Ten talented young pianists will perform works by Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart and more in a concert Sunday, March 26, to benefit student scholarships in music at the University of Windsor.

All the musicians are students of professor emeritus Gregory Butler, through either the School of Creative Arts or his private Butler Piano Studio. The up-and-coming piano stars include Nadia Santoro, Mary-Valene Daniel, Andrew Harris, Yu-Heng Liu, Phoebe Croteau, Keagan Yap, Willow Boismier, Bethany Russell, Yiyang Wang and Elissa Wei.

The Piano Concerto Gala begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Heritage Auditorium, Assumption Hall. Find a complete program and brief performer biographies on the event website.

Admission is $20 with a student rate of $10; all proceeds will go to SoCA music scholarships. Order tickets by phone at 519-253-3000 ext. 4212, or purchase online. Sales are brisk, so to avoid disappointment, don’t delay.

Installing green infrastructure in residential neighbourhoods can reduce stormwater run-off, mitigating the effects of climate change on sewer systems, says Zach McPhee.

His project modelling the benefits of “low-impact developments” in a Sault Ste. Marie subdivision was one of about 30 by graduate students in engineering on display Wednesday in observance of World Water Day.

McPhee, a master’s student in civil engineering who completed undergraduate studies last year (BASc 2016), compared several design options: permeable pavement for driveways and walks, landscaping features to retain water, rain barrels at downspouts, and infiltration trenches which store excess water underground.

“The ideal is to bring a developed site back near its natural hydrological conditions,” he says.

He used the geographic information system ArcGIS to analyze computer models predicting shifts in precipitation patterns due to climate change.

“The project was very useful,” says McPhee. “It’s a real-world example using industry-standard software.”

Professor Tirupati Bolisetti says the research posters tackled a wide range of problems of public interest.

“We’re looking at water supply, water quality in the Great Lakes, and the effects of climate change on water infrastructure,” he says. “New engineers should be exposed to the problems and thinking about approaches to address them.”

Saranya Jeyalakshmi studied agricultural engineering in her native India before coming to Windsor last fall to pursue her PhD under the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee scholarship program. Jeyalakshmi will couple her initial investigations of the local watershed to a similar site in India, and has already learned from the experience.

“I came to know the cultivation practices in the area and how the nutrient loadings from agricultural areas are affecting the Great Lakes water quality,” she says. “Now I got the opportunity to mingle with the community and share my ideas.”

Fans of Lancer women’s basketball will have a chance to support the team in a new context this weekend, as players join the Windsor Symphony Orchestra at the Capitol Theatre for “A Night in Vienna,” a salute to the historic centre of classical music.

The concert promises to sweep the audience away with the glamour of the Austrian capital. Mezzo-soprano Amelia Daigle, a UWindsor alumna (BMus 2012), is a featured soloist, and dancers will waltz in ballroom fashions.

Members of the Lancer team will appear on the stage during the finale, Malcom Arnold’s A Grand Grand Overture. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 24 and 25, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at 121 University Avenue West.

The orchestra is offering several special deals to the UWindsor community.

Faculty, staff, students and alumni can receive a 25 per cent discount on reserved seating by using the code wsonightout when they purchase tickets online at windsorsymphony.com or by phone at 519-973-1238.

All patrons may purchase a rush seat, randomly assigned, for $25 and $5 of the price will go to their specified choice of Lancer women’s basketball, the Music Student Society, or Phi Sigma Sigma sorority. Use the code uofwvienna to activate this option through a special online portal or by phone at 519-973-1238.

A panel will provide insight on systemic racism and issues facing black minorities in a free public discussion, Friday at the downtown campus of the School of Social Work.

The University’s Black Lives Matter committee intends “Making it Awkward: Challenging Anti-Black Racism” to educate students and community members on issues specific to the black community.

Presenters include:

• UWindsor sociology and women’s studies professor Jane Ku;
• Psychology professor Ciann Wilson of Wilfrid Laurier University;
• Windsor Police diversity, inclusion and recruitment outreach officer Wren Dosant;
• Social work student Deneece Plummer;
• Irene Moore Davis, president of the Essex County Black Historical Society; and
• Charlotte LeFrank, public education co-ordinator for the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society.

The event will run 6 to 8 p.m. March 24 in the Pitt-Ferry Building, 167 Ferry Street.

Nursing students at every level of Windsor’s four-year B.ScN program came together last weekend to finish atop the 2017 Nursing Games, a series of competitions that test skills in everything from academics to athletics. The UWindsor team took home the Golden Stethoscope Award as the best of eight squads in the games, held at Nipissing University.

“Many of us didn’t know each other at the start,” says team captain Celena Kouzoukas. “But this weekend, everyone worked together and supported each other.”

Individual events ranged from a nursing version of the Amazing Race to a simulation lab, archery tag to bubble soccer. Windsor unseated the defending champions who represented the host institution.

Fourth-year nursing major Destiny Cadarette says she was excited to be part of the winning team.

“I was proud of the whole team for all the hard work everyone put in,” she says. “Being able to compete and showcase our professionalism and passion for nursing as a whole was a great experience.”

The games are a unique way for nursing students to get to know each other and have some fun, says organizer Emily Oldrive: “Many of us may be working together as colleagues in the very near future, so this networking can be very valuable.”

Find more information, including a list of UWindsor team members, on the Faculty of Nursing website.

Two UWindsor students received honours at the Southern Ontario Undergraduate Chemistry Conference, March 18 at York University.

Jacqueline Gemus, a student in professor Rob Schurko’s research group, won first prize in physical chemistry.

Dr. Schurko says Gemus’ main area of interest is the mechanochemical synthesis of porous framework materials known as zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) and the use of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance to monitor the formation of these amazing framework materials.

“Jacqueline has made a wide array of new materials, and this work will be the first that describes ZIFs with mixed linker ligands which are simply made by vigorous grinding — a great example of ‘green chemistry,’ which uses no solvents and produces high yields of the final materials,” says Schurko.

Mitchell DiPasquale, a student from the laboratory of Bulent Mutus, head of chemistry and biochemistry, claimed second place in bio/medicinal chemistry.

Dr. Mutus calls DiPasquale an amazing undergraduate student who has excelled in protein chemistry research and has single-handedly explored the role of a repeating set of amino acids in the enzyme that produces sulfide in the human body.

“His research has, for the first time, shown that this amino acid motif plays a role in the regulation of sulfide production, as well as being responsible for a totally new previously undiscovered activity for this enzyme,” he says.

The University of Windsor was represented at the colloquium by a contingent of 14 undergraduate students from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. A total of 127 presentations by students represented every university in southern Ontario, plus Laurentian and Nipissing.

The University’s preferred suppliers of computer equipment will no longer distribute price lists through mass e-mail to faculty and staff, reports Dario Pavia, a buyer in the purchasing department.

Instead, pricing information related to laptops, desktops, monitors and printers is available with UWin log-in in the preferred vendor agreement section of the department’s website. 

Direct any questions to Pavia at 519-253-3000, ext. 2088.