Grade 12 student Owen Turner has always been interested in business, but participating in last week’s case competition at the Faculty of Human Kinetics has him considering a career in sport management and leadership instead.

“I’ve applied to both,” said Turner, a student at Maranatha Christian Academy. “Because of learning about this, two worlds collided for me.”

Turner was on the winning team at the Sport Management and Leadership Case Competition sponsored by the Faculty of Human Kinetics Dec. 14. He and teammates Frederick Gillett, David Moloce, Micaela O’Neill, and Rebecca Sweet won a shared prize of $5,000 to put toward tuition in the Sport Management and Leadership or Kinesiology/Movement Science programs in the faculty.

The runner-up team from Catholic Central High School: Kennedy Carlsen, Shania Cheng, Lily Penrose, Dimitri Pindus, and Joaquin Urbano, will share a $2,500 tuition prize.

The event marked the first time the faculty has sponsored a case competition.

“This competition is part of a larger outreach effort with local high schools to get them thinking about our department and all of the wonderful things we do,” said kinesiology professor Craig Greenham, who organized the event. “In this situation, we provided them with a real-life scenario — one of importance to Lancer athletics — and let them creatively engage with possible solutions.”

The participating teams were asked to research and present ways for the Lancer men’s and women’s hockey teams to increase attendance at their home games. They were scored on strategy, delivery, the ability to answer the questions about their presentation, and overall impression.

The team from Maranatha attended games of the men’s and women’s teams, interviewing fans at both. They also attended campus and interviewed students.

The Maranatha team suggested better marketing of games to UWindsor students, minor hockey teams in the region, schools near the complex, and fans of the game in general would help pack the stands.

They also said improvements to the sound system at the home ice at the city-owned Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex, having guest singers performing O Canada, and having activities in the stands between periods would improve the fan experience and boost attendance at games.

Dr. Greenham praised both teams for their performances.

“I feel that the presentations demonstrated analytical thought and polished delivery. That’s not easy to do at any age — particularly when faced by a panel of judges,” he said. “These students didn’t look intimidated. They were confident in their ideas and that was great to see.”

—Sarah Sacheli

Keen computer science students lined up to pitch their latest programming endeavours to attendees at the 2022 Computer Science Demo Day, Dec. 8.

300 Ouellette Ave. held the event in-person for the first time since the pandemic started. The downtown building houses the Master of Applied Computing (MAC) program.

MAC student Kameswara Peddada was there with his fellow project members pitching their project “Simplified SCO on Wheels,” a product that allows you to check yourself out at a store using your cell phone.

“This is portable and adaptable; you can use it in any store that subscribes to this product,” says Peddada. “This is cost friendly and time friendly because if it is busy and there is a line at a check out, if the store subscribes to our product, you can just use your phone and buy any product you want.”

More than 20 presentations featured research and real-time projects from around 150 current undergraduate and graduate students, as well as two high school co-op students.

Sam Guarasci is in grade 12 at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School and has a co-op position with the director of the School of Computer Science, Ziad Kobti. Guarasci will attend UWindsor in computer science in Fall 2023.

“My project is called Simply and it is an app where you can summarize anything with just a picture,” says Guarasci. His app is already available for download from Apple’s App Store.

“It is an exciting opportunity to be a part of Demo Day.”

At the event, students showcased their work to faculty and industry partners. Samantha Coggans from DataRealm, an automation engineering company, says she came to network with students.

“We already have a UWindsor co-op student, and we were invited to this invent and hopefully do some networking to potentially meet some new candidates.”

The School of Computer Science launched the MAC program at its new downtown location with the aim of creating new experiential learning and advanced training opportunities in all aspects of computing.

“I am grateful for all the support we received from the local industry and the community coming out to spend time with our students and celebrate their success,” says Dr. Kobti. “This is a unique opportunity for the students to promote their talents and the community to learn about what is happening in Computer Science and in the downtown building.”

The day wrapped up with awards; Darshan Dave and Suraj Hiteshkumar Zinzuwadia won Best Overall Innovative Project for their “Smart Clothing System.”

The Office of Open Learning is launching a series of new workshops to support teaching with technology and exploring hot topics in digital pedagogies.

There are several new tools available to create engaging digital teaching resources, accessible online course sites, simplify creating accessible documents, and support more flexible teaching. The Teaching with tech workshop series explores practical uses of these new tools.

The Digital pedagogies series explores the pedagogical implications of the current era of rapidly changing and advancing technologies that all clamour for our attention. The series provides a means of looking forward to what is to come on this trajectory as students and faculty face questions of technocentrism, uncertainty, information abundance, and natural and anthropogenic disasters that we must collectively address.

“We are excited to explore emerging technologies and pedagogical trends with the campus, and invite everyone to join these important discussions,” says Mark Lubrick, learning specialist in the Office of Open Learning.

Some of the new topics include:

• Using MS Teams to enhance your teaching
• The future of classes with the rise of tools such as Chegg and Artificial Intelligence
• Accessibility features of the new Brightspace learning management system
• Preparing students for uncertainty
• Creating, editing, and streaming engaging videos, and creating gradable video quizzes in YuJa
• Recording and streaming live classes, including using the specially designed flexible delivery (hy-flex) classrooms
• Choosing and using technology that is ethical, equitable, and accessible
• Inclusive assessment in the digital era
• Making the most of the new flexible active and collaborative learning classrooms on campus

Sign up for the free workshops at: https://ctl2.uwindsor.ca/openlearning/workshops/.

For more information, email openlearning@uwindsor.ca or check out the website at: www.uwindsor.ca/openlearning.

While most people are in the generous holiday spirit, there are still cyber-scrooges looking to steal your personal information and money.

One of the most popular types of cyber fraud is phishing. These types of attacks come in many forms from unsolicited calls to text messages, to emails. Phishing attempts are malicious and encourage unassuming people to act quickly while pretending to be from legitimate organizations.

How to spot holiday hackers trying to phish for your information:

• The sender has a public email address, like gmail.com or outlook.com
• Requesting purchase of gift cards
• Threat of discontinued service or closing your account
• Sense of urgency
• Unsolicited email
• Attachments
• Poor spelling, grammar, or look-alike branding
• Requesting credit card information

What should you do if you think you have received a phishing message?

1. Do not respond.
2. Forward the email to spam@uwindsor.ca, if it was sent to your UWindsor account.
3. Delete the message.

To keep your holiday spirits bright and avoid getting a lump of coal in your inbox, learn more about spotting phishing attempts on the IT Services website.

While many University offices will be closed for the holiday break, the IT Services’ Elf-service client portal will be available to help. In addition to the portal, the IT Service Desk will be open for virtual assistance:

• Friday, Dec. 23, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Tuesday to Friday, Dec. 27 to 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Toldo Lancer Centre will amend its hours of operation during the holidays.

It will open for its regular hours, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., through Thursday, Dec. 22.

The centre will open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 23, and close Dec. 24, 25, and 26.

It will operate 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 27 to 30, then close Saturday to Monday, Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, before resuming regular hours on Jan. 3.

WE-Spark Health Institute awarded 18 students for their poster presentations during its International Research Conference in November.

The undergraduate, graduate, PhD, and medical students were awarded $1,400. The innovative projects were wide-ranging across a variety of disciplines and included addressing child literacy gaps in vulnerable populations, preventing the spread of COVID-19 through education, exploring barriers to young adults seeking mental health supports, cancer research projects, and more.

For the complete list of projects and names of the students and their collaborators, click here.

“It’s so important that students are given local opportunities to present their work,” said biomedical sciences professor Lisa Porter, executive director of WE-Spark. “Telling their stories and explaining their methodology and results are an important piece of the research process. It trains students to talk to people from diverse backgrounds and expertise and respond to questions. This type of professional development is a valuable learning experience for all involved.”

During the conference, the first round of WE-Spark Leadership Awards was presented to five recipients. Dora Cavallo-Medved, acting dean of science at the University of Windsor; medical oncologist Caroline Hamm of Windsor Regional Hospital; the institute’s student network co-ordinator Ryan Palazzolo; Jennifer Voth, manager of research and project management for Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare; and Peter Wawrow, director of applied research and development at St. Clair College were recognized for their leadership, dedication, and commitment to advancing WE-Spark’s vision.

“These amazing and passionate individuals have dedicated their time and talents since the beginning of WE-Spark four years ago, and have been committed to advancing our vision,” Dr. Porter said. “They are true WE-Spark champions.”

The conference was held Nov 11 and 12 at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts and featured two keynote speakers, 63 posters, 34 oral presentations, and 250 attendees.

Porter said that the institute is considering making the conference an annual event.

“Bringing together researchers allows everyone to find out what’s going on across our region and sparks collaboration,” she said.

Around 50 people attended a vigil at the University of Windsor for the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women held on the 33rd anniversary of the 1989 massacre at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. The university's Womxn’s Centre and Women’s Engineering Club honoured the 14 women killed on December 6, 1989, at École Polytechnique in Montreal.

The attack left 14 women dead and 13 other people injured at the Montreal engineering school.

Fourteen white roses were held by current engineering students at the vigil on Tuesday morning. Ten women from the university Engineering Club read statements of remembrance for the fourteen victims before placing the roses on the Memorial of Hope in the centre of campus.

“No matter how many years have gone by since this tragic massacre, it is our duty to remember these women and everything they set out to accomplish. The fight for gender equality in STEM-related fields is ongoing and must be talked about”. Kim Courtis

The President Rob Gordon of the University, Dr. Jacqueline Stagner and Dr. Rashid Rashidazadeh from the Faculty of Engineering, and Dr. Frankie Cachon, coordinator for the bystanders were among some of the speakers at the event.

All wore white ribbons to raise awareness about violence against women and girls.

Dr. Frankie Cachon from the office of the Bystanders asked “Where are all the men” Dr. Cachon brought along two men from the bystander's program to speak at the event.

The anniversary of the mass shooting was proclaimed National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in 1991.

The women killed in the anti-feminist attack were Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michele Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte.

—Naomi Pelkey