Campus Notices
Are you a chief warden, floor warden, or guardian for your building? Do you know what to do if there is a building evacuation? Do you have questions about your role as a warden or guardian or the evacuation procedures for your building?
UPEI Health, Safety, and Environment will hold a building emergency plan session for chief wardens, floor wardens, and guardians on Thursday, September 28, 2023, at 1:30 pm in Duffy Science Centre (DSC) Room 135.
Please let hse@upei.ca know if you are interested in attending.
UPEI Research Services is relaunching Research on Tap, and we'd like your help.
Research on Tap provides an opportunity to talk about research and network with the public in a casual setting. The first session will take place at the Fox and Crow on Wednesday, October 11, at 7:00 pm for an evening of informal discussion and dialogue.
Each session is led by one or two faculty researchers from UPEI who present the central theme/topic in about 10-15 minutes in a way that is accessible, insightful, and exciting to the lay audience. The rest of the time is for questions and discussion. The conversation is interesting, engaging, and lively.
A second Research on Tap session is planned for Wednesday, November 15 (location TBD, likely off campus).
Are you and/or a colleague interested in leading one of these discussions? If so, please provide a short abstract to Research Services (researchservices@upei.ca) describing your topic and emphasizing how it would be of interest now to the PEI public. Please also indicate your preferred session (October or November). The deadline for expressions of interest for both fall sessions of Research on Tap is September 25, 2023.
For questions, please contact Maria Steele, Manager, Research Services, at mlsteele@upei.ca or 902-566-6479.
As new schedules become routine, the Chaplaincy Centre is resuming weekly prayer times. Our mandate responds to the need for religious harmony and spiritual well-being. #foodforbodyandsoul
Thursdays, 12:05--12:30 pm, Liturgy of the Word and Communion led by Sister Sue
Fridays, 1:00 pm, Jummah Prayer led by the Muslim Student Association
Sundays, 6:00 pm, Catholic Mass, Father Chris Sherren presiding
Welcome back, everyone!
The UPEI Writing Centre is again ready to support writers with assignments from all faculties at all stages of the writing and research process. Appointments with our friendly, knowledgeable tutors are one-on-one and up to an hour long, hosted in-person in RL 274, and also available online.
Book your appointment at https://upei.mywconline.com/
Staff and faculty should contact Jarmo Puiras at jjpuiras@upei.ca for more information or to arrange a short class visit from Writing Centre staff to introduce the service to your class.
Best wishes for a rewarding, storm-free fall term.
Are you trying to find some dedicated time to finish a writing project that needs focused attention? Time to Write retreats offer concentrated time to support your writing efforts and can be instrumental in the initiation or completion of scholarly work such as an article, book or book chapter, grant proposal, curriculum or OER development, conference presentations, or other scholarly creative projects.
Time to work on writing projects away from home and campus for a few days can be incredibly productive. Participation in a writing retreat with colleagues at various stages of their careers not only provides quiet, focused writing time away from teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities, but it also offers mentorship and networking opportunities with colleagues from a range of disciplines. The retreat provides an opportunity to develop a supportive writing group with colleagues from across campus and join group discussions on writing and publishing.
A Time to Write retreat will be offered from Tuesday, October 10, to Friday, October 13, 2023, at the North Rustico Cottages in North Rustico.
Participants must have a project (e.g., grant application, research publication) at a stage where sustained writing time makes sense with background research and/or data collection and analysis completed to the point that they are ready to write. Participants must be prepared to commit to the full program, a total of three days focused on writing, and contribute $300. The retreat is open to faculty (term and sessional faculty are encouraged to apply) and librarians in any academic unit at UPEI. Interested participants will email an expression of interest consisting of a summary of the project they plan to work on and their writing goals for the retreat to TLC@upei.ca by 12:00 noon on Monday, September 25, 2023. Six to eight participants will be accepted for this Time to Write fall retreat.
Interested in learning about High Performance Computing, Linux, or programming with Python? ACENET's fall training is starting soon. These sessions are online and are free of charge. Our fall training offerings are listed below, with more to be announced.
If you have any questions about upcoming training or ACENET services at UPEI, contact Kaitlin Newson.
Basics of Computers
15 September, 1300-1500hrs Atlantic
Most of us have experience using a computer, whether for school, work, or entertainment, but how many of us have actually had an expert teach us how to use it? It doesn't need to be (quite) this way. This talk won't teach you how to troubleshoot everything, but will give you insight into how media, programs, and data are encoded and used by computers, so you can make more sense of why computers behave the ways they do, and solve some of your problems with greater efficiency and less frustration. We will provide an approachable overview of how a computer works, by both looking at their history and breaking one down to explain individual components, before highlighting some of the trade-offs to consider when buying a computer. We will provide practical, simple, and actionable advice on digital security and show you a few "pro tips" on how to make the most of your workstation, phone, or whatever device you happen to use. Whether you have a lot or a little experience using your digital technology, if you want to learn how to use your devices more effectively, this workshop is for you!
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-of-computers-tickets-710253065037
Introduction to High Performance Computing (HPC)
19 September, 1000-1130hrs Atlantic
What is High Performance Computing (HPC) and what can it do for me? How can ACENET help? Used by researchers across many disciplines to tackle analyses too large or complex for a desktop, or to achieve improved efficiency over a desktop, this session takes participants through the preliminary stages of learning about high performance computing (HPC) and computing clusters, and how to get started with this type of computing. It then reviews software packages available for applications, data analysis, software development, and compiling code. Finally, participants will be introduced to the concept of parallel computing to achieve much faster results in analysis. This session is designed for those with no prior experience in HPC, and are looking for an introduction and overview.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-hpc-tickets-710253867437
Introduction to Linux
20 September, 1000-1130hrs Atlantic
Linux is the terminal interface used to enable you to use supercomputing clusters from your desktop. It's the tool you need to get your data on the clusters, run your programs, and get your data back. In this session, learn how to create and navigate directories for your data, load files, manage your storage, run programs on the compute clusters, and set file permissions. This workshop is designed for those with no prior experience in working with a terminal interface.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-linux-tickets-710254178367
Introduction to Shell Scripting
21 September, 1000-1130hrs Atlantic
Shell scripting helps you save time, automate file management tasks, and better use the power of Linux. You’ll learn how to use the command line to carry out repetitive tasks, extract information from files quickly, combine commands in powerful ways, learn about job scripts, shell variables, and looping commands, and capture a workflow so you can re-use it easily. Save time, reduce errors, and use Linux more effectively. This workshop is designed for either new High Performance Computing (HPC) users who are familiar with working in a Linux environment, or for experienced users seeking to get more out of shell scripting. It is one of the core courses to help users get up and running on ACENET and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada systems.
Prerequisite: ACENET Basic Series Introduction to Linux, or previous experience with Linux.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-shell-scripting-tickets-710254399027
Job Scheduling with Slurm
22 September, 1000-1130hrs Atlantic
The national systems use a job scheduler called “Slurm”. In this session you will learn how Slurm works and how it allocates jobs, helping you to: minimize wait time by framing reasonable requests; ask for only the resources you need to improve efficiency; increase throughput; run more jobs simultaneously; and troubleshoot and address crashes. This workshop is designed for new HPC users, or for experienced users either transitioning to Slurm or seeking to improve efficiency with the scheduler.
Prerequisites: Completion of Introduction to Linux and Introduction to Shell Scripting, or prior experience with both.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-job-scheduling-with-slurm-tickets-710254629717
Introductory Programming: Unix Shell, Version Control, and Python
27 September, 4 October, 1300-1630hrs Atlantic
This is a beginner-level series that is hands-on, covering the fundamentals of Python. This includes data types, conditional statements, loops and functions, as well as program design, version control, data management, and task automation. The goal is to teach the practical knowledge needed to start programming, debugging and using Python in everyday tasks. You do not need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented or previous programming experience but intermediate level experience with a computer is highly recommended.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-introductory-programming-with-python-tickets-711238041127
Cloud from A to Z
17, 19, 24, 26 October, 1300-1600hrs Atlantic
Cloud computing provides great flexibility, allowing complete control of the computing environment. In addition, the environment can be copied, backed up, created and recreated in an automated way. In these lessons, we will start you on the path toward making use of the great flexibility and power of cloud computing. We will be using the popular static website generator Jekyll.
Prerequisite: Completion of Introduction to Linux, Software Carpentry's Unix Shell, or similar experience.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-cloud-from-a-to-z-tickets-710265482177
Introductory Programming with R
18, 25 October, 1300-1630hrs Atlantic
This is a beginner-level series that is hands-on, covering the fundamentals of R. This includes data types, functions, importing, manipulating and analyzing data, and data visualization, as well as program design, version control, data management, and task automation. The goal is to teach the practical knowledge needed to start programming, debugging, and using R in everyday tasks. You do not need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented or previous programming experience but intermediate level experience with a computer is highly recommended.
DETAILS & REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-introductory-programming-with-r-tickets-711430436587
The first meeting of the UPEI Senate will take place on Friday, September 15, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm in Room 128B of the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering building.
All meetings of Senate are open to members of the University community, although for certain in-camera items (e.g., granting of degrees), only Senators may be present.
While Senate is an in-person meeting, to facilitate inclusion, under special circumstances members of the University community may request a Zoom connection when they are unable to attend in-person. Only members of Senate are permitted to address the Senate, unless otherwise recognized by the Chair.
For more information, visit https://www.upei.ca/about-upei/governance/senate or email senate@upei.ca.
Are you a chief warden, floor warden, or guardian for your building? Do you know what to do if there is a building evacuation? Do you have questions about your role as a warden or guardian or the evacuation procedures for your building?
UPEI Health, Safety, and Environment will hold a building emergency plan session for chief wardens, floor wardens, and guardians on Thursday, September 28, 2023, at 1:30 pm in Duffy Science Centre (DSC) Room 135.
Please let hse@upei.ca know if you are interested in attending.
UPEI Research Services is relaunching Research on Tap, and we'd like your help.
Research on Tap provides an opportunity to talk about research and network with the public in a casual setting. The first session will take place at the Fox and Crow on Wednesday, October 11, at 7:00 pm for an evening of informal discussion and dialogue.
Each session is led by one or two faculty researchers from UPEI who present the central theme/topic in about 10-15 minutes in a way that is accessible, insightful, and exciting to the lay audience. The rest of the time is for questions and discussion. The conversation is interesting, engaging, and lively.
A second Research on Tap session is planned for Wednesday, November 15 (location TBD, likely off campus).
Are you and/or a colleague interested in leading one of these discussions? If so, please provide a short abstract to Research Services (researchservices@upei.ca) describing your topic and emphasizing how it would be of interest now to the PEI public. Please also indicate your preferred session (October or November). The deadline for expressions of interest for both fall sessions of Research on Tap is September 25, 2023.
For questions, please contact Maria Steele, Manager, Research Services, at mlsteele@upei.ca or 902-566-6479.
As new schedules become routine, the Chaplaincy Centre is resuming weekly prayer times. Our mandate responds to the need for religious harmony and spiritual well-being. #foodforbodyandsoul
Thursdays, 12:05--12:30 pm, Liturgy of the Word and Communion led by Sister Sue
Fridays, 1:00 pm, Jummah Prayer led by the Muslim Student Association
Sundays, 6:00 pm, Catholic Mass, Father Chris Sherren presiding
Are you trying to find some dedicated time to finish a writing project that needs focused attention? Time to Write retreats offer concentrated time to support your writing efforts and can be instrumental in the initiation or completion of scholarly work such as an article, book or book chapter, grant proposal, curriculum or OER development, conference presentations, or other scholarly creative projects.
Time to work on writing projects away from home and campus for a few days can be incredibly productive. Participation in a writing retreat with colleagues at various stages of their careers not only provides quiet, focused writing time away from teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities, but it also offers mentorship and networking opportunities with colleagues from a range of disciplines. The retreat provides an opportunity to develop a supportive writing group with colleagues from across campus and join group discussions on writing and publishing.
A Time to Write retreat will be offered from Tuesday, October 10, to Friday, October 13, 2023, at the North Rustico Cottages in North Rustico.
Participants must have a project (e.g., grant application, research publication) at a stage where sustained writing time makes sense with background research and/or data collection and analysis completed to the point that they are ready to write. Participants must be prepared to commit to the full program, a total of three days focused on writing, and contribute $300. The retreat is open to faculty (term and sessional faculty are encouraged to apply) and librarians in any academic unit at UPEI. Interested participants will email an expression of interest consisting of a summary of the project they plan to work on and their writing goals for the retreat to TLC@upei.ca by 12:00 noon on Monday, September 25, 2023. Six to eight participants will be accepted for this Time to Write fall retreat.
When conducting assessments, clear communication of expectations can help your students perform their work with a clear understanding of what academic integrity means in your course. This session will cover some approaches for setting up clear and concise honour agreements and building the requirements into your Moodle assessments. The session will take place in the Teaching and Learning Centre (located in the Robertson Library Annex) on September 19 from 10:00 to 11:00 am. Register here.
With the release of the UPEI Review Report, the University has coordinated two confidential processes to support faculty and staff who have experienced harm from harassment, sexual violence, or discrimination at UPEI.
Confidential third-party personal counselling:
The UPEI Health and Wellness Centre has engaged a psychologist to meet individually with faculty and staff, by appointment. Employees may email Caylin Jenkins at cbjenkins@upei.ca, indicating “Appointment required” in the subject line. Caylin will coordinate with the psychologist and confirm the time and location of the appointment with the employee.
Making a confidential disclosure:
People have asked about the process for making disclosures of incidents of harassment or discrimination by senior executive members of the University. The University has established an independent third-party process to address any such issues with Resonance Inc., a multidisciplinary human resources firm, based in Saint John, NB, that specializes in workplace assessments. The contact person at Resonance is Trisha Perry, who may be reached at tperry@resonanceinc.ca or (506)799-0412.
For more information, go to https://www.upei.ca/response-to-independent-review/community-support
Island Lecture Series Double Feature:
“Sami Educational Viewpoints From the Past and Present” and “The Use of Yoik, Traditional Sami Singing, in Education”
September 19, 2023, 7:00 pm, Faculty Lounge, SDU Main Building
Kicking off this season's Island Lecture Series on Tuesday, September 12, are two guests who are NOT talking about islands, but rather about something that resonates with islands and islanders from the North: Sami culture from Lapland.
Pigga Keskitalo will present “Sami Educational Viewpoints From the Past and Present.” In this presentation, Keskitalo will review Sámi education history and current practices. Currently, there is a need for innovative solutions so that everyone can reach education in their Indigenous languages. Endangered Sami languages have developed distance education since the 1990s so that children and language learners – despite their location – can learn Sami languages. In Finland, there is a Sami language distance education project. The Academy of Finland-funded research project, ADVOST, concentrated on developing this distance education in a small children’s context. The research project also implemented land-based education, storytelling, and playful learning into distance education. Keskitalo will present this project and core results in addition to the new research project LINCOSY (funded by the Finnish Research Council, former Academy of Finland), which concentrates on Sami language teaching in the Nordic level.
Laila Nutti will present her PhD project about the pedagogical use of yoik with the title: “The Use of Yoik, Traditional Sami Singing, in Education.”
Pigga Keskitalo and Laila Nutti are on Prince Edward Island as part of the ConnectED Scholar Exchange, which aims to create connections between early-career scholars and researchers across the Arctic. Hosted by Dr. Kathy Snow (Education), David Varis (Education/IKERAS), and Dr. Laurie Brinklow (Island Studies), our guests will meet with graduate students and educators across the Island from September 18-21, 2023.
Find more information at https://islandstudies.com/events/upcoming-events/
OCII is pleased to invite you to our info sessions on Intellectual Property for Researchers, presented by André Gallant, IP Advisor for Atlantic Canada from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO). Learn more about intellectual property (IP) as it relates to your research innovations, inventions, and entrepreneurial activities.
All faculty, students, and staff are welcome to attend on Thursday, September 14, in Don and Marion McDougall Hall 329:
Session 1: 9:30 - 10:15 am, Patents & Trade Secrets
Session 2: 10:30 - 11:15 am, Copyrights & Trademarks
Please come to both or either, based on your research and commercialization interests.
We hope to see you there!
-- Office of Commercialization, Industry & Innovation Team
Any questions, reach out at ocii@upei.ca or follow us on LinkedIn
The UPEI Alumni Association invites students, staff, and faculty to join us on Thursday, September 21, at 6:30 pm in the Performing Arts Centre theatre as we recognize and celebrate the recipients of the 2023 Distinguished and Young Alumni Awards.
The 2023 Distinguished Alumni are Dr. Mary Goodfellow, SDU '65; Monica Elaine Campbell, BSc '78; and Roger Sinclair, BBA '79. The 2023 Inspiring Young Alumni are Danaiet Teame, BScN '12; Tyler Coady, BA '13; and Danté Bazard, BA '16.
Following the ceremony, there will be a reception with light refreshments and a cash bar. This is a free event, open to interested members of the public and campus community, but for planning purposes, we ask that you kindly RSVP by email to Stephen Loo at sloo@upei.ca by September 14.
For more information about our Distinguished and Young Alumni Awards, including a list of past recipients, or to submit a nomination for 2024, please visit https://www.upei.ca/alumni/awards-and-recognition
A requiem mass for the late Leo Cheverie will take place at St. Columba Catholic Church, Fairfield, PEI, at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, September 12.
A 56-seat motorcoach hired by UPEI will leave the campus at 11:30 am on Tuesday from the bus stop at the W.A. Murphy Student Centre. Following the service at St. Columba, the motorcoach will transport those on board to a reception at the Eastern Kings Community Centre, 85 Munns Road, Souris, and will depart from there for UPEI at 4:30 pm.
A number of seats have been set aside for CUPE 1870 members, with the remaining seats available to UPEI employees on a first-come, first-served basis.
Welcome to a new academic year at UPEI!
Every Tuesday, we post a little technology tip, but this week we just want to remind our new students, staff, and faculty that the ITSS help desk is located in the AVC building. We are open from Monday to Thursday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm and on Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. Please stop in and say hello. We are very friendly!
You can call us at 902-566-0465 or email helpdesk@upei.ca.
Best of luck during the new semester.
As new schedules become routine, the Chaplaincy Centre is resuming weekly prayer times. Our mandate responds to the need for religious harmony and spiritual well-being. #foodforbodyandsoul
Thursdays, 12:05--12:30 pm, Liturgy of the Word and Communion led by Sister Sue
Fridays, 1:00 pm, Jummah Prayer led by the Muslim Student Association
Sundays, 6:00 pm, Catholic Mass, Father Chris Sherren presiding
Welcome back, everyone!
The UPEI Writing Centre is again ready to support writers with assignments from all faculties at all stages of the writing and research process. Appointments with our friendly, knowledgeable tutors are one-on-one and up to an hour long, hosted in-person in RL 274, and also available online.
Book your appointment at https://upei.mywconline.com/
Staff and faculty should contact Jarmo Puiras at jjpuiras@upei.ca for more information or to arrange a short class visit from Writing Centre staff to introduce the service to your class.
Best wishes for a rewarding, storm-free fall term.
