A stroll through history and a hike through nature are among 30 entries in the 2023 Windsor-Essex Jane’s Walk Festival.

Running this weekend and next, the festival offers free neighbourhood walking tours led by locals who care passionately about where they live, work, and play. Exploring heritage, planning, design, and civic engagement through the simple acts of walking and observing, it draws its name and inspiration from the late urbanist Jane Jacobs.

The opening weekend, April 28 to 30, focuses on county locations, from Leamington and Point Pelee to Amherstburg, Kingsville, and Colchester.

Next week will bring several activities with UWindsor connections.

Willow Key, a master’s student of history, will host a tour of Windsor’s historic McDougall Street Corridor neighbourhood, highlighting its rich Black history and the devastating impacts of postwar urban renewal on this once vibrant community. Participants will have the opportunity to try a new digital walking tour of the corridor complete with videos, photos, and descriptions of each stop. It will leave from the parking lot outside Water World, 400 Wyandotte St. East., at 5 p.m. Friday, May 5.

On Saturday, May 6, alumna Sarah Morris (BA 2012) will lead a walk through River West, which she describes as “Windsor’s Other Other Historic Neighbourhood.” It will leave from the CBC Windsor parking lot at the corner of Riverside Drive and Crawford Avenue at 5 p.m. and discuss the region’s early French settler roots, rail economy, and historic homes.

The Healthy Headwaters Lab in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and the Friends of Ojibway Prairie will guide exploration of the Spring Garden Natural Area, covering such topics as identification of local tree species and the ecological impact of the Grand Marais drain. Doctoral student Shayenna Nolan, technician and artist Andrea Bresolin, and Friends president Bill Roesel will provide valuable insights into one of the Ojibway Prairie Complex’s hidden treasures, setting out at 10:15 a.m. from Seven Sisters Park, 2720 Grand Marais Rd. West. Public parking is available at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Centre, 2555 Pulford St.

See the full schedule of 30 walks on the festival website.

As the automotive industry shifts toward electric and autonomous vehicles, security is more important than ever. Research into the field by two UWindsor engineering students was honoured as best paper at the International Conference on Wireless and Satellite Systems, held in Singapore last month.

Pegah Mansourian and Mina Zamanirafe, doctoral students of computer and electrical engineering, developed machine learning software that can detect an attack on systems before they have an effect.

“We want to ensure they are safe as possible for the consumer,” says Mansourian. “If an attack was to occur while a person is driving it could be very dangerous, as the driver wouldn’t have control.”

Their paper, “Anomaly Detection for Connected Autonomous Vehicles using LSTM and Gaussian Naïve Bayes,” co-authored with engineering professor Ning Zhang, computer science professor Arunita Jaekel, and Marc Kneppers, chief security architect for Telus, telecommunications company, focuses on the development of software for the in-vehicle experience.

Dr. Zhang notes that it proposes innovative intrusion detection solutions based on deep learning.

“Our solutions can enable fast and accurate identification of different types of attacks to mitigate their impact, ensuring the safety of connected and autonomous vehicles and their users,” he says.

As of May 1, University of Windsor employees with a computer enrolled in device administration can use additional authentication methods to sign into Windows. This newly enabled feature, Windows Hello, will make signing in more secure and quicker while helping safeguard the University’s systems and data.

There are two requirements users need to have in place to use Windows Hello. They must set up a six-digit numerical personal identication number (PIN) on their device before enabling other sign-in options. The PIN will only work on that device; users can enable a PIN on other devices as well. In addition, the computer must have a working Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip where the device’s PIN is securely stored.

Once the device PIN is set up, users can choose to enable facial recognition or fingerprint sign-in, depending on their preference and the device. The biometric data stays in a secure location on the computer and is not sent to external devices or servers. Users can learn more about how to set up biometric sign-on methods on a workstation with Windows 10 or 11.

Even with the introduction of passwordless sign-in options, employees will still have a password on their UWin Account and can still use it to sign into Windows. The device PIN, however, provides a quicker way to sign in that will never expire. Users should keep the PIN confidential, much like a bank card PIN.

Once signed on, users will not be asked for a password when accessing enterprise applications like Microsoft Office 365, Brightspace, UWinsite Finance, UWinsite Student, myUWinfo, or the UWindsor Self-Service Client Portal. If users are asked for a password after signing on to their device for any of the systems above, they should be suspicious of a phishing attempt or see if their device is not set up correctly. As always, the IT Service Desk can be contacted for assistance.

Instructors are encouraged to take any final preparation steps as it is the last full day to access Blackboard.

• Check all material that has been migrated to Brightspace.
• Download and save any desired student work.
• Review organization sites where they may be the owner.
• Save any Winter 2023 Collaborate recordings created.

View the Blackboard Retirement Preparation webpage for instructions.

If you require help today, you can:

• Email questions to brightspace@uwindsor.ca.
• Visit the Brightspace drop-in, virtually on Teams or in person.

The ticketing service is unavailable today from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of the UWindsor Self-Service Client Portal (TeamDynamix) maintenance.

The UWindsor Self-Service Client Portal TeamDynamix will undergo planned maintenance today, April 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

During this time, the portal will be unavailable. Users will not be able to access any service or information contained within the portal, such as submitting and viewing tickets, accessing reports, or viewing knowledge-base articles.

The campus community can continue to contact the Information Technology Service Desk with their IT questions and incidents by live chat, phone at 519-253-3000, ext. 4440, or in person in the lower level of the University Computer Centre during the planned maintenance.

Also, this is the last full day that Blackboard is accessible. If users need support, they can email brightspace@uwindsor.ca or drop in virtually on Teams or in person at the Centre for Teaching and Learning.

UWindsor.ca webpages will remain available along with other systems like UWinsite Student, UWinsite Finance, and Brightspace.

The maintenance is necessary to ensure the smooth operation of the self-serve client portal.

DailyNews will begin its summer publishing schedule next week, moving to three issues a week.

The UWindsor e-newsletter will publish Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays until resuming daily publication Sept. 5. Keep this reduced frequency in mind as you plan submissions.