Friday, October 30, 1998 The Newspaper of the University of Waterloo Engineering Society Volume 22 Issue 14

Western Hosts Chemical

November
Events
Engineering Conference
ANDREW HATELY
EMILY PASCUAL
A Soc President of the Chemical Engineering
Society
5
0 Waterloo delegates (minus I due to
an accident involving $30 and a sec-
ond floor window) packed into 9
hotel rooms for the 48th Canadian
Chemical Engineering Conference which
took place this pa. t October 4th lo 7th
1998 in London, Ontario. Participants
from more than 20 countries from indu. try
and academia congregated at the Westin
holel to discuss, lislen and learn about
varying topics surrounding chemical engi-
neering. The theme for the 1998 Canadian
Society for Chemical Engineers (CSChE)
conference was "Chemical Engineering
for the 21 st Century" with emphasis for
the student program on entrepreneurship,
leadership and preparing for the new mil-
lennium.
Iroll Warrior Staff
A
fun schedule of November event
should compen. ate for the lull in
excitement caused by midterms.
Leading in to ovember, the EngSo
Middle of Term (MOT) Hallowe'en Pub
will be in POETS tonight. Chilli fro111 the
Gradcomm chilli cook-olT will be served
at the pub.
The conference itself was put together
by the ho ting univer. ity, We tern, and by
the CSChE. It combined technical ses ion
Chemical Theory Disclissiolls: UW Chemical Engilleerillg slltdellts engaged in lively discLls-
Several high profile lectures are
scheduled for November. l ames Gosling.
one of the founders of the lava program-
ming language, will be peaking in the
Humanities Thealre on November 4 at
9am. At 4:00pm on the same day, Paul
Hoffert, the author of The Bagel Effect: A
Compass to Navigate Our Wired World
will present his book in DC1302. On
November 10, a repre entative from the
PEO will be speaking in the lunch time
Bridging the Gap lecture series.
Engi neering and AHS night at Fed
Hall is planned for ovember 5. Also
sions on distilling alld fermentatioll. "how cmme.,y of Emity Palel/III
presented by industry, profes. ors and grad- to mention the displays put on by
ua e .' u ents, over lh COUfS 0 4 ...... r .. ".--.rtoneywe i- pee 0 u ions, yprotech
Simultaneous lectures were presented on and Suncor.
various topics and participant were free to The keynote speakers opened each
attend as many sessions as they day at 8 am and presented through out the
The technical program consi ted of topics day during the course of the conference.
ranging from the latest developments in They encouraged di cussion on topics
catalysis and bioreactor design. for waste- such as trends in technology that wi ll
water treatment, to modeling cubi c equa- shape chemical engi neering for the next
lions of state, to optimizing the drying millennium, changes and improvements
process of fish paste sausage. Needless to that can be made to the present post sec-
'ay there was no shortage of left brain ondary educational system, and the pro's
. timul i. If none of the technical sessions and con's of graduate school and owning
caught your eye, there were plenty of plant your own business .
lOurs of local indu trie such as Sleeman's, The conference al 0 gives the CSChE
Bayer Rubber and OVA Chemicals. ot the opportunity to recognize achievements
and work done in chemical engineering. scheduled for that day arc the Chem
afer 00 ai we wit our 0Wft - , . __ ",_",,,.,,,,,1 __
Rempel and Dr. R. Pal being both awarded Gradcomm Slave Auction in POETS at
for their contribution. to the field of poly- 2:00pm.
mers and rheology, respectively. The Engineering Semi-Formal will be
Then there was the evening portion of on November 7 this term. Tick\!ts and
the student program. By far (and in no way information are available in the Orifice
am I biased) Waterloo was one of the A Rememberance day ceremony will
largest, loudest and biggest party initiator be held on November II in CPH Foyer.
at all three of the London bars that we The ChemEngSoc Coffee House is sched-
attended. We were successful in having uled for November 13 in the SLC
participation from all on-stream classes MUltipurpo e room.
from Waterloo at the conference, including EngSoc is also planning road trips to
Sega City, Gold Crown Brewery and the
(see "48th Conference ... ", page 3) Hick Pub Tour for November.
(see also "CSChE KeYllot ... " page 3
and "First Year ... page) 6
WARG Launches New Campaign
CHRIS MCKILLOP
WARG Team Member
M
any people have walked by the
door to Waterloo Aerial
Robotic. Group lab on the sec-
ond floor of E2 and wondered, "What the
heck is that?'". A good number of people
assume that it is a grad student lab. It'
not. The Waterloo Aerial Robotics Group
(WARG) is an undergraduate student
research project aimed at developing con-
trol, vision, and artificial intelligence sy -
tems for autonomou. robot . Currently the
group is very focused in on getting an RC
helicopter to fly unmanned in any environ-
ment and also to be able to identify people
and other object it fiie over. The group
is aiming to compete in the As ociation of
Unmanned Vehicle System.' Millennial
Competition in the year 200. For more
information on that event see
http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu!AUVSIlARCL
aunchPoint.html.
WARG was started j ust over a year
ago within the Electrical and Computer
Engineering department. A I A Comp,
David Kroetsch, had done a similar project
while he was in high school and now that
he wa at Waterloo wa intere ted in mov-
ing the project to a higher level. Prof.
David Wang (not a P.Eng) helped Kroetsch
by bringing together different students that
had expressed interest to him in participat-
ing in such a robotics competition. As
time pa sed WARG was augmented with
. tudents from Systems Design and from
Computer Science.
This pa t ummer at a preliminary
competition, WARG took second place
beating chool uch as MIT, Georga Tech,.
and Berkeley. The group was al 0 gi ven
an award for Overalllnnovation. In order
to continue this succe s and to win the
Millennia] event, WARG needed to raise
(see uWARG Hoping ... on page 2)
Practice Flight: WARG team member
guides the aircraft through a test nm
photo COl/rlesty of WARG
In This Issue ...
News and Information ...... .. ... 2-3
The Way Wc Were .................. 3
The Big Picture .................. 4
Just a Guy ...................... 4
Take a Zhaoce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
Kctchup . .......... ........ . . ... 5
Executive ........ .. .. ... 6-7
Ans ...... . ..... .. ......... ... . 8
"If a president of the United States ever lied to the American people, he should resign." - Bill Clinton, 1974
2
News & Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 30, 1998
The Game They Play in Heaven
CRAIG TURNER
EngSoc Athlelics Rep
T
he day dawned with blue skies and
not a cloud in slight. The air was
crisp and clear; a perfect day indeed
for the Eng$oc Rugby 7's tournamenl. In
total , six teams showed up to compete,
SyDe FX, Truck, The Fat Asses, Red
Dog's Marauders, Watt the Flux and Dead
Meat. Many of the players had carefully
prepared for the tourney by doing
absolutely nothing the night before, but the
9:00 A.M. start time proved to be too early
in the morning for some teams. Truck was
forced to borrow a player for each of their
first two games, managing to rOllse the rest
of their team as the lunch break
approached. Watt the Flux and Dead Meat
found themselves understaffed and made a
last-minute decision to join forces.
The first game kicked off at 10:00,
with fourteen players running around the
field chasing a dirty white ball with noth-
ing but Ryan Chen-Wing and his whistle
keeping the structured "game they play in
heaven" from descending into chaos. It
was a long day with many exhilarating
breaks, close calls, powerful hits and
exciting tries. When the dust settled after
the round robin, everybody was absolutely
exhausted.
The judges methodically tallied
points, weighing technical merit versus
artistic impression over a lengthy lunch
break before the single knockout playoffs
began. The Fat Asses sadly had to with-
draw from the tournament prior to the start
of the playoffs due to a shortage of man-
power. The excitement of the crowd was
evident as SyDe FX and Truck took the
field for the first gruelling semi-final.
SyDe FX squeaked by in the dying min-
utes of the game to take the first berth in
the finals. Red Dog's Marauders managed
to out-run Watt the Flux/Dead Meat to take
the other semi-final. In the consolation
round, Truck managed to edge out Watt the
FluxfDead Meat for third place. A clash of
the titans in the finals resulted, after much
blood, sweat and tears, in Red Dog's
Marauders defeating SyDe FX to claim the
title of Fall 1998 Rugby 7's Champions.
I'd like to send out a huge thank you
to all the players for coming out to play at
such an early hour and especially to Ryan
Chen-Wing for spending the whole day as
referee and doing a greatjob
l
Upcoming athletics tournaments
include Volleyball on November 1st,
Mudbowl on November 7th, and
Basketball on November 21 st. For further
information of the EngSoc
Athletics Reps at cfturner@engmail or
mtlongla@engmail. Hope to see you out
there!
WARG Hoping to Build on Strong Start
(colltinued from page 1)
more money to fund further rcsearch.
To this end, current sponsors and
approximately 20 othcr local high tech
companies were invited to come [0 cam-
pus to attend a presentation on the project
and to meet the group members; dubbed

in The WARG Playground: Olle of lire test scenarios for tli e
. . Aerial RobO/ics team at Ithe ast competitioll.
lncreaslng
'r sponsorship.
The group would
like to thank the follow-
ing people/groups; the
E&CE department for
the refreshments, ICR
for the use of their facil-
the Davis
Alan
for the
If you're always on the go take us with you.
A paget from Bell MobUity is the easy and aifordabJe
way to stay In the loop.
Ball Mobilitv
music, and Dianne Naughton in AV for the
promotional video. Without their help
WARG Day would not have been possible.
For more information on the group and
who makes this project possible please
check htlp://ece.uwaterioo.ca/-warg/.
Also, watch for an announcement in the
near future from WARG looking to inter-
ested students to help make WARG the
first place fini her in 2000.
Benyon Writing
Contest
Deadline
N
ovember 5 is the deadline for the
"Benyon Memorial Humanitarian
Award." The award is sponsored
by the Benyon Memorial Foundation and
the Centre for Society, Technology and
Values (CSTV). All entries will be pub-
lished in the next is ue of the Iron Warrior
on November 13. One of the published
entries could be selected by a panel of
judge for the $400 award.
The article should be based on the fol-
lowing tatement: "Is the Davis Centre a
good symbol of the human values engi-
neering should represent in our society?"
The article should be between 500 and
800 words in length.
Submission should be sent by email
to iwarrior@engmail.uwaterloo.ca.
Current and permanent contact informa-
tion must be included with the email mes-
sage.
For more information, please contact
the Iron Warrior or the CSTV at
cstv@engmail.uwaterloo.ca or at 888-
4567 x6215.

The Newspaper of the University of
Waterloo Ellgineering Society
Editor
Andrew Hately
Assistant Editors
Jaime Tiampo
Diliny De Alwi
Layout Editor
Phong Loi
WWWEditors
Piero Brigneti
Jessica Lee
Staff
Ryan Bayne
Jasen Higgins
Raymond Ho
Darren Jenkins
Pien'e Menard
Ian Tien
Zhan Huan Zhou
Contributors
Alan Cannistraro
Greg Fyke
Elliot Horner
Alexis A. Jay
Chris McKillop
Jenni er Motuz
Mike Muffels
Emily Pascual
Margaret Tong
Craig Turner
The Iron Warrior is a forum for Ihoughl provoking
and infomlalive ankle, published by the Engineering
Society. Views e'pressed in The Iron Warrior are
Ihose of the authors and do not necessarily reflecl tbe
opinions of !he Engineering Society.
The Iron Warrior encourages submissions from stu-
dellls, faculty and members of !he universily commu-
nity. Submissions should reflect the concerns and
intellectual standards of the universily in general. The
author's name and phone number should be included.
All submis ions, unless otherwise stated, become !he
properly of The Iron Warrior, which reserves !he
righl to refuse publication of malerial which it deems
unsuilable. The Iron Warrior also reserves the righl
10 edit grammar, spelling and text thaI do nOI meel
university slandards. Authors will be notified of any
major cbanges thaI may be required.
Mail should be addressed 10 The Iron Warrior,
Engineering Society, CPH 1323B, University of
Walerloo, Waterloo. Ontario. N2L 3G I. Our phone
number is (519) 888-4567 x2693. Our fax number is
(519) 725-4872. E-mail can be sent 10
iwarrior@engmail.uwaler/oo.ca
The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 30, 199
News & Information 3
ANNALysis - The Mid Eighties
O
nce again.
let us dig
deep in
Dean's Storage.
blow the dust off of
aging yellowed
tomes and see what
the Engineering
Society has seen
and done. As we
delve deeper and deeper, the clock rolls
back to a time when _ pace was coveted.
when Drool was Scribe and when the
TOOL Bearers really did look like the
KKK.
Dateline: October, 1986. The Davi.
Building, billed as a beautifully innovative
design, was finally enclosed and hielded
from the smell of manure from neighbour-
ing farms. This completion was met by
hurrahs from everyone affected. The . taff,
who called converted hallways their
office, could now expect more sui table
accommodations. Students, however,
were the real winners. No longer would
there be classes in portables and the varsi-
ty athletes could have their weight room
back as it would no longer be needed for
lectures.
The HP portable computer was the
latest technology with its 512K internal
memory, 24 X 80 character LCD screen
and the ability to survive a lOG drop test.
Not to mention the fact you could fit this
puppy into a normal sized backpack with
room for a mall binder. Too bad you had
The Way
We Were ...
by Jo.\('/1 Higgins
to print BA IC
assignment before
staning your fOR-
TRAN due to lacl of
But. he). if
you didn't have the
$4500 kicking around.
} ou could pick lip a
LIGHTLY less
portable 80286 6/8
MHz IBM clone for only $1699.
1985 saw it's share of fundraising
firsts. Gradcomm wa raffling off
waterbed for I each. 2A Ci \ il was
raffling 6kg of cheese to cover a Scunt
induced broken windshield and EngSoc
held its first annual tuition lottery for Big
Sisters. Back then. the lottery's $1000
grand prize wa ' enough to cover a term's
tuition ... minus the Coop fee of course. A
cash drain that would thankfully be saved
for later years was Fed Hall. Back whcn it
opened early in '85 you couldn't get in
after 9pm and tickets were sold out days in
advance.
Other events in the winter of that year
were the Snow shoe race, Mummy wrap-
ping contest (BYOTP), timed snow sculp-
ture and the venerable Cave cookie
contest. The object of the latter wa to
make a cookie that is re ilient enough to
withstand hammer blows, drop kicks etc.
and yet good enough to eat. Naturally, thi s
would be washed down with a stubby little
bottle of OV depicted in a full page ad
from Jan 1985's rw. Just say ov. Oh Ya!
CSChE Keynote Speakers
ALEXIS A. JAY
4A Chemical Engineering
O
ne of the many highlights of
CSChE conference was the five
keynote speakers for the st udent
portion. For Sunday's installment of the
keynote addresses Dr. Pet ryschuk,
Director General of NRC, commenced
with his seminar, "Career Choices for
Engineers". Followed by him was Dr.
Paradi, Executive Director for
Management of Technology and
Entrepreneurship for the University of
Toronto, who di cussed the topic, "What?
Me an Entrepreneur?" Both talks were
very informative, entertaining, and illus-
trated what the future had in store for up-
and-coming chemical engineers.
Tuesday's keynote peakers tarted
with Dr. Lionel Laroche, President of
it
International Experience Important?" The
Pre ident and COO of Nova Chemicals
Ltd., Dr. Daniel Boivin, wa next with hi s
seminar, "Trends in the Canadian
Chemical Industry". The morning ended
with Dr. Alberto Ravella of Exxon R&D
di scussing engi neering principles associat-
ed with lubes refining. All of the address-
es were well received and enli ghtening.
] personally had the distinct pleasure
of being a member of the University of
Western Ontario's executive committee. r
worked with Chri ti Tzaras to recruit
keynote speakers. Knowing first hand
how much time and energy Western
invested into this conference is truly worth
mentioning. I know that Waterloo' dele-
gate benefi ted greatl y from Western 's
phenomenal endeavor .
The Sandford Fleming Foundation
Op paraphernali.1 and Vuarnet shirt:
proudl) had.. in '85 The
ame \\ a. not true, hm\e\er. of the pl
di.playmg. a cI,ld women ad\ erlts-
ing herself to prolllOle funding of the
Enginew lencr. . Ol11C \\ ere
to be associated \\ Ith and oth-
er\ dehlted whether the FngSoc had ,In)
right to interfa' \\ Ilh the thcll \\ holl} ,,'p-
arate Enginc\\ sktler. III the end,
for Jtomic warheads, low
le\d mise missiles and the Ford Pinto.
All of tills gloom and doom and the
Chalknger disaster was still -+ months
a\\ ay.
r-.lay 31 st, tht' BIG BIG Century Club
Tournament in POLTS. the first round of
llrinkcrstarted at noon and there \\;1\ lots
of P 5 p(lints, partit:ularit) for those \\ ho
finish 'd their I ()O shots. Shortly thereafter
a motion was presented
proposing a 3 term sus-
,""",".".--. .. penSlllt1 from drinking in
,. _ ..... ..... POI-'TS for drullt.-. disrup-
ti\c and cbngerou. con-
ducl during lecturcs. The
lIlotion was pal,sed 21 to
O. Further consumption
restrictions were imposed
as beer \\as clIl from the
athletic budget to avoid
pcople getting bl asted
between games at indoor
tourneys.
1986: The year ellgilleerillg imrodl/ced a ulliform.
Arm twisting and
other tactics were used to find out who
stole $500 from the orifice in July of 84'.
won and the Enginews was back with new
direction, improved humour and for a
short time, was a campu wide publica-
lion.
Perception were changi ng wrote AI
McGowan, then president of the Society.
No longer was Engineering "the Supreme
Art and Science of Mankind". According
to him, the public' opinion of the
Professional Engineer was becoming Ie s
religious. Engineer had to carry the
o great engineering skill was needed to
circumvent the security, the door to the
key cabinet was left open. No arm twist-
ing should be necessary, however, to open
the next is ue of the Iron Warrior when we
see what' behind door number one:
ENTER, THE EARLY EIGHTIES.
48th Conference for CSChE
(colltinlled from page 1)
4 lucky frosh and one 2A despite the
midterm their class had the following
Thursday of our return.
The hest part for IllC watching
interaction of nil the years IOgl'lher, hay ill g
fUll at all the events as they their
booties along side some of our hippest
TA's and professors \hameless ly lip Oil til '
dance noor or on top of the speaker\,
every night. All of us met new, dynamic
indi viduals from other schools and
surprisingly, from within.
I could ramble Oil for pages on what
happened over those 4 days but it is no
replacement for actually being there. It
was a Jot of hard work raising the money
for 1)uch a large group of people to go, but
it was well worth the effort. Evell if it isn' t
a chemical engineering conference, I
attends some kind of student conference at
some point in his or her university career-
it truly i an experience.
Thank, til all that ,Uppoltl'd I spc
clall y Ihe Itl stltutl' Inl Plll Y"ll'l
the Dean, III1,k Procter and (ialllhk,
DOW, Mill Y IIland, the CS(,hF" tlild all 01
whn bought stull at our hak - 'nil'.
had their W<l,hl d by us. amI dOllated
their to nUl hOIlI - dll VC. We could
lI ' t have dOllc it without you and we
forw;tnI to your continucd support. Last
but not least. r d like to thank all that par
ticipated in thi, yc.If's Canadian Society
for Chemical EngineL:rtllg onferellcc
it's you lhut make the society what it
is.
You all rock. Peace.
Waterloo Campus Activities
4306 Carl Pollock Hall, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1 (519) 888-4008
Glenn Cowan, Electrical Engineenng
to CA::: rn .asers'
Todd Simpson, Systems DeSign Engineering
"Forced Ice Plug \1el:,ng"
Anthony CIVIl Engineering
"p i/r(k'lerrl.1 e. r)lJItJtlons"
Tyler (oung, Computer Engineering
"f und,v"' ....x'd ;, 0t 'Jawlll (/'yrrrur cat!of'1s"
Funding for these awards comes from engineering student contributions and depends on them for continuation.
An organization devoted to the advancement of engineering education.
4
Opinion The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 30, 1998
Iron Ring Tradition
E
very year on a Thursday at the shirts. People who don't want to get
beginning of March you will see stripped Just stay away from that area or
the engineer- wear black.
ing grads of that year If you ask a
dre. sed up in tacky grad what it all
clothing and drinking Just a Guy means, the iron ring
themselves silly. The and the partying, he
reason fortheirrcvel- by Ryall Chen Wing will probably tell
ry is that, that day is you about pride in
the day that they his accomplishment.
receive their Iron Since first year
Rings. everyone has been
For a year there working hard to
are pub-crawls counting down to the Iron become an engineer and the Iron Ring
Ring Stag Party (IRS) and there is cheer- symbolises that achievement and the IRS
ing whenever someone mentions the nUIl1- is a celebration of that.
ber of day until the IRS. Many grads drink If you ask a lower year student what
and get drunk at these pub-crawls all JJl the iron ring represents, as I have, you will
eager anticipation of likely not get a very
IRS day ( 132 days comprehensive answer
' til ). On the day many like, "That' s when
classes or groups of everyone dresses up
friends get together weird, right?"
for champagne break- In my experi ence I
fasts all dressed in have seen that students
colourful unusual know littl e about the
clothing. From there ring's real significance.
they will likely go to It can have a different
POETS which has The Iroll Rillg: Symbolizing all rhe hard personal meaning for
f
b' work of lIll engineering slUdenr. but h
one 0 Its USlest everyone t ere
times on lRS Day to drink beer. should be a common importance to all.
In the afternoon they change into I think it is fine to celebrate but it is a
more appropriate formal altire to attend travesty that people drink so much before
their [ron Ring Ceremony. I have been told the ceremony that they might puke during
that it i not unusual for at least one person the ceremony. I think thi s comes from the
to puke or pass-out during the ceremony secrecy of the ceremony's significance and
from excessive alcohol consumpt ion. students' lack of knowledge of the history
After the ceremony peopl e proudly wear and signifi cance of the Iron Ring
their new irons rings on the smallest finger Ceremony and the Calling of the Engineer.
of the working hand and tap it against any Some of the secrecy is from Kipling' s
nearby surrace; beer bottle or other peo- own words (hal the ceremony, < while ... llo
pie's forehead for example. mystery; they are for neither the public or
From there begins the Iron Ring Stag the press." Thi s can hardly be interpreted
Party. The grad. and their stainl ess steel to apply to students as virtually all of us
bands are loaded onto buses for a hall that wi ll be obli gated, ringed, engineers. Thi
has been rented for the ni ght. At the hall secrecy and hence uninformed future-
people rip each other's tacky clothes off wearers of the iron ring compromise its
down to the IRS boxer short s and black t va lue.
Tales of Adventure
HELP! H'S
CALC SOWf'ONS
FROM 1)(. l.I BRARY
Fn.NI g,AII

... BLAH WII
".foI.
Ian Tien
Stopping the Brain Drain
R
ecentl y, the federal government
commenced a $2.2 billion science
research sweepstakes. Proposals
will often be followed by angry face and
enraged comments. Deregulation means a
potential 20 percent increase in tuition fees
every year. It also
means, however, that
from universities
across Canada are
currently under
review, and
money will be allo-
cated to the worthi -
es t proposal .
Topping the list
thus far are the
University
The Big
Picture
universitie will possi-
bly have more cash to
allocate to the facul-
ties that most require
it. So although dereg-
ulation of fees will
By RaYllumd Ho
Toronto and the
University of Waterloo, with fourteen and
nine proposals respectively making the
"first cut". This large injection of cash
into Canadian universities is intended to
rescue our crumbling facilities and to stop
the brain drain of our country' top
researchers.
While this is an admirable course of
action that the government has taken, it
should be far from the last. This i not
suggesting, however, that the government
should continue to directly provide a
steady flow of funds. Rather, the govern-
ment should implement measures to
increase research funding from other
sources.
One such measure is already being
implemented: deregulation. For most uni-
versity students, the mention of this word
likely result in angered
students and a drastic
increase in tudent
loan application, it will provide at least
some aid in re earch financing.
Deregulation may prove to be a double-
edged sword, so the government must be
careful about it.
Another source of funding, albeit
indirectly related to the government, i
endowment fund.. Princeton University
has an endowment fund in the billions of
dollar, and the interest it eams every year
is greater than the University ofWaterloo's
entire annual budget. Becau e of the rela-
tively young age of many endowment
funds here, they do not possess the capac-
ity to provide major financial as istance to
research programs. Perhap ' our own gov-
ernment could at least match the students'
contributions to these funds. Thi would
help the funds to grow more rapidly and
make up some ground on their older and
better-endowed American counterparts. In
addition, tax credits should be given to stu-
dent who contribute to endowment funds .
The most important source of funding
that the government must harness is indus-
try. The University of Florida, for exam-
ple, received $37.3 million (US) last year
in research grants from industry.
Partnership with indu try i essential for
ustaining. The University of Florida's
technology licensing operation had an
income of $ 19.1 million (US) last year.
The technological advances and products
developed in their re earch laboratories
are now bringing them great returns on
their inve tmen!. Research is an invest-
ment, and should be regarded as such. It
should not be regarded as expenditure.
Hence it is quite clear that the govern-
ment must still make the survi val of any
univ ersity'S
research programs.
The government
must take the initia-
tive to encourage
and strengthen the
bonds between
companies and uni-
versities. Increased
"For most university stu-
dents, the mention of
deregulation will often be
followed by angry faces
and enraged comments"
great strides before our
universities will have
the ability to take care
of their own research
program s .
Deregulation of tuition
fees may prove help-
ful, although the gov-
tax rebate for research grants, for
in lance, should be brought under consid-
eration. Industry has much to gain through
research funding, because the research
performed will usually be beneficial to
them. The government, hence, must do
more to make industry aware of these ben-
efits. A joint advertising campaign
between the government and universities
might be something to think about.
Once a solid foundation has been
established, and the ball has started to roll,
then research will eventually become self-
ernment hould be
prepared to intervene if things tart to get
out of hand. Endowment funds, such as
our very own WEEF, can also play an
important role if they are properly sup-
ported. And most crucially, indu try mu t
become a university' be t friend. If
Canadian universities can work together
with the federal and provincial govern-
ments to achieve these objectives, then our
research programs will eventually be
re tored to full health.
The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 3D, 1998
Opinion 5
You Never Know
T
wo kid graduate from uni\'ersity.
Student A i at the top of his cia' .
He', mart,
he' good at math.
and he' up to his
eyeballs in job
offers, Student B. on
the other hand, i a
boy of moderate
intelligence. He'll
never be the sharpest
knife in the drawer
and he' got an aver-
sion to workaholism.
Years pass. Student A jumps from job
to job and meets all the right people; he
works 80 hour a week and finally lands a
lucrative position at a consulting firm,
where he work 90 hours a week,
Suddenly he's thirty-five, unmarried, and
balding. But hey, at least he' got money.
One day he runs into Student B, who
he hasn't een in twelve year .
"So how are you getting along?" a ks
Student A, mockingly.
Student B is getting along just fine, as
a matter of fact. He's well dre ed, he' got
a house on the lakeshore; he summers in
Europe, and hi car cost more than most
people make in a decade.
Student A has a nervous breakdown.
How? How could Student B turn out to be
such a succe s? He didn't have the marks.
He didn't work. He barely passed his
courses. Student A beg Student B to let
him in on the secret.
Did he inherit an outrageous fortune?
Did he patent a cure for cancer?
"I don't reckon so," replies Student B,
"All you gOlla do, is find . omethin' you
can buy for a (Jollar fifty and sell for four
bucks. Then just keep crankin' it out."
Yes folks, you heard it here first: Buy
low, ell high. Andy Grove did it with
semiconductors, Warren Buffet did it with
Dilly Bars.
Oh what a man'ellous mantra. Too
bad most pcople get
it backward:.
Ketchup
by fall 7iell
2A CompllIer
The)'11 buy some
stock. wait for it to
drop. then sell and
lose a lot of money.
Then they'll whine
about the "bad Iud."
they had in the mar-
ket.
Ask them what
they bought into, they'll reply "some com-
pany in Mexico that made tire or coffee
beans or something. 1 got the tip from my
dry cleaner."
These people drive me crazy. Why
would you buy into a company you know
nothing about?
Many moons ago, Benjamin Graham,
the granddaddy of financia l analysis,
wrote a couple book on how to invest in a
rational manner. There was a concept in
that book that he tried very hard to ham-
mer home, a concept the top minds on
Wall Street go back to, time and time
again: alway take into account a margin
of safety.
It's a ridiculously simple concept. If
you think a company's worth twenty dol-
lars, buy it at ten. Always leave a margin
of safety, in case something fundamental
change , or in case your estimates were
wrong.
There are basicall y two types of
investors: those who . earch for value, and
those who search for growth. A value
investor looks for deals, strong companies
trading at levels markedly below what
they're worth. growth investor 00 s or
opportunities-companies that are extraor-
dinarily productive.
Sometimes, you get lucky and stum-
ble aero. s a company that's both a value
The Keyboard Specialist
T
he explosion of the Internet has
provided global connectivity to
millions of
people around the
world. This global
connectivity makes
the Internet, perhaps,
the largest social
gathering in the
world. By means of
email , IRC, ICQ,
chat rooms and web
pages, users are
meeting electronic friends from all parts of
the world. Though thi may seem perfect-
ly safe at first, there are dangers involved
with meeting people via the Internet. I'm
not talking about danger that leads to
physical violence, but rather the mental
and emotional effects it has on u ers their
peers.
For many people, it is easier to talk
electronically because there is an electron-
ic mask in which as user can hide behind.
There is no equivalent shelter in face to
face, or even phone conversations. This
mask gives the user a sense of security
because he can stay anonymous or even
assume a false identity. Quite often, a
user's electronic persona is wildly differ-
ent from hi "real life" personality. This
alter ego may be a personality that he
wishes to be and thus gives him confi-
dence when communicating electronically.
There is no way in which external parties
can verify that he is indeed 6 feet, 200lb,
blonde hair, blue eyes and well built as he
claims.
There are times when electroni c com-
munication con-
sumes so much of a
Take a
Zhance
By lJuzn HUG/! Zhou
zhZlwu@e1tgmail
person' life that it
can inhibit hi s per-
sonal life.
Electronic friends
far outnumber real
friend, or perhaps
his isolation has left
him no real life
friends at all. This
can not only happen to friends, but it can
also affect family life. In one study, a
group of families was given a computer
and an Internet connection in return for
filling out weekJy surveys. These surveys
showed that the general happiness of the
family decreased largely due to the result
of excessive computer usage, most notably
chatting.
The Internet is a great way to meet
people and to blow some free time, but be
careful. Don't let electronic chatting con-
sume your life. Interpersonal skills are just
as important today as they were ten years
ago. In fact, they may even be more
important today due to the shrinking num-
ber of people who actually know what to
do when confronted with someone face to
face. Even though much of our education
is focused on the computer, remember
what it means to talk to a real life person -
it will get you much further in life than
being proficient at the keyboard.
bu) and a growth buy. The)' 'ompanies
are fc\\ and far bct\wcn :lnd .Ire lIsuall)
caused b) market anomalies rJtha than b)
random walks.
failed-I' m-going-to-, ue-thc-pants-off-you
company. They're trading at 30.5625 at a
PIE of 16.69. \ hich leans them toward a
value bu).
An c:\ample of --------------- The growth aspect
of the company comes
into phlY when you
take a look at one of
their key products:
optical fibrc. Everyone
uses it. Everyone has
u h an opportunity
an be found as
close to a
the laq issue of thc
Iron Warrior. TI
Technologies
(TSE: TY) wa),
"Andy Grove did it with
semico1lductors, Warrell
Buffet did it with Dilly
Bars"
mentioned as a pos ible value buy; it was
at 12.20 thcn. it's at 14.95 toda) , and it
could go to 16 by the end of next month.
It's growth pro peets arc strong as it \
making inroad. to set-top boxes. ,ub-$500
PC and the consumer appliance industry.
Side otc: Never listen to anything 1
,ay. In the e articles \'m never ever rec-
ommending that you buy into a particular
company. Individual stocks are just used
as examples.
Where was I? Oh yeah, growth and
value. Okay how about Corning (GLW)?
Yes! Corning, the my-breast -i mplanl-
to.
MO),t de\cloping countrics will never
know of copper phone wire. the majority
of communication: infrastructure will go
directly to optical fibre. which is cheaper
and more cfficient than anything else on
the market. There's been a slow down in
demand as of late, but once things get
rolling, Corning's story could be one of
high advenlure.
Then again, the world may go wire-
less tomorrow. You never know.
Point of this article: Play it safe, buy
what you know; buy at a bargain or don't
buy at al l.
That's where we started, and we've never looked back. With innovative
products like two-way pagers. Wireless PC cards and radiO modems. we
take technology to the edge everyday. So if you're looking for a career that
takes you to the edge and challenges you to achieve your best. consider RIM.
We're looking for innovators people with the drive to develop the noxt
generation of wireless technologies. Whether you're a co-op student.
a recent grad or someone with expenence, if you'vo got the creativity
and drive to be the best, join us on the edge.
RESEARCH AND DEVElOPMENT
AN 'NNIII t.! Nf ,Il
SALES AND MARK ETING
!'CCOL ,. MANf\(, II
t\SIC fJf,:,IGN fN(IINWl
[lSP 1iOF I WAPr JFvrwprA
lMflI.1I0.0 APPLICATIONS :)(V[cOP[R
r.MBfflD'[) F HMWAr1E O[JClOP[R
Pf [NGiNHR
SOFTWARf GuM SF[l'rAdS I
WIr<tlES!-: PAODt..:'1 D VH fJPEH
HUMAN RESOURCES

0 v LOPMENI MANM,I:
I'IVAfll Il'l'tlCAlIfJN ... r NGW 111
MI\RK[ilNC PIlODU(;l '"W A(j>H
P. OGHAM f ..1ANAGI H
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MANUFACTURING
PROC' <: l.NU,mH
QUAIII" fNGIN('[R
TEST ENGIN[[fi
THE RIM
INTER1tCTlVE
PAGEl!
RESEARCH
IN MOTION
10 ',til fJl!)Ie abcNlI '3'e'" ,;r'l"L Rt R:M sldrt bv
our Will! ,11f at www.rim.net/go/careers. l'!Cn rerd
ywr CQver P.ltef and It' 'II :N us !<.(1W"
thai Y(;li re 'cady to lOin tiS on lhe "due
195 Pllilf,p SHoei. Wr7Wlo..1
tJlllallO. Canada N:'L JW8
Tel 15198887465
FIJI.. 1519888691.76
..
6 Internal Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 30, 1998
Planning Your November
H
opefully
everyone's
midterms
are going (or have
gone) well. After all
that work you
deserve a break. so
your directors have
been hard at work
organiling events
for the next few starting with the
MOT tonight. There will be a costume
contest there (with great prizes for the
winners) and a c.:hili contest with proceeds
going to GradCOMM. so hopefully ['II see
you all there.
In November we've got a lot of joint
events going on. We've got the fir ... t ever
Engineering-AHS Fed Hall night on the
5th. Then on the 7th bring your friends to
the "Anyswing goes" semi-formal - buy
VP Internal
Report
your tickets for both
of these events in the
Orifice. Joint council
will be happening on
the 15th of ovember
.ff'lllliji'l Motta so everyone is invited
to join us for brunch
at Weaver 's Arms fol -
lowed by the meet-
ing, starting at Ilam.
The externa l special events directors
(Storch & Stacey) are busy organizing
off-cumpus events throughout the month
of November including a joint hick pub
with Western, and hopefully a Brunny
with the nearby universities.
That's all for now. If you'd like me to
mention something in one of my reports,
or if you just want to kn>w what' going
on, send me an email UmoLUz@engmail).
Soft Skills and Inter-Disciplinary
Training in Engineering
MARGARET TONG
IASystems
S
oft skill and inter-disciplinary train-
ing are essential to engineers. This
was one of the themes in the
Professional Engineer of Ontario (PEO)
Conference that took place in Toronto in
October. Guest speaker Dr. R. 1. Salvas,
from the Department of Civil Engineering
in Ryer on Polytechnic University, hared
some insights with us on this topic.
Following the presentation, delegates from
univer ities in Ontario participated in a
workshop exploring ways to incorporate
them into our education.
Soft skills are
tolerance, and to be a good listener. By
doing 0 we would tie able to observe the
details and to learn about the experience
and insights of other, especially from
experienced professionals. We would
probably agree that oft skills cannot be
taught in the classroom, or directly incor-
porated into the curriculum. Rather, the
skills are to be acquired through activities
and experiences. Opportunities do exist
on ampu r utside f chool or stu-
dent. For example, student clubs, unions
and societies (intra-univer ity or inter-uni-
versity) organi7e activities to accommo-
date a broad range of interests of students.
Through students'
"No doubt that the rigor-
that help us
comprehend things,
exchange informa-
tion and interact with
others. For example,
soft skills include
reading and under-
standing, public
speaking and presen-
ous engineering program
could be a factor that
causes insularity of
participation in the e
activities inter-disci-
plinary mixing can
be achieved, but not
without the chance to
socialize and to
some ... " improve on soft
tations, leadership skills, socializing
(especially with pcople of different cul-
tures). In the real engineering world
where tasks are complex and involve mul-
tiple disciplines, we need more than our
own specialized field. It is also important
to understand the big picture from an inter-
ctisciplinary perspective. By communicat-
ing ideas with others, i.e. using soft skills,
we would be able to solve complicated
problems for the common good.
Viewing the is ue from students' per-
spectives, . ome students have had the
opportunity to acquire and improve on
their soft kills and others may lack them.
No doubt that the rigorous engineering
program could be a factor that causes the
insularity of some. It i also hard to mix
people with different intere. ts and back-
grounds, as most of the programs in engi-
neering are quite pecific. Yet the fact is,
in the real world engineering is not engi-
neering alone. It involves many interac-
tions with other disciplines - within or
beyond engineering - in either the techni-
calor social level. Therefore students
need to develop the skills and acquire the
knowledge to take on such challenges in
the future to survive in the profession.
To prepare students for their future
profession, the 'training' should start at the
university level. Two attributes that all
students should strive for are patience and
skills. Students are
encouraged to
explore und participate in these opportuni-
tie. , which are definitely precious experi-
ence for their career.
From the workshop that the delegates
took part in, we generally agreed that an
inter-disciplinary design project or compe-
tition is an effective means to help stu-
dents develop oft skills and to promote
mixing of different intere t and back-
ground. . It could include engineering,
design, and business and marketing ele-
ment in order to provide a well-rounded
problem or scenario for student to solve.
The presentation of the project could be a
. ocial event of ome form so tudents can
practice their 'people skills'. Other sug-
gestions include holding non-credit es-
sion on oft skill , inviting employers or
experienced people to peak about the
needs for well-rounded students in the
engineering world.
Engineering is definitely a vast and
intriguing profession, and it is al 0 as oci-
ated with a lot of intangible skills that we
can only acquire through experience.
Engineers work with a variety of people in
different di ciplines, and together we aim
for the common good of the ociety. We as
engineering student should take the ini-
tiative to get involved and to prepare our-
selves for our future profession. The
future is in our hands!
WEEF Statistics Tell All
M
idterms.
. midterm . .
midterms.
I hope youfre all
done and ready to
start partying again.
But before you crack
open the keg, make
sure you submit
your WEEF propos-
al. Today is the last day to e-mail
weef@helix with your proposal form.
Making a WEEF proposal is easy to do
and you should already have been done it
by now. But if you're one of those last
second types you can still get your propos-
al in by going to the WEEF home puge
(http://wlI.w.eng.lIwatertoo.ca/g roup/weej)
and following the instructions on submit-
ting proposals. For those who do submit
proposals, the presentation meetings will
take place on Monday and Tuesday
(November 2, 3) at 5:30pm-9:00pm in DC
2577.
Now on to the exciting new.
Somewhere near thi s article there will be a
chart of the WEEF participation for this
term. You can look on the chart and see
WEEF
Report
hy Mark CesillUl
how many of the
SMART, GOOD-
LOOKI G. POPU-
LAR people in your
class donated their
money to WEEF and
the others who did-
nft. I \vould like to
point out the high
percentage from the
4A Systems class who have always been
big supporter of WEEF. This particular
class was always had around 80% partici-
pation. but this year they jumped to a high
of 87%. Another class worth noting is the
I A Geological class which had 100% par-
ticipation. This the first time any class ha.
had 100% and they should be looked at as
a model to all other c1as es in all other dis-
ciplines.
I would like to thank all of tho e who
did donate their money to WEEF and any-
one who want to know more about WEEF
donft hesitate to ask myself, Mike evill,
Jen Lugtigheid, Derek Bezaire, or Ryan
Chen-Wing. We will all be in the WEEF
office at sometime or another in CPH
1323C (x4893). Ciao for now.
WI H P:lrllClpatwlI
( I""
jJ ')1 SI33".
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25
5(, l)(){)
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S6 '17
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to'!
.5 11
2104:
First Year Impression
ELLIOTT HORNER
First Year Member of Chemical Engineering
ociety
T
he first thing I could say about
being invited to the conference wa
"WOW". Here I am a fir t year stu-
dent, and I am going to a conference to'
learn what I'm going to do for the re t of
my life. I have the opportunity to attend
technical session, talks with keynote
peaker. and even a couple of social
events. 1 will be the fir t to admit that
about half of the technical ses ion went
right over my head, but that, really, is not
what I went there for. I wanted to find out
what type of job there are in the field of
chemical engineering, and through that see
what I am going to do for the rest of my
life. I found these an wer in the keynote
speaker pre entation , and to orne extent
in the social event .
I'll tart with a subject that I knew
about long before the conference: the
social events. It was my fir t time at a real
university function (frosh week doesn't
really count), and the biggest shock to me
was the fact that the profe or drink - and
actually they do it quite well, from what I
saw. One of the best part of the confer-
ence was actually meeting everyone from
Waterloo. Being a frosh, the only people
I've met have been the ones in my class,
and it was a pleasant surprise to find out
cool people can actually make it through
their fi rst year.
Back to the real reason I went: to find
out what I want to do. The keynote speak-
er definitely provided the insight into the
field I was looking for. These speaker
shared with us their experiences and their
per pective on how are a vital
part of the future (that means I'm going to
get a job) unlike my co-op term.
Engineer are going to do more than sit in
a room and think of better ways of doing
things. We are going to go out in the world
and do it. We will be the managers and
even the proprietors of the twenty-first
century.
All things considered, I'm sure the
next 5 years will be worth the wait. That
i , IF I make it past my first year.
The Iron Warrior, Friday, October 30, 1998 Internal Information 7
Scandal-Free Visit to the USA for EngSoc President
A
lor'S hap-
pened in the
last three
week and, unfortu-
nately, studying for
midterms is not one of
them.
First, a note on
our alliance-in-
progress with the
AHS faculty: We've already confirmed
one Engineering/AHS event in the next lit-
tle while. On Thursday, November 5th,
we'll be having Engineering-AHS night at
FED Hall. Tickets cost $2 for Engineers
and AHS students, but cost $4 for guests
outside these faculties. We're working on
the pecifics of the event while AHS is
working on some meet-other-people
game so that Engineer and AHS people
can bond. In addition to that, we're look-
ing into holding a wine and cheese party
with AHS sometime near the middle of
November - yet another way for us to meet
our counterparts. FEDS was ecstatic to
hear that the two faculties are work.ing
together and they're willing to help us any
way they can.
ATOP (Acce s to Opportunities
Program) ha been finalized. The details
aren't entirely public yet, but I can tell you
that the faculty will be adding 100 spots to
the E&CE department. This will probably
translate to another stream of computer
engineer since that i the highe t demand
program right now. Adding 100 spots will
increase enrollment in computer to 250
and bump up the undergraduate faculty
size to 850. Currently, there is no plan to
reduce enrollment in any of the other
departments in Engineerill . Since com-
puter science in the Math faculty also falls
under the realm of the ATOP program, they
========;1 will be adding 150
tudents.
President's
Report
Thank. to Dean
Chaudhuri's gener-
ou. help and his
by Alan CWlllislraro great motivati on at
I promoting the
. chool name, I've
had the pleasure of
attending two con-
ferences ince I've last written in the IW.
The PEO conference wa a professional
development conference fOCli. ed on devel-
oping soft skills and structuring the PEO
student membership that you may have
heard about. Jfyou want more information
on the conference, flip through this issue
of the Iron Warrior. I believe other dele-
gates have written summaries on the week-
end.
The other conference 1 attended wa
NAESC (National A sociation of
Engineering Student Councils). The
"National" doesn't refer to Canada,
though; it refers to our neighbours to the
south - that's right, the Americans. Oh, I
have SO much I want to say about
NAESC. It was the best conference I've
ever attended. Fifteen Canadians had the
pleasure of infiltrating ... er ... attending this
conference and we showed them exactly
why Canada rocks. They loved us so much
that they're seriously considering the pos-
sibility of hosting the 2000 conference in
Canada. And, of course, it has nothing to
do with the lower drinking age limit of 19
or their very recent introduction to a
Waterloo concoction known as batch.
Greg and 1 took alot back from this
conference. After NAESC, Greg's seri-
ousl talkina abo t the idea of oraa i- il
a highly corporate-funded career fair to
generate revenue and fuel some industry
interest in \\ aterloo. I'm looking at
wa) , of involvi ng : mn more III our affairs.
1 found that the great merican , choob -
tht' one. that I \\'cl1tlo the conference with
a good impression of - were the ones
whose .' laff were active partici-
pants in the l-tudent societies.
The other thing that . parkcd my inter-
e. t at NAE C was a pre:entalion regard-
ing the Jerry Sanders Competition.
The purpo. e ofthccompetilion i ' 10 build
a robot thM can maneuver an obstacle
course and accomplish arious tasks such
as picking up blocks and opening doors.
There are cash rewards for everyone that
goes and even more cash priles for the
winners. The coolest part abollt it all,
though. is that after the obstacle course is
done, you pur your robot in for one final
round where the purpose is to beat the crap
out of the other robots! Cool, eh? (That's
another thing about AESC ... American's
trying to imitate Canadians don't know
where to put the "eh" in a sentence ... and
they say "y' all" alot) Anyway, it's past
deadline to sign up for the competition, but
the organizing committee has said they ' ll
make an exception for us if we get back to
them ASAP to put a team in. So, if you
want details, check out the web site at:
http://dc.cen.uiuc.edu/y2k.html . But I
think you'll have to register through me
since Lhey're making an exception for us.
So email me if you're interested.
The TOOL workshop from the begin-
ning of October was a great help. We're
going to me making some minor changes
to the image of the bearers, but we're still
working on details. I'm still open to sug-
gesti ons or criticism, so fire away.
what is warranting the changes to be made
to the Tool Bearer image. DUling Frosh
Week. \\ e had a choice to either send the
Tool Bearer. to Columbia Lake unhooded
or not send them at all. We took a chance
anll decided the Tool Bearers would show
up l riefly with the hoods on.
Unfortunately, thar was a mistake. So. the
hood. hay' been taken away and we.have
been instructed by multiple parties not to
lISC them again or we'd face serious consc-
quences. So (he dilemma that we face is
thar the bearers Jllll . t go un hooded and, as
a result . we Jose the anonymity associated
with the Tool Bearer. Thi . is the main
problem that we are trying to address. We
hopt: to have a solution soon.
Joint Council is coming up oon. For
those unramiliar WiLh the tcrm, it is a
chance for A Soc and B Soc to get togeth-
er and have a meeting. We'll be covering
SDme potential constitutional change a
well as discussing some of the new initia-
tives that A Soc h'ls been . pearheading -
mainly the Frosh Mentoring Advisor, the
Competitions and Academics focus, and
the AHS alliance. Everyone is welcome.
The meeting is being held II am on
Sunday, November 15th at Weaver" Arms
and, just to motivate you to come, we'll be
supplying a free, yummy brunch buffet.
One last thing before I go. Here's a
little game I learned at NAESC from those
crazy. gun-LOting. steak-grilling Texans:
What you do is point to two random peo-
ple and say "GUNFIGHT I I !". The two
people have to point to each other and yell
"BANG!". The first person to do it wins.
That's it for me. My email address is
accannis@engmail. Get in touch with me
if you have any questions regarding any of
the above topics. Or you can pass by the
')
(waste) most of my time.
Acheiving Success in American Linguistics, eh?
W
hat happen
when you
put a group
of fifteen Canadian
engineering students
together for a weekend
in a foreign land 'south
of here?'
On October J 5,
Alan and I traveled to
Purdue University in Indiana for the annu-
al American NAESC conference. There
we met a Canadian delegation that consist-
ed of people spanning our nation - from
the University of Victoria to the University
of Moncton. Together, clad in super-styl-
ish red overalls that came from either a
recent Beastie Boys
VPExternal
Report
by Greg Fyke
eSLablish
valuable lies to our
university. While [
did do a consider-
able amount of lis-
tening, I also fOllnd
that I had a lot to
========;1.1. contribute to the
discussion groups
as well. In fact,
this seemed to be the general conscnsus of
the Canadian delegation. We should al\
take note that despite the overwhelming
shadow of our neighbours to the south, we
are all really on the same playing Held.
Sometimes we even manage to stand a lit-
tle higher (and capture the World Series).
J handed out
concert or a Mario
Brothers game show,
we were a bit hyper, a
bit loud, a bit 'back-
street' and perhaps a
little musica1... but
overall an awesome
example of true
Canadian spirit and
"When it comes to corpo-
rate funding, we have a
lot to learn. American
schools have this down to
about seventy
EngSoc business
cards during my
stay in Indiana (AI
may have beaten
me by twenty or
so). To be honest, I
wasn't just making
a remarkable science."
engineering excellence. The Americans
simply loved us. We stunned them with
our teamwork, ideas and stamina while
continually charming them with gratuitous
amounts of good 01' Canadian humor. r
can assure you that there are at least forty
more schools across the United States that
can say, "Yes, I've heard of the University
of Waterloo."
Originally, my objectives for this con-
ference were to simply absorb as much
information as I possibly could and try to
faceless contacts, I
was also building great friendships. In
particular, those with the members of the
Canadian delegation. I have to say that
they are probably the best (and most ener-
getic) group of people I've ever had the
opportunity to work with. You guys rock!
When it comes to corporate funding,
we have a lot to learn. American schools
have this down to a remarkable science.
The total delegate cost for this conference
was $35 USD. This included: three nights
accommodation in a hotel (with use of the
confercnce rooms), all Illcub. including
two banquet dinners , lransportation to and
from campus, nightly social CWllts and a
really snall.Y day plunner.
How about a method of increasing thc
funds or the Enginecring Society while
providing an invaluahlc service for the stu-
dent body? A presentation by Texas A&M
University unlocked this little secret: a stu
dent run engineering career fair. It is a
huge event at American universities - u
tOlal of three days which includes a stu-
dent/recruiter golf toumament and nightly
sod"l events, tlte :-.tandnrd l'xhihitillll. a
'l>Loall's hlcaki'ust. Who puy ... for ull 01
this you :1 ... 1-- '/ !'Ill' ... illy. It's
cllmpk'tcly fn.:c for Not bad. (;'h'l
NAES(, sland.. for Ihe National
Association of Student
Councils and it is au orgullil'.atioll that
serves its member councils by promoting
education, organi/ing natiollwide pro
grams and CVl:l1ts, aCling as a resource for
engineering activities and providing a
unified voice for the cOlillci Is.
Accounting Envy
W
hen this
issue
comes out
most of you will be
done midterms and
recovering from the
worst hangovers of
the term, that is until
finals are done. I'll
keep this to the point.
VPFinance
Report
by Mike Muffel.l'
Donations are
done and the clubs
should have the
"I will have less to say as
the term progresses. "
Monday afternoon
and you will get
your cheque by
Wednesday morn-
ing. Please tape
your receipts to the
back of the expense
form. 1 don't need
debit transaction
slips or visa slips, I
need the receipts for
tax purposes. So
please hand in your
cheques for the
money by now. If you missed donations
this term you will have to wait until next
term. There is not much more for me to do
now other than the daily bookkeeping so I .
will have less and less to say as the term
progresses.
Again, hand in your expense forms by
receipts.
I'll leave you with a quote from
Henry Ford:
Whether you think you can
or think you can't,
You're right.
..
The Iron Warrior, Frida , Oct ber "0, 199
orr the Beaten Tracks
Title: The Boy with the Arab Strap
Artist: Belle & Sebastian
I
don't want to use the word "timeless"
just because it brings about visions of
infomercials, but] have to say this CD
i without those thing you expect to hear
in most mu, ic that date it with not only a
decade, but a year. It' just simple sound-
ing pop music but also very original. The
Title: Is This Desire?
Artist: pj Harvey
I
don't think I've ever listened to such
dark ounding mu ic that could make
my toe tap. Polly Jean has taken a
more electronic route with this album, and
it works well. She still has her unique and
powerful vocals (and she's still more
vocals are energetic and soft, and have a
sense of aying omething important.
They are backed with guitar in some
places, giving it a folky a sound, and syn-
thesizers in others. It won't get your party
pumping, but it' . definitely worth a Ii ten.
Their name comes from an old TV . how
from France; they come from Scotland;
and I have no idea where the album title
comes from (but I guess one of the songs
would have explained it to me).
"bad" than Fiona Apple). Among other
developments in her music, there is less of
a distorted guitar sound, which just makes
it easier to listen \0 her without feeling like
I have to be angry. Each song has some-
thing different to offer like 'orne eerie,
rhythmic piano or a new mix of unrecog-
nizable sounds. You can see her at the
Warehouse in Toronto on October 30th.
OjJthe Beaten Tracks is written by Darren Jenkins, 4A Electrical Engineering.
by: Ian Tien
Darren co-hosts a biweekly radio show on CKMS 100.3 with Glenn Cowall. The next show airs at JJ:30pm on November 4.