The UPEI Chaplaincy Centre Food Bank needs volunteers to help keep the Food Bank operating for the summer months.

Shifts are Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 1.5 hours each. The attached document outlines the volunteer duties, if you would like to sign up for a time(s) please click on the "Volunteer Hosting sign up sheet" link in the document. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gDjGn8wI5KFd7oZzNFS8TJqKJOayZGccFbAI5TRNyUM/edit?usp=sharing 

If you have any questions please contact Sister Sue, sukidd@upei.ca.  

The UPEI Student Union is excited to announce that we have hired Ashley Lewis as our full time Communications and Marketing Manager. If you have anything that you need communicated with the student body, contact Ashley and she will be able to assist you.  Her email is communications@upeisu.ca.  

Pooja Kumar, a candidate in the Master of Arts, Island Studies program, will be defending her thesis on Thursday, June 11th, 10:00am to 12:30pm (Atlantic time). The thesis title is, “Evolving perspectives on urban wildlife and their implications for policy-making in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.” As this thesis defence will be conducted using video conferencing technology, if you wish to attend, please contact the Program Coordinator, Jim Randall, at jarandall@upei.ca

Pooja Kumar, a candidate in the Master of Arts, Island Studies program, will be defending her thesis on Thursday, June 11th, 10:00am to 12:30pm (Atlantic time). The thesis title is, “Evolving perspectives on urban wildlife and their implications for policy-making in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.” As this thesis defence will be conducted using video conferencing technology, if you wish to attend, please contact the Program Coordinator, Jim Randall, at jarandall@upei.ca

Researchers from UPEI’s Health and Wellness Centre and the Department of Applied Human Sciences are seeking people who have or are at risk of metabolic syndrome to participate in a free supervised nutrition and exercise program called CHANGE (Canadian Health Advanced by Nutrition and Graded Exercise) in communities across Prince Edward Island.

Individuals will participate in a supervised exercise training program, based on their fitness, skill level, and personal interests, and receive nutrition counselling and education.

You may qualify if you:

• are at risk of or have metabolic syndrome
• are 18 years of age or older
• speak/read English
• have not had a diagnosis of dementia or are not undergoing active cancer treatment

The CHANGE program was created by Metabolic Syndrome Canada (www.metsc.ca). To sign up for the CHANGE Program, please contact the CHANGE team at 902-620-5156 or email ancarter@upei.ca and/or jpomeroy@upei.ca. For more details about the study, please contact Marilyn Barrett at 902-566-0355 or email at mbarrett@upei.ca.

Starting June 4,  ITSS will be conducting a building by building inventory of computers. This is necessary to continue moving forward to upgrade the operating system from Windows 7  to Windows 10. It is our intention to complete the inventory and upgrade devices by the start of the fall term in September.

For any cases in which ITSS is required to enter an office, ITSS will strictly follow all COVID 19 infection control protocols as established by UPEI. We will also be sending out communications to each individual, building by building, in advance of starting our inventory work indicating that work will begin in these buildings  . 

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the ITSS service desk at 902-566-0465 or  helpdesk@upei.ca

Pooja Kumar, a candidate in the Master of Arts, Island Studies program, will be defending her thesis on Thursday, June 11th, 10:00am to 12:30pm (Atlantic time). The thesis title is, “Evolving perspectives on urban wildlife and their implications for policy-making in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.” As this thesis defence will be conducted using video conferencing technology, if you wish to attend, please contact the Program Coordinator, Jim Randall, at jarandall@upei.ca

The UPEI Health & Wellness Centre is now offering virtual appointments via Zoom Healthcare.  Beginning June 8th, 2020 students, faculty, staff and families can request to have virtual appointments with the health centre; in-person and telephone appointments are also available. UPEI has contracted with Zoom Healthcare to provide a secure platform to deliver virtual appointments for our patients that are private/secure. To request a virtual appointment, continue to use the same process of telephoning (902-566-0616) or emailing (healthcentre@upei.ca) us.  During the pandemic, we are discouraging coming in-person to make appointments. 

The UPEI Health & Wellness Centre is now offering virtual appointments via Zoom Healthcare.  Beginning June 8th, 2020 students, faculty, staff and families can request to have virtual appointments with the health centre; in-person and telephone appointments are also available. UPEI has contracted with Zoom Healthcare to provide a secure platform to deliver virtual appointments for our patients that are private/secure. To request a virtual appointment, continue to use the same process of telephoning (902-566-0616) or emailing (healthcentre@upei.ca) us.  During the pandemic, we are discouraging coming in-person to make appointments. 

Due to an unexpected glitch, not all UPEI Faculty and Staff researchers received the email registration notification for the Researcher Portal that was sent on Monday June 1. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.

If you have already successfully registered with the Researcher Portal then nothing further is required and you can ignore the remainder of this notice.

If you did not receive the initial email registration notification then you can register for the Research Portal by following these steps:

1. Click on this link:  https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
2. Type in your username. Please note that you must use your full UPEI email address as your username (i.e. ‘JohnDoe@upei.ca’)
3. Click on the ‘Reset Password’ button.

Within a few minutes of submitting your information, you should receive an email with a confirmation code and directions for how to complete your registration. If you do not immediately receive the confirmation email in your email inbox then please be sure to check your Spam folder.

Please feel free to contact us at researcherportal@upei.ca if you have any questions about the registration process or use of the Researcher Portal.

Researchers from UPEI’s Health and Wellness Centre and the Department of Applied Human Sciences are seeking people who have or are at risk of metabolic syndrome to participate in a free supervised nutrition and exercise program called CHANGE (Canadian Health Advanced by Nutrition and Graded Exercise) in communities across Prince Edward Island.

Individuals will participate in a supervised exercise training program, based on their fitness, skill level, and personal interests, and receive nutrition counselling and education.

You may qualify if you:

• are at risk of or have metabolic syndrome
• are 18 years of age or older
• speak/read English
• have not had a diagnosis of dementia or are not undergoing active cancer treatment

The CHANGE program was created by Metabolic Syndrome Canada (www.metsc.ca). To sign up for the CHANGE Program, please contact the CHANGE team at 902-620-5156 or email ancarter@upei.ca and/or jpomeroy@upei.ca. For more details about the study, please contact Marilyn Barrett at 902-566-0355 or email at mbarrett@upei.ca.

Due to an unexpected glitch, not all UPEI Faculty and Staff researchers received the email registration notification for the Researcher Portal that was sent on Monday June 1. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.

If you have already successfully registered with the Researcher Portal then nothing further is required and you can ignore the remainder of this notice.

If you did not receive the initial email registration notification then you can register for the Research Portal by following these steps:

1. Click on this link:  https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/
2. Type in your username. Please note that you must use your full UPEI email address as your username (i.e. ‘JohnDoe@upei.ca’)
3. Click on the ‘Reset Password’ button.

Within a few minutes of submitting your information, you should receive an email with a confirmation code and directions for how to complete your registration. If you do not immediately receive the confirmation email in your email inbox then please be sure to check your Spam folder.

Please feel free to contact us at researcherportal@upei.ca if you have any questions about the registration process or use of the Researcher Portal.

On Wednesday, June 3, ITSS will be conducting routine maintenance on the MyUPEI password reset services from 8 pm to 12 am. During this time, there may be intermittent access and performance issues with accessing and using the password reset tool.

If you have any questions, please contact the ITSS Help Desk at 902-566-0465. 

The UPEI Health & Wellness Centre is now offering virtual appointments via Zoom Healthcare.  Beginning June 8th, 2020 students, faculty, staff and families can request to have virtual appointments with the health centre; in-person and telephone appointments are also available. UPEI has contracted with Zoom Healthcare to provide a secure platform to deliver virtual appointments for our patients that are private/secure. To request a virtual appointment, continue to use the same process of telephoning (902-566-0616) or emailing (healthcentre@upei.ca) us.  During the pandemic, we are discouraging coming in-person to make appointments. 

The Moodle Gradebook can help you track grades in Moodle, share progress with students, and easily submit final grades to the Registrar’s Office. For this webinar, a step-by-step process for setting up the Moodle Gradebook will be demoed, followed by some time to set up participant gradebooks while explaining the approach and steps. This session will be hosted through Blackboard Collaborate. Register here for this session. 

The Moodle Gradebook can help you track grades in Moodle, share progress with students, and easily submit final grades to the Registrar’s Office. For this webinar, a step-by-step process for setting up the Moodle Gradebook will be demoed, followed by some time to set up participant gradebooks while explaining the approach and steps. This session will be hosted through Blackboard Collaborate. Register here for this session. 

Researchers from UPEI’s Health and Wellness Centre and the Department of Applied Human Sciences are seeking people who have or are at risk of metabolic syndrome to participate in a free supervised nutrition and exercise program called CHANGE (Canadian Health Advanced by Nutrition and Graded Exercise) in communities across Prince Edward Island.

Individuals will participate in a supervised exercise training program, based on their fitness, skill level, and personal interests, and receive nutrition counselling and education.

You may qualify if you:

• are at risk of or have metabolic syndrome
• are 18 years of age or older
• speak/read English
• have not had a diagnosis of dementia or are not undergoing active cancer treatment

The CHANGE program was created by Metabolic Syndrome Canada (www.metsc.ca). To sign up for the CHANGE Program, please contact the CHANGE team at 902-620-5156 or email ancarter@upei.ca and/or jpomeroy@upei.ca. For more details about the study, please contact Marilyn Barrett at 902-566-0355 or email at mbarrett@upei.ca.

The Office of Research Services has been working to develop an online interface through our database system, Romeo Researcher Portal, which will be launched Monday, June 1. The online portal will improve processing associated with the submission, review and approval of research-related grants, contracts, and certification applications. It will also provide researchers with online access to their research-related funding and certification files in the database. As of June 1, all UPEI internal forms associated with research-related funding and certification applications will be located within the UPEI Researcher Portal and must be submitted through the Researcher Portal. Submissions will not be accepted using any other format. 

All of the forms you are familiar with (such as seeking signatures, approvals, etc.) through Research Services and Synapse are now available within the new Researcher Portal database.

As of June 1:

·         all faculty researchers and staff will have full, online access to all their research related certification and funding files; and

·         all Research Services application forms will be housed in the new system so researchers can easily access, complete, and submit the appropriate form/s within this password protected site.

The new online process and system will be paired with electronic approvals to replace our current hard-copy signatures process.

The Research Services team is available to help make this transition go as smoothly as possible. If you have questions, please contact researcherportal@upei.ca and a team member will be happy to assist you.

The Moodle Gradebook can help you track grades in Moodle, share progress with students, and easily submit final grades to the Registrar’s Office. For this webinar, a step-by-step process for setting up the Moodle Gradebook will be demoed, followed by some time to set up participant gradebooks while explaining the approach and steps. This session will be hosted through Blackboard Collaborate. Register here for this session. 

All are invited to attend the first campus-wide Research Colloquium on Friday, May 29, with Dr. Ali Ahmadi from the UPEI Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering. This series is intended to feature the innovative, diverse, and multidisciplinary nature of research led by faculty at UPEI, during this time of physical separation. Please register here.

Biofabrication: Science fiction turns into reality?

I am not a big fan of Bruce Willis, but I was fascinated by a scene in his movie, "The Fifth Element", where a device (I assume Hollywood’s version of a 3D bio-printer!) makes body parts and ultimately a whole living human. Ok, we may not need to “print” new humans, but the thought of being able to “print” body parts and organs for people in need is a heartwarming vision. This vision drives my field of research which is called biofabrication, also known as three dimensional bio-printing. Biofabrication aims to build living tissues and organs. The movie showed that the biofabrication technology was available in the year 2263. It may not take another 243 years for us to realize this vision, but we do have an exceptionally long road ahead of us!

So what is biofabrication? Why is it important? Why is it taking so long to biofabricate organs and tissues? What is the role of engineering and other disciplines in this development? And lastly, what are the ethical, social and economical implications of biofabrication?

In this talk, I will discuss these questions with particular emphasis on the important roles of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations in biofabrication technology development.