THE NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO ENGINEERING SOCIETY volume 24 issue 9 | 25 July 2003

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” - Sir Winston Churchill

Debt Load SurveyResults

A Heart WarmingHello to Dean

Sedra

EngSoc President’sAward Winners

Check us out @ http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/

Page 11Page 8 Page 9

Canada Day a Resounding Success!

On July 1, 2003 about 50,000 peopleappeared at Columbia Lake to celebrateCanada’s 136th birthday. This makesWaterloo host to the second largest CanadaDay celebration in Ontario. So whatmakes this possible? First, a little helpfrom Mother Nature is needed. 300 jumboand 500 mini freezies, one large piece ofplastic, lots of water and thirty great vol-unteers are also a good start.

From hot to cold, wet to dry, CanadaDay has shown it many faces of weather.After seeing all extremes over the passedfew years, it was time for the weather to be

perfect. Once the struggle with the firehydrant was over, the water slide and dunktank attracted crowds of people waiting toget relieve from the heat.

The thirty energetic volunteers wereamazing in helping EngSoc put on varietyof events to be remembered. With 50,000community members showing up to enjoythe festivities this was the University’sopportunity to shine. The volunteers weregreat with the children as well as with theparents. Volunteers enjoyed themselveswhile sitting in the dunk tank and coolingoff, helping kids go down the water slide,organizing events like the obstacle course,serving juice, and giving away freeziesand other treats.

Upon realizing that freezies were free

to participants of the events, many chil-dren ran through obstacles, pulled hard fora tug of war, and took their hand at tryingto dunk volunteers in the tank. Soon thefreezies became ‘melties’ and the childrenkept on coming back for more. When theday got late and freezies were free for all,a few children could be seen taking arm-fuls of freezies and running off as if theyjust found gold.

The water slide being one of thebiggest successes had a line up all day.Kids of all ages would slide down enthusi-astically and run back up the hill to line upagain for another chance to get drenchedwith water. Some kids raced down theslide at full speed, while others struggledto get going. Hundreds of kids enjoyed

themselves so much they were sad to see itclose as the evening approached; a fewchildren even asked “will you be backtomorrow with the slide and dunk tank?”

With the night drawing near, anticipa-tion for fireworks could be felt. Glowsticks and candles could be seen scatteredthroughout the field and lots of peoplewere all wondering how much longerbefore the display would start. The nightfinally comes and the fireworks light upthe sky. Applause could be heard from thecrowd during the small pauses until thenext sequence was started.

A full day of events and an evening offireworks shows pulled off successfully -another successful event, thanks to thesupport of EngSoc.

Paul Habsch4A Computer

You too could be a TOOL Bearer! It wouldn’t be Canada Day without Tug-of-War

Being a Good Leader - What It’s All About

This past Tuesday evening, July 15th,in the DC Fishbowl, WIE hosted theirterm-annual Reception. An interestedgroup of men and women from a variety ofengineering disciplines, along withProfessor Beth Weckman, fromMechanical Engineering, gathered to hearsuccessful women in the engineering fielddiscuss their views on leadership. Theevening began with everyone beingoffered refreshments and a light snack.Then we settled into our seats to listen towhat proved to be a very interesting anentertaining evening of knowledge expres-sion.

Sandy Kemsley, a UW systems gradu-ate, started out the evening for us. Shehighlighted the differences between lead-ership and management pointing out thatyou don’t have to have great managerial

skills to be a good leader. Emphasis wasalso expressed regarding the necessity forconstant learning and passion towardswhat you are doing.

The next speaker, Dr. CarolynHansson, a professor in our MechanicalEngineering Department, began by speak-ing to the reasons that fewer women seemto be in management positions after theireducation. She offered advice about han-dling leadership situations and empha-sized the importance of keeping one’ssense of humour and remembering that notall situations are personally directed.

Both women spoke about the differ-ences in men and women’s leadershiptechniques and the importance of under-standing these differences. A good leaderthat people will want to follow is inspira-tional and enthusiastic and, very impor-tantly, supportive of the team they workwith. The evening was a great success andcould not have been achieved withouteveryone’s help!

Amy GillWIE Initiatives Developer

Participants at the Woman in Engineering Reception

Once again, the headline of this letterwill have nothing to do with its content. Ifyou’re looking for an article aboutBananas, or maybe an explanation of whyI’ve been so crazy these past couple ofdays, I hate to say you’re out of luck.

Well, it looks like my term as Editor-in-Chief of this fine publication is comingto a close. But don’t fret everyone, havingrecently been elected Vice PresidentEducation of ASoc, I will still be aroundand kicking. And who knows, maybe I’lldrop by the IW office and see how every-one’s favourite incoming Editor-in-Chief,Jeff Henry, is doing. After all, I still knowthe door combination!

Let me say, being on exec has itsbonuses. One being that you get to seewho applies for what directorships beforethe final list is announced. Now, lookingat the number of applications thus far, itwould not surprise me to see if we havemany directorships that go unfilled in theWinter term.

There seems to be a general sense ofapathy around engineering studentinvolvement lately. It’s gotten to the pointthat a friend of mine had started writing anarticle on student apathy for this newspa-per and was too apathetic to finish it.

Now, maybe it’s just the summer that’sgetting to us. I know that for a good twen-ty years of my life I looked forward to thesummer as time to relax and have fun.I’ve become so accustomed to having aenjoyable summer, that it’s subconscious-ly affecting my motivation for school-work! It’s not just my schoolwork that isbeing affected. In fact, my whole motiva-tion to take on extra-curricular responsibil-ities has been affected too. I’m used tohaving fun, relaxing summers and thisterm has amounted to the opposite.

No we can’t go blaming all of our apa-thy on the seasons, as I’m sure that is notthe only cause of it. Rather than turn thisinto an “apathy = bad” lecture, let’s talkabout all the benefits to getting involved inextra-curricular activities.

If you read the interview with formerDean of Engineering Sujeet Chaudhuri in

the last issue, you will notice that even hebelieves highly that students should getinvolved in areas outside of academic life.Why you may ask? Because former DeanChaudhuri believes that extra-curricularactivities and high grades go hand in hand.

I agree with him. There is no way thatanyone can focus all of their free time ontheir studies and still work as efficiently.There needs to be something other thanstudying that you can set your mind to inorder to let your subconscious absorb andwork on the problem at hand. In fact, mostsolutions to brain teaser puzzles are oftenfound in a stroke of brilliance once youhave stopped racking your brain over theproblem. Extra-curricular activities allowyou to stop stressing over schoolwork anddo something different for a change.

Extra-curricular activities also provideyou with an added sense of accomplish-ment in your school work as well. It’s onething to study all the time and get goodgrades. But let’s be honest, it’s not hardto get good grades when all you do isstudy. Getting involved will not only helpyou in your studies, as we discussed earli-er, but will also make you feel better aboutthe work you do. Even if your grades slipby a couple of percentage points after get-ting involved, at least your grades are stillaround where they should be and now youget to do something you enjoy as well.This will make you enjoy school a littlemore and fuel your drive to learn.

So you may be asking yourself now,“OK, Jon. What should I sign up for?”Well, EngSoc conducts various activitiesthroughout the year in a variety of areasfrom athletics to resume critiques. Thereare many engineering student groups oncampus like UWAFT, WARG, andMidnight Sun who are always activelyrecruiting for new student volunteers.Even this very paper is looking for stu-dents to fill vacant positions in the winter.

Now, if you’re still saying “Jon, Ispend my whole day with engineers. Whywould I want to spend my free time withthem?”, then I have the answer for you.The Federation of Students organizesmany clubs and events for students allover campus. This would be an excellentway to get involved in student activities ifyou want to get out and meet new people.

Our University provides us with excel-lent opportunities to get involved as stu-dents. It is only to our benefit as studentsthat we use them to their fullest advantage.

The Newspaper of the University ofWaterloo Engineering Society

Editor-in-ChiefJonathan Fishbein

Assistant EditorJeff Henry

Photo EditorJason Griese

Layout EditorMatthew Harper

Technical EditorMaria Simoes

WebmasterKatherine Chiang

Distribution ManagerVacant

Business ManagerRajat Suri

Offstream Editor-in-ChiefJoseph Fung

StaffAndré Beltempo

Ryan BayneNiki CzerniakBen GuzinskiDan Foong

Matt GagliardiKristina HotzJames KunzChow Lin

Matt MooreChristos SarakinosMicahel Silagadze

David Yip

Contributors

Graeme BaerProf. David A. Clausi

Karen DuboisKristen Farn

Dave George-CoshAmy Gill

Paul HabschMike Henheffer

Marc JolyKate KelleyMike MoffetNick Lawler

Laura MooneyJason VerheydenLeanne Whiteley

2 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Letter From the Editor

Jonathan Fishbein

2B Software

Editor-in-Chief

Questions? Comments?We welcome letters and feedbackfrom all our readers. Please emailus at:

iwarrior@engmail.uwaterloo.ca

The Iron Warrior is a forum for thought provokingand informative articles published by the EngineeringSociety. Views expressed in The Iron Warrior arethose of the authors and do not necessarily reflect theopinions of the Engineering Society.The Iron Warrior encourages submissions from stu-dents, faculty and members of the university commu-nity. Submissions should reflect the concerns andintellectual standards of the university in general. Theauthor's name and phone number should be included.All submissions, unless otherwise stated, become theproperty of The Iron Warrior, which reserves theright to refuse publication of material which it deemsunsuitable. The Iron Warrior also reserves the rightto edit grammar, spelling and text that do not meetuniversity standards. Authors will be notified of anymajor changes that may be required. Mail should be addressed to The Iron Warrior,Engineering Society, CPH 1327, University ofWaterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1. Our phonenumber is (519) 888-4567 x2693. Our fax number is(519) 725-4872. E-mail can be sent toiwarrior@engmail.uwaterloo.ca

I Am a Banana! Letter to theEditor

TALk ENG

I went to TAL ENG because I enjoylistening to talented musicians play livemusic. Though I saw many talented musi-cians, I heard few. What I did hear, wasthe low frequency, feedback-equivalent,of a conversation choir. It is a shame thatpeople come to a talent show to talkamongst themselves. The audience trulystole the show. Here’s to all the musi-cians that played to an audience that wasat Molly Blooms and not TAL ENG. Itused to be about the music.

wall3A mech

-----

Well, I must say that I too am a fan oflive music and do share some of your dis-apointment in what happened at TALEng.You are correct that one of the main pur-poses of TALEng is to showcase the tal-ents of engineering students, but TALEngalso provides an opportunity for engineer-ing students to meet and socialize. Now Imust say that I unofrtunatley could notattend TALEng this term, but I have to askwas this really any different then seeing alve abnd at a bar. Sometimes venues suckfor preformers but they are able to dealwith it as good preformers often do.TALEng provides to groups of people toget involed in an EngSoc activity. Asmuch as you may not have liked havingthat second group there, it is not right tosay that they shouldn’t be allowed to par-ticipate.

-Ed

(This is also the first letter I have received,and will ever receive as Editor of the IronWarrior, so I’m milking it for all it’s worth.Hope everyone has a good bout with finalsand I’ll see you all in the winter)

3Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Advice

LowRider

3A Chemical

Dear LowRider: UW_LowRider@hotmail.com

Sgt. LowRider’s Lonely Heats Club Band

Dear LowRider,

HELP! The balance on my Watcard is$1.22 and there’s still almost a monthbefore I’m done. What should I eat?

-Broke Bloke

Dear Broke Bloke,

OK. I took the time to write out someof my favourite recipes that don’t requireany money. Utensils, dishes and mostingredients are free in the V1 Cafetorium.As for the other things, I’m sure you’veseen them around.

Asian Soup: 1 part plum sauce, 4 partsboiling water, dash of soy sauce, dash ofhot sauce, salt to taste. Combine ingredi-ents in bowl. Mix. Eat with spoon.

Cream of Tomato Soup: 1 part ketchup, 5creamer packages, 3 parts boiling water,salt and pepper to taste. Combine ingredi-ents in bowl. Mix. Eat with spoon.

Tossed Salad: Pick some grass and tastylooking leaves from somewhere they don’tuse pesticide. Toss. Eat.

Fried Egg: “Borrow” and egg from Sobeysand cook it on their parking lot on a hotday. Don’t forget to pick up salt and pep-per before you go.

Whole-Roasted Game: 1 of squirrel, duck,skunk, groundhog, etc. Clean the gameanimal and smear inside and outside withbutter, salt and pepper. With a littleEnginuity, you can rig up the V1 toaster toroast your dinner. A good-sized squirrel

should take about 20 minutes at mediumheat. (Don’t ask how I know.)

I hope that gets you started, andinspires you to come up with some recipesof your own. Oh, there might be some kindof food bank thing, but nobody likescanned lima beans.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I heard that you are highly skilled atsolving advanced physics problems. If youcan solve this one, you will have my eter-nal respect and gratitude.

A rocket with a total mass 5 kg accel-erates vertically upwards, propelled by 4kg of fuel, which is ejected at 150 m/s at arate of 100 g/s. The rocket is attached to 50m of massless, inelastic rope that runsthrough 4 pulleys set up at the vertices oftwo adjoining equilateral triangles ofdimension 1 m, located 3 m above the ini-tial position of the rocket. The first threepulleys are able to move 1 m eitherupwards or downward, but the motion isimpeded by springs with k = 1000 N/m.The rope is fastened to the fourth pulley,which is stationary. All pulleys can beassumed to have frictional losses of 20%of their rotational energy. The pulleys areidentical with mass 1 kg, thickness 4 cmand diameter 30 cm. A piece of wood witha brick placed on top of it is mountedbetween the first and third pulleys. Thecoefficient of static friction between thebrick and the wood is 0.11. How high willthe rocket be above its initial positionwhen the brick begins to slide down thepiece of wood?

-Smart A$$

Dear Smart,

It’s true; I do have a gift for solvingphysics problems. I try to visualize theproblem, and then use some equations, andthen solve the equations to get theunknowns, one of which is always theanswer. I’m guessing that you don’t knowvery much about physics, because you for-got to include a list of possible answers forme to multiple-choice from. Nevermind, Ihave a hunch the correct answer is “B”.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I don’t have an air conditioner, and it’sreally hot in Waterloo. I have troublesleeping, eating and concentrating enoughto do my homework. I feel sticky andgross whenever I’m at home. What can Ido?

-Super Hot

Dear Super Hot,

Well, let’s assume that you’re a SuperHot Girl. Then you should come over tomy place. I have a kiddie pool in the back-yard and plenty of cold milk and juice inthe fridge. Bring your bathing suit andsome homework.

If you’re a guy, then go take a showeryou filthy disgusting pig. And stop whin-ing you pansy.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I have a problem. I graduated fromUW this spring, and I now have a great joband a cool apartment in Kitchener. I usedto read the IW a lot when I was a student,especially LowRider. The problem is thatsince I graduated, I find myself comingback to campus every Friday just to readyour column. It’s especially hard duringthe weeks when there’s no IW. I tried toread Imprint in between issues, just to tideme over, but I couldn’t even finish it. Ineed the Iron Warrior. My life is emptybetween issues. I need you, LowRider. Iwant to be with you forever. I know thatyou love me just as much as I love you. Wewere meant to be together.

Love,Kimberly

Dear LowReaders,

You’d be surprised how common thisis. I usually get about 4 or 5 a week but itis general practice to print only one ofthese letters every semester just to raiseawareness of the issue. If you find yourselfstockpiling more than 2 copies of eachback issue, re-reading old LowRidercolumns more that half a dozen times orblowing up that little picture of me to afull-sized poster, you may have a problem.Counseling services has a lot of experiencedealing with this type of obsession. I canonly hope that Kimberly is able to reachout to someone for help before it’s too late.

Until next time, take care of your-selves, and each other.

-LR

4 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

EngSoc

ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE REPORTS

I was planning on having two moreexec reports left: one to acknowledge theaccomplishments of the outgoing exec;and one to recap on my 16 months as prezand provide advice to the incoming exec. Iwill do my best to keep this exec report asbrief as possible. Please refer to my otherarticle detailing the winner of thePresident’s Awards for this term.

For simplicity, the following acknowl-edgements are in alphabetical order:

Kristen Farn, VP-Finance: Kristen hasdone an awesome job at keeping theEngineering Society books in order. Herconservativeness in last term’s budget hasallowed us to run with a minimal deficitthis term. She has had to deal with a lot ofdirectors (and exec members) asking formoney and complaining that there budgetwas cut. However, she has done a great jobat being fair to everyone. We have hadmore donation proposals these past twoterms relative to other terms. This is due toKristen’s organization and advertising. Inaddition to writing cheques in a timelymanner, Kristen also volunteered a coupleof hours a week in the C&D to help allevi-ate the financial burden associated withspring terms and the lack of students, fac-ulty, and staff on campus.

Jeff Henry, VP-External: Jeff hasdecided that UW EngSoc VPX isn’tenough for him and earlier in the termbecame the President of ESSCO. If thisdoesn’t show the extent of his qualifica-tions, then I don’t know what does. Hewas instrumental in helping the Universitysave face in the aftermath of the UW-

Microsoft partnership. Jeff basicallylost of month of his life dealing with theissues. In addition to

going to conferences and bringing del-egates along with him, Jeff has managed toprepare a Conference Policy and entirelyre-vamp the Iron Warrior policy manual.Both of which will go into affect by thetime we return in the winter.

Laura Mooney, VP-Education: Sinceits introduction to the Engineering Society,the VP-Education has had a difficult timedefining its role. Laura laughed in the faceof this challenge. The biggest impact thatLaura has made to the Society, has beenher initiative to do a Humanity Build pro-ject. Laura was also involved in the start-up of SUBS. She organized financial

planning seminars and advertised the SirSanford Fleming Debates. In addition tobeing VP-Education, Laura is also one ofthe Federation Orientation CommitteeMembers who is organizing OrientationWeek.

Ryan Walker, VP-Internal: Being VP-Internal is not an easy task. You have moredirectorships than all the other exec com-bined. Ryan has done an amazing job atkeeping track of his director’s to makesure that they are organized for theirevents. Ryan is able to attract new peopleto EngSoc and get them involved. He hasbeen instrumental in promotingEngineering spirit, pride, and gloryamongst the engineering students. Inaddition to handling all of the director’sRyan has also volunteered a great deal oftime in the C&D.

Please note that these lists are by nomean complete, they are just some of thehighlights over the past 16 months. I havethoroughly enjoyed working with these 4individuals. I wouldn’t have been able todo my job without them! I wish them thebest of luck in the future endeavours andhope that they continue to contribute to theEngineering Society as they have done inthe past 16 months. I may be partial, but Ithink that this has been the best exec ever!In light of that, I would like to wish theincoming exec the best of luck. The roadahead is not easy, but it’s all worth it in theend. If I could, I would do it all over againand wouldn’t change a thing. Ok, maybejust a few things, but not much.

Before I end, I have a little advice foreach of the incoming exec: Laura, be pre-pared to get your keys on the 1st day andgive them to the appropriate exec anddirectors; Nick, be prepared to receiveapplications for the FYIC from upper yearstudents and having to explain to themwhy they can’t go; Jon, be prepared todefine your job description time and timeagain; Kate, be prepared to cover fordirector’s that don’t do everything they aresuppose to do; and Rajat; be prepared tohave director’s and exec demand mo’-money.

Finally, I cannot thank my exec mem-bers enough for their hard work and dedi-cation over the last 16 months. Yourcontributions have made huge positiveimpacts on the Engineering Society! I alsowant to thank Mary Bland, Betty Beaver,and Sue Gooding for providing me withguidance in the beginningmonths. If itweren’t for them, I still wouldn’t knowwhat I was doing. And last, but not least, Ineed to thank my friends and classmates,who have had to deal with my hecticschedule. Thanks everyone!

Leanne Whiteley

President

Not Done Just Yet... Passing the Torch

As I was sitting around late one nightin the Orifice last week, it came to me thatI should probably start looking throughthat ancient, metallic green VP Externaldesk. Yes, sixteen months have gone byand I’ve spent more than a few hoursperched within arms reach of it and yetthere are many nooks and crannies I’vestill yet to peruse.

Sixteen months and there’s still somuch about the history of the position,about the nuances of the various director-ships in the VPX portfolio, about, well,everything that sat untouched in my deskthat I just don’t know.

At the same time, it was really amaz-ing how quickly time passed this executiveby. There were things that came up everynow and then, and days that made morethan a few of us want to just get out; butwe always pulled together, got through it,and moved on to the next thing. So I’d liketo thank Laura, Kristen, and Ryan for amost excellent sixteen months. Now whatcan I say about Leanne…

Truly I have to say I’m at a loss for

words – and that’s certainly a rarity. Herdedication to everything the role ofPresident entails is so far above andbeyond the call of duty that even the irre-placeable glue of the Engineering Society– our corporate manager, Mary Bland – isleft looking up at her. There was no issueshe wasn’t there and proactive with and nopetitioning student she didn’t prepare todefend. And though $20,000 may haveended up in the wrong place, she keptC&D from burning down in Mary’sabsence – anyone who saw Leanne thatlast week of June knows that is no smallfeat.

But alas, now is the time to pass thetorch onto a new executive. Nick Lawlerwill be your contact for conference appli-cations, for Bus Pushes, Explorations,Shadow Day, and many more. He’ll be theone to let you know all the comings andgoings of our neighbouring EngineeringSocieties. And despite the occasional ram-blings of a certain ESSCO President I hap-pen to know, he will be yourrepresentative to the provincial andnational engineering society bodies.

I have faith that Nick will pick upwhere I left off. In fact, I believe he will gothat extra mile for you, our member stu-dents, by actually looking through thestacks of files I leave behind – organized,now – in that ancient, metallic green VPExternal desk.

Jeff Henry

VP External

Financial Wrap-up!

After 16 months, my term is over. Iwould like to congratulate Rajat Suri inbeing the next VP Finance and I wish himthe best of luck in managing ASoc funds.

As I end my term, I would like to passalong a short financial report for theEngineering Society A over my two terms.It has basically been a breakeven situation.We spent fairly conservatively in Fall2002 and we had great success with oursemi-formal, engineering play and specialevents. While we were off-term in Winter2003, the Engineering C & D and theOrifice were broken into and we had toreplace many of our assets including thedigital video camera, as well as paying torepair property damage. We also madesome much needed capital purchasesincluding a new fax/printer/scanner and aNexus upgrade for the computers in theOrifice. This term we had a tight budgetbecause we receive ten thousand dollarsfewer from student fees in the spring term,so we had to budget approximately a six

thousand dollar deficit. However, at themoment it appears that deficit spendingwill likely be less than this by the end ofterm. Overall, considering Fall and Springare the tighter budget terms, that our pho-tocopying fees increased this term so thatwe loss approximately 1 cent on each pho-tocopy made in the Orifice, and that we arestill paying back a photocopier debt forone more term, the Engineering Society Ahas managed to remain in a stable surplusfinancial position. However, changes willbe needed in the future so that this remainsto be true.

I would like to thank all the directorsfor being a great group to work with andfor understanding when the budget wastight. To my fellow VPs, Ryan, Laura andJeff, you are a remarkable group to workwith and your efforts astound me. To thesuper prez, Leanne, the many things youmanage to control and accomplish every-day, and that you have not burnt out, blowsmy mind. I would also like to give anextremely warm thank you to Mary Bland,our Corporate Manager. Mary does a fab-ulous job at keeping so much in order,including our finances. If I can give anywords of wisdom to future exec, it wouldbe to get Mary’s advice.

Good luck to everyone on exams andenjoy your break afterwards.

Kristen Farn

VP Finance

Later Gators!

Wow, it’s been 16 months already … Iguess time flies when you’re having fun.And speaking of fun, on to that inevitableend of term discussion: finals.

You might ask “What does EngSoc dofor me during that final crunch time?” Themajority of our normal services are avail-able: the C&D is open for your hungerneeds, the Orifice is open for your cheap

photocopying/report binding needs, andPOETS is open for your group studyingneeds. The exam bank is also online atwww.engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/www/exam-bank/, and available 24 hours, 7 days aweek. Don’t forget, if you have copies ofold exams bring them to the Orifice orsend them to me in softcopy for the nextgeneration of students.

Finally, buzz-word of the term hasbeen SUBS. Look for more info via e-mailin the second week of finals for how topost and search for used engineering textsonline!

Thanks for a great 16 months, it’s beena blast! Have a great four months awayfrom the stress and anxiety of school!

Laura Mooney

VP Education

5Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

EngSoc

ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE REPORTS

Where arethe Funds

Going?

I cannot believe it has been four yearsalready since I was elected as my class’WEEF back in 1A. Since then, I served asan Assistant Director for one year and asthe WEEF Director for the last sixteenmonths. I am proud to have been involvedin such a great student endeavour and I amthankful for everyone who helped out,especially the WEEF reps and theAssistant Directors. I will not bore youwith everything that has changed over thelast four years, but here are a few interest-ing highlights. Since 1999, our fund grewby more then 50% ($3.2 million to $4.85million), WEEF celebrated its tenth yearanniversary in 2000 and in winter 2002WEEF spent its 2 millionth dollar on labequipment, teaching facilities, computerupgrades and student teams.

Starting in Fall 2003, MichaelHenheffer will take over as the A-SocWEEF Director. I am confident that withhis previous experience as a WEEF repand Assistant Director, he will do a terrif-ic job at leading the foundation.

As for the current events with WEEF,on Wednesday July 16th the WEEF repsmeticulously examined each proposal,during the Funding Council meeting, anda distribution of our funds was reached.Unfortunately, with a $35,000 budget wewere not able to fund all proposals, whichaccumulated to over $83,000. If youexamine the accompanying table, you willnotice that over 40% of this terms’ fundswill be allocated towards student projects.WEEF continues to play a crucial role inthe success of our student teams, by allow-ing them to purchase important pieces ofequipment that they could not acquirewith the help of corporate sponsorship.This term, the Funding Council decided toallocate more funds towards the UW’sFormula SAE team, on the basis of thequality of their proposal, and the amountof Mechanical Engineering students whowould benefit, as no proposals were sub-mitted from their department.

Once this Iron Warrior issue is printed,the preliminary funding decision shouldhave been approved by WEEF’s Board ofDirectors on July 23rd. If you want amore detailed description of the proposals,you can download them from the WEEFhomepage at www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~weef. If you have any question related toWEEF, feel free to email me or my assis-tants at weef@engmail or phone us atx4893.

Marc Joly

WEEF Director

Here’s to Exec!

The term is now over, and a new execis now upon us! A big thanks to all thosewho came out a voted in the election, youproved that every vote does count! Specialthanks to Graeme Baer and James Kunz,the CROs for the elections, and also to allthe polling station volunteers, and votecounters. Another big thanks to the outgo-ing VP-X for showing me the ropes, andfor doing a great job while in office.

Well on to the business at hand.Directorship deadlines are closing in fastand I have many great directorships underme that need to be filled. Such events asthe Bus Push where we push a bus to helpsupport the Big Sisters of KW Region.Explorations runs this winter, where thou-sands of elementary aged children areinvited to tour the engineering buildingsand learn about all of the amazing projectsthat we are working on. This is a greatopportunity for us engineers to show thecommunity what a difference we make.On Shadow Day grade 12 students are

invited to “shadow” an engineering stu-dent for a day to see what it is actually liketo walk the walk and talk the talk. Anotherbig directorship under my care is NationalEngineering Week. This is the time for usto promote Canada’s rich engineering her-itage, and to show some UW pride. Anenthusiastic director is needed to spear-head the week to make sure UW-Eng is theproudest of them all.

Besides directorships a big conferenceis coming up this January. The CFES(Canadian Federation of EngineeringStudents) Congress is being hosted by theUniversity of Victoria this year. Delegatesare needed from A-Soc to attend theseven-day conference. Over 200 engi-neering students from the 46 engineeringschools across Canada will descend onVictoria to talk about engineering studentissues, and to socialize like engineers do!This is an excellent opportunity to meetother engineering students, and to networkand make contacts across the country. TheDeans Office will be paying for plane tick-ets, accommodations, and conference fees.Keep a look out for delegate applicationforms on the EngSoc website. Well thisbrings a close to my first exec report, andI look forward to writing many more.Everyone have a safe and happy workterm.

Nick Lawler

Vice PresidentExternal Elect

Let’s HaveSome Fun!

Who would have thought? After aterm pestering the current exec to get theirexec reports in, I am now the last one towrite a report. I’ve been told that as soonas you become exec you no longer listento the IW deadlines. This may be hard forme to get the hang of!

Now on to the real business. Like allmy fellow incoming exec members, Iwould like to thank Graeme Baer andJames Kunz for organizing the election.

There are a lot of issues that need to bedealt with in the upcoming term. One ofthe most important is tuition. If you lookat page 11 of this newspaper you will seethe results of the faculty’s debt load sur-vey. These numbers, unfortunatley, do notlook promising for the future of engineer-ing education. There is a lot of work thatneeds to be done and I look forward toworking with all of you.

Jonathan Fishbein

Vice PresidentEducation Elect

6 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

EngSoc

They always say things are better latethan never. This is especially true thisterm with the WEEF participation stats.That’s right, I have finally been able tocompile the WEEF participation statisticsfor this term. The total participation ratefor this term is 60.4%, which is quite a bitlower than I would like to see it. To putthings in perspective, our participationrate in the Fall term was about 68%. I’dlike to thank everyone who made a dona-tion to WEEF this term. Your support thisterm is greatly appreciated. You are trulyhelping maintain UW Engineering’s statusas one of the best Engineering Faculties inthe world. You only need to take a walkthrough the student shop or talk to manyof the student teams on campus to under-stand how much WEEF is helping ourschool. I’m hoping that many of the peo-ple who are getting their refunds will seeall of the equipment covered in WEEFstickers and realize that they should besupporting WEEF.

A breakdown of the participation ratesfor each class can be seen on this page.I’d like to draw everyone’s attention to the3A Geo class as they once again have100% participation. No member of thereclass has ever requested a WEEF Refundand WEEF greatly appreciates that. The1B Chemical, 2B Software and 1BSystems Design classes also deserve men-tion as they all have participation ratesaround 90%. It’s great to see severalclasses with such high participation rates.

Michael Henheffer

Assistant WEEFDirector

First, my thanks to everyone who cameout and voted on Election Day, and all thevolunteers who helped make it happen!Special thanks go to Graeme Baer andJames Kunz for all of their hard work.

I'd also like to thank the outgoingExecutive. Their hard work and commit-ment to Engineering at Waterloo have leftan incredible impression on theEngineering Society. It also leaves usincoming Executive with large shoes to

fill, even to be compared to them!As incoming VPI, I think I have the

best job! I get to help run all the funevents, semi formal, TalEng, the play, ath-letics, and all sorts of other cool stuff! I'mreally looking forward to the next fewterms, and I have plans for them.

One of my goals as VPI is to commu-nicate with the classes more, and to hope-fully get more people out to all our greatevents. I'd like to encourage classes to setup their own events and invite fellow stu-dents to participate. As well, anyone whohas suggestions about new events anddirectorships should contact me with theirideas.

Hope to see you all out at EOT tonight!And I hope you all have a great co-opterm! See you in the winter.

ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE REPORTS

Kate Kelly

Vice PresidentInternal Elect

WEEFStatictics

are FinallyIn!

Time for Fun! ElectionWrap-Up

A week and a half ago 10% of youturned out to vote in the Presidential andVP-Internal races. And after successfulratification votes that evening, I’m happyto announce the next ASoc Executive willbe:

President: Laura Mooney (3A Systems)

VP-Education: Jonathan Fishbein (2B Software)

VP-External: Nick Lawler (2B Civil) VP-Finance: Rajat Suri (1B Chem) VP-Internal: Kate Kelly (1B Elec)I’d like to thank all of the scrutineers,

the poll clerks and of course the candi-dates for their work during the campaignperiod and on voting day.

Greame Baer

Chief ReturningOfficer

So Long Old Exec!

So the story of the week was thatEngSoc A decided to take the plunge andratify me as VP Finance. Although thereare differing accounts of the dramaticscene, I understand the most popular onewas me jumping up on a desk and declar-ing a Putsch against the corrupt forces ofthe current exec, whereby everyone heldup their imaginary beers and ratified meon the spot. I assure you this is not thecase. What really happened was that Ibought all the votes for 2 cents a pop in thebeginning...every single one except thatincorruptible Ryan Walker, who insisted Igive him 3. Being a conscientious futureVP Finance, and knowing our budgetaryproblems, I declined. See? Not even swornin yet, and I’m already protecting you

guys! (Send flowers to MKV front desk.Petunias are preferable. In desert-yellow.)

And so we must wave a hearty good-bye to our current exec, and what can I saybut... good riddance! Any exec body with-out me is by definition silly and useless.But taking into count the lack of me, theexec did a pretty damn good job keepingthe society running, even after all thehitches they experienced. As some Englishdude would say it... jolly good show!

Anyhoo, back to me. Since I knoweverything, I have absolutely nothing tolearn about the system from the currentVPF Kristen. Don’t laugh! I don’t! Ok somaybe I do. No need to panic, though,because I got it covered. I am in theprocess of enhancing my already exten-sive knowledge about finance stuff, just soI can steal from you better. Whoops. Imeant serve you better. Yeah that’s what Imeant.

I look forward to the next 16 months!If you have any hate mail, or less likely,any questions, feel free to contact me atrsuri@engmail.

Rajat Suri

Vice PresidentFinance Elect And Now...

After writing my VP Ed report, it’shard to believe that I’ve signed up to writeanother eight to ten of these … guess I likebeing harassed by IW editors.

In all seriousness though, I’m veryexcited about the next 16 months. Wehave a great exec lined up with lots ofgreat new ideas to continue improving andexpanding the services and events EngSocprovides.

A big thanks to everyone for their sup-port, and especially to Ryan Walker for aclose and challenging race. Good luck onexams and see you in January!

Laura Mooney

President Elect

7Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

After the election issue of the IronWarrior was released, I received severalinquiries with respect to how I wasallowed to run for WEEF director giventhat I will graduate after one term. I’llstart by answering that question, as I’msure many others wondered the samething. Actually, it is a simple answer. Theconstitution and bylaws of WEEF do notset a minimum requirement for length ofterm for the director.

Anyway, now I will get on to some ofthe plans that I have for my time as WEEFdirector. Of course, I want to make surethe WEEF participation rate starts toincrease rather than the decreasing partici-pation we have been seeing. How do Iplan to accomplish this? Well, I think it isimportant to stress the importance ofWEEF to students as soon as they joinWaterloo Engineering. For this reason, Iwant to work with Erin (BSoc director) toensure that the first year students knowexactly what WEEF is and receive expo-sure to the benefits of WEEF over their

first two terms at UW. If done over a fewyears, it should increase the participationrate, as more of these students will under-stand how important their contribution is.

Another plan I have for next term is toset up weekly WEEF office hours when Iwould always be available to assist peoplewith WEEF related tasks. This wouldinclude answering general WEEFinquiries, financial inquiries, and evenhelping groups form good proposals. Thisshould make it easier for the variousgroups around campus to receive theirfunding, as they will always of a timewhen they can find me.

We (the current director and assistants)are currently working on several projectsto improve the operations of WEEF. Theone of most interest to the public would bethe online database containing all kinds ofinformation with respect to past and cur-rent WEEF funding allocations. A majorbenefit of this will be that recipients offunding will be able to easily determinethe status of their WEEF accounts. We arehoping to have this up and running sometime next term so I will keep you posted.

In closing, I would just like to thankMarc for his great work over the past 16months and say that I really look forwardto taking over the reigns of WEEF andcontinuing its success. And one morething, “WEEF is good.”

Michael Henheffer

Acclaimed -WEEF Director

WEEF Reports are Good! EngSoc Charity Events

This past term, the EngineeringSociety charities directors have run twodifferent initiatives geared at contributingback to the society in which we live. Thefirst was a coin drive, with all proceedsgoing towards Unicef - the United NationsChildren’s Fund. This was a roaring suc-cess, with 10 classes participating to raise$440.50 in total for Unicef. The winner ofthe pizza drive was ComESutra.ORg, whoraised a sum total of $138.51. In secondplace and third place were G0t Ohm3d andMaCiv, respectively. Thanks also to thosewho donated from their pockets withoutcontributing to any class totals. Awesomework to all - thanks for making this eventa success.

The second charities initiative is theEngineering Society Food Drive. Thisdrive is somewhat “competitive”. Thereare eight white food drive bins spreadthroughout Engineering (CPH Foyer,POETS, the Orifice and RCH basement)with the names of certain well known peo-ple affixed to the front. Now, the personwho’s bin is filled with the most amount offood BY NUMBER will have to perform a“reward” at the EOT pub. If you’ve everwanted to see one of the following people

embarrassed, and you are reading this onthe 25th of July, and you have food items“available” for donation - please do submitthose food items into the box of therespective person! The people who have*ahem* volunteered are:

Leanne Whiteley (Current EngSocPresident)

Laura Mooney (Incoming EngSocPresident as well as Eng FOC)

Kate Kelly (Incoming VPI)James Kunz and Donna Craig (Eng

FOC and Software FOC)Liam McHugh-Russell (FEDS VPEd)Christos Sarakinos & Christopher

Deck (Motioned by EngSoc to participateand EngSoc Speaker)

Mike Henheffer & Maria Simoes(Charities Directors)

Mary Bland (EngSoc BusinessManager and “C&D Lady”)

Lastly, a non-competitive food drivewill be occurring during the exam period.Before you leave this town for your workterms, rummage through those non-perish-ables that you will no longer need. Insteadof just throwing them out, please bringthem into campus and place them in thewhite food drive bins that will be availablein CPH Foyer and RCH basement! Thereare a lot of hungry people in this world,and like your mother might’ve told you,it’s always a shame to throw out food!

Maria Simoes and Mike Henheffer4A Computer

Activities

8 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Activities

Engineering SocietyPresident’s Awards

Each term individuals who have madea significant contribution to theEngineering Society are recognized at theEngineering Potluck dinner. This term, theEngineering Society Executive havedecided to give out 10 awards. And therecipients, in alphabetical order, are:

Graeme “Orifice Monkey” Baer is theChief Returning Officer this term andorganized the EngSoc elections. Graeme isalso an EngSoc webmaster, an Orificedirector, and a course critiques director.

Jon “Notin” Fishbein is this term’s IronWarrior Editor. Jon came up with the mostcreative ways to remind the EngSoc Execabout their Exec report deadlines. AndJon had not lost a night’s sleep trying toput the paper together!

Jason “I like minutes” Griese is one ofthe Canada Day directors and orgnanizers.He is also a POETS Manager and hastaken care of food, entertainment andsecurity for the term pubs. Jason is also theEngSoc secretary and takes minutes dur-ing our council meetings. Furhtermore,Jason is the small signs and poster direc-tor, the resource manual director and atask-team director.

Paul “I love to videotape” Habsch isalso one of the Canada Day directors. Inaddition to organizing Canada Day, Paulhas been videotaping events all term to getfootage for the TSN video and graciouslyvolunteered some of his time working inthe Engineering C&D.

Matt “Pig Roast” Harper is one of thesemi-formal directors this term and orga-

nized to have a roasted pig for dinner. Mattis also a POETS programmer and is one ofthe people responsible for having pro-gramming in POETS planned for theentire term.

Mike “Mr. Volunteer” Henheffer is justthat: Mr. Volunteer. Wherever he is need-ed, he is there. Mike is the WEEFAssistant this term, a charities director, anovelties director, an Orifice director. Ontop of all that, Mike has volunteered sometime in the Engineering C&D.

Emily “Where’s my Oscar” King is theEngineering Play Producer this term. Shehelped produce to amazing plays this term:Hard Candy and Cards of Fate. Emily wasalso a Head Scunt God and organized aScavenger Hunt at the beginning of theterm.

Larissa “I hate email spam” Klypyzwas the other semi-formal director thisterm and did an excellent job! Larissa isalso the email communications directorand has prevented a lot of spam fromgoing across the engsoc A mailing list.Larissa is also rumoured to commonlytake down posters that are in violation ofthe Engineering Society “A” poster policy.

Nick “Mmm…chicken wings” Lawlerwas the third Canada Day director thisterm. In his free time, Nick enjoys chickenwings, so as year spirit director this term,Nick organized an Iron Wind Ring Ding inPOETS.

Maria “Ms. Director” Simoes had 7,that’s right 7, directorships this term:Orifice director, resume critiques director,charities director, Women in Engineeringdirector, diversity director, TSN videodirector, and novelties director.

Congratulations and thanks to alll theEngSoc Prez awards recipients. Thanks toeveryone that has helped out this term aswell. Your dedication to the EngineeringSociety is always appreciated!

Leanne Whiteley

President

Habitat for Humanity:A Volunteer's Perspective

As engineering students we do much tohelp out with the community. Events suchas Canada Day, the Santa Claus Parade,WheelChair Basketball, Food Drives andExplorations give us various opportunitiesto give back to the community which weinhabit. However, as much as I have donein the past four years, I do not think I haveever felt as rewarded as the day I helpedbuild a house for Habitat. There is some-thing very exhilarating about getting upearly and working out of doors. Even bet-

ter was getting the opportunity to workalongside of Betty, the lady for whom thehouse was intended.

I really want to thank Laura Mooneyfor giving myself and all other engineeringstudents the opportunity to help out withHabitat. I would definitely recommend itto those who have not tried it.

Here is more information about help-ing to build/finish the house interior:

The rest of the build for the house wehave been working on is July 22-31. Theyare looking for people to take night shifts(4:30-9:00) during this week, or for day ornight shifts from August 5-14th. Ifyou'vealready signed up, you can just callHabitat at 519-747-0664 x23 or e-mail them at mail@habitatwaterloore-gion.on.ca, and address it to Linda Keatingto tell her the shifts you'd like to join.

Maria Simoes

4A Computer

UW Engineering Students with the Recipient of the Habitat for Humanity House, Betty

Novelties Wrap Up!

As the end of another term draws near,the novelties directors once again get towield their tiny bit of power and decidewhat products to add to the store. Thisterm’s directors should be discussing whatto add to the store shortly. That brings meto my question for all of you. “What prod-uct ideas do you have?” That’s right, weare taking suggestions for new productsfrom you. So if there’s something youwould really like to be able to buy in thenovelties store, please let us know.Suggestions can be sent tomphenhef@engmail. We’ll take all sug-

gestions into consideration and hopefullybe able to introduce some great new prod-ucts next term.

In order to make closing the books forthe term easier, I would like to request thatanyone who has a novelties store gift cer-tificate try to use it this term. The novel-ties store should be open during its normalhours of operation next week (at leastwhile classes are running). If you can’tmake it in during these times, the certifi-cates can also be used to purchase novel-ties from the Orifice.

Unfortunately, due to the directorshaving very busy terms, we were unable tohave a sale in CPH Foyer this term.Hopefully, things will be less hectic for thedirectors next term and a sale can takeplace during the winter. As something tolook forward to, we may have small itemsto give away with every sale when thattime comes.

Michael Henheffer

4A Computer

TSN Video On Sale Now!

Yes, it’s that time of year again - Endof Term (EOT)! As such, this year’s EOTvideo will soon be made available in theOrifice, in both DVD and VCD form.Both media will contain amazing footagefrom this past term, including Pub Tours,

TalEng, Semiformal, EngPlay, Bowlingand more! How do I buy these amazingdisks you ask? Well, go to the Orifice(CPH 1327 for some of you) on July 28thand 29th where they will be available. Thecurrent pricing will be $12 for the DVDand $6 for the VCD. Remember, yourEOT video is one of the best ways ofremembering your time here at UWEngineering!

Maria Simoes and Paul Habsch4A Computer

Plummer’s Pledge

The Plummer’s Pledge is a way forgraduates to leave behind a gift to the UWEngineering and the students who will fol-low them through the programs. The giftconsists of monetary pledges from indi-vidual graduating students.

How will I be able to afford to makea pledge immediately after graduation?

We know that most students will beshort on cash around the time of gradua-tion due to the costs of our education.That is why the Plummer’s Pledge hasbeen set up as a commitment instead of animmediate donation. Each graduate isgiven an opportunity to donate moneyover a three-year period following gradua-tion. The first donation does not takeplace until a year after graduation allowingus plenty of time to start making money atour new jobs before anything is due.

How do I make a pledge?There will be plenty of opportunities to

make your pledge in the winter term. Webegin taking pledges in February aroundthe same time as ring fittings. Keep youreyes open for pledge cards around thattime. Don’t worry; we will also make surethat you are given lots of notice about how

to pledge at a time closer to graduation.Where can I get more information?We should be handing out a Plummer’s

Pledge information brochure during thering fittings next February. In the meantime, fell free to find me and I will answerany questions you have.

Why should I make a pledge?This is an easy one. The major reason

is to help Waterloo Engineering maintainits status as one of the best engineeringprograms in the world. The donations toWEEF also allow the students who followin our footsteps to determine how to bestuse the money to improve their education.Since only the interest is spent, thePlummer’s Pledge is the “gift that keepson giving” as our donations will benefitstudents at UW for the rest of time.

A lot of people may think that once weare out of here, the state of the WaterlooEngineering program does not matter anymore. This is a bad view to have, as atsome point in your career the fact that yougraduated from Waterloo will come intoplay. Potential Employer’s will judge thedegree based on Waterloo’s reputation atthe time, not based on its reputation today.So you see, it will be important for us tokeep the reputation as good as it is.

And if that is not enough motivationfor you, then how about this one - let’sbeat Math! Math pledged more moneythan engineers last year for the first time.Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen thisyear!

Michael Henheffer

Assistant WEEFDirector

9Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Interview

Some people may argue that Dean ofEngineering at UW is a step down fromyour former role as Provost at U of T.Why did you ultimately decide to takethis job?

That is a good question and you’reright. A lot of people were surprised whenI accepted the dean of engineering positionhere at Waterloo. Let me try to answer thisa couple of ways. First of all, I neverthought of academic administrative posi-tions in hierarchal terms. Secondly, I wasnever Dean before. I skipped becomingDean. Before becoming Provost, I wasChair of the department of electrical andcomputer engineering at the University ofToronto for seven years. Then I went on toserve as Provost of U of T for nine years.Let me give you a more direct answer. Itremendously enjoyed my time as Provostof U of T. I also enjoyed my time as chairof electrical and computer engineering. Ithink I am at the stage of my life where Iget a great deal of satisfaction from facili-tating the work of others, which I interpretacademic administration to mean. When Istepped down as Provost of U of T, whichwas a little over a year ago, my intent wasto get back to academic life and to teachand do research. Then the University ofWaterloo came with an invitation to con-sider this position. Initially I thought, “DoI really want to do it?” The more I thoughtabout it, the more exciting the opportunitybecame and the more I appreciated that itis in fact an opportunity for me to con-tribute and make a difference. That is why,I believe, academics should take onadministrative positions to make a differ-ence. I believe that this is a position that issuitable for me at this time. I am reallylooking forward to it, but I am probablygetting ahead of myself.

What are your goals for your term inoffice?

First of all, I believe that this is a greatUniversity and a great engineering school.Having said that, you can always improveand in fact there is tremendous competi-tion these days. You can’t just be contentwith your past accomplishments. Youhave to work very hard to move forwards.I took on the position, or accepted the invi-tation if you wish, in order to move thefaculty of engineering at the University ofWaterloo a few notches forward, a fewnotches up and to make it one of the trulyoutstanding engineering schools in theworld. In terms of my vision, my vision isfor this faculty to count itself among thetop, whatever number you want to pick,engineering schools, not in Canada, butthroughout the entire world. I want towork with everyone here to achieve thisobjective.

Of course, following from visionsyou also have challenges in this role.What to do you think is the largest chal-lenge facing you?

The largest challenge, and this will notsurprise you, is resources. At the end ofthe day, resources alone don’t achieve anobjective, but without resources you mostdefinitely cannot achieve your objective.

It is assembling, putting together all theresources needed to meet that objectivethat will be the biggest challenge facingus.

Along those lines from a student per-spective, do you have a plan or an ideahow to keep education here accessible tothe students in the light of the currentlevel of unsustainable tuition increasesthat we are seeing?

Let me first say that, in case it doesn’tcome up again, that the engineering under-graduate program at the University ofWaterloo, is in my view the best in thecountry. When I talked about improve-ments, because again you can alwaysimprove, we are already in very goodshape. We want to maintain it this way,and work very hard to make sure weremain strong and to make improvementsas needed. All of that, of course, costsmoney. Hiring and retaining the best fac-ulty members cost money. The best equip-ment for student use costs money. Havingappropriate buildings for students to workin and live in costs money. Tuition fees, asyou and I know, is a very important sourceof revenue for all universities in Ontarioand Canada. Although tuition fees haveincreased considerably over the last num-ber of years, I still believe that it is a bar-gain in Ontario to get the quality ofeducation that the University of Waterlooprovides. The important thing is not thelevel of tuition fees but maintaining acces-sibility. The important thing is that a stu-dent who has the ability to study and tobenefit from studying engineering at theUniversity of Waterloo would not be pre-vented from coming here because of a lackof appropriate financial means. The flipside of the tuition coin is financial support… and I can see that is coming from yourlist, so you go ahead and ask the question.

We know that of the differentialtuition fee a certain allotment, 30%, isset aside for financial aid. Due to prob-lems in the student loan system from theperspective of students in co-op beingable to get those bursaries that are putaway for them, we see a situation whereengineering students contribute to afund that they can’t get too much out of.What do you view as a possible solutionto this?

Obviously, because I came here from anon-co-op school, I have not appreciatedthis point. I’ve heard about it, but I havenot appreciated this point as much as Ishould have. I don’t want to offer a half-baked idea here, but I want to assure youand assure everybody who reads this arti-cle, that this is an important issue that we

have to engage. We make the rules for ourown system. I intend to learn more aboutfinancial aid at the University of Waterlooand financial need from engineering, andbe able to deal with this problem that youput very well. I should also mention thatin addition to this 30% set aside, we intendto work hard on generating funds throughthe campaign and the matching programthat the Ontario government has put intoplace under the OSOTF (Ontario StudentOpportunities Trust Fund) banner. Thegovernment has just allocated another$400 million dollars to establish endow-ments on a one-to-one matching basis forstudent support at Ontario universities. Ibelieve that this is an opportunity for us touse this and the campaign that is currentlyunderway to tremendously enhance thestudent-support endowment at UW. Wehave, of course, to make sure that rules forthe dispersement of the money can beadapted to fit the co-op students. Howexactly that is to be done, I don’t know yet.But we will work hard to make it happen.

You conducted a review of the uni-versity’s graduate studies programs atthe request of the university administra-tion. What do you think is needed tomake the UW engineering graduateprogram as prestigious as its under-graduate program?

I think that the graduate program isgood, but I think the margin for improve-ment on the graduate level is much widerthan that at the undergraduate level. Weget very good graduate students, but I wantto make sure that the numbers are at appro-priate levels in all departments of engi-neering. I must say that the numbers inengineering are higher than they are inother parts of the university. So my reviewshould be read as a review for the entireuniversity as opposed to just engineering.Having said that, I believe that even inengineering we can improve graduatestudies, and help research; the two ofcourse go hand in hand. So, when we talkabout improving graduate studies we arealso talking about increasing the intensityof research and improving the infrastruc-ture for research and thus enabling more ofthe faculty members to engage in cuttingedge research with graduate students. Ithink that graduate student funding is animportant issue. We should work towardsthe goal that every graduate student at theuniversity of waterloo would be fullyfunded. Now, this funding could not obvi-ously all come from the operating budgetof the university, but from a variety ofsources, external and internal in the uni-versity. Once you have the funding forevery graduate student secured and inplace, I think graduate students can con-

centrate on their studies and be able tocomplete their program in a timely fash-ion. I am always unhappy to see studentstaking many years to complete theirdegrees and in the process depriving theworkforce of their expertise. We will haveto look at the time-to degree and fullyfunding our graduate students. We alsohave to look at creating more opportunitiesfor graduate students to work on cutting-edge research.

Professor Chaudhuri mentioned, inthe interview we conducted here beforehe left, that one of the things he was par-ticularly proud of was “bringing thealumni home.” How important do yousee the alumni connection to UW engi-neering from both an administrativeperspective and a student perspective?

It is extremely important. I must saythat I am very pleased with the work thatProfessor Chaudhuri has done to intensifythe relationship between the university andits alumni. The Faculty has done quite abit of work in this regard, and I do intendto build on what has been accomplished.As you know, our alumni officer has cho-sen to pursue other interests. She has donea terrific job for this Faculty. We are cur-rently trying to hire a replacement. Thisarea is scheduled for some restructuringwith the idea of making it a bigger andmore effective operation that includesalumni relations, communications, devel-opment and fundraising. We can also,through them, extend our relationship withgovernments and industry. We have ofcourse big events in September in terms ofreunions, which will provide me with thefirst opportunity to meet with a large num-ber of our alumni who hopefully willchoose to participate in the program. Icannot over emphasize the importance ofinvolving our alumni in the lives of theFaculty and not only for their financialcontributions to the university, althoughthis definitely helps!

We’ve heard that you were the onlyProvost at U of T to teach a course whilehe was Provost.

I have to correct something, I did notunfortunately teach while I was Provost. Iwish that that were the case. I tried at thebeginning and it proved very difficult. Itwas very difficult to keep a class schedulewhile I was Provost. I taught all the timewhile I was chair of electrical and comput-er engineering. I did supervise graduatestudents while I was Provost, but I did notteach undergraduate students. I missed it alot. In fact, in my interview here with thenominating committee for the position ofDean, I made it clear that I intend to be inthe classroom and I am looking forward toit. I also believe that it is a good idea forthe Dean to be in the classroom so that hewould not forget what teaching is like andto experience all the challenges that facul-ty and students face in the classroom. It isalso good that the students know that theDean is a faculty member, not just anadministrator somewhere writing memos,but practices what he talks about to others.I am really looking forward to it. I don’tthink it will happen this year. My depart-ment, which is Electrical and ComputerEngineering, has already done theirassignments. Perhaps it is good for methis year to learn more about the Facultyand get adjusted to the university. But nextyear, certainly I am looking forward tobeing in the classroom and meeting thestudents.

4A Computer

Assistant Editor

Interview with Dean Sedra

Jeff Henry

New Dean of Engineering Adel Sedra

1 0 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Opinion

It’s The Bomb!

No, seriously, it is. The topic of the dayis atomic weapons. Why, you ask? Well, Itook a shining to nukes from a young age,but having seen T3 and hearing manybizarre statements, I felt that it would beappropriate to set the record straight aboutnuclear weapons. Basically, I’ll answer thequestions you always wanted to knowabout nukes, but were too afraid to ask.

1. Do the Americans really haveenough nukes to destroy the world tentimes over?

This one I hear a lot. First of all,despite what you may have heard, reallythe majority of the energy of a nuclearexplosion turns into heat and blast imme-diately, NOT radiation. The only exceptionto this is the so-called Neutron bomb,designed specifically with radiation (morespecifically fast neutrons and gamma rays)in mind. But realistically, although theAmericans have built approximately70,000 warheads of almost 70 differenttypes, they now possess a stockpile ofaround 9600 warheads. Surprising as itmay sound, this is NOT enough to‘destroy’ the world. Even hitting every cityin the world with everything in everycountry’s arsenal would not be able to‘destroy’ the world. The world is still aBIG place. Keep in mind the Russianshave around the same numbers of war-heads.

2. What are ‘yields’?

The yields of nuclear weapons aremeasured in equivalent tons of TNT. So ifyou were to explode 1000 tons of TNT,you would produce the same effect as a 1KT nuclear device. Nuclear weapons varyin yield. Yields from nuclear weaponsrange anywhere from a very small tacticalweapon of 0.1KT, to the largest weaponever detonated at 57 MT. Hiroshima was15 KT. The largest weapon in theAmerican inventory has a selectable yieldup to 1.2 MT. Yields on these weapons

have gotten much smaller, especially afterthe invention of satellite and stellar inertialguidance. It all stems from:

3. What are nukes traditionallypointed at?

Here is a huge misconception withnuclear weapons. The most accurate, lethaland effective nuclear weapons are almostNEVER pointed at cities. In fact, these arepointed at the other countries’ missilesilos, military bases, command centers,bunkers, weapons stockpiles, airfields, etc.Secondary ‘strategic’ targets may includespecific transportation hubs, such as railyards, fuel depots, oil refineries etc. Citiesare the lowest on the targeting list. This isbecause cities are huge targets, and youdon’t have to be all that accurate to hitthem. Also, back in the day, the warheadswere much bigger, because the accuracy ofyour average missile was pretty bad.Today, since most targets can be nearly‘bulls-eyed’ much lower yields can do thesame job. Any ‘strategic’ target usually hasat least 2 warheads pointed at it, becauseone may fail.

4. I heard all the U.S. and Russiannukes were pointed in the ocean.

This is true. Since the end of the coldwar, all sea and ground based missileshave been retargeted into points in the cen-tral Atlantic. It’s mainly symbolic, sinceretargeting a missile requires less then anhour.

5. But nukes are bad! I heard onebomb can ruin the environment!

They are a weapon of mass destruc-tion, but the fact is that the U.S. and SovietUnion detonated over 300 nuclear devicesin the open, back in the 50’s and 60’s, andyou and I don’t have three eyes. In fact,nuclear weapons cause little lingeringradiation ‘fallout’ when they are airburst.Airbursts are when the fireball of the actu-al explosion is not allowed to touch theground. That’s what happened atHiroshima and Nagasaki and explains whythere is no crater. A groundburst is anyexplosion that gouges a crater. When thishappens, all kinds of crap is sucked up intothe fireball, irradiated, and affixed withpieces of the bomb. This is blown around

in the wind, and will ruin your day. Of theaverage personal yearly dose of radiation,1% is due to nuclear weapons or reactors.You take more rads when you get an X-rayat the dentist.

6. What’s all this talk about ‘strate-gic’ and ‘tactical’?

Another great misconception aboutnukes is that they’re always massivelypowerful and are used solely for wipingout thousands of people. In fact, the mili-tary also thought that smaller yields wouldhelp out on the battlefield. Meaning theybuilt nuclear artillery shells, nuclear sur-face to air missiles and nuclear torpedoes.These would all have ‘small’ yields of lessthan 50 KT, sometimes as low as 0.1 KT,and were intended to be fired at targets ofopportunity on the battlefield, such as aformation of tanks, artillery, etc. TheAmericans and Russians still possess theseweapons, although they are no longerfielded. ‘Strategic’ weapons are weaponsthat are pointed at ‘strategic’ targets, whichI mentioned in question 3.

7. What’s a MIRV?

MIRVs, or Multiply Independent Re-entry Vehicles, are put onto missiles, toincrease the number of warheads a singlemissile can carry. This allows one missileto go into its ballistic arc, and ‘dip’ into theatmosphere where it starts dropping singleRV’s onto the desired targets. The numberof RV’s depends on the missile, but themax ever fielded is 14 warheads on onemissile.

8. Where are all the Americannukes?

Again, a major misconception is thatthere are thousands of missiles in silossomewhere in North Dakota. The truth is,the Americans have always adopted whatthey call a Nuclear Triad. That means thatthey deliver nuclear devices usingStrategic bombers (B-2’s and B-52’s),ground based missiles (Minutemen III andPeacekeeper ICBMs), and submarinelaunched missiles (Ohio class subs withTrident D-5 SLBMs). They only have 500missile silos. The vast majority of theirstrategic arsenal is aboard Ohio class bal-listic missile submarines. Each submarine

carries 24 missiles, and each missile iscapable of carrying 14 W-76 100 KT war-heads. That’s a lot of firepower. All of their‘air-dropped’ weapons are in stockpiles atair bases. They also possess nuclear cruisemissiles. The Russians have many moresilos than the U.S, possibly more than3,000.

9. Gee, I’m glad Canada never hadnuclear weapons.

Actually, as a NORAD member, afterthe Avro Arrow was cancelled, Canadatook delivery of BOMARC surface to airmissiles armed with 1.2 KT tacticalnuclear warheads, designed to shoot downSoviet bombers. Additionally the 75 CF-101 Voodoo fighter jets that we boughtcould fire the Genie tactical nuclear mis-sile. Several were stored in locations inCanada. Lastly, as NATO partners, therewere various numbers of 0.1 KT, 0.25 KTand 1 KT nuclear artillery shells that couldbe fired by Canadian M-109 self-propelledartillery pieces in Germany. These war-heads were never under Canadian control,since the warheads were technically‘owned’ by the Americans, and firingauthority would have rested with the U.S.National Command authorities. I guess wecan sleep easy knowing that we never hadany ‘strategic’ weapons. Canada was thefirst country in the world with the capabil-ity to build nuclear weapons that chose notto do so.

10. Well at least there is no morechance of getting annihilated like in theCold War.

Since the weapons still exist, thatremains a very distinct possibility.Additionally, since the Russians still pos-sess enough warheads to hit all viable mil-itary targets and every North Americancity with a population of over 100,000,that means that someplace in Russia, inaddition to the targeting plans for Detroit,Toronto and Hamilton, there are also tar-geting plans which include London,Guelph, and yes, even Kitchener-Waterloo. The flight time for an ICBM RVfrom Siberia is approximately 30 minutes,and a sub launched missile would takeanywhere from 5-15 minutes. They wouldprobably fire at least two airbursts toensure complete destruction of the target.

André Beltempo

2B Mechanical

1 1Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Opinion

Time For Study Skills

Yes, it’s that time of the term again.You’ve realized that you haven’t donenearly enough work in order to pass. Whatdo you do? You rely on the final exams.But how can you possible remembereverything in the term in such a shorttime? It’s a lot easier than you may thinkand here are some general exam studyskills to get you started.

1. You need to prepare an exam sched-ule, where you should aim to study for 24hours for EACH exam.

2. You should try studying in 2 hoursblocks with a 10 minute break after 50minutes. You’re long-term memory stopsworking after 50 minutes. Anythinglearned after 50 minutes will only stay inyour short-term memory.

3. You should alternate studyingbetween different courses. However, eachtime you re-visit a course, you should

review what you studied in your previousstudy session.

4. Always start by reviewing the notesfor the entire term. This usually takes 2-4hours/course and can count towards your24 hour count.

5. Some people like to start reviewingfrom the latter part of the term and workbackwards. Other people like to start withthe more difficult parts of the course. Thisway you start studying earlier and willhave an opportunity to ask your TA’s andProfs any questions that you may have.

6. Maintain the same sleeping schedulethrough the exam period. Try to get at least7-8 hours of sleep/night.

7. Studying makes you hungry! Duringyour 10 minutes breaks, have somethinglight and healthy to eat, like an apple, anutria-grain bar, etc. Your body needs tobe re-energized.

For more information, please contactCounselling Services in the Engineering1st Year Office or at Needles Hall. Theycan help provide you with more informa-tion on exam study skills and how to dealwith exam-associated stress. An exampleof a study schedule is shown below. Goodluck!!

Leanne Whiteley

4A Civil

Faculty of EngineeringDebt Load Survey Results

Term Total

Total Responses 640Number of surveys sent 1752Response % 37%

1) Does your family support you finan-cially? (630 responses)

Yes 47%No 53%

2) Average Cost of Living for a 4 monthSchool Term (631 responses)

$7,821

3) Average Cost of Living for a 4 monthWork Term (601 responses)

$3,527

4) Have you applied for local aid orother bursaries to pay for school? (635responses)

Yes 40%No 43%Not Yet 16%

5) Have you applied for OSAP? (635responses)

Yes & Received 27%Yes & Denied 24%No 49%

6) Do you have a loan for academic pur-poses? (634 responses)

Yes 39%No 47%

Not Yet 13%

7) How much is the student loan? (331responses)

1-499 8%500-999 3%1000-1999 8%2000-4999 24%5000-9999 31%10000+ 26%

8) Has the differential tuition increasescaused you hardship? (629 responses)

Yes 62%No 15%Not Yet 23%

9) How much debt do you expect to bein by graduation? (616 responses)

No Debt 23%<999 6%1000-4999 16%5000-9999 19%10000-19999 24%20000+ 13%

10 )Do you live at home while at school?(632 responses)

Usually 7%Used to 2%No 91%

11) Have you lived at home while onwork terms? (631 responses)

Always 19%Sometimes 47%Never 33%

12) Average of the weekly salary whileon work term (567 responses)

$591

Karen DuboisDean of Engineering Office

Commuting

Each morning, I set off from a sleepySt Catharines at 6:30 for my co-op place-ment, with the sun stretching its brilliantarms over the horizon. The first few min-utes are spent wrangling for a comfortablespot on the QEW – fast lane of course,preferably behind a car so I can see what’sahead. Each day I spot a few unlucky soulswhose cars have quit on them, or whohave been stopped by the police. In themorning the radio comes on and I listenintently for any news regarding my route.One morning a chicken truck rolled overon the QEW – 403 junc-tion closing it for threehours. A few minuteslater the chicken truckturned into a turkeytruck. No word on thefate of the turkeys wasgiven. That day I con-tinued on the QEW, but usually I travel onthe 407.

The 407 is a different highway. It isuniformly smooth. Its concrete surfacemakes music with your tires. It carves thehigh line over the Golden Horseshoethrough lush fields and silvery ponds. It’sfast, and expensive - the Concorde ofhighways. I wonder sometimes when sub-urban sprawl will encircle the 407, whenbanks of houses will replace the sky as thebackground for the camera gates. This partof the trip goes well until MississaugaRoad, when traffic slows to a crawl. TheTop 7 at 7 is now on the radio. This is usu-ally when I change to 680 News becausethe Top 7 at 7 generally sucks. A few kilo-

meters later I reach the 427. The cameragates check me out, and I exit at AirportRoad. If there weren’t any accidents,turkeys, or police, then I might get thereearly. If I arrive early at work I grab theusual raisin bran muffin and tea from thelocal Coffee Time. I thought I’d have to gothere every day for 10 years to become aregular – one of those customers whoseorder the counter ladies know by heart.However it turns out you only have to gothere twice.

The afternoon drive is different fromthe morning one. In the morning you’restill a bit groggy. Aside from keeping yourcar from hitting anything, there isn’t reallymuch on your mind, except for the jokes

that the radio hosts arecracking. In the after-noon, you are wideawake and everyoneelse is also wide awake.

The first leg of theride back home is 427South. For most people

this is the prelude to the 401.Consequently the first task is to get to thesecond leftmost lane to avoid the backupin the 401 lanes. A few minutes later I haveto get to the rightmost lanes to avoid theGardiner backup. Merging lanes is alwaysa challenge with the cars and transporttrucks, as the Asian-driver stereotypethreatens to overwhelm my Young Driverstraining while I drive. Once on the QEWit’s time to settle in. Roll down the win-dows and get comfortable. Get to knowyour fellow commuters. It’s time to playstop and go!

Finally, I’d get home, with five hoursto work with until I went to sleep so Icould be on time for tomorrow’s journey.

David Yip1B Mechanical

“It’s time to play stopand go!”

1 2 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Opinion

Think you got Problems?I’ve got a Solution!

You’re depressed. You’re lost. You’vegot approximately a million differentquestions and approximately zeroanswers. Your problems are so hard tosolve, you feel like doing the KobeBryant/ OJ Simpson/ Bill Clinton, tossingyour life away by doing something stupe-fyingly stupid. But you know what to do.It’s the ultimate engineering basic instinct- what every engineer, from the desperateconfusion of 1A to the even more desper-ate confusion of 4B, knows how to do.You pull out a formula sheet. But this isn’tjust any formula sheet. It’s the FormulaSheet of Life.

Oh it’s a pretty sight, it is. Twelve neat,concise formulas that together state themeaning of life on a single sheet of paper,each derived by someone more famousthan the last. You know that whateverproblems you have, it can be solved byusing one of the formulas on this sheet.Here are a select few...

E = mc2 (1)

Derived by the great thinker Einstein,this formula was commonly and mistaken-ly thought to represent his theory of rela-tivity. Instead, however, it expresses oneof the more fundamental meanings of life.What it really means is:

Evil = (money)(cartoons)2

What class. What simplicity. Whatpoetry. Einstein was truly a genius to comeup with that one. While everyone knewthat money was the root of all evil, no onethought to combine it with cartoons.Squared, even. As Einstein explained it inhis classic book in the 30’s, Why MickeyMouse will be the cause of theApocalypse, the idea of talking animals issimply morally unacceptable. The fact thatmillions of humans around the world werewatching a mouse drive a steamboat sig-nalled the end of humanity as we know it.Maybe he was right. World War II did startthe next day....

F = ma (2)

Everyone knew it but only one mansaid it... Newton. His name found its wayinto every science book around the worldall because he took three harmless lettersand shoved an equal sign in between them.But I have found through eye-peelingresearch that Newton actually copied theformula from the back of a milk carton.And the milk carton formula had nothingto do with forces and masses, oh no.... itwas actually:

Family = (meaningless)(annoying)

That’s right folks. When you get some-thing meaningless and combine it withsomething annoying, it will probably endup related to you in some fashion. It’s sosimple, yet so brilliant. Think about it.How often have parents stopped you fromdoing something you wanted to, like buy-ing that new motorcycle and practicingEvil Knieval stunts from your rooftop? Orstopping you from killing the next doorneighbour because he’s a crack dealer andyou want to move in on his territory?Almost every day right? Then you know

just how annoying that experience is, andmeaningless it ends up being. If you wereEvil Knieval II today, or even just a suc-cessful crack dealer, you’d still be a lotricher than you are now. So the next timeyour parents tell you to do something, justshout back “F=MA, Mama! Newton saidit, so it must be true! Now shut your pie-hole!” It works every time, even thoughthere are certain...growing pains. Whoeversaid physics isn’t useful?

PV = nRT (3)

While no one person came up with thisbeauty, it was derived as a collaboration ofthe efforts of our good friends Boyle,Charles and Gay-Lussac. Now, it is fever-ishly revered and respected by every kidwho ever had the pineapples to take achemistry course. But what no one knewwas that the Ideal Gas Law isn’t so idealafter all. In fact, there is a hidden, moresignificant meaning to it.

(Party)(Vacation) = (need)(Right)(This-moment)

I dare anyone to disprove this one. It isalmost as good as the next formula, as ithardly needs any explanation at all. Itsolves so many problems. Would yourather be at a party right now? How abouton the vacation of your dreams? If understress (likely, since exams are coming up),undergoing emotional upheaval (likelycause you started reading this article) oreven if you are a wonderfully happyhuman being with nothing else you couldpossibly want (unlikely, since you are ahuman being... or at least I hope so), thisformula will work for you! Drop that text-book, tear up that resume, and head for thenearest pub or travel agent to get started ona good time. There is just one little condi-tion for this equation though - it onlyworks when T=This-moment. WhenT=Tomorrow, the whole equation breaksdown. In that case, there is only equationyou can rely on.

Life = S^u C^k S (4)

This equation, also known as theEquation of All, or The Universal LifeFormula, was thought up after 18 years ofexperimentation by the one and only RajatSuri. Also known as “The Great One” bythose close to him, and simply “Sir” bythose who were not. Suri made this fantas-tic leap of thought and imagination oneday studying for his physics midterm afterhaving a midterm earlier in the day andliving on approximately 2 hours of sleepfor the week. Not to mention he had resi-dence food for lunch. As the story goes, itmade so much sense that Suri leapt up andshouted “Who da man!” and went runningaround campus, stark naked, yelling “LifeSucks!” to all.

The beauty in the equation was that itwas infallible and applied to every situa-tion imaginable. No matter what happens,life will eventually suck in some way orform. All we have to do is accept it, justlike Suri did that fine summer’s day. Wordon the street is that Surism is reaching newheights in Thailand and Southern Iraq, andfour new Surism cults have started in theBavaria Forest in Germany. They know, aswe should all know, that life sucks...andthat the point of life is to enjoy its sucking.

So don’t let that exam mark/break-up/fall off a cliff get you down! Follow theFormula Sheet and all will be solved. Wellexcept for how Bush got to be President. Ifyou can figure that doozy out, you deservea P***5 point. No, make that two.

So it’s final. Or is it? The fate of thefederal government’s proposed decrimi-nalization legislation is unknown. Its pas-sage was nearly guaranteed as part of thePrime Minister’s legacy, until last weekwhen parliament decided to end sessionearly.

The First Nations Governance Act,along with other bills including the pro-posed legislation to decriminalize marijua-na, is now delayed until the fall.

Now before anyone starts to light up inE2, this is decriminalization the govern-ment is talking about and not legalization.What the act would do, is make possessionof less than 30 grams of marijuana a fin-able offense as opposed to the criminaloffense it is today. If you’re caught withless than 20 joints on you, you get a ticket.If you have more than 30 grams - the reg-ular rules apply. It also allows individualsto grow up to 30 grams of marihuana forpersonal use.

However, with the approaching Liberalleadership convention, a new PrimeMinister will replace Jean Chretien poten-tially with a different agenda. Whether ornot the bill passes depends on what thenext Prime Minister wants, as well as howmuch authority Chretien will have leftover his own government. Already JeanChretien has a tenuous hold on his govern-ment at best. There are constant rumorsthat Liberal Leadership front-runner PaulMartin has more control over the govern-ment than he does. Regardless, JeanChretien will be a lame duck and no onewill want to go against what his successorwill say or do.

But how does decriminalization affectCanadians? Not much, or a lot, dependingon who you talk to. There are really twosides to this issue, and the case can bemade for both sides.

Decriminalization would certainly freeup resources of the police to fight the drugtraffickers themselves and other crime. Itwould bring uniformity to possession sen-tencing. Right now if you’re caught with ajoint you’d be better off with certainjudges who will only give you fines.Others aren’t so lenient. And plus pot isno more addictive than alcohol or tobacco.Just notice the number of polls that consis-tently show that a large percentage ofCanadians have tried marijuana at leastonce in their lives. If marijuana were trulythat addictive society would be crumblinginto a bunch of pot crazed lunatics. Butthere is also an economic argument to bemade for decriminalization. The proposedlegislation would put a fine on marijuanause. Effectively we would be putting a taxon smoking pot. If we could tax pot, wecould pull in revenue that could be used tooffset the costs of smoking marijuana onthe health care system.

But then again, there are the economicconsequences to consider. We would pret-ty well tick off the Americans like youwon’t believe - and they would stop atnothing to turn Canada into a northernMexico. Potentially Canada’s image as arespectful, responsible nation could be tar-nished. This could lead to a reduction intrade with the US. Your possibly lookingat a few less co-op postings each term.But marijuana is unhealthy, as commonsense will tell anyone. For someone to sayit isn’t is, to me, like saying cigarettesdon’t cause cancer. Pumping hot smoke

into your lungs a few times a day for a fewminutes has to decrease your life span orelse nothing in this life makes sense. Italso leads to greater numbers of auto acci-dents, since it impairs your motor skills.Decriminalization could also send themessage to young people that drug use issafe, and acceptable. A perception the fed-eral government has desperately tried tochange. And decriminalization opponentsalso claim that Marijuana is a startingpoint for people to try worse drugs likecocaine and heroine.

These are all good points but what itboils down to is this: whatever someonewants to do in the privacy of their ownhomes is their own business. If someonewant to do some life span decreasing -then they he has every right to do it. Solong as they aren’t harming me, I have noproblem with it. Let’s have ride patrolsnot just check for drunk drivers, but forhigh drivers as well. The truth is though isthat the police already do those types ofchecks anyways. What we need to do is tomake sure that smoking pot while drivingis a crime just like drinking and driving. Idon’t want high drivers getting pulled overand only getting a fine. As to the US eco-nomic impacts, we can minimize that bydecriminalizing 5 grams instead of 30.After all, 20 joints are a little excessive,and it’s 5 times the amount allowed inHolland despite their Liberal drug laws.This would aid in making sure that theAmericans don’t think were just a bignorthern pot factory. And maybe one daythe US may follow suit and we can talkabout real legalization. But until that daycomes, I think we should tread carefully.Someone told me when I writing this arti-cle that “this will make possession furtherfrom being legal.” I respected his opinion,but I would disagree with that statement.It’s the right direction to take. I know afew fewer co-op postings a term is not abig deal to most people that can find a jobin a snap, but that’s 4 less students with ajob. And not everyone is so lucky to findanother job in snap. To be frank my finan-cial security is more important to me thanthe freedom to smoke a joint in publicwithout getting a criminal record.

For those of you that disagree with thewhole concept of decriminalization tobegin with here’s on sobering thought:according to the Drug Policy Alliance 58%of people under the age of 24 have smokedpot at least once in their lives. That prob-ably means about 58% of the very samepeople reading this article right now havesmoked a joint or two in their time. Thequestion you have to then ask yourself isdo you want to go to jail? If not, decimal-ization is the way to go. If you’re in thatminority of 42% don’t worry, my guess isyou will be getting larger over time. Thetruth is that pot has become a narcotic ofthe past, when hippie’s still prancedaround with daisies. Today cocaine, hero-in and crystal meth are the real hard drugs.Maybe that’s the point. With pot no longeran issue, we could focus on the hard drugsinstead of fighting a loosing battle withmarijuana. But that would mean completelegalization - decriminalization would stillhave cops going around handing outnumerous fines.

That was exactly what was initiallyproposed to Justice Minister MartinCauchon. But he didn’t follow throughopting for decriminalization instead of theextremely mucky legalization.Apparently I’m not the only one that wor-ries about my financial security.

Rajat Suri

1B Chemical

The Decriminalization ofMarijuana

Jason Verheyden2B Mechanical

1 3Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Arts and Entertainment

The New Pornographers - The ElectricVersion - 3 out of 5 stars

Their name is funny enough to makeLetterman make a running gag of it whenthey appeared on his show recently, yetthey wish to be taken seriously with thesophomore release, The Electric Version.To those unfamiliar with the band, TNP iscomprised of several of Canada’s under-ground Indie stars (Dan Bejar, the dudefrom Limblifter, etc.) and Neko Case, thealt-country chanteuse who tags along forthe ride who is probably the hottest womanin rock (OK, my opinion, but seriously,she’s smokin’).

Unfortunately, The New Porno’s sufferby trying to make an album as good astheir debut, Mass Romantic (2000). MissRomantic just had the right chemistry andmusicianship that made the record standout like a Laurier student in the Mathbuilding. However, Case takes a backseatin the vocal department, leading me to

shout out loud to the world, “Why? Whycan’t I hear more Neko?” Fortunately,there’s more then a few songs on thisalbum to make it listenable (ChumpChange, Electric Version) but the albumjust flows along the same path, neverdeterring from its main course or strivingfor that spark of originality it found ontheir debut.

Notable Songs - Electric Version, FromBlown Speakers, Chump Change

Metallica - St. Anger - 3 Stars out of 5

Ah, Metallica. The name evokes a lotof emotions, depending on who you ask.Personally, I like Metallica. They’veveered off-course musically with the lastfew releases (Load, Re-Load, S&M). St.Anger is a bold step in a new direction.With a new bassist and James Hetfieldemerging from a (hopefully) successfulrehab stint, Metallica’s got all sights set onreturning to their mid-80’s sound. As muchas they try, the magic just ain’t there. Thesongwriting process was admitted differ-ent this time around, focussing more onheavy jams then any sort of progressive

melody. Piecing together random jamsmay work in theory, but the flow is miss-ing.

Needless to say, Metallica’s a finebunch of musicians that can make a KidRock song sound like a winner. The lyricspowerfully reflect the struggle Hetfieldfaces throughout his recovery from addic-tions. The guitars, well, the guitars kicksome major ass, as they should. The drumsare probably the one single thing about thisalbum I can’t stand. They ping. Drumsshouldn’t ping. Drums should thump, pow,thrash, but not ping. I keep saying this, butmaybe Metallica will get it right, the nexttime around.

Notable Songs - Frantic, Invisible Kid,St. Anger

Mondo Generator - A Drug ProblemThat Never Existed - 3.5 out of 5 stars

Queens of the Stone Age just can’t sitstill. Riding off the success of their lastmajor release, Songs for the Deaf, the bandis releasing 4 side project albums withinthe year’s end. One of them is the newMondo Generator album, Queen’s bassist

Nick Oliveri’s baby. With a harder punkedge to it, Oliveri embraces influences likeBlack Flag and Fugazi in shaping analbum that stands out from anythingQOTSA has released. Hard rockers Jr.High Love, Do The Headright and SoHigh, So Low are proof of MondoGenerator’s simplistic, yet effective songwriting abilities. Oliveri also shares hislove of unbridled carnage on tracks likeOpen up and Bleed for Me and Me andYou.

But this album isn’t full of songs to tor-ture your parents with. There’s a soft sideto Oliveri, who showcases his acousticguitar skills on Day I Die and FourCorners, a song that features MarkLanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, currentQOTSA vocalist) crooning about a life thatfeels cornered and isolated. If you enjoyedthe past QOTSA album or enjoy a reallyedgy album that works on a variety of lev-els, pick it up.

Notable Songs - So High So Low, FourCorners, Detroit, Do the Headright

You can hear DJ Strangehold, Mondaynights @ 12 midnight on 100.3 CKMS FMRadio Waterloo.

I’m sure that all of you have a precon-ceived notion of what practicing magic islike. It’s all witches’ cauldrons withobscure animal body parts for ingredientsor it’s devil worshipping and demonicsummoning. But there is another defini-tion for magic, which is simply “applyingyour will to change your reality”. Now ofcourse this very general definition ofmagic encompasses many techniques foraltering our environment that are com-pletely explainable by science. But, doesthe fact that science explains why some-thing happens, make those events any lessmagical?

Anyhow, I want to talk to you about amethod of supposedly practicing magic,that allows the practitioner to apply theirwill to alter their reality. This has recentlybeen popularize by the enigmatic, but bril-liant writer Grant Morrison, who currentlywrites the New X-Men comic book forMarvel comics. His writing, while some-times impersonal, never fails to deliverbig, mind-blowing ideas. One of hisrecent themes is that in the near future peo-ple will abandon single personalities forcontrolled multiple personalities, whichcan be changed like clothes for amuse-ment, or used to hijack free will. Many ofthe ideas and themes in the Matrix movies,created by theWachowski brothers,are very similar tothose found inMorrison’ theInvisibles. One otherthing to note is thatMorrison hasrecounted in inter-views his experienceof alien visitationafter smoking the hal-lucinogenic DMT. So, be sure to take allof this with a grain of salt.

Morrison describes the process of sigilmagic through some essays on his website.

The really striking thing is the simplicityof the magic. One need only representtheir desire into a unique geometric shape,the sigil, and then clear their mind of allextraneous thought, save the form of thesigil. That launches itinto the ether. Let meprovide a few moredetails about theprocess. First, writedown your desire in fullcaps. Then, cross outall the vowels andrepeated consonants. Treat Y as it is usedin the word. Now, from the remaining let-ters, construct a geometric shape by com-bining the letters into something that youthink looks right. It can be druidic or elab-orate, whatever you think embodies theletters best that describe your desire.Then, you fold up the sigil and put it awaysomewhere so that you forget about it.This is the important part. You are notsupposed to consciously know what thesigil means when you decide to launch itsomewhere down the line. So, try to con-struct it in a way that hides the forms of theletters contained within, but don’t leaveany letters out. Put the sigil away some-where safe, where you won’t regularly seeit and accidentally refresh your memory.

Then, hopefully a few months later youfind the sigil, and even though you have noidea what it means, you trust your earlierinstincts and decide to launch it. So, howdo you do that? The means to invokingyour sigil is to clear your mind of every-thing, except the shape and form of it.This is no easy task for many of us. I

mean, how does one ban-ish the thoughts of “Is thisreally working?” and“Why the hell am I doingthis?” There are manypossible means of clearingones mind. You could usedeep meditation or “visualchanting”. Another popu-lar means is by spinningaround in a circle. In factextreme physical exhaus-

tion or orgasm are other good methods forachieving clarity of thought. I’m noanthropologist, but it seems that tribal cer-emonies, involving body painting and

hours of dancing would suggest a certainuniversality of sigil magic.

So is it really magic? Well the funnything about magic is that it defies explana-tion, so you can’t really prove or disprove

it. But that doesn’tinvalidate it. After all,rational human beingstake a lot on faith, all thetime. But, for argumentssake, is there a rationalexplanation for anyresults you may see

from a sigil spell? Well, I’m not a psy-chology major, much less a psychologist,but I do have a somewhat scientificallysound theory. Maybe, the act of craftingyou sigil, commits your desire to thatshape in your memory. Now, even when

you have forgotten what that the desirerepresented by the sigil was, your subcon-scious mind never really forgets. Then, inturn perhaps the sigil activation process issomething like a self-hypnosis techniquethat invokes the desire stored in your sub-conscious mind. Then, you end up beingmore inclined to make decisions that bringyour desire closer to fruition.

Some of you might be saying, “Wait aminute, if you’re forgetting what you’rewishing for, how would you know if thewishes are coming true?” Of course that’sa difficult question to answer. I suppose itmay be that one never truly forgets whattheir dearest desires are, and if you findthat something truly great has happened toyou after launching a sigil, well there yougo.

With such names as Clapton, Beck andPage passing through the band’s ranks,very few bands can boast as prestigous ahistory as the Yardbirds. Although such areputation has its benefits, it has alsoproven to be drawback for the bands othermembers. Pile that on with the death oflead singer Keith Relf in 1976, it seemedincreasingly unlikely that this version ofthe band would spark public interest (espe-cially considering the lack-luster responseto Box of Frogs, a band in the mid-80’sfeaturing three of the original Yardbirds).

The “new and improved” Yardbirds aredown to only two of their original bandmembers (rhythm guitarist Chris Drejaand drummer Jim McCarty) and havereleased Birdland - their first studiorecording since 1967. “The album is newmarterial,” claim band members - unfortu-nately a lie as they spend a large part of thealbum covering themselves.

Although the entire album rings of theorignal Yarbirds’ sound, there were somedifferences - changes for the worse.Birdland starts off strong (the openingtrack is a fantastic rendition of “I’m nottalking”) but has a few stumbles with theguest musicians. “Mr. you’re a better manthan I” featured some spectacular solowork by Brian May of Queen, and “Shapeof things” was inspired by Stevie Vai.Unfortunately, the cover of “For yourlove” was bogged down by the less inspir-ing skill of Goo Goo Doll’s JohnnyResnick. Most ironic, however, was hav-ing Jeff Beck play on “My blind life” -quite possibly the most engaging track onthe album.

All together, this album sounds likeslike one produced by a functinonal, cohe-sive band rather than on by a crippledmanifestation of a 60’s hit so many of uswere afraid of. Not only was it dynamic,but the remakes and covers were able toallude to their previoius hits while incor-porating some new musical styles andartists. This album was a great effort by ahobbled group and gives proof that eventhough the original members are scarce,the rock world will always welcome theYardbirds.

New Music Reviews with DJ StrangeholdDJ Strangehold

3A Environmental

CD Review:Birdland, Yardbirds

Joseph Fung

3N Computer

Sigils: Magic or Hypnosis

Matthew Harper

2B Computer

“There are many pos-sible means of clearingones mind. You could

use deepmediation...Another

...is by spinningaround in a circle”

“...the funny thingabout magic is that itdefies explanation...”

1 4 Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Arts and Entertainment

The Heir of Ardun: Conclusion

Mostrick led his men over a small risein the land, the walls of the city within site.He still had a handful of men amongst theenemy, who didn’t want to leave their fam-ilies to the mercy of Borgh and be labeledtraitors. He had sent word to them the pre-vious day, asking for their assistancetonight, and what he was waiting on nowwas for the moment that they decidedwhich side they were on. Looking up at thewaning of the moon, and the first light ofthe sun coming up over the horizon, herealized that any moment his plan wouldbe set into action. A lantern suddenlyshone out from atop the battlements, andquickly went out. Mostrick held his breathas he waited, and exhaled as it shone twicemore.

Leaving them behind with their orders,he disguised himself as a peasant and wait-ed for the gate to be opened for the mer-chants. As they began setting up shop forthe day in the town square, he strolled pastthem to the royal grounds. Turning rightfrom the entrance to the palace, he entereda small alley, at the end of which was asewer drain. Raising the lid, he covered hisnose as the smell drifted up...taking a deepbreath of fresh air, he lowered himselfdown into the hole.

Winding his way through the tunnels,he guided himself by a mentally projectedmap. A left turn here, right curve there...hejust hoped he remembered the way cor-rectly. Soon he proved he did, however ashe came to the stairs leading up into thedungeon. Removing the false floor as qui-etly as possible, he raised himself up intoan empty cell and took in a big gulp of air.Opening the door to the abandoned cell(For prisoners were given the same optionsas everyone else that disobeyed Borgh) hemade his way towards the stairs going upto the main floor.

The dungeon was underground beneaththe basement, and only one set of stairsleading up. The first floor was divided intothe north wing and the south wing. Thesouth wing, closest to the entrance housedthe palace guards while the north winghoused palaceservants. The second floorwas filled with guest rooms for variousnoble visitors, and the top floor wasreserved for royalty. Mostrick slowlybegan making his way up to the third floor,and to the royal bed chambers. He openedthe door slightly and peered in, as hebraced himself for what he would see.

Inside his father lay on his death bed,all blood drained from his face. To

Mostrick’s eyes he was but a pale shadowof his former self. His breathing was shal-low and raspy, and eyes sunken and red. Acouple of servants stood around him, tend-ing to him the best they could. One lookedup as the door opened, and with a slightsmile on an otherwise grief stricken face,motioned Mostrick in. Coming closer, hetook his father’s hand and betweenclenched teeth, said “How much time doeshe have left?” Looking down at her feetthe servant in a low voice said, “A day, aweek, we don’t really know really. Borghhid exactly what he did to well.” Nodding,Mostrick bent down and kissed his father’sbrow, and whispered a promise ofvengeance in his ear.

Leaving swiftly, he entered the sleep-ing chambers of Borgh. There he was,lying their peacefully asleep, face as smugand sadistic as ever, and at the foot of thebed was a black cat. Resisting the urge tokill him right then and there, he took outthe bow and arrow he had prepared earlier.Aiming carefully, he let the arrow fly withthe parchment tied tightly to it.Disappearing quickly, he smiled with grimsatisfaction.

Not even a hour later, Borgh woke up.He sat up, and shook his head. His dreamswere becoming more and more real everynight. Why hadn’t he killed that boy whenhe had the chance? Why did he have totransform him as well? But before hecould finish the next thought, somethingcaught his eye. Turning, his eyes narrowedto just slits as he saw the arrow protrudingfrom the skull of his cat. Tearing the parch-ment off, his eyes closed in on the name atthe bottom. Mostrick.

* * *“Dear Borgh,

You should remember me. The boywho you tried to murder? The boy you kid-napped and sent to the dungeon whiletelling my father I had run away? Wellguess what? I’m back. Except now I’m nolonger a boy. Now I am a man who has anoath to fulfill, an oath of vengeance. Iswore I would see your head on a pike forwhat you did to Ardun and its people, forwhat you did to my father and I. We coulddrag this on with a long war, costing thelives of many. Or we can cut right to thechase, which is my preferred method, andI’m sure it’s yours. Meet me alone twobow-shots from the city walls at noontomorrow. Come alone. If you don’t, wellby then we’ll be on MY turf, and we’ll justsee how you do with several hundredarrows being shot at you. Just so we’reclear, come alone with one weapon to thedesignated spot at noon tomorrow. Oh and

Borgh, don’t disappoint me.

Mostrick”

He read that letter over and over, hisrage growing each time he did. How darethat insolent fool challenge him? Well hewould be there all right, and he wouldteach that kid a lesson that would makehim beg for mercy before it was over...“yes this could be quite fun,” thoughtBorgh.

Mostrick stood there, sword drawn,armor shining. He was nervous yet excit-ed; for this was the day he would end itall...or die trying. Several of his men hadtried to talk him out of it, but he refused tobe persuaded. They didn’t have the men orthe resources for an all out attack on thecapital without Bruen’s reinforcements. Ifit was just Borgh’s men, perhaps...but withcountless skeletons at his beck and call,they could easily be overrun in a full scalebattle, which is why he challenged him toone on one. When one man tried to tell himBorgh wouldn’t play fair, he simply said,“Of course he won’t. I’m not counting onhim to. What I am counting on though ishis pride being damaged enough to giveme the upper hand.”

Borgh marched out of the city walls,banners flying and a personal guard of 15following close behind. The rest of histroops positioned right within the walls, ifthings went poorly the rebels would beoverrun immediately. Black robes hungover his body, face hidden by the cowl ofthe hood. As he approached the enemy, henoticed the hatred in their faces. Smilingwickedly, he dismissed his guard andwalked the last fifty feet alone. Standingonly yards from his nemesis, he pulled hishood back revealing his face. Black hair,with pale skin, his eyes were sunken andhis lips thin. Holding a black skull-toppedstaff into the air as he muttered ancientincantations, the robes disappeared. Intheir place black plate mail appeared, andwhat was a staff now was a two-handedsword. His skin peeled back, shriveling offhis face as his eyes sunk in until they wereonly glowing red orbs. The guards weretransforming also, turning into skeletonsthemselves. Stunned, but no less deter-mined Mostrick held his sword and shieldready, and waited for Borgh’s move. Hedid not wait long, for when the transfor-mation was barely completed, the lastpatches of hair still disappearing, hecharged, and metal clashed on metal as theprince braced himself for the rush.

One parried, the other thrusted, andthen they launched counter attacks. Blowswhere eventually landed on both sides,

however and Mostrick was losing strengthwith each new blow. Daunted by the factthat his enemy had no visible wounds, heprepared himself for one final attack.Swinging in a downward arc, he cut acrossthe plate severing one of the joints. Borghwent down, part of his armor hangingloose. Mostrick stood back with a disbe-lieving stare, desperately trying to regainhis breath. Quicker then an adder bite, adagger flew from Borgh, impaling thehand Mostrick carried his sword in.Dropping his weapon, Mostrick collapsedas Borgh approached for the kill.Suddenly, as Borgh raised his sword, aloud crunch was heard as metal hit bone, aflail appearing out of the middle ofBorgh’s head. Collapsing, Borgh’s eyesslowly extinguished as Bruen pulled hisweapon of choice out of Borgh’s head. Thelast thing Mostrick saw before his eyesclosed was an entire army of elves andmen fighting countless skeletons.

Mostrick eventually woke up, andlearned all that had happened. Bruen hadreturned with the elven army the daybefore the duel. Reading the journal entryof Mostrick, the army made a forcedmarch all night to get to the capital ofArdun. Coming upon the city just as theduel began, he ordered a halt, not wantingto interfere. Seeing his friend about to bedefeated, he ran as hard as he could tohelp, barely making it in time. By thispoint Borgh’s army had issued from thecity, driven by a hatred for all livingthings. Without the leadership and controlexerted by Borgh, they were quickly dis-persed and routed, with elven hunting par-ties still chasing down the remains.

Mostrick recovered, and took thethrone in the place of his dead father. Heruled for several years before desiring tosee his old friend Bruen once again.Taking up his stuff from his days of beinga rebel, he journeyed to the kingdom ofThrelain. Unbeknownst to him, howeverwas a pair of red glowing eyes watchinghim as he went.

Mike MoffetGuest Writer

Editor’s Note: The Heir of Ardun is a 5-part short story written by Mike Moffet.The Iron Warrior will be publishing oneof the 5 parts sequentially in each of our5 issues. Be sure to check the next issueof the Iron Warrior for the coninuationof the story.

1 5Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

Staff Appreciation

Iron Warrior Staff - Spring 2003

Jeff Henry - Assistant EditorJonathan Fishbein - Editor-In-Chief

Jason Griese - Photo Editor Matthew Harper - Layout Editor

Katherine Chiang - WebmasterMaria Simoes - Technical Editor Rajat Suri - Business Manager Joseph Fung - Offstream Editor-in-Chief

Ryan Bayne - Mutant Dog EditorAndré Beltempo - ResidentForeign Correspondent

Niki Czerniak - Poetry andCrosswords Editor

Ben Guzinski - Sr. InvisibleFiction Editor

Matt Gagliardi - Resident LegoColumnist

Dan Foong - Chief AthleticsCorrespodent

Kristina Hotz - Sr. SunglassesEditor

James Kunz - Resident FroshWeek Insider

Christos Sarakinos - Sr. EditorWho Drives All the Girls Wild

Chow Lin - Mysterious CulinaryExpert

Michael Silagadze - ChiefPolitical Analyst

David Yip - Resident Motorist

Well, another term of the Iron Warriorhas come and gone! Since all the hardwork is now behind us, I’d like to take thisopportunity to thank both the members of

this terms editorial board and the IronWarrior staff members for all their hardwork this summer.

First off, this terms editorial board hasdone and amazing job. From dealing withrandom issues that popped up in the begin-ning of term to giving me guidance onbasicly every aspect of the newspaper, thisterms editorial board has been amazing.Jeff has been indespensible in terms of get-ting another opinion on important issues.Jason has done an excellent job at making

sure there were always pictures to publishin the paper. Matt has proved to be ire-placeable in terms of showing me theropes of how to get four issues of this nws-paper off the ground. Maria has alwaysbeen there to write numerous articles abouther even more numerous directorships tomake sure there is always enough contentfor the paper. Katherine was always thereto make sure that the issues content wentup on the web in a timely manner. Rajatwas always quick to put his many opin-

ions down on paper for his regular column.This terms Iron Warrior staff always

made sure that every newspaper sectionwas covered with artcles. Whether it waswriting about EngSoc activities, about var-ious opinions around campus, or about artsand entertainment, this terms staff provedto deliver excellent content

With that, it is now time to hand overthe reigns to Jeff Henry who will be theincoming Edirot-in-Chief for the winterterm. Thanks Everyone!

Jonathan Fishbein

2B Software

Editor-in-Chief

1 6Fr iday , Ju ly 25 , 2003

The 2004 Ontario EngineeringCompetition will be held at Queens’University during February 6 to 8, 2004.The competition consists of six differentevents:

Editorial Communications of per-sonal viewpoints on social, economic andenvironmental consequences of currenttechnological issues;

Explanatory Communications ofcomplex technical issues or processes;

Parliamentary Debate of a previous-ly-undisclosed resolution;

Corporate Design of a solution to aproblem faced by a recognized Canadiancorporation;

Entrepreneurial Design of a mar-ketable product or service not currentlyavailable in Canada; and

Team Design by 1st- and 2nd-yearengineering students presented with a pre-viously undisclosed design problem.

Each student is allowed to only com-pete in one category. For more informa-tion on competition categories,compositions of teams, and awards, pleasesee the OEC 2004 website:

http://engsoc.queensu.ca/oec/The Office of the Dean will sponsor up

to two official UW teams in each category.At present, the application deadline isunknown, but undergraduate UW engi-neering students interested in participatingshould plan to submit a hardcopy of thefollowing information to the faculty advi-sor by December 8, 2003, along withnames, prior experience and e-mailaddresses of team members:

Editorial Communications: a 200-word summary of the topic to be addressed(teams of 1 or 2);

Explanatory Communications: aone-page summary of the topic to be pre-sented and a list of audio-visual require-ments (teams of 1 or 2);

Parliamentary Debate: a summary ofprior debating experience (teams of 2);

Corporate Design: a 200-wordabstract and the name of an industrial con-tact (teams of up to 4);

Entrepreneurial Design: a 200-wordabstract (teams of up to 4);

Team Design: up to 4 team members. Please send any questions or com-

ments electronically to dclausi@engmail,by phone at (519)-888-4567 ext. 2604, orin person at DC 2611.

OEC Call for ParticipationProf. David A. ClausiOEC Faculty Advisor

Loungin’ at the Luau Semi

The Engineering Society HawaianLuau took place on Saturday, July 5th.Many people were in attendance who weretreated to a dinner of a roasted pig as wellas vegetarian delights. Although the

weather looked glim at the start, it prompt-ly turned around and became a beautifulnight. The evening then continued with around of raucous dancing followed bydoor prizes. When asked for a comment towhether they had a good time at the semi,both James Kunz and Luara Mooneyresponded “Yes I did.” As you can see, afun time was had by all.

IW News Bureau

Appropriately entertaining. That's howI answer when asked what I thought aboutthe most recent incarnation of theEngineering Plays. Although less thanspectacular, "The Cards of Fate" and"Hard Candy" were very entertaining foran extra-curricular activity organized by afaculty of time-pressed students.

It's that last part which is most relevantto the impression given. The errors andshortcomings smack more of a lack ofopportunity to practice than of any seriousflaws in direction, acting or script. Toelaborate, in "The Cards of Fate" the scenetransitions were noticeably slow, causingthe play to be stilted and erratic. Althoughthis hitch was also obvious in "Hard

Candy", the transitions were fewer andless involved, and the cast was able torecover with sufficient adroitness to mini-mize the problem.

The lack of practice was also evi-denced by the somewhat unnatural andunpolished performance of some actors. Itfelt very much as if corners were cut andsomeone had to say "ok guys, this is goodenough". A few performers displayedwhat appeared to be ill-disguised laughterwhen horror was intended while others'attempts to over-act their parts (to empha-size the fantastic nature of their roll nodoubt) resulted in unintelligible lines anduncomfortable timing of delivery.

The final flaw in the performance hadmore to do with the venue than with theplays themselves. The lack of raised seat-ing and the lack of adequate stage resultedin obscured views and missed details. Thesecretary's aging transition was nearlyimpossible to notice if you were not nearthe front of the audience, and as much of"Hard Candy" took place with the actors in

seats, this problem was compounded.Luckily, at one point in the action the play-ers resorted to the waving of flags toassure the audience that they were indeedon-stage and performing. Another dilem-ma with the venue was the lighting. Lightsintended for the stage also illuminated theaudience, and the house lights seemed tolack any dimming facility, resulting in ablinded audience both at the intermissionand at the closing.

But earlier I stated "very entertaining"- and that sense may have been lostamongst my criticisms. Both plays mademe laugh. Several times.

Between the stilted transitions andoccasional hiccoughs were gems of hilari-ty. The critically important comic ele-ments were delivered perfectly. Thesemaphores were enthusiastically present-ed, the possible roommate enticingly coy,the faux hypnosis sharply sarcastic, theboxers exaggeratedly colourful and theseduction elegantly timed. Not one mem-ber of the audience will be able to forget

cheers of "OTTO! OTTO!" nor will theybe able to forget the terror of a young manwho's only defence was a stapler and epi-thets.

A week ago someone told me "you'regoing to love 'The Cards of Fate', it's very,very, very dark humour"; a month ago Ihad the opportunity to read the script to"Hard Candy". I was eagerly awaiting theperformances, and I was not disappointed.

Yes there were hitches and snags, yesthe performances could have been a littlemore polished - but for something assem-bled, practiced and delivered in such ashort time-frame, both were entertaining.

If you were expecting a productionworthy of a Mirvish playbill, then not onlywould you be dissatisfied, but also irra-tional. I went to both "Hard Candy" and"The Cards of Fate" expecting to see engi-neering students performing for an appre-ciative group of friends and peers. And Iwas appropriately entertained. I laughed, Iclapped and I congratulate everyoneinvolved on a successful performance.

Joseph Fung

3N Computer

Play Review: Appropriately Entertaining

The Girls of Hard Candy The Tech Director, Assistant Tech Director and Director Preparing for a Stellar Perfromance

Semi Participants Enjoying Themselves on the Grad House Patio