Spring 1985 Issue 3, July 1985
The main story featured in this issue was the reprint of an article from the Toronto Star entitled “Whiz Kids Have No Fun”, which tore the image of Waterloo students limb from limb, and fully empowered the nerdy, anti-social stereotype often associated with the University. The article describes campus as a ’go-go-go place where you pound the computer at 4 a.m. to catch up with your classes. And your classes are constant because the competition with other students is tough too.” Although the emphasis on the academic and workplace focuses of the university as a whole can be deemed as relatively valid, the article goes on to depict the university as a whole as some type of institution where bright minds and optimistic souls come to meet their maker and loose all hope. The writer explains, “There’s not much joy to all of this and there’s not much spirit either on a campus where the first loyalty is to ‘me’ and a hopefully prosperous future, rather than to a faculty, a fraternity, a class, a college, or the university itself.” I do realize that I cannot speak for the nature of the University at the time, but I strongly oppose this portrayed message. The message ‘work hard, play hard’ is one that is always recited, especially within such a challenging faculty such as engineering. In the issue, the article is printed in the centre spread opposite the ‘Plumbers Forum’, or the ’85 equivalent of what we know as the Iron Inquisition. In this they asked, “What was your impression of the article, “Whiz Kids Have No Fun?” and the majority of the six answers published strongly opposed the lackluster social image used to depict campus life, so one can only assume the same message was portrayed back then. The article goes on to quote a ‘lack of university spirit’ due to a 20 percent student union vote, and small attendance to sporting events. Although the last B-Soc election was in the 30% range of voter turnout, nowadays, any undergrad engineering society would consider that a good voter turnout. This just goes to show that both engineering and school spirit as a whole has struggled from day one at UW. Although there are groups within not only EngSoc, but UW as a whole who may feel that there is a strong sense of engineering or school pride and spirit, that is clearly not representative of the entire student body, and it is not that apparent to those around us. The article mentions how there is no ‘elitism of Queen’s or the country-club atmosphere of Western’ on our campus, which is a bit of a catch 22. I’m sure no students here wish to be perceived as arrogant, but there is something to be said for visible school pride, regardless of whatever form it may take. Every generation views it as a new problem, when it in fact has been a problem for decades.
Spring 1990 Issue 3 – June 8, 1990
Shortly following the entrance to an era of computers slightly smaller than a Honda Civic, the majority of content of this particular issue is about the induction of Dr. William Wilson as the new Associate Dean for Computing, and the role of computers within engineering and the engineering curriculum. One article by a 4th year Chemical student outlines the push to transfer most of the co-op department to an online system, in hopes of removing the need to physically post lists of interviews in on-campus buildings and the amount of hardcopy paperwork sent to employers. After years of planning and waiting, a co-op student was hired in January of that year to work on the project full time, and the online system would be the responsibility of that co-op student until it was completed. The only additional available aide was one “full-tine” data processing staff member who had numerous other obligations as well. Along with this foolproof development plan, the article goes on to describe that although the co-op department made it seem like this new online system was just around the corner, the department and the Registrar’s office had yet to meet regarding content of the students ‘mark summary’ that would be included in the system. Although no mention of the potential name for the new system, the article gives the impression that the system will simplify the job searching process to make it feel like the students were searching in a Mine full of Jobs, and that it would be so advanced, there would be no need to add additional servers, or make system upgrades until at least 2010. Additional articles in the issue go on to explain the computing resources available to engineering students on campus, including the infamous ‘WATSTAR’ lab, which based on pictures just looks like the Helix Lab as it is today but without colour monitors. Laser printers and the recent upgrade from WordPerfect 5.0 to 5.1 were all the rage. In an interview, Dr. Wilson goes on to explain that although all of the software is cutting edge now, part of his newly appointed role is assuring that all of the computing labs keep up with the times. “We must have up to date hardware, relevant and up to date software, an accessible environment, and we must integrate computing into course work.” Now, this article being 20 years old, it’s more than reasonable to assume that Dr. Wilson has moved on, be it to another position or a sunny beachside townhouse in south Florida. Sadly, he must have taken his mission statement with him and erased it from the memories of all of his successors, which is clearly the only realistic explanation of why my Microsoft Word has to initialize every single time I open it on Nexus.
Spring 2005 Issue 5 – July 26, 2000
Alex Matan, a 2nd year ECE student wrote an opinion piece entitled “Limited Liability: Enough Already!”. He explores the topic of how many large corporations are able to continue operating regardless of the hurdles or mishaps (excluding perhaps bankruptcy) thrown their way. One historical incident he refers to is the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989 in which an oil tanker carrying Exxon oil struck a reef just off the coast of Alaska, spilling a total of 32 million US gallons of crude oil into the ocean. Matan highlights how the captain of the ship was fined, the owner company of the vessel was sued, and yet Exxon continued to chug along relatively unscaved by the incident. What at the time seemed like what would be a single incident, although horrifying, begins to sound all to familiar nowadays in the wake of the current BP incident in the Gulf of Mexico. In time with Matan’s accusations, at the time of the spill, BP worked tirelessly to place the blame on the owning and operating company of the rig. Matan raises a highly valid point; how are we, as engineers, expected to operate with such rigid moral values and to make just decisions with the understanding that we are liable for our actions, when in the habitats of the corporations we may one day work for, liability is a four letter word? The article concludes with a pseudo call to action against this trend, and although this one article was clearly not a strong enough catalyst to provoke change, there was definitely a common public feeling on how corporations were controlling the rules of the blame game. The most chilling and concerning part of this article; the fact that not a single thing has change din the past 10 years.
Spring 2005 Issue 4 – July 13, 2005
The front page article of this story shows off WEEF TA Geoff Milburn and his ‘$25 air conditioner’ that brought him some fame and a little bit of fortune. Milburn had the idea to place coils of copper wire carrying cold water inside a conventional oscillating fan to increase the effectiveness of its cooling. The whole contraption, which he built himself, cost a total of around $25. After a post on the tech blog Slashdot, the attention and comments came pouring in; Milburn was interviewed by National Public Radio, CBC Metro Morning, as well as the Waterloo Record. Milburn also placed a few Google Ads and turned a decent profit for himself. Despite the odd project nitpicker and Slashdot ‘flame’, the project brought Milburn a lot of praise, and a far amount of traffic to the Engineering Computing servers, where his web page was hosted. So much so that Milburn received a letter fro Engineering Computing saying that they would have to remove some of the image links on his website to help the servers handle the traffic. All of the publicity helped put Milburn in touch with a number of top engineering firms for his next co-op placement, and no doubt into the jealously books of his friends as well. In true engineering student fashion, the article concludes with Milburn’s plans to upgrade his invention, including ideas such as using a fine mesh of copper wire to increase the heat exchanger area, as well as utilizing condensing coils from old refrigerators he found stranded on the street curb. Although the webpage listen in the article no longer existed (yes, curiosity got the better of me and I checked), there’s no doubt that there are still records of this contraption hidden in some strange crevice of the Internet for those looking for a new way to beat the gross Waterloo summer heat in true engineering fashion.
Leave a Reply