Welcome to the winter term, everybody!  New term, fresh start.

The Writing Centre will open for appointments on Monday, January 17. See us early for assignment support. Our friendly, capable tutors can assist you at all stages of the writing or research process, including getting started.

Go to https://upei.mywconline.com to see our schedule and make an appointment. ONLINE APPOINTMENTS ONLY until further notice.

Best wishes for a great term!

New(er) faculty members are invited to a Research Budgets Session this Friday, January 14, at 2:00 pm Atlantic, with Maria Steele, Manager of Research Services, and Deidre Smith, Manager of Financial Services. If there are specific questions you would like Maria and/or Deidre to address as part of the session, please email them to TLC@upei.ca. A minimum of 10 participants is needed to RSVP by Thursday Jan. 13 for this session to proceed.  Register here.

The UPEI Health and Wellness Centre began offering on-campus COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Clinics on January 13 by appointment only. Appointments have been in high demand so additional clinics are being added as clinics become full.

To check availability and to book an appointment for a vaccine booster (or to obtain your first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine), visit this link: https://app.upei.ca/HCBookings.

Please note the following:

• you must be 18+ years of age.
• if you are currently self-isolating, do not come to the clinic.
• if you have symptoms of COVID-19, please obtain a negative test and wait for your symptoms to subside before booking your appointment.
• you need to bring a valid provincial health card or proof of international medical insurance. There is no charge for the vaccine. If your PEI health card has expired, please renew it at https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-pei/pei-health-card. If your health card is from a jurisdiction other than PEI, please contact your insurer to renew your health card.
• you must be a faculty, staff, student, or immediate family member (living with) to attend this clinic.

The clinics will be held in the W.A. Murphy Student Centre—look for signs that will direct you!

A Community of Practice on Enhancing the Mentorship Experiences of Graduate Students will begin in mid-January. If you are interested in participating, click here for more info and to RSVP.  Faculty in all career stages are welcome. 

This session teaches participants how to use Compute Canada’s queuing environment on the national systems, using the job scheduler Slurm. Learn how the scheduler works, how it allocates jobs, what are reasonable requests to minimize wait time, how to make the best use of the resources to be more efficient, how to get more throughput, how to get more jobs running at the same time, and how to troubleshoot and deal with crashes. This workshop is designed for new HPC users familiar with Linux and Shell Scripting but who have not had experience with using Slurm, or for experienced users transitioning to Slurm or seeking to improve efficiency with the scheduler. In order to get the most from the session, participants are strongly encouraged to have a Compute Canada/ACENET account and to bring a laptop to do the exercises.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-job-scheduling-with-slurm-tickets-230425889037

Participants will learn how to use shell scripting to exercise the power of the command line. Shell scripting helps you save time, automate file management tasks, and better use Linux. This session teaches you how to name, locate, and set permissions for executable files, taking input and producing output. Learn about job scripts, shell variables, and looping commands. This workshop is designed for new HPC users who are familiar with working in a Linux environment but have not had experience with shell scripting, and for experienced users seeking to get more out of shell scripting. In order to get the most from the session, participants are strongly encouraged to have a Compute Canada/ACENET account and to bring a laptop to do the exercises.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-shell-scripting-tickets-230422137817

Linux is the terminal interface used to enable you to use the ACENET and Compute Canada HPC 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 get started with Linux, create and navigate directories for your data, load files, manage your storage, run programs on the computing clusters, and set file permissions. This workshop is designed for those with no prior experience working with a terminal interface.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-linux-tickets-230403642497

What is high performance computing (HPC), and what can it do for me? How can ACENET help? HPC is 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 will take participants through the preliminary stages of learning about HPC and computing clusters, and how to get started with this type of computing. Software packages available for applications, data analysis, software development, and compiling code will be reviewed. Participants will also be introduced to the concept of parallel computing to achieve much faster results in analysis. This session is designed for those who have no prior experience in HPC and are looking for an introduction and overview.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-introduction-to-hpc-with-acenet-and-compute-canada-tickets-230402318537

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? This talk won't teach you how to troubleshoot everything, but it will give you insight to 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 computers work by 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 about digital security and show you a few "pro tips" about how to make the most of your workstation, phone, or whatever device you use. Whether you have a lot or a little experience using digital technology, this workshop is for you if you want to learn how to use your devices more effectively!

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-of-computers-tickets-230396350687

UPEI ChangeMakers is a new program operating from November 2021 through April 2022, aimed at developing, supporting, and celebrating UPEI students’ community work.

The deadline for Animal Care Protocol Submissions (new, renewal, or amendment) is Friday, February 4, for the February meeting.

Please note that as of June 1, 2020, all animal user protocols must be submitted through the UPEI Researcher Portal. For new protocols, select "applications," and for renewal or amendment protocols, select "events."

UPEI ACC SOPs and Codes of Practice can be accessed through myUPEI at https://portal.upei.ca/facultystaff/administrativeservices/AVCAnimalCare/Pages/default.aspx. 

Those protocols received after the deadline will be reviewed the following month. The committee requires at least one month for processing applications.

To assist as many students as possible, Student Affairs will be conducting 30 minute appointments for the first two weeks of classes (Jan 10 -21) for both personal counselling and academic advising. Please note, in keeping with current Covid 19 public health measures, and while classes are conducted online, appointments will primarily be held online. To make an appointment, please email studentserv@upei.ca.

UPEI’s Learning Strategists invite you to join us for our Time Management Workshops. The beginning of a new semester is a chance to start fresh and to achieve your academic goals. During this workshop, we will guide you through time management strategies, organizational strategies, and will share tips on how to start the semester for a successful year ahead. 

Workshops will take place on: 

January 13 at 1:00 pm – ONLINE

January 14 at 1:00 pm – ONLINE

January 19 at 10:30 am – ONLINE

January 20 at 10:30 am – ONLINE

You will receive the meeting link after you have signed up. To sign up, please complete the following Google Form: https://forms.gle/GAYrTRhSKfChGXwA8

Looking forward to hearing from you!! 

Best Wishes, 

Jaclyn and Susan, Learning Strategists

If you are planning on visiting the UPEI Health and Wellness Centre and have been out of the province, you are required to have already self-isolated and had a negative test for COVID-19 on day 4 of your return to PEI (you will need to indicate whether you had a molecular (PCR) test or rapid antigen test). 

You will not be seen unless you have isolated and had a negative test result on day 4 following your trip. Thank you for your patience as we work hard to reduce the transmission of the Omicron variant/COVID-19 virus.

The UPEI Health and Wellness Centre is located on 2nd Floor North, W. A. Murphy Student Centre and is open from 8:30 am–4:00 pm, Monday to Friday (closed daily from 12:00–1:00 pm for lunch). Contact healthcentre@upei.ca or 902-566-0616 for more info.

The Teaching and Learning Centre is pleased to announce the launch of a new internal research grant focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). Faculty and Instructional staff such as lab instructors are eligible to apply for the Internal SoTL Research Grant (ISRG).

Grants of up to $2,500 will be awarded for SoTL research initiatives at UPEI. Researchers are encouraged to propose collaborations with colleagues from different, but complementary, disciplines which can also provide high-quality student training opportunities.

SoTL involves:

• asking meaningful questions about student learning, and about the teaching activities designed to facilitate student learning,
• answering those questions by making relevant student learning visible to gather evidence of thinking and learning, and then systematically analyzing this evidence, and
• sharing the results of that analysis publicly to invite peer review, and to contribute to broader bodies of knowledge on student learning, and
• aiming to improve student learning by strengthening the practice of teaching (one’s own and others’).

Guidelines and application forms for the ISRG are available on the Research Services Internal Funding page  

Please submit applications using the UPEI Romeo Researcher Portal. The deadline for proposals is January 21, 2022 by 4:00 pm.  Applicants will be notified in early February.

If you have any questions about the funding, process, or if you’d like to discuss your idea, please reach out to Charlene VanLeeuwen, Teaching and Learning Centre Coordinator at 902.620.5217 or cvanleeuwen@upei.ca

A Community of Practice on Enhancing the Mentorship Experiences of Graduate Students will begin in mid-January. If you are interested in participating, click here for more info and to RSVP.  Faculty in all career stages are welcome. 

Participants will learn how to organize their data to prioritize clarity, reproducibility, and interoperability, such that they can seamlessly load their data later into an analysis program. The spreadsheet programs covered will be Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. The examples explored will be from the field of Social Sciences, but the principles are relevant for any discipline that collects data in spreadsheets. No previous experience with spreadsheets or programming is required.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-introduction-to-spreadsheets-tickets-230400061787

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? This talk won't teach you how to troubleshoot everything, but it will give you insight to 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 computers work by 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 about digital security and show you a few "pro tips" about how to make the most of your workstation, phone, or whatever device you use. Whether you have a lot or a little experience using digital technology, this workshop is for you if you want to learn how to use your devices more effectively!

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/acenet-basics-of-computers-tickets-230396350687

Happy New Year, UPEI.

Many of you may have received a new phone for Christmas. If you just shoved the old one in a drawer, please consider recycling it. It is easy to take the SIM card out and restore it to factory settings. Information about where you can take it can be found at https://www.recyclemyelectronics.ca/pei 

If you have old laptops, iPads, modems, etc., they also can be recycled. Remember to be careful when disposing of equipment that may have personal information. If in doubt, ask a professional.

Be clutter free in 2022.

UPEI ChangeMakers is a new program operating from November 2021 through April 2022, aimed at developing, supporting, and celebrating UPEI students’ community work.