who struggled in beautiful, that it’s constantly surprising, and math: “Imagine if something you loved best in that, however it was created or designed or the world, whether it’s a sport, or it’s listening to appeared out of nowhere, there is an intelli- music, imagine someone had made you feel that gence in it that goes beyond anything we was too hard for you, or boring: how much less could have come up with, and it’s just rich would your life be if you lost that one thing endlessly enriching and beautiful. that you think you’re good at and love. Well, that’s And kids certainly have that sense of awe. what’s happened in mathematics. You can’t even I’ve seen it over and over again: kids will beg imagine how much fun it would be to do math- to stay for recess to do mathematics, to play ematics, how much beauty there is in the subject, with patterns, to make discoveries. In one school because you’ve been convinced that it’s too hard I was in I even broke up a fight once by telling or it’s boring.” the bully that if he didn’t apologize I wouldn’t And quite often kids will listen to that and give give him his bonus questions in math. And he me a chance, and pretty soon they start to see apologized for a question in math. that they’re good at mathematics, and they I always say to teachers that this subject that start enjoying it. is so alien to so many people is actually a But it’s very hard to convince an adult that they gift for children, because they have a natural actually miss something, and missing out on sense of wonder and they absolutely love mathematics, or any other subject, that there making the kind of discoveries that they might be something missing from their life. can in mathematics.

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what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus what’s going on? talk of the Accounting grad « tops in Canada

Vicky Au (MAcc ’10) has won the prestigious Governor General’s Gold Medal and the Chartered Accountants’ cash prize of $5,000 for having the highest standing in Canada in the Chartered Accountancy Uniform Evaluation (UFE), one of the world’s most challenging professional examinations. Au, who lives in Markham, Ontario, also won the 2010 Waterloo Faculty of Arts Alumni Gold Medal for academic achievement. The UFE, written in September nation-wide, is an important component of the CA qualification program. The three-day evaluation assesses essential knowledge, professional judgment, ethics, and the ability to communicate. In all, six Waterloo grads, including Au and four others in accounting, and a science grad, were named to the 50-member National Honour Roll.

WEB see Accounting grad tops at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links nathan b ielaski o : jo nathan t p h o

It was wall-to-wall Lego in the Engineering 5 building on November 28, as some 200 youngsters aged 9 to 14 in 21 teams met for the WE-Connect FIRST Lego League Waterloo Qualifier, a tournament sponsored by Waterloo Engineering, RIM, and the Province of Ontario. (FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.) Working within this year’s theme of “How Engineering Meets Medicine,” the children built and programmed their Lego Mindstorms robots to accomplish missions such as bone repair, rapid blood screening, and nerve mapping. o : Gillian Guten b er g t

p h o WEB see Lego at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

10 Talk of the campus what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus what’s going on? talk of the talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus | what’s going on? talk of the campus what’s going on? talk of the « e Bevan, E nvir o n m ent o : J e Bevan,

Waterloo t Summit Centre Ph o for the Environment now open

The Waterloo Summit Centre for the Environment officially opened January 21 in Huntsville, Ontario. The Town of Huntsville owns and manages the building, which was Waterloo gets serious about gaming constructed for use in last year’s G8 summit of world leaders. It’s From Monopoly to SimCity, playing games is serious stuff at Waterloo’s new now leased by the university, Games Institute. For faculty in engineering, arts, and mathematics, the rapidly primarily for use by the Faculty growing games industry offers a huge arena for research into topics such as of Environment. The Summit Centre gaming addiction, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, computer interface design, is terraced into 4.5 hectares of and mobile networking. It’s also alluring to students, as players, rugged local Muskoka landscape researchers, creators, and employees. The institute plans to create overlooking Cann Lake. The facility a network of research groups in Canada and the U.S. for a study will host field research, meetings, and conferences, as well as short of immersion and addiction in games and gaming technologies. courses and executive training What else is new? courses. An ecology laboratory will be added by the end of 2011. » The Master of Digital Innovation professional program (right) The Northern Ontario School of is to be launched by the Waterloo Stratford campus in September. Medicine will also operate a Students acquire the skills to navigate the digital media industry nathan b ielaski o : jo nathan t research lab in the centre, through applied, career-oriented instruction in the theory p h o starting this spring. and practice of team building, business modelling, marketing WEB see Waterloo strategy, critical and cultural analysis, and design thinking. » Summit Centre at alumni. » The new Waterloo Institute for Hellenistic Studies draws from uwaterloo.ca/links. strength in the classical studies department, elsewhere on campus, and among national and international scholars. It’s North America’s first research centre for the interdisciplinary study of the Hellenistic age, an era of globalization It was wall-to-wall Lego in the Engineering 5 323 - 30 BCE, when Greek culture and influence spread from Spain to India. building on November 28, as some 200 youngsters » The Master of Development Practice professional program based in the School aged 9 to 14 in 21 teams met for the WE-Connect FIRST of Environment, Enterprise and Development begins in September. Combining Lego League Waterloo Qualifier, a tournament sponsored courses from economics, environment, planning, health, governance, and other by Waterloo Engineering, RIM, and the Province of Ontario. areas, it will incorporate theory and practical field experience. Grads with this (FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science expertise will form the foundation of a new kind of development practitioner and Technology.) Working within this year’s theme of “How who is also a social innovator.

Engineering Meets Medicine,” the children built and programmed WEB see Institutes and programs at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links their Lego Mindstorms robots to accomplish missions such as bone repair, rapid blood screening, and nerve mapping.

see Lego at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

What's going on? 11 New deans Caledonia author returns after protest for arts and Award-winning journalist Christie Blatchford came to the Humanities environment Theatre on the Waterloo campus on November 12, invited by the university bookstore to discuss her new book. Entitled Helpless: Caledonia’s Nightmare Douglas Peers, dean of graduate of Fear and Anarchy, and How the Law Failed All of Us, the book looks at the studies at York standoff over native land claims in Caledonia, Ontario. University in Toronto, The event was cancelled for safety reasons after protesters who called the will come to Waterloo on July 1 to start a book “racist” prevented Blatchford from speaking by chanting slogans five-year term as dean inside the theatre, while three chained themselves together on stage. of the Faculty of Arts, Waterloo President Feridun Hamdullahpur apologized to Blatchford on succeeding Ken Coates. Peers is an experienced behalf of the university community, and the university issued a statement administrator and that said in part: “The university considers Friday’s events as an attack on winner of distinguished its presence as a place where issues are explored, discussed, and at times research and teaching debated. The freedom to speak and to learn is fundamental to the institution.” awards. As a scholar specializing in the Blatchford returned on December 7 and spoke to a sold-out audience history of British in the Theatre of the Arts. Her talk was followed by a lively session of India, he will also be a thoughtful and often tough questions, and frank answers. professor in the history department. WEB see Caledonia author at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

André Roy, a professor and administrator at Université de Montréal, will Waterloo athletics be the next dean of the Faculty of Environment. He’ll director joins arrive on August 1 to begin national task force a five-year term, succeeding Waterloo’s director of athletics and recreational services, Deep Saini and interim dean Bob Copeland, has been appointed to the Task Force Mark Seasons. Holder of the on the Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Football. Canada Research Chair in The task force was set up by the Canadian Centre for Fluvial Dynamics, and an Ethics in Sport late last year in response to doping internationally recognized researcher in violations in Canadian football that led to the withdrawal how environmental changes affect the of the Warrior football team from Ontario University structure and flow of rivers and the Athletics play in the 2010 season. behaviour of Atlantic salmon, Roy will also be a professor in the geography and The athletics department has launched educational environmental management department. programs for athletes in football and other sports. Its aim is to make Waterloo a Canadian leader in WEB see New deans at anti-doping education and awareness. alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links WEB see Drugs task force at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

Revamping the campus’s front door with student help

Students in the “i3 Challenge” competition (“i3” refers to receive $100,000 from the president’s office to execute their “innovate, integrate, implement”) are scrutinizing the area design – announced in May. Construction could start this fall. around South Campus Hall and tackling issues of integration The redesigned gateway will reinforce the visual identity with the community, sustainability, accessibility and launched in 2009 to create a distinctive look for the university. transportation, and university identity and marketing. The new look, which applies to everything from lanyards to The challenge? Redesign a gateway that has become a web pages, won this year’s Council for Advancement and bottleneck, with South Campus Hall too close to the road Support of Education District II gold medal for a program and intensifying traffic funnelled into space not designed for that “maintains a consistent identity for the institution as it. Of the first 21 teams, 10 reached the second round, with a whole across all media.” four finalists chosen in April and the winning team – who will WEB see Campus front door at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

12 « Research honours GROW

Four Waterloo electrical » Anne Broadbent, and computer engineering post-doctoral fellow, Institute professors have been for Quantum Computing: The Royal Society of Canada has seven awarded Canada Research Polanyi Prize for physics new Fellows, Canada’s highest academic honour, Chairs: in all, $5.6 million in » David Hammond, health from Waterloo. The university now has 45 Fellows. federal funding. studies and gerontology:

» Catherine Rosenberg, Canada’s Premier Young » Savvas Chamberlain, Researcher Award from the Richard Canada Research Chair in CLEVE electrical and computer the Future Internet Canadian Health Research engineering Awards » Weihua Zhuang, Canada » Richard Cleve, Research Chair in Wireless » Keith Hipel, systems design computer science engineering: Engineering Communication Networks » Ian Goulden, Medal for Research and combinatorics and » Raafat Mansour, Canada Development, Professional Research Chair in Micro and optimization Engineers Ontario Nano Integrated RF Systems » François Paré, » Ming Li, computer science: French studies » E n-hui Yang, Canada Killam Prize in Engineering Research Chair in Information » Janusz Pawliszyn, Theory and Multimedia Data » Linda Nazar, chemistry: chemistry Compression Rio Tinto Alcan Award from » Lee Smolin, physics and the Canadian Society for astronomy Chemistry » Michael Yovanovich, Five research teams at » Tamer Özsu, computer mechanical and Waterloo received strategic Lee SMOLIN science: Fellow of the Institute mechatronics engineering project grants worth $2.6 of Electrical and Electronics million from the Natural Engineers Sciences and Engineering Research Council. » Janusz Pawliszyn, chemistry: Chromatography » En-Hui Yang, electrical and Forum of the Delaware computer engineering (ECE): Valley Dal Nogare Award broadband wireless access technologies

» Weihua Zhuang, ECE: information delivery over François PARÉ wireless networks

» Boxin Zhao, chemical engineering: joining in electronics manufacturing

» Kankar Bhattacharya, ECE: smart electricity grids » Susan Tighe, (pictured Savvas » Linda Nazar, chemistry: above) civil and environmental CHAMBERLAIN nanoscale high-capacity engineering: $1.5 million energy storage endowed Norman W. McLeod Chair in Sustainable Pavement Engineering other research awards and honours: » Leonardo Simon, Michael chemical engineering: YOVANOVICH Ian » Jo Atlee, computer science; Goulden Canada’s Top 40 co-leader, Network on Under 40 Engineering Complex Software Intensive Systems » Frank Tompa, Janusz for Automotive Systems: computer science: PAWLISZYN $16 million from Automotive Fellow of the Association Partnership for Computing Machinery

WEB see Research honours at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

What's going on? 13 To market

14 To market we will go

n November 26, 2010, Glen Murray, Ontario’s minister of research and innovation, was making the rounds in OKitchener’s Tannery District. Despite a hectic schedule, he spent half an hour in one office, learning about seven coders and their new apps. Impressed, Murray proposed a return visit, inviting the team to participate in a digital economy roundtable.

The seasoned entrepreneurs he was visiting? A group of eight Waterloo undergrads, part of a collective called 7 Cubed, formed in their residence.

Of course, it’s no ordinary residence. VeloCity is a “dormcubator,” born from the notion that innovation springs as often from the rez rooms of 20-somethings as from the boardrooms of large corporations.

Founded in 2008, VeloCity takes in 70 students a term and launches them on the path to building their own businesses. It’s a lot of fun. And a lot of work. Students only have three months before final exams to grow their start-up, all the while carrying a heavy academic load.

Each term begins with brainstorming sessions. Got an idea? Pitch it, assemble your team, and get ready for the hack-a- thon weekend. Groups are thrown into the fray, working together intensively to make headway on their product before classes start.

Three-time VeloCity resident Barbara Macdonald enjoyed the experience so much, she and seven other friends set out to repeat it, this time as an ultra-hack-a-thon. 7 Cubed’s ambitious goal: seven applications in seven days with seven programmers (and one designer).

“We’d arrive at 8:45 and do a post-mortem on the day before,” Macdonald says. Then the team would pitch and rank ideas. They had three criteria: “fun to build, useful for a wide group of people, and feasible to develop in one day.” The team coded until 10 p.m., when they were expected to release.

Their first app, QuickCite, takes the sting out of assembling a bibliography. Feeling bleary-eyed after finishing that essay? No problem. Simply hold your smartphone up to the book’s barcode and snap a picture. Select a formatting style and QuickCite takes care of the rest. To date, the software’s had more than 2,000 paid downloads from the iTunes and Android stores and been profiled on popular blog Lifehacker, PC Magazine, and ABC News. »

« Left to right | Gareth MacLeod, Chris Howlett, Barbara Macdonald, Jeff Verkoeyen, Ross Robinson, and Scott Tolksdorf from the student team 7 Cubed.

will go | to market16 we will go | to market we will go | to market we will go | to market we will go | to market we will go | to market we will go | to Ma someone rooting for the country playing.” showed theall games because there’s always here,” says JacksonTim (BA ’92), CEO. “We teria wall. “It’s a great multicultural environment the FIFA World Cup streamed live on the cafe L on Waterloo’s north campus. Centre in the Research and Technology Park ready to go it alone can apply to the Accelerator At the end of the residency, companies not offerstudents andalumni.” good start-up, so isthis a fantastic service we can Rodgers says. “It takes about two years to build a room or a coffee shop, butthey can’tafford rent,” “Most of them need a space that’s not their bed offices and mentorship for up to a dozenstart-ups. The VeloCity workspace can provide temporary and Desire2Learn DossierView. housesalso successful Waterloo spin-offs Kitchener’s historic Tannery whichDistrict, regional tech enterprise. The Hub is of part with a network600-company that supports partner in Communitech,standing a non-profit Hub. The University of Waterloo is a long- the new VeloCity workspace in the Communitech For the ultra hack-a-thon, 7 Cubed moved into And they get other students excited with them.” networks, and experience and push it further. terms. “They come back with new contacts, students who toreturn the dorm after work businesses. He says he’s noticed a change in students get credit for developing their own work terms, including Enterprise Co-op, where Rodgers finds VeloCity complements co-op ofseed upfunding to $25,000. Ted Livingston, resident teams can accessalso donation from 23-year-old VeloCity alumnus and conferences. Now, to thanks a $1-million students to participate in external competitions speakers for weekly tech-talks and encouraging with the greater start-up community, in bringing Rodgers and his staff work to connect residents a fool – then you’ve got to be passionate about it.” start-up – not make a lot of money, be told you’re product. “It’s essential. If you’re going to do a hopes students have. His focus is on passion over Jesse Rodgers (BA ’00), VeloCity interim director, 7 is of kind cubed the exactly experience What ast summer at the ast summer I didn A ’ o t ccelerator Centre ccelerator

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WatCO’s Scott Inwood is helping to move Professor Shesha Jayaram’s pasteurization technology from the lab to industry.

It’s this “knowing what they don’t know” that Jackson looks for get an answer in half an hour.” As he’s in potential clients. “That to us is the No. 1 criteria. We don’t gained experience, it’s something he’s tried want people who are just going to stay in their office. We want to pay forward, working with other entrepre- people who will take advantage of the centre’s mentoring and neurs to shorten their learning cycle. programming.” It usually takes two to three years for companies Last year, the Globe and Mail called the to graduate, after they’ve hit certain key milestones, such as University of Waterloo the “cornerstone” of filing for patents, forming a board of directors, and developing the region’s innovation cluster. Driving the a benefit plan. campus commercialization engine is Scott The Accelerator Centre also offers a glimpse at what Inwood. He’s at the helm of the Waterloo drives the Waterloo start-up community. Jackson mentions Commercialization Office (WatCO), respon- former Waterloo president David Johnston’s emphasis on barn- sible for smoothing the path for faculty and raising. “What I didn’t realize until recently is that apart from students keen to turn their research into the many-hands-make-light-work idea, the culture of barn-raising real-world applications. Inwood couldn’t be includes an expectation and an obligation to get involved. That’s more passionate about his position, saying, what we’re starting to see here in the community. Do I do things “It feels like I’m sitting on the edge of because there’s an obligation? Absolutely not, but I think what tomorrow.” we figured out is if we act as a collective, we’re much stronger The time commitment and financial risk than acting individually.” associated with commercializing can deter McBride concurs. “If I have a challenge, I can call a number academics already swamped with the busi- of people for help, some of whom I’ve only met a few times. ness of research and education. By working I’m not convinced that in Toronto, for example, you could just formally with WatCO, a prof can shift much shoot off an email to the CEO of a 300-person company and of the burden to Inwood and his team. »

To market we will go 17 Photo: Neil trotter and environmental gold. spin mountains of used tires into economic Costas chemical engineering professor A new technology by 18 T zogana k is

(right) could

the WatC reduce the amount of plastic waste.” water, compact install residentially,units it could drastically tropical juices and, ultimately, water. “If we could apply tothis nology, Jayaram hopes it can one day be used for like things While alcoholic beverages are the first market forthe tech a very high-voltage steep front pulse of short duration. technology as a way bacteriato food-spoiling kill by applying Jayaram and her colleagues have developed pulse electric field ing market, there’s a demand for new methods. both of which can alter flavour. Withanincreasinglydiscern stability and must be either steam pasteurized or cold-filtered, be consumed quickly or itspoil. will Bottled suds need more beer is aproduct living – hence the great taste – but it must For the connoisseur, there’s no substitute forbeer. draft Keg the beer and cider industry. ’91), that means applying her pasteurization technology to professorengineering and teetotaller Shesha Jayaram (PhD produce unlikely partnerships. For electrical and computer I the path with the least commercial resistance.” findthe right market pathway forthe product. We look for agreements, and marketing … One of thewe things do is help support services such as business development, negotiating quite expensive, generate and offerfunding, professional “We invest in the costs of patent protection, which can be polymer), has been created and its firstcustomers developed. traction. A spin-off company, Tyromer (a play ontiresand rubber.to virgin toThanks WatCO, his innovation is gaining ber and convertscrumb it to a product with properties close Enter Tzoganakis, who has developed a process that takes rub researchers are scrambling for solutions. for mosquitoes. With Ontario’s ban tires onfor burning fuel, stacked in piles, firethat hazards also provideground breeding used forprimarily clean fill. areMost burned. Many end up North America. Some are ground down to create “crumb,” More 300 scrapthan million tires are produced each year in high-end application. the first economicallyviable way to recycleused tires for a Waterloo chemical professorengineering and inventor of It’s arrangementthis that led WatCO to Costas Tzoganakis, of Excellence to pool resources and offer onepoint of entry. nered with the Accelerator Centre and the CentresOntario “a large commercialization ecosystem.” The officehaspart viable way to recycle used tires for high-end application Costas t’s a skilled matchmaking service: matchmaking a t’s skilled O If Tyromerissuccessful,ithas potential is aonly part small T zogana k is , inventor of the first economically to generateal of jobs inOntario. of what Inwood calls one that can

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If Tyromer is successful, it has In the beginning the potential to generate a lot of jobs in Ontario. Costas Tzoganakis, inventor of the first economically These start-ups with ties to Waterloo viable way to recycle used tires for high-end application were some of the first on the scene, and have since grown to support more than 1,000 employees each.

“WatCO was instrumental in moving this In Canada, about a third of universities project from the lab,” Tzoganakis says. have a similar policy, but Waterloo is the “They raised the seed money from the only one that doesn’t require revenue If a BlackBerry isn’t on your hip, check the Michelin Development fund and have got- sharing. In the United States, it’s unheard person next to you. Conceived by former ten industrial partners excited. That was of – the Bayh-Dole Act mandates that uni- Waterloo student Mike Lazaridis, RIM’s offices very important because, for a professor, it’s versities retain ownership rights to patents now fill two million square feet in the region. very hard to have the contacts in industry resulting from federally funded research. RIM hires close to 2,000 students each year: and still do the technical work. It gave me In 2010, RIM hired 264 previous co-ops as Professor Marianna Foldvari sees the the opportunity to focus on the technical permanent full-time hires. many advantages of Waterloo’s IP policy. detail and not worry about the customer » Founded in 1984 A commercialization powerhouse, with and business development.” » 14,000+ full-time employees worldwide; 16 patents and three spin-offs to her name, half in Waterloo With the price of virgin rubber soaring, she joined Waterloo in 2006 as a Canada » As part of the company’s large corporate Tyromer’s cost-effectiveness makes it an Research Chair in Bionanotechnology philanthropy program, RIM provides attractive proposition. A pilot plant is being and Nanomedicine. At institutions educational sponsorship to 12,000 built to develop materials and optimize the with university IP ownership policies, college and university students process. Tzoganakis hopes his spin-off will researchers who want to develop a product have a positive influence on the struggling based on their own invention “may get automotive sector. “If Tyromer is successful, very frustrated,” Foldvari says. “They aren’t it has the potential to generate a lot of jobs allowed to proceed on their own, yet the in Ontario.” university doesn’t have the resources to Founded by former Waterloo engineering find partners or for active marketing of professor Savvas Chamberlain, Teledyne This regional economic impact is the technologies.” DALSA specializes in digital imaging and something that interests Richard Florida, semiconductor technology. In 2004, the author of The Great Reset and director of the As part of her research program in the company outfitted the Mars Rover, Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School School of Pharmacy, Foldvari is developing capturing the highest-resolution images of Management, University of Toronto. non-invasive methods of drug delivery, ever taken from another planet. In an article in the Toronto Star last year, replacing needles with creams, sprays, » Founded in 1980 Florida praised Waterloo’s VeloCity resi- drops, and patches. These technologies » 1,000+ full-time employees; dence. He noted that strong regional will revolutionize how certain drugs can approximately 350 in Waterloo economies are “anchored by world-class be administered to the body and provide » An active contributor to its community, universities”; he cautioned that “universities treatment benefits not achievable DALSA has committed to providing $500K cannot affect their local regions by simply before, such as the development of a over five years (2009-2014) to support existing in them. Commercialization and self-administered topical cream for the a research chair in nanotechnology entrepreneurialism are two of the processes prevention of cervical cancer caused by by which university resources spill out into the human papillomavirus (HPV). the regional economy.” With the stakes this high, Foldvari views

Beyond the local, Florida sees the national commercialization as a duty, not a privilege. Canada’s largest software company started importance of developing knowledge- “I had very good mentors – I learned early as a project, led by Waterloo professor Frank intensive jobs. “Canada will never get as on that you must publish papers, but that’s Tompa, to convert all 60 million entries in the much from extracting oil, cod, and timber as not where you should stop. You have to put Oxford English Dictionary into electronic form. it will from harnessing its human capital.” your research findings in practice so that This created the Internet’s first search engine you may offer better options for patients. When it comes to entrepreneurial faculty, technology, attracting Yahoo as an early client. » Waterloo has an embarrassment of riches. “I came here because I saw the university Founded in 1991 » 4,500+ employees, 750 in Waterloo. It’s a fact many credit to Policy 73. The as a visionary in developing nanotech- New Waterloo building will open university’s intellectual property policy nology. I feel very blessed with my research in 2011 to double capacity entrenches the right of creators to their group. It feels like Waterloo is going off » OpenText supports many high-tech invention and their freedom to do what to the forefront of the world to make a initiatives and is a lead sponsor for the they want with it. difference.” Canada 3.0 conference in Stratford

WEB see To market we will go at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

To market we will go 19 GEORGE H. NEWTON (BASc ’64) BRUCE BODDEN (BASc ’69) FREDERICK R. GRIGSBY (BASc ’71) KEVIN J. NEGUS (BASc ’84, MASc ’85, JOHN A. BAKER (BASc ’00) JUAN-CARLOS DE OLIVEIRA MARK A. SCHAAN (BA ’02) INGRID HANN (BA ’76) Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering PhD ’88), Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering (BASc ’04), Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Arts Faculty of Arts Alumni Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Award Achievement Award Community Service Professional Achievement Professional Achievement Professional Achievement ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT

SHIKHA GANDHI (MAcc ’04) KEITH FARLINGER (BMath ’77) NICK DRIEDGER (BA ’71) AWARDS School of Accounting & Finance School of Accounting & Finance Conrad Grebel University College Young Alumni Award Alumni Achievement Award Distinguished Alumni Service Award Across Canada and around the world, Waterloo alumni are making signiﬁ cant contributions to their university, their professions and their communities. The Alumni Achievement Awards recognize

these individuals and their e orts to build a better world. 2010

FR. BRIAN MCCORMICK JEFF WOODROW (BA ’02) FILOMENA TASSI (BA ’83) Fr. Norm Choate Distinguished Fr. Norm Choate Distinguished Fr. Norm Choate Distinguished Graduate Award (SJU) Graduate Award (SJU) Graduate Award (SJU)

Visit alumni.uwaterloo.ca/ awards.html to read about their achievements.

ROBERT POCKAR (MSc ’00) CALVIN HARLEY (BSc ‘75) STEPHEN HORNE (BSc ’87, PhD ’91) CAMERON KOCH (BSc ’68, MSc ’69, BARBARA F. MASON (BES ’80) HEATHER MOYSE (BSc ’00) ILDIKO M. DENES (BSc ’98) Faculty of Science Faculty of Science Faculty of Science PhD ’72), Faculty of Science Faculty of Environment Alumni Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Young Alumni Award Distinguished Alumni Award Distinguished Alumni Award Distinguished Alumni Award Achievement Award Young Alumni Award Alumni Achievement Award

20 GEORGE H. NEWTON (BASc ’64) BRUCE BODDEN (BASc ’69) FREDERICK R. GRIGSBY (BASc ’71) KEVIN J. NEGUS (BASc ’84, MASc ’85, JOHN A. BAKER (BASc ’00) JUAN-CARLOS DE OLIVEIRA MARK A. SCHAAN (BA ’02) INGRID HANN (BA ’76) Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering PhD ’88), Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Engineering (BASc ’04), Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Arts Faculty of Arts Alumni Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Achievement Medal Young Alumni Award Achievement Award Community Service Professional Achievement Professional Achievement Professional Achievement ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT

these individuals and their e orts to build a better world. 2010

Visit alumni.uwaterloo.ca/ awards.html to read about their achievements.

text 21 How Waterloo actuarial scientists saved Canada

Faster than a speeding actuarial calculator. More powerful than a supercomputer performing regression modelling.

dmittedly, it doesn’t have quite the same ring as Superman’s tagline. And Waterloo’s actuarial scientists don’t typically A wear capes. There is still evidence that in their Clark Kentish way, they helped save Canada’s economy – or at least, that they helped save the Canada Pension Plan from bankruptcy, helped prevent Canadian financial institutions from failing during the recent financial crisis, and are now helping save private pensions and insurance in a world where people are living longer than anyone used to expect.

Waterloo is home to one of the largest actuarial science programs in the world – some say the largest.

“We’re known as the largest program in the world. We’re also known as probably the largest producer of actuarial research in the world,” says recently retired professor Rob Brown.

“I think it’s fair to say we’re probably the top program in the world,” says Gordon Willmot, currently the most senior actuarial professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.

It’s an impressive reputation for a program that, in Brown’s words, “started as a speck on somebody’s radar screen,” and not that long ago.

The roots of the actuarial science program go back to 1960, three years after the founding of the university, when actuary Ian McIntosh of the Equitable Life Insurance Company was recruited to teach in the then-department – now faculty – of math. It was a natural fit for a university in a city that had long been a centre for the Canadian insurance industry.

“There has always been a collective spirit in Waterloo County – this goes back to the Mennonite philosophy, where you’re all part of a community and you help your neighbour,” says Brown.

That same collective spirit was evident in 1962, when three local insurance companies urged the university to expand the co-op program to math. The university agreed, and when the plan was announced to the public, 29 companies signed up to participate. So many students applied that, instead of starting with 40 as planned, the department Ken seng tan decided to allow 100 students into the program, which started in 1964.

Brown enrolled as a first-year math student in 1967, the year before a degree program in actuarial science was established. He didn’t leave

22 actuarial scientists saved Canada

Faster than a speeding actuarial calculator. More powerful than a supercomputer performing regression modelling.

until 43 years later, as a much-lauded professor and author of seven textbooks. In his time at Waterloo, he saw enormous changes.

Some of those changes have been within the program. Brown’s graduating class consisted of just seven actuarial students, and it was the largest to date.

Now there are 767 undergraduate students. There are two master’s programs – a research stream and a new professional stream, introduced in 2009 – with a total enrolment of 47. There are 13 PhD students, three postdoctoral fellows, and 14 faculty members. In total, more than 200 people a year graduate with the words “actuarial science” in their degree.

There have been major changes in the financial services world in the last few decades, say Brown and other professors.

There are fewer but bigger insurance companies. Banks have moved into insurance and insurance companies have moved into investing. Mathematical models have improved and computers have become more powerful. New, more complex financial products have proliferated.

The financial industry has also had to respond to major shifts in the world’s economy, demography, politics, and even environment.

“The world’s a much more dangerous and complicated place than it used to be,” says Gordon Willmot, who holds the title Munich Re Professor of Insurance.

Munich Re is a German reinsurance company – a company that insures Johnny li and insurance companies. It funds Willmot’s research chair, and is a perfect mary hardy example of how the financial industry can be exposed to global-scale risks as big as any dreamed up by Clark Kent’s archnemesis Lex Luthor.

“The World Trade Center was heavily insured by Munich Re so they took quite a hit on that,” says Willmot. “That was a real eye-opener – 9-11 – that in addition to all the other risks, we’re facing the risk of terrorist attacks.” »

Actuarial scientists saved Canada | TEXT KAREN KAWAWADA | PHOTOGRAPHY JONATHAN BIELASKI 23 how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada |

actuarial scientists24 saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo actuarial scientists saved canada | how waterloo Canada aCanada safer place for older people. leaping into action, Brown wasof part a major effortthat made Though he didn’t have to rip openin a phoneshirt his beforebooth safer place by our having program.” people” there, says Brown. we“I somehow think made the world a faculty member and a number of former students are “very senior Indirectly, Waterloo influencesthe regulator on a basis.daily A former 10insisted years ago on a big cushion wouldof assets, be things worse.” Today, a little are bit,hurting “insurers but if the regulator hadn’t Risk Management. provisions,”make significant says Hardy, who inis CIBCFinancial Chair picked up the task force work thatand insisted companies the insurance the Office of the SuperintendentCanadaInstitutions … ofFinancial liability, but our task force said they should, and the regulator, OSFI, “Thecompanies wantedinsurance not to put money to one side for requirements about a decade ago. a task force regulations on in setting thatcapital was instrumental Waterloo professor emeritus Phelim Boyle, Hardy got involved with on thatBuilding work, some of which was done with her husband, the end of the day, she was right.” wassecurities not large enough … Thefought industry that, but at reserves [financialinstitutions] forthe riskinwere these carrying Hardy“Mary wrote a very influential paper pointing out that the companies, regulator and insurance saystheof Canadian banks Brown. had influencean returns, on minimum with guaranteed mutual fund Some work by a Waterloo professor, on a newof type and popular who knew what they were doing.” regulators, regulations and thecapable Canadian Canadian people Brown. “But I’ll tell you, todaythat we’rewe hadvery all the thankful States, and that the United States was not as heavily regulated,” says that they needed to compete in the with their Unitedcounterparts the pestering regulators to ease up, and they oftenused theargument Before the companies“CEOscrisis, wereand insurance of banks all aside for just such a rainy day – regulations Waterloo helped shape. because of regulations that forced them to have resources set significant in many better their otherthan counterparts countries, in large part recession the weathered institutions financial Canadian G ordon Willmot ordon

Photo: jonathan bielaski

R o b Bro valuation, be ithere will 75 years from now.” according to the in the assumptions actuarial valuation that looks ahead 75 years and, shape,” he says. “It’s just had actuarial an The PensionCanada Plan “in good is actually Pension Plan is in trouble. It’s not, says Brown. perception, fuelled by the media, that the Canada Despite the reforms, there ais still common contribution rates well into the double digits. the raising retirement age, or mandatory raising suchdiscussed, as effectively privatizingthe plan, some of the massive changes that had been subtle fixesthat hadthe effects without necessary In the end, governments agreed to a series of modifications” couldthe stabilize plan. how several “relatively but small important the CPP debate.” The book quotes explaining him Bruce Little says Brown prominently“figured in In book his do it for less onethan per cent of cash flow.” investment board invest itover all the world and put it in the PensionCanada Plan and have the to mymanage tiny account little bank if I could “I don’t know why I would want to pay somebody RRSPs, which with,” I disagree totally says Brown. PensionCanada Plan into, effectively, individual C.D. Howe Institute, who wanted to change the as peopleforums like [representatives from] the “I went out of my way to atspeak the same travelled about thethe speaking country issues. involved severalin preparing key reports and urgedBrown, calm. as past president, was TheInstitute of however, Actuaries, Canadian changesunless were made, and quickly. the wouldfund be 20exhausted years within the plan’s releasedchief actuary a report saying With costs crisis. and decreasing rising revenue, In the mid-1990s, the PensionCanada Plan was in w n Fixing the Future , economic journalist

Photo: bryn gladding gladding : bryn P hoto Fast-tracking actuarial talent

They come in with a bachelor’s degree in Of course, it’s not just the Canada Pension Plan that faces pressures as baby a quantitative field, but no formal study in boomers move into their golden years. The private-sector financial industry actuarial science. They leave just one year later is facing what Mary Hardy calls “a good-bad problem” – that people are ready to hit the job market as actuaries. living longer than ever before. Waterloo’s new Master’s of Actuarial Science is Increased life expectancy is a challenge for financial institutions, the first of its kind in Canada. There are a few because when people live longer than expected, they get more pension and comparable programs in the U.S. and U.K., but health insurance payouts and, in some cases, life insurance payouts. That director Mary Hardy says Waterloo’s is unique. means increased liability for insurance companies and pension plans. It’s a “small, elite program,” says Hardy. That’s not just an issue for financial services companies, because if they were “We want to be the Harvard of actuarial to go bust, ordinary people would lose out on money they’re counting on science … and we feel we should be, because receiving in their old age. we have one of the strongest actuarial One of the rising stars of the department is assistant professor Johnny faculties in the world.” Li, who holds the Fairfax Chair in Risk Management. With former PhD The program takes a maximum of 30 students supervisors Hardy and Ken Seng Tan, he works on longevity risk modelling. a year and teaches them not only the technical Life expectancy has been steadily rising for as long as there’s been reliable aspects of actuarial science, but also business data, which for Canada means since the 1920s, says Li. “On average, human strategy and communications, with a strong life expectancy increases by 0.2 to 0.3 years, every year … emphasis on risk management, says Hardy.

“Twenty years ago, people expected there would be a limit to [how long] “We’re selecting people not just for their people can live … they expected human longevity is going to stop improving technical expertise but also for leadership at some point in time or at least slow down. But it turns out it hasn’t.” potential, so we’re thinking of this as training

In the past, when insurance companies sold people policies, they people for leadership roles.” underestimated the longevity improvement and set prices accordingly. The program emphasizes an international Even a slight underestimation can have a big impact, says Li. perspective, teaching students about markets

“If you manage a pension plan and you have, say, 10,000 retirees, and and regulations around the world. It’s the first every year you have to pay a pension of, say, $20,000 per retiree … in North America to be accredited by the if people are living one year longer than expected, your plan has to U.K.-based Institute of Actuaries.

pay $200 million additionally.” The students and faculty are also international,

Through papers and conference presentations, Li and his colleagues are with students from as far away as Kazakhstan, working to create awareness within the financial industry about longevity Ghana, and China.

risk. “It’s important for the industry to understand that this risk is real, Several students are from India, where the and it’s coming,” says Tan. privatization of a long-nationalized insurance The industry has been listening. One way companies are coping is by industry has produced a strong demand for passing off some of the risk to reinsurance companies. Another, newer actuaries. method is trading securities that will pay more if people live longer than The Indian situation caught the attention of expected and less if the opposite occurs. Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings, Though it’s still hard to predict how long people will live in the future, which is involved in a joint venture in India. methods such as these should help people’s pension and insurance plans Fairfax, whose CEO is Waterloo Chancellor to survive in an increasingly long-lived world, says Li. Prem Watsa, is helping fund the program to the tune of $1 million. And so, despite their mild-mannered reputations, Waterloo actuarial scientists are still doing their part to save the economy, acting as the real The investment is already paying off, with superheroes of the financial world. a few grads now working for Fairfax’s partner in India, says Jean Cloutier, Fairfax’s This country is safe again, Clark Kent, thanks to you. vice-president of international operations.

WEB see Actuarial Scientists at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links “Waterloo’s a great school, so we’re privileged to work with them.”

Waterloo actuarial scientists saved Canada 25 time for an upgrade?

Since graduation, you’ve upgraded your computer, your cell phone and probably even your car. What about you? Isn’t it time you thought about upgrading your knowledge and skills?

Waterloo Engineering offers coursework master’s programs that are ideal for working professionals. You can earn a master’s degree in as little as one year of full-time study. Or you can continue working and study part-time.

Research master’s and PhD programs are also available on a full- or part-time basis. Study what you want, how you want, when you want.

Find out more! engineering.uwaterloo.ca

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26 1506 Get a Second opinion

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28 Where the boys are… and aren’t

Stroll around almost any Canadian university campus at convocation time. It’s a jubilant scene: new grads cradling armloads of roses, flourishing fresh diplomas, posing for photos with Mom and Dad.

But, wait – what’s wrong here? Aren’t that there are fewer women: for the most most of them women? Where are all the part, their numbers have continued to young men? rise. But men’s numbers have risen faster.

It’s happening in Canada and all over the The reason isn’t hard to find. Two of world. For at least a couple of decades, girls Waterloo’s largest faculties are engineer- have been doing better than boys in school, ing and mathematics (which includes and more women have been entering univer- computer science), fields identified by sity. Nearly 58 per cent of university students Statistics Canada as having the lowest in Canada are women, according to Statistics levels of female enrolment. Canada. Women also have a lower dropout In Waterloo engineering (not counting rate at all levels. the School of Architecture), women made But the trend does not hold true everywhere. up 18.5 per cent of enrolment in fall 2010. There are two or three exceptions that test In mathematics, female enrolment has the rule. The University of Waterloo is one slowly increased over the last dozen of them. years to 32 per cent, a rate better than This is where the boys are. It’s class- the national average. In computer science, change time on Waterloo’s main campus. the reverse holds true. Female enrolment Young men throng the paths. They outnumber there reached its peak in the late 1980s, women at Waterloo by 56 to 44 per cent, a rate at 33 per cent. Since then it’s been sliding. unmatched in Canada by any other university In fall 2010, women accounted for just of remotely similar size. 12.5 per cent of enrolment in computer science at Waterloo. In fact, the proportion of women undergrads at Waterloo has been slowly declining since Asked why young girls seem to be the early ’90s, when they made up just over retreating from engineering and half the undergrad population. (At the grad computer science while advancing in level, the proportion of women has fluctuated other fields, people at Waterloo speak around 37 per cent since the late ’90s.) It’s not of myths and images. » WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOys AR AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOys are… AND AREN’T | WHERE THE WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOys ar « At class-change time, young men crowd the corridors AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOYS ARE … AND AREN’T | WHERE THE BOys are… AND AREN’T | WHERE THE of the engineering faculty’s Carl Pollock Hall.

Where the boys are | Text Patricia Bow | photography Jonathan bielaski 29 Three dozen Girl Guides came to Waterloo in March to earn their engineering badges and meet women in engineering, such as Mary Wells (right), the faculty’s associate dean, outreach.

“One of the big misconceptions is many challenges facing us: climate change, that engineering is not a helping profession, food shortages, improving third-world compared to law or medicine,” says Mary living conditions: these kinds of things will Wells, mechanical and mechatronics engin- all need the involvement of engineers.” eering professor, and her faculty’s associate Although under-represented in engineering, dean for outreach. “When girls think of women generally do well there academic- engineering, they tend to think of hard ally and are often found as student society hats and cars, of machines rather than leaders, top co-op students, and grad people. We’re trying to get the message students. They also have a higher comple- out to young girls that engineering is a tion rate than their male classmates. This caring profession.” is probably an effect of self-selection, Wells It’s also a creative profession, she adds. says: girls tend to apply to engineering Engineers don’t build cars, as some people programs only when they think they are think: they design cars. Wells cites examples highly qualified, whereas boys are more of medical advances, such as better prosthet- likely to apply with lower marks. ics, developed by engineers. She mentions In mathematics there’s a similar need the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners for an image makeover, especially in last fall, an operation that was a triumph of computer science, says Sandy Graham, creative engineering. lecturer in the Centre for Education in “Engineering is so embedded in everything Mathematics and Computing (CEMC). around us that people forget we have clean Most young women think of computers drinking water because of it. There are so as tools, full stop; they tend to be less

30 The girls love the hands-on creative design and building activities, and they really enjoy working together to solve problems. professor mary wells, on the Go Eng Girl outreach program

interested than their male classmates in getting under the hood. In the last few years efforts have been underway And they often aren’t aware of how computers can help them to build up those numbers, especially in engineer- make the world a better place, which, Graham says, is what ing and computer science. Waterloo’s Women in generally interests girls. Engineering committee has initiated a day for Girl Guides to come to campus and earn their “We try to give them a broader perspective of the field. We tell engineering badges. And each year the faculty them that the stereotype of the isolated geek sitting at a com- takes part in Go Eng Girl, a well-attended puter all day is not accurate: they will more likely be working as provincial outreach program for girls in grades part of a team to solve some problem. That problem could be 7 to 10, and their parents. creating a new computer game; or it could be helping the food bank distribute its food more efficiently, or helping to protect “The girls love the hands-on creative design and the environment by gathering the right data, and so on.” building activities, and they really enjoy working together to solve problems,” Wells says. “It’s also Graham wants to send the message that, yes, computers are a measure of success that the parents learn tools: powerful tools that women can use to make a difference more about engineering. When they see the in the world. And the more they get the message, the more girls engaged in actual engineering activities, everyone will benefit. it reassures them that this is something their “It’s very important to increase diversity,” Graham says. “Computer daughters can do.” science plays such an influential role in our lives: if you are Since 2002, CEMC has been holding an annual designing new technology from only one perspective, you are Seminar in Computer Science for girls in grades missing a lot of opportunities to make the technology useful 9 and 10. The workshops are increasingly popular. and effective.” Anything that will make the field more diverse Exit surveys bring comments such as: “Before the (she includes age and culture as well as gender) is valuable. seminar, I assumed that a computer scientist was a game maker or an engineer. Now I know that a computer scientist can be a secret agent, a biologist, a researcher, and a mathematician.”

Perhaps even more important is the secondary impact, says Graham, the program’s director. “These girls talk to their friends, spreading the word that doing computer science can be cool and fun, not scary or geeky – and that you can do interesting, useful things with it.”

But getting girls to enrol is only half the job. Keeping them is the other half. That’s part of the mandate of organizations such as Women in Engineering, Women in Mathematics, and Women in Computer Science (WICS), which provide information and guidance to female students, and organize social events to build mutual support – even if that’s just an opportunity to talk over everyday problems with other women. WICS has also introduced a mentoring program, with upper-year students showing first-years the ropes.

Still, it’s not all about boys at Waterloo.

o : chris hu g hes In some departments there are far more women t

Ph o than men. Look at the School of Optometry. When Dr. Carol Cressman graduated as an OD The School of Pharmacy’s newest students, making a pledge of professionalism in their new “white coats,” are part of a class that’s in 1979, she was one of 13 women in a class of 65 per cent female. 57 – less than 23 per cent. »

Where the boys are 31 Women faculty at Waterloo: a rare species

From 2000 to 2009, the proportion of full-time regular female faculty members at “Even then, you could watch things changing,” says Cressman, a Waterloo-area Waterloo (excluding those in the federated optometrist and university senator. “Every year there were more of us.” university and affiliated university colleges) They soon outgrew the two stalls in the women’s washroom. In the late 1980s has risen fairly steadily, but slowly, from they began to outnumber the men. The peak came in fall 2008, when women 19.6 to 25 per cent. Compared to our peers made up nearly 71.6 per cent of enrolment in the school overall. Since then the numbers have declined slightly, to 67.7 per cent in fall 2010. in the G13 group of universities, Waterloo consistently has the lowest percentage of The shift is not surprising, says Dr. Thomas Freddo, optometry’s director. Because women typically out-perform men at the undergrad level, they are women faculty. At the other universities, more often accepted into professional health programs. “If you compare this that percentage ranged from 29.9 to 39.1 school’s enrolment to other primary health professional programs, such as per cent in 2008. family medicine, you’ll find that we are in line,” Freddo says.

What causes Waterloo to rank so low? One drawing card for women is that primary health care, as distinct from According to Waterloo’s 2010 Performance specializations such as surgery, offers the flexibility to combine families and careers. Cressman also highlights the opportunity for women to dovetail Indicators Report, it’s because the bulk their people-oriented and their scientific sides within a respected profession. of the professoriate is in engineering, “I was good at math and physics, but I wanted to be involved in health care,” mathematics, and science. These are she says. “So optometry was a good fit.” the disciplines in which women doctoral Arts is really where the girls are. This faculty has 63.6 per cent women students across Canada – the pool of students, which aligns with the national average for enrolment in humanities potential faculty hires – also tend to be in and social sciences. That percentage is slightly less than in the Faculty of short supply, which puts them in higher Applied Health Sciences – but, because arts has such high numbers, second only to engineering, it’s home to a third of all women students at Waterloo. demand, and harder to recruit. As dean of arts, as an educator, and as the father of both boys and girls, In an article in the March 2011 FAUW Forum, Ken Coates has an ongoing deep interest in the gender split issue. And it’s an however, David DeVidi, faculty association important function of the liberal arts, he adds, to raise such questions in the past president, notes that “the percentage public forum. Hence his co-authoring an article that appeared in Walrus magazine, March 2007, entitled: “Snail Males: Why are men falling behind of women in the relevant PhD pool in math in universities while women speed ahead?” was 45 per cent, while the rate of hiring at “The irony is that I grew up in a world where people were legitimately Waterloo was 10 per cent; in science, it was concerned about the low representation of women in universities,” Coates says. 26 per cent and nine per cent, respectively. The reversal of this situation, he adds, is one of the last generation’s greatest “If we're serious about wanting to hire successes. “You celebrate that success. Then you say, But what happened to the men?” women at a rate within shouting distance of the supply in the pipeline, … changes in The Walrus article sums up the debate. What’s not disputed is that males now lag behind at all levels of education, except doctoral. In high school, girls work our hiring practices are in order,” DeVidi harder, drop out less, and are more likely to continue past high school. says. “By gathering relevant statistical But why? Here’s where the debate kicks in. Some observers (not all) say data systematically we will have good elementary teaching methods have changed to favour the way girls learn, longitudinal evidence … to identify leaving boys bored and unmotivated. Some say the learning differences are what works and what doesn't. And the hard-wired, and call for separate-gender schools. Also, most schoolteachers are administration and FAUW should work female, so young boys have fewer male role models when it comes to learning. together on defining new, more effective Many observers cite a media culture that portrays women as smart and men hiring practices.” as clueless. Some mention socio-economic changes since the 1960s that have left boys and men unsure of their role in the world. Some blame video games, to which boys are much more likely than girls to become addicted, at the expense of their studies. WEB see Where the boys are at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/links

32 where the girls are

Canada-wide (Statistics Canada, 2008-09) Women make up 57.6 % of university students overall: 58 % » undergrads Coates doesn’t buy the “feminization of teaching” notion, which he says 55.7 % » master’s students suggests a backlash against the women’s movement. “I worry that these 46.8 % » doctoral students things could be turned into an anti-female approach that would be very harmful,” he says.

His own view? “I think there are some very difficult things happening with Canada-wide, selected fields young men. I don’t think men, historically, have had to deal with a lot of of study, women enrolled (Statistics Canada, 2008-09) competition from women, and I’m not sure they do very well at it. 21.1 % » Architecture, engineering, and related technologies “Also, I think there are a bunch of really goofy stereotypes about young 71.3 % » Health, parks, recreation, men that are encouraging anti-intellectual behaviour. This is the Bart and fitness Simpson approach: young men can be dumb, in a jackass kind of way, and 61.3 % » Humanities be cool. On the flip side, young women are getting messages that, unlike 27.3 % » Mathematics, computer previous generations, they have to be prepared to look after themselves. science and information sciences 54.1 % » Physical and life sciences, So they should be really careful about making sure they get careers that and technologies have opportunities. For girls, it’s cool to be smart.” 64.9 % » Social and behavioural sciences, and law What’s to be done? For one thing, universities should work with teachers in the elementary and high schools, to identify where the gaps are in terms of motivation and accomplishment, “and then to go back and figure out what Women enrolled at Waterloo (%) fall 2010 we’re doing wrong in that level,” Coates says. Another course is to publicly 0 » 50 » 100 discuss some of the deeper issues: especially, to question the stereotype of Total 64.8 the dumb male in popular media, and to think more deeply about the role Undergrad 62.2 of men today. AHS Master’s 83.2 PhD 58.6

One obvious approach would be to create outreach programs to attract Total 63.6 more boys to, say, history or psychology or optometry, like the ones that Undergrad 64.4 Master’s 55.1 encourage girls to consider computer science or engineering. Optometry ARTS PhD 53.7 director Thomas Freddo says such programs are unlikely to appear any time Total 20.7 Undergrad 19.7 soon. “It would be such a politically difficult thing to even voice,” he says, Master’s 26.3 ENG “that I can guarantee nobody’s going to do it.” PhD 19.7

Total 53.3 Internal conversations on this tricky topic only recently began in arts, Coates Undergrad 54.3

itecture Master’s 49.6 h says. “I do not want to leave for one second the impression that we’re not PhD rc a welcoming young women here. And the people who come here should be the Total 54.4 ones of highest accomplishment.” There is no chance that, having “enough” Undergrad 54.3 Master’s 54.3 ENV women, they will lower standards to attract more men. PhD 57.1

“I feel odd about this on one level,” Coates says. “It took society genera- Total 32.0 Undergrad 32.5 tions to get concerned about the under-representation of women; and in the Master’s 32.3 MATH PhD 21.1 case of young men, within a decade, as soon as the demographics started to change, you got this concern. Part of me says: It’s just the women’s turn.” Total 12.5 Undergrad

UTER 11.5 Master’s 18.4 MP CIENCE

But he’s haunted by a sense of squandered riches. “I want women to have S PhD 17.1 CO every bit as much opportunity as they do now,” he says. “But when you see Total 52.7 any portion of Canadian society, whether they’re new Canadians or whether Undergrad 54.5 Master’s 37.2

they are men or women, where you know they’re not exploring their full SCIENCE PhD 38.6 potential, I think that’s where we have to go. Total 67.7

ETRY Undergrad 70.6 “If you deny smart, mathematically inclined women the chance to get a math M Master’s 33.3 TO

P PhD 45.0 degree, it’s as much a loss as if a historically minded young man chooses not O to go into history. Ultimately, if individuals are not allowed to develop to Total 43.6 Undergrad 44.6 their fullest, we all lose out.” Master’s 40.7 PhD 33.2 OVERALL

Source: University of Waterloo Institutional Analysis and Planning

Where the boys are 33 not online? You can mail class note submissions to: University of Waterloo Magazine Communications and Public Affairs University of Waterloo Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1

1969 1970

Romesh Batra (MASc ’69; PhD Alastair Rickard (MA ’70, Johns Hopkins) has received the MPhil ’76) is a former insurance Governor’s Award for Science executive who worked with Mutual Innovation from the governor of Life, Clarica, and Sun Life, and Virginia. He is the Clifton C. Garvin chaired the Financial Planning Professor of Engineering Science and Standards Council board of Mechanics at Virginia Tech, and is directors. As well, he founded considered a world leader in the and edited the Canadian Journal what are you up to lately? science of materials exposed to of Life Insurance for 10 years. Let your classmates know what you’re up to by extreme stresses. His work has led For the past two years he has been sending a brief update to [email protected]. to applications from improved bullet- posting his columns about business, Or visit our uw alumni e-community to update your profile at alumni.uwaterloo.ca/ecommunity. proof vests and anti-blast shields for politics, travel, and the arts vehicles, to a computational tool used to his blog, “Rickard’s Read.” by NASA to assess damage to solar RickardsRead.com panels from space-borne particles.

From math to On a January night in 1997, more But after graduating in 2005 and launching a career in finance, the mat than 25,000 people crowded Toronto’s he found his on-air dreams had refused to die. So, in a move SkyDome to watch some of profes- reminiscent of wrestling’s dramatic storylines, he left the sional wrestling’s biggest names – corporate world to pursue broadcasting. » Bret and Owen Hart, Steve Austin, the Once again, Ocal began volunteering, this time with Rogers Undertaker – do battle in the square community television, where he did everything from driving circle. In the stands, 16-year-old the “community cruiser” to handing out swag. He worked his Arda Ocal (BMath ’05) way up to broadcasting sports events and co-hosting a daily watched, entranced. lifestyle program. Where some might have seen a “Community media is the best place to get experience in bunch of large, sweaty men throwing broadcasting,” he says. “You can learn so many things. And each other around the ring, Ocal saw you’re allowed to make mistakes.” heroes and villains, the archetypal The stint at Rogers led to an internship at the satellite radio struggle of good against evil. division of Score Media. Here, he produced mixed martial arts Fast forward 14 years. Ocal is still programs with veteran sportscaster Mauro Ranallo. In 2009, fascinated by the theatrics of the when executives solicited ideas for a new TV show, Ocal wrestling world. And he’s turned his suggested a “post-game” show for the network’s popular World love for the sport into a career as Wrestling Entertainment programming. In December 2009, co-host of Right After Wrestling, he became co-host of Right After Wrestling, which is carried on The Score Television Network. on both television and radio. While Ocal’s skill with numbers brought him to Waterloo’s On air, Ocal finds it easy to chat with the wrestling legends mathematics and business administration program, an interest he interviews, from Hulk Hogan to Chris Jericho. “I have such in broadcasting led him to volunteer at CKMS, the campus a passion for the subject that the questions flow easily.” radio station, where he hosted a “pre-Bomber” show on But for the career he’s built doing the things he loves, Wednesday nights. Ocal has just two words: “I’m blessed.”

Text: Beth Bohnert

1976 1984 Harnessing the wind

After 25 years with Canada Post, The partners in the Toronto firm

Sean Michael Kennedy (BES ’76, Plant Architects – Mary Tremain Lowering yourself nearly 20 storeys from a wind turbine perched on BA ’78; LLM ’07 York) retired as the (BES ’84, BArch ’86), Lisa Rapoport a mountaintop is not your average workplace experience. But then, corporation’s senior regional counsel (BES ’85, BArch ’88), and Chris this is not your average workplace. in December 2009. Following family Pommer (BES ’86, BArch ’88) – have trips to Egypt and Vancouver in 2010, taken on a new challenge. With the Eye of the Wind is the world’s first wind turbine to be equipped with Sean began the PhD program in law artist Douglas Coupland, they won the both a public observation deck and an elevator. As project manager, at Osgoode Hall Law School at York commission to design and create the systems design engineer Julia Kossowski (BASc ’06) University, concentrating in labour and Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial co-ordinated the massive structure’s design, manufacturing, and constitutional law. He is also serving as in Ottawa, to be completed in 2012. finally its construction atop Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain in 2010. secretary of the Ontario Bar Associa- In another project they are designing tion, 2010-11. He and his wife Kathleen the revitalization of Toronto’s Nathan Hanging from a 65-metre tower for an evacuation exercise was just Kennedy (Voll, BA ’79), a solicitor with Phillips Square, where the first phase, one of the challenges Eye of the Wind posed. Teams from nine the City of Toronto, celebrated their a roof garden for the City Hall podium, countries, speaking five languages, developed the turbine’s 22nd anniversary in November 2010. is open. The design for this project has components independently. These huge parts (the blades alone are They live in Oakville, Ontario, with won a Canadian Architect Award. close to 38 metres long) had to be shipped to Canada and then daughters Tara and Sina. branchplant.com transported to the building site before snowfall. [email protected] 1988 The project, privately funded by Grouse Mountain Resort, needed 1977 Carol Bennett McCuaig (BA ’88, to be completed in time for the start of a little get-together known Paul Kraehling (BES ’77) has retired BA ’03), published her 50th book as the Winter Olympics. That’s because the turbine is not only an after 35 years as a municipal and this spring. Entitled Encountering the energy source, generating enough power annually for 400 homes, provincial planner. He is now engaged Wild (Dundurn, 2011), it depicts her it was also designed to serve as an education centre and the area’s in advanced studies at the University experiences with wildlife – from bears newest tourist attraction. of Guelph’s School of Environmental and cougars to porcupines and whip- Design and Rural Development. poorwills – on her country property By the time the Olympic flame reached the waterfront, Eye of the [email protected] in Renfrew County, Ontario. Carol Wind was ready for guests. publishes both fiction and non-fiction. “I missed seeing [singer] Michael Bublé, but I was there when 1983 dundurn.com/authors/carol_ [Olympic gold medallist] Alex Bilodeau visited,” says Kossowski. Karen Hutchinson (BES ’83) has won bennett_mccuaig a 2010 Woman of Achievement Award What lures people to Eye of the Wind? Perhaps it’s because so few 1989 from the Zonta Club of Brampton- people have the opportunity to see a wind turbine up close, let Caledon, recognizing her work to help Mary-Jane Pilgrim (Verboom, BMath alone ascend one. restore the area’s ailing farm industry. ’89; MEd Toronto) played squash for Karen, who grew up on a dairy farm in 20 years, but only recently started “In the ViewPOD, you see these huge blades pass slowly in front Caledon, worked in market studies and taking the game seriously. This year of your face,” Kossowski says. “It’s like being in an aquarium and planning in Toronto for several years the 45-year-old earned a spot in the watching a whale swim past.” before returning to Caledon in 2000. Canadian Masters Teams Squash Then there are the spectacular 360-degree views from the observation In 2003 she became executive director Championship, after winning a silver deck, one of the aspects Kossowski appreciated most about the project. of the Caledon Countryside Alliance medal in the 40+ division at the (CCA), which aims to reinvigorate rural Ontario Masters Closed Championship But Eye of the Wind offers more than just beauty and novelty, she adds. Caledon’s economy and social scene. in November. Mary-Jane is an “This project is teaching people about clean energy and challenging She also contributed to the Grown instructional technology specialist them to find ways to live sustainably. in Peel Guide, the Eat Local Caledon at Trent University, where in 2007 movement, and the creation of two she was one of the first recipients ”Electricity demand in Canada is rising and many power plants are farmers’ markets. of Trent’s Distinguished Teaching approaching retirement. We need more power and we need cleaner Award for Educational Leadership ways to generate it. Wind energy is part of the solution.” and Excellence in Teaching. Text: Beth Bohnert

Who's doing what? 35 1990 1998 malaise,” he also looks at “new Stratford-born inventor, who says ways of thinking about IT system inventiveness runs in his family, reg- Bi Bim Bap Korean Stone Bowl Jen Hiuser (MacBride, BA ’98; BEd implementations.” The book can istered the pattern and began selling Riceteria on Eglinton Avenue West is Western) spent a year teaching be found on the Amazon website. the Beardo online. It’s targeted to Toronto’s first restaurant dedicated conversational ESL in Japan and then skiers and snowboarders, but Jeff to the popular Korean dish of rice, worked as an educational assistant 2004 is getting orders from warm places vegetables, meat, and eggs. It’s in elementary classrooms in Ontario. Sarah Freeman (Pinnell, BA ’04; such as Mexico and Florida, as well owned and run by Sam Lee (BSc “After several years of classroom as Canada and other cold countries. ’90) and his wife, Janet. Reviews teaching,” she says, “I began creating MTS ’08 Grebel), has won the beardowear.ca applaud the quality of the food, and providing individualized tutoring A. James Reimer Award from which includes vegan sauces, but also programs and guiding my students Conrad Grebel University College Matt Rendall (BASc ’08, MBET ’09), Sam’s attention to his clientele. He toward their academic potential.” in recognition of her “academic one of the first graduates of was born in South Korea, immigrated Recently, she merged her teaching achievement, her zeal for preaching, Waterloo’s mechatronics to Canada at age nine, and learned and tutoring experience with her and her enthusiastic participation at engineering program, caught the Korean cooking from his mother. “I’m language skills in an editing service, the Toronto Mennonite Theological robotics bug as an undergrad. Now not a chef, just a foodie that loves bi Eloquent Editing (eloquentediting.ca). Centre.” (TMTC is Grebel’s graduate he is CEO of Clearpath Robotics, a bim bap,” Sam says on his website. Jen lives in New Hamburg, Ontario, and research centre affiliated with firm he launched in 2010 with three stonebowl.ca with husband Josh and children the Toronto School of Theology.) other mechatronics engineering Michaela, 8, Kate, 6, and Maggie, 3. The $8,000 award will allow grads – Bryan Webb (BASc ’09), 1997 [email protected] Sarah to continue full-time Doctor Ryan Gariepy (BASc ’09), and John Gallinger (MAcc ’97) is the new of Theology studies at the University Patrick Martinson (BASc ’09). The president and CEO of Standardbred 2000 of Toronto, with the ultimate goal company’s first major product is the Canada, the body that regulates “Most IT projects fail,” says Jonathan of teaching homiletics. Chameleon R200, a reconfigurable harness racing in Canada. A few Ezer (BMath ’00). The computer robot made for mechatronics months into the job he proposed science grad tackles the reasons why 2008 students to take apart and learn a new Racing Development and in his first published book,Office Jeff Phillips (BA ’08) was freezing from. It’s been snapped up by Sustainability Plan, with the goal of Politics and IT Failure. He believes the his face at Whistler in 2006 when he universities including Waterloo, enhancing the fans’ entertainment cause is “not in the way IT projects came up with the idea for a unique Royal Military College, McMaster, experience and reinvigorating the are managed, but rather how IT piece of Canadian headgear. Lacking Toronto, and York. sport. John and his wife Carolyn is perceived.” After examining the sufficient self-grown facial hair, he clearpathrobotics.com (Lee, MAcc ’97), live with their three forces that “conspire to create an created the Beardo, a knitted toque children in Richmond Hill. atmosphere ripe for failure and with detachable woolly beard. The

Mary Theberge (BIS ’93) can no longer conduct wolves in a buffer zone around the park. They were also Connecting with research on Yellowstone’s wolves in summer, because of instrumental in the development of Kluane National the wilderness the “wolf groupies” who flood the park hoping to make Park in the Yukon and a proposed park in B.C.’s Okanagan contact with its lupine residents. And she’s OK with that. Valley where, Theberge notes, more endangered species exist than anywhere else in Canada. » “People have become isolated from nature; now they’re re-discovering the wilderness,” Theberge says. But it’s when Theberge talks about watching people, especially children, make that personal connection to Theberge and her husband John, former professor in the natural world that her voice lights up. Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment, are two of North America’s foremost wolf ecologists. In addition, Theberge Growing up in Tanzania, Theberge says she had nature speaks regularly on conservation issues and is an on her doorstep. “Most children today, even those in rural accomplished illustrator. areas, don’t get to experience that.”

The Theberges are passionate champions of wildlife. A former Girl Guide leader, she recounts the girls’ They are equally passionate about helping people excitement in encountering garter snakes. And she talks understand nature and their place in it. of bringing her daughters on research trips as babies; both are now biologists. The couple’s most recent book, The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma, is a celebration of the intricate workings of the natural “Children are like sponges, they want to experience world. It describes their many experiences conducting everything. They must be exposed to nature at an early wildlife research in engrossing places. age,” Theberge says.

“There is a thirst for knowledge that can be appeased, Through her research, speaking engagements, and art, to some extent, by our book. The more we understand Theberge hopes to inspire more people to seek the any facet of nature, the more deeply we feel wonder and personal experiences with nature that Yellowstone’s excitement,” Theberge says. wolf groupies are looking for.

The Theberges’ contributions to conservation are impres- “It’s that emotional connection with wildlife and the sive. Their long-standing research in Algonquin Park, for natural environment that will save the biosphere.”

instance, led to unprecedented legislation that protects Text: Beth Bohnert

36 2009 Gwendolen H. Foss, BA ’91 Theresa L. George, BSc ’92 Mark Terrana (BA ’09) has found Gene H. Golub, DMath ’87 his place in the sun – he’s one of the Mavis J. Govier, BMath ’93 top players in the South Australia Sharon L. Green, BA ’97 Baseball League. Mark grew up Jon A. Gudmundsson, MASc ’76 playing ball in Ancaster, Ontario, Robert L. Hackney, BASc ’63 then played football in high school

Susan A. Hendler, PhD ’88 » and at the University of Waterloo Susan L. Hilderley, BSc ’74 for two years, before switching back Thomas G. Hinsperger, BSc ’68, to baseball in his third year. He now MSc ’69 plays for the Gawler Rangers, based Challenging Heather A. Houston, BSc ’83, MSc ’87 near Adelaide. The job doesn’t pay a cartoon Norman D. Howes, BSc ’78 much, Mark says, but it means warm cliché Albert N. Issa, BMath ’98 winters and playing his favourite Brian W. Johnson, BASc ’68 game all year round. In his free time, If you’ve ever watched Saturday morning cartoons, you’ve seen the Christopher Jordan, BMath ’07 he coaches local kids’ teams. stereotypical scientist – a white-coated genius in a secret laboratory Richard M. Kane, MMath ’69, PhD ’73 with only his twisted experiments and a few lab rats for company. 2010 Zafrin S. Khandani, BMath ’07 Gerald J. Kinnear, BASc ’81 Robert Pockar (MSc ’00) is helping to change that image. Investing in stocks has fascinated Zeke R. Klimczak, BA ’77 Pockar is president and CEO of Matrix Solutions Inc., a Calgary- Robin Speziale (BA ’10) since high Claus A. Koeppe, BA ’73 based environmental and engineering consulting firm. He’s also school. Robin, a psychology grad Annette G. Lammer, BA ’91 an active proponent of science education and literacy, which he with a minor in arts and business, Michael Langham, LLD ’67 recently self-published Lessons believes Canada needs to increase if we’re to remain competitive Randal P. Leavitt, BMath ’70 from the Successful Investor, an in the high-tech global market. Andrea S. Leonard, BA ’03 e-book, with tips on what he’s Donald D. Livingstone, MASc ’70 “Even here in Alberta, where we have the highest number of learned over the years. An early Anne S. MacIntosh, BA ’85 engineers per capita in the country, there’s a shortage of skilled starter, in his fourth year at Jannette M. Marcinkowski, BMath ’85 science and technology workers,” he says. “We’re not keeping up.” Waterloo he founded Buddingup, Hilda L. Mason, BA ’07 a website devoted to helping As a kid, Pockar loved science. But it wasn’t until Grade 8, thanks Anthony Miezlaiskis, BSc ’71 new grads find jobs. to a teacher who inflamed that passion, that he realized the Mary E. Mitchell, BA ’73 robinspeziale.com Dean M. Mucci, BMath ’75 discipline could be more than just a hobby. Uri N. Peled, PhD ’76 Other mentors, including Chuck Shultz, former CEO of Gulf Raymond D. Pellowe, OD ’50 In Memoriam Canada Resources Limited and a 40-year veteran of the oil and Cari E. Petrie, BA ’89 We recently received news of gas industry, played key roles as Pockar’s career progressed. Michael J. Promoli, BSc ’73 the following deaths. Our sincere David J. Ramsden, BASc ’83 It was Shultz who invited him to join the Science Alberta condolences to the family and Barry F. Roberts, BASc ’69 Foundation’s board of directors. This non-profit organization shares friends of these alumni. George E. Ruddle, BASc ’63, MSc ’64 the excitement of science with kids and adults alike through its Gary R. Ablett, BSc ’75 Jerome S. Schatten, BMath ’68 interactive website, exhibits, and hands-on activities. Last year, the , BMath ’01 Celestino Azzoli, BIS ’75 Timur Skeini foundation provided programming to nearly 800,000 people across Barbara D. Barker-Edwards, BA’89 Dario Skopovi, BA ’09 the province. It also highlights the cosmos of career opportunities Paul D. Beam, BA ’64 Kenneth G. Smith, BMath ’70 that science offers. Alan D. Brown, BASc ’70 Robert T. Smith, MA ’72 Betty E. Buschert, CGogy ’86 Rodney D. Snyder, BA ’82 “We show kids that you don’t have to wear a lab coat or move to Michael S. Carroll, BASc ’75 Quentin L. Sturk, BA ’93, BA ’02 Silicon Valley to be a scientist,” Pockar says. Terrence C. Cherry, MMath ’83 Dian L. Suda, BA ’70 Pockar himself is the antithesis of that cliché. Far from being Schumann S. Chiang, PhD ’74 Sara M. Tetlow, BArch ’90 confined to a lab, Matrix Solutions has field projects from Ecuador Helen J. Clarke, BA ’70 Susan D. Townsend, BA ’88 James R. Clunas, BASc ’85 Dennis N. Twerdun, OD ’68 to the Athabasca oil sands. Although administrative duties mean Richard W. Cockfield, PhD ’70 Fred J. Veinot, BMath ’83 he doesn’t get out to the field as often as he used to, there are com- John R. Cziraki, BA ’70 Ruth Vilim, BA ’98 pensations. He now has time to mentor young Matrix employees, Graham R. Davies, BSc ’78 Michael P. von Euw, BASc ’87 helping them develop their careers and encouraging them to take Reed E. Dawkins, OD ’72 John K. Ward, BMath ’86 advantage of the company’s extensive education program. Phillip G. De Souza, BSc ’73 Grace A. Webster, BMath ’83 “I once thought that closing deals would be the most rewarding Robert J. Dickson, BSc ’89, John C. Wilson, MSc ’62, PhD ’66 BMath ’93, MMath ’95 Anna M. Wittenzellner, MA ’07 part of being CEO,” Pockar says. “But nothing is as satisfying as Connie H. Dietrich, BA ’71 Alex C. Wong, BMath ’78 the chance to help people grow.”

Dorota T. Echavarry, BIS ’77 Raymond W. Wong, BSc ’79 Text: Beth Bohnert Fraser D. Ferguson, BMath ’80 Lynda M. Young, BA ’00

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38 Let’s get together

June 21 Toronto Ten years or less a grad? SEPTEMBER 24 SEPTEMBER 28 june Catch the Waterloo Young Reunion 2011 Noon hour concert Alumni Event at the Boiler JUNE 9 Reconnect with classmates and profs. Mauro Bertoli, piano, and House, 55 Mill Street, Distillery Lebold endowment banquet Enjoy the fun run and other events, Wolfgang David, violin. Fundraising dinner with cheer on our football Warriors, tour Details: see September 21 concert. District, Toronto. Rebecca Slough, 6:30 p.m., campus to see what's new and Conrad Grebel University College. what's unchanged. SEPTEMBER 28-30 July 17 Tickets: Carol Lichti. [email protected] Performing arts conference Cambridge area [email protected] 519-888-4567, ext. 36225 Challenging Digital Media at Alumni in Kitchener, Waterloo, alumni.uwaterloo.ca/reunions Waterloo Stratford Campus. Cambridge, Hamilton – go JUNE 18 [email protected] wild with the family at African Mennonite heritage dinner SEPTEMBER 24 Lion Safari, Flamborough. Celebrating Walter and Marina 17th annual East Asian Festival october Unger’s heritage cruises to Russia, a Celebrate cultures of China, Japan, fundraiser for the Mennonite Archives and Korea at Renison University OCTOBER 5 of Ontario, 6:30 p.m., Conrad Grebel. College, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. Proceeds Noon hour concert november Tickets $100 ($75 receipt). to Renison’s East Asian Studies Annette-Barbara Vogel, violin, [email protected] program. and Daniel Sweaney, viola. EARLY NOVEMBER [email protected] Details: see September 21 concert. Environment 3 grand opening july 519-884-4404, ext. 28657 Alumni and friends celebrate OCTOBER 23-25 environment’s new LEED JULY 1 SEPTEMBER 24 International women in digital platinum building. Canada Day at Waterloo Chemistry reunion media summit 519-888-4567, ext. 32492 27th annual University of Waterloo In the International Year of Chemistry, Explore digital media content creation, [email protected] Canada Day at Columbia Lake offers share memories, exploration and emerging technologies and business environment.uwaterloo.ca children’s fun, live music, museum festivities at Waterloo. models, and women’s role in digital visits, face painting, interactive science.uwaterloo.ca media. Waterloo Stratford Campus. NOVEMBER 9 displays, arts and crafts fair, birthday wift.com/digital-summit Noon hour concert cake, and fireworks. 2 - 11 p.m. SEPTEMBER 24 Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann, [email protected] Flags of Asia OCTOBER 26 four-hand piano. Details: 519-888-4567, ext. 33981 Renison’s chancellor, Bishop Ralph Noon hour concert see September 21 concert. canadaday.uwaterloo.ca Spence, speaks on the flags of Lori Freedman, bass clarinet. China, Japan, and Korea at Renison Details: see September 21 concert. NOVEMBER 10-12, 17-19 august University College, 4 p.m. Reception A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows. $10. OCTOBER 21 Drama department stages AUGUST 26 [email protected] Arthur J. Carty lecture Shakespeare’s play. 8 p.m. Theatre Golf with St. Paul’s 519-884-4404, ext. 28657 Delivered by Sir David King, of the Arts, Modern Languages St. Paul’s Masters Golf Tournament former chief science advisor to Building. $17 ($13 students/seniors) at Glen Eagle Golf Club, Caledon. SEPTEMBER 24 the British government. at Box Office, 519-888-4908. Proceeds to 1970s Alumni Scholarship Conrad Grebel reunion [email protected] [email protected] in International Development. Dinner for 2000-2005 Grebel alumni, science.uwaterloo.ca 519-888-4567, ext. 35808 [email protected] 6:30 p.m., Conrad Grebel dining drama.uwaterloo.ca 519-885-1460, ext. 218 room. $25. OCTOBER 28-29 stpauls.uwaterloo.ca [email protected] Gem and mineral show MID-NOVEMBER grebel.uwaterloo.ca/reunion Gem and mineral dealers display Waterloo Unlimited september collections for viewing and Road Map to Research enrichment SEPTEMBER 24-25 purchasing. CEIT Building, program for Grade 12 students. SEPTEMBER 21 Engineering reunions 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. unlimited.uwaterloo.ca Noon hour concert Classes of ’91, ’96, ’01, and ’06; science.uwaterloo.ca Guy Few, trumpet, and Nadine and Classes of ’66, ’71, ’76, ’81, ’86. NOVEMBER 18 Mackey Jackson, piano, Conrad Register by September 9. OCTOBER 29 Spirituality and aging lecture Grebel Chapel, 12:30 p.m. [email protected] Science open house Steven Sandage speaks on grebel.uwaterloo.ca/academic/ 519-888-4567, ext. 37827 Activities and demonstrations forgiveness and well-being in later undergrad/music/concerts.shtml engineering.uwaterloo.ca/alumni/ for children and their families. life at Conrad Grebel University reunions.html CEIT Building, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. College. Register. science.uwaterloo.ca [email protected]

Upcoming events 39 Heather Gingerich (Baptie, MSc ’06) is the director of the Canadian chapter of the International Medical Geology Association, sits on the board of directors for the Ontario branch of the Canadian Water Resources Association, and is a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland’s School of Population Health in Australia. Contact her at [email protected].

Photo: Trish Roberts, Custom Concept Photography

« the last word

Look beyond bacteria when assessing water quality

Like many mothers, I often struggle with the And by erecting a knee-jerk legislative framework that sensation of being invisible. And while my only recognizes a very narrow suite of surface contaminants eight-year-old “Hobbit-hooked” son believes this related to certain human activities, they entirely missed the to be a tremendous advantage (particularly crucial element of the water-environment-health connection. when trying to evade goblins), when you have As a result of this bias of attention toward bacteria, a child with a complex health issue and it’s the healthcare workers are made blind to the fact that provincial government that can’t see you, consuming chemical cocktails of naturally occurring you’ve got trouble. substances, water treatment additives, and/or unlisted My graduate research at Waterloo showed that organic compounds can be harmful – especially for little water chemistry varies considerably from people in sensitive stages of development. And, unlike source to source, but that health standards only E. coli contamination, which does its explosive damage in exist for a handful of natural contaminants – a few days, the quiet fuse for many of these environmental a small fraction of hydrocarbons and only 29 exposures is often hidden in the kidneys, and it can run for of the 92 naturally occurring elements of the decades before igniting a health crisis. periodic table. Hippocrates, founder of modern medicine, agrees. “[Excessive While a few studies consider adult health minerals in water] are harsh, cause difficulty in urination, outcomes relative to water chemistry, they are and prevent excretion,” he said, nearly 2,500 years ago. mostly as old as I am, and the health effects Translation: Consuming highly mineralized groundwater on children and formula-fed infants are hardly has its hazards. Natural waters contain varying amounts of studied at all. Both as a parent and as a mem- all the elements found in the Earth’s surface materials, and ber of a community where bacteria-free but some – particularly the iron, sulphides, calcium, fluoride, and highly mineralized “bullet water” shoots out carbon-containing compounds that are common to southern of the taps, I am justifiably vexed that millions Ontario – can undermine good health. of Ontario residents with water-related health problems have been made effectively invisible Dissolved minerals and hydrocarbons that you can see, taste, by the Clean Water Act. smell, and feel (particularly in the kidneys) impact the health of future generations in a variety of ways that are difficult More harm than good is done by defining to perceive if all you’re looking for is E. coli. “water quality” exclusively in terms of the

presence or absence of a select few microbes. Heather Gingerich

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