The University of Windsor will recognize a $500,000 donation from the Windsor Family Credit Union (WFCU) towards the new Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation with the naming of a state-of-the-art classroom in the building.

“We believe in the future of the University of Windsor and the economic and educational benefits that it provides to our community and beyond,” said WFCU’s president, Martin Komsa. “This is a very significant contribution for the credit union and one that we feel will have long lasting positive effects.”

The new WFCU Learning Theatre seats 120 and is outfitted with the latest in audio and visual technology. The room has a semicircular shape with a “thrust” design that brings the presenter into closer contact with the audience in the centre of the room. Located near the main entrance to the building, it is one of three larger classrooms in the new facility that will also be used by various faculties for conferences and other special events.

UWindsor president Alan Wildeman said the University is truly grateful for the gift.

“In contributing to this new facility, WFCU continues its tradition of supporting those things that make a difference to our community,” he said. “Right from its conception, our new building has been designed to be an exceptional centre for education and innovation, and one that will contribute to the future of our region and our country.”

The CEI, which will open to students on Monday, September 17, will elevate UWindsor’s teaching and learning experience to a level of technical sophistication that rivals any post-secondary institution in Canada. Students will experience the new facility for the fist time on Monday, September 17, when teaching begins in the research laboratory spaces. Lecture-style classes will begin on September 24. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for the spring of 2013.

The new $112 million home for the Faculty of Engineering spans 300,000 square feet and offers state-of-the-art classrooms, dynamic research laboratories and collaborative spaces to give students real-world experience in the various disciplines of engineering, including the emerging fields of environmental sustainability, alternative energy, nanostructures, lightweight materials and more efficient manufacturing systems.

Constructed to meet the highest environmental standards, the CEI features a green roof, water recycling, low-energy heating and other sustainability systems. As a learning opportunity throughout the facility, students will be able to access monitoring points that measure the building’s electrical, mechanical, civil and environmental engineering systems at work.

Katrina Krawec went from conducting Olympic-related research in Germany this summer to actually attending the Games in London.

A master’s student in kinesiology, Krawec spent several months at the University of Tübingen, just south of Stuttgart, where she participated in a large multi-year study to analyze the health and nutrition behaviours in adolescent Olympic-level elite athletes.

Most of Krawec’s work involved analyzing previously collected data from more than 1,100 elite athletes born between 1992 and 1995 from 51 Olympic disciplines. The premise of the study was the belief that elite athletes have to both protect and risk their health at the same time in order to perform their best. Being adolescents, they have the added challenge of coping with substantial physical, psychological and social transformations.

Those challenges provide an extra burden for governing bodies trying to develop health promotion and protection strategies, so researchers wanted to gather information from athletes, coaches and medical experts about best practices to prevent health issues, Krawec said.

“It’s a myth that these athletes don’t get sick because they’re in such excellent condition,” she said. “The truth is quite the opposite. Their immune systems are often compromised because of all the extreme stress they put their bodies through during intensive training. They’re always on the edge of getting sick. It’s really an under-researched subject. A sociological study on how that experience of getting sick affects their mental state and their performance hasn’t been done.”

Ontario has a student exchange agreement with the German state of Baden-Württemberg and Krawec, who is originally from Oshawa, heard about it through a department secretary and decided to apply.

“It sounded like a perfect opportunity,” said Krawec, who earned her undergraduate degree at Western University. “I had been to Germany a couple of years ago. All I had to do was find a professor who was doing work related to mine and was willing to take me on for a short-term. I was eager to find someone who doing something that was related to sport and sociology research.”

Krawec said she did a lot of travelling while in Germany. She went kayaking in Austria and attended a conference in Bern, Switzerland, where UWindsor kinesiology professor Marijke Taks was a keynote speaker, and the two spent the last day of the conference mountain biking together.

After she wrapped up her work in Germany, she travelled to London to meet with friends and soak up some Olympic atmosphere.

“I watched the women's 10K marathon swim on August 9, and the men's marathon on August 12,” said Krawec, who also volunteered at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. “It was free to stand along the race courses, which is what I did. I also watched the closing ceremonies at a free public viewing in Victoria Park in London's east end near the Olympic Park, and went to a bunch of free Olympic-related exhibits at the Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery, and Tate Britain. I’m definitely interested in the Olympics.”

A new service of the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance hopes to help students who need supplemental help with their classes to find tutors.

“Two hours per week may not be enough for students to fully understand the material,” says Hassan Mohseni, a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering and the coordinator of the Tutoring Centre. “This centre can help.”

He has created a Web site where potential tutors and tutees may apply.

“We match the needs of the students to the expertise of the tutors,” says Mohseni.

The centre lets clients take it from there—payment, scheduling and the content of the tutoring are the responsibility of the parties involved.

“We hope we can find tutors in every discipline,” Mohesni says. “There is a real need and we have many talented graduate students available.”

Find more information, including a list of conditions and applications for tutors and clients, on the Tutoring Centre Web site: www.uwindsor.ca/tutor/.

UWindsor alumnus Paul Alofs (BA, BComm 1978), president of the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation, will speak at the Odette School of Business on Thursday, September 20, as part of its Celebrating Leadership Excellence series, funded through the Richard Peddie leadership initiative.

Alofs will share insights from his new book, Passion Capital: The World’s Most Valuable Asset, will take questions and sign copies of his book.

His career in business has included the presidencies of HMV Music Stores Canada, BMG Music Canada, and Strategic Business Units for MP3.com. He was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 business leaders in 1995 and Innovative Retailer of the Year by the Retail Council of Canada. In 2002, he received the University of Windsor Alumni Achievement Award and was an inaugural inductee into the Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends. The University of Windsor bestowed an honorary doctor of humanities degree on Alofs in 2007.

The event begins with a reception at 5 p.m. and the speaker at 6 p.m., in the Odette Building’s Michael Zin Room. For further information or to RSVP, contact Barbara Barone at 519-971-3678 or by e-mail at bbarone@uwindsor.ca.

Tickets for the 2012 Retirees Dinner and Reunion, Thursday, November 1, in Ambassador Auditorium, are offered for sale starting today. With 32 honourees, this event will sell out quickly, says special events manager Mary-Ann Rennie, so order your tickets early.

The following retirees will be recognized at the 2012 dinner:

• Theodore Bott, Facility Services
• Robert Boucher, Kinesiology
• Susan Boughner, Finance
• Lucia Brown, Document Imaging Centre
• Linda Bunn, Research Services
• John Carrington, University Advancement
• Elizabeth Chandler, Nursing
• Hugh Fackrell, Biological Sciences
• Anthony Faria, Odette School of Business
• Barbara Faria, Political Science
• Johanna Foster, Leddy Library
• Veronica Fraser, Languages, Literatures & Cultures
• Susan Gold Smith, Visual Arts
• Irvin Goldman, Communication, Media & Film
• Margery Holman, Kinesiology
• Aase Houser, Student Awards and Financial Aid
• Janet Kribs, Leddy Library
• Reza Lashkari, Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
• Catherine Lewis, Office of the Registrar
• Gregory Marcotte, Office of the Registrar
• Heide Massey, Leddy Library
• Antonio Mazzone, Facility Services
• Lawrence Morton, Education
• Paul Murphy, Law Library
• Patricia Rogers, Education
• Denise Smith, Food Services
• Donald Snider, Centre for Teaching and Learning
• Tim Traynor, Mathematics and Statistics
• Marie Walker, Office of the Registrar
• Michael Weis, Biological Sciences
• Garnet Wigle, Facility Services
• Lorraine Zawadski, Education

Tickets are $25 per person. Faculties and departments are invited to sponsor one or more tables at the dinner at a cost of $150 per table. These generous donors will be acknowledged with a display on the sponsored table, in the program, and in the PowerPoint presentation.

To purchase tickets or sponsor a table, please contact Rennie in the Office of the President, at 519-253-3000, ext. 7059.

A single donation of blood can save up to three lives. Tuesday, September 18, is your chance to be a lifesaver, as the Canadian Blood Service will hold a full blood donor clinic in the CAW Student Centre’s Ambassador Auditorium from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For this clinic, the Canadian Blood Service will use its appointment system. It encourages donors to book appointments by calling 1-888-2DONATE (1-888-236-6283). Walk-in donors are still welcome but appointments will better accommodate donors’ working schedules.

As with previous clinics, the Department of Human Resources encourages all eligible employees to participate in this worthwhile process and asks any employees who wish to donate to make the necessary arrangements with their supervisors regarding the possibility of extended lunch or break periods.

The University has declared an Ajax induction melting furnace and Foseco mobile degassing unit for sale by bid as Disposal File 884. Please click here for details.