Sign up for 12 Gentle Yoga classes on Saturdays starting on February 3 and ending on April 20. The classes will take place each Saturday from 10-10:45 am in Studio One, Chi Wan Young Sports Centre. The cost is only $45 for full-time students and $55 for UPEI staff and faculty (less than $5 a class!), and $115 for other participants. This class will start your day and set the tone to help you build strength, increase flexibility, and find focus. During this "all levels" class focusing on alignment, beginners will safely learn the basics while more experienced yogis can take postures to a deeper level. 

How to register for a specialty fitness class:

Go to recreation.upei.ca. UPEI students/faculty/staff: Click on the green UPEI LOGIN button and sign in with your UPEI email address and password. You will need to use your UPEI ID number. Community members can sign in using their email or username in the Community sign-in box.

Once you are signed in, click on the Fitness Programming ICON and then the Specialty Fitness Class icon. Select the class you would like to register for, sign the online waiver, and click on the checkout button, Add your credit card information for payment online, and click on the pay now button. When the proceed to checkout button pops up, click on checkout. You are now registered for the specialty class you selected.

A reminder that the deadline for the 2nd Semester (Winter) Award Cycle is Thursday, February 1, 2024, at 11:59 pm.

Applications are accepted electronically through the Scholarship and Award Application portal. Click the link provided or find the link listed on your MyUPEI account in the UPEI Forms section.

Be sure to submit your application to be considered for numerous scholarships and awards!

For more information, please contact scholarships@upei.ca. Best of luck to all who apply!

Discover sustainable fashion at Stitch&Switch, a hands-on workshop where participants learn clothing mending and upcycling techniques. The event promotes eco-conscious practices, fostering a community of like-minded individuals committed to mindful consumption and contributing to a greener wardrobe.

Join us on February 8 from 5:30-7:00 pm at UPEI’s Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering, Room 205, for a transformative experience in sustainable style. Limited sewing supplies and pizza will be available!

Presented by the UPEI Engineering Society and the UPEI Environmental Collective.

This event is made possible by the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC) and Global Affairs Canada through the International Development Week 2024: Youth Funding for Events.

Interested in learning about machine learning, natural language processing, or a second programming language like C? More training from ACENET for the winter semester is now open for registration. Sessions are online and free of charge.

If you have questions about upcoming training or ACENET services at UPEI, contact Kaitlin Newson.

Big Data Analysis with Spark

February 20 and 22, 2024, 1:00--4:00pm

Apache Spark is a user-friendly open-source platform for large-scale data processing, analytics, and parallel computing. Using Apache Spark and Python (PySpark), this workshop is aimed at analyzing data sets that are too large to be handled and processed by a single computer. With hands-on guided examples, the workshop covers the basics of Spark and Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDD) high-level architecture. The examples are mainly written in Python, hence the APIs covered are the ones available in PySpark, including Spark Core API (RDD API), Spark SQL, and Pandas on Spark. Participants learn how to import data, use functions to transform, reduce, and compile the data, and produce parallel algorithms that can run on Alliance clusters.

Prerequisites: ACENET Basics or equivalent, and how to write functions in Python.

The Why's and How's of Machine Learning

March 5, 2024, 1:00--3:00 pm

How can you make smart decisions about setup and execution of a machine learning project? How should you hire and support the staff working on the project? We hope to provide clear, thoughtful answers to these, and other common questions to get you thinking about whether machine learning is a technology that you and your company or group should think about investing in. We will discuss topics like data collection, the trade-offs involved in choosing a model, and what to expect from a successful project, as well as how to salvage useful by-products and skills when projects don’t go as planned.

This is a beginner session oriented to business owners and project managers curious to learn more about machine learning, or who may have an idea that involves machine learning and want to know where to begin.

C as a Second Language

Mar ch13, 2024, 10:00 am--4:00 pm

A great deal of high-performance computing software is written in C, but few universities offer courses in the language any more. If you have to work with "legacy code" written in C, adding features, porting to a new machine, or patching errors, or if you need to write user-defined functions for engineering packages such as Fluent, then this workshop is for you.

Prerequisites: Familiarity with some other programming language.

Machine Learning Basics

March 19, 2024, 1:00--3:00pm

Are you curious about machine learning, but not sure where to start, or if the discipline is for you? Join ACENET for a survey and explanation of several methods used to make machines learn. From simple models like Naive Bayes, Regression, and Decision Trees to an introduction to Support Vector Machines and Feed-Forward Neural Networks.

This talk is geared to be approachable to a novice audience, curious about machine learning, but not necessarily math or computer science majors. Methods and techniques will be explained using metaphors, examples, and clear language, without diving too deeply into the math and calculus on which these techniques are based.

C++ as a Second Language

March 27, 2024, 10:00 am--4:00 pm

A great deal of high-performance computing software is written in C++, but few universities offer courses in the language any more. If you have to work with "legacy code" written in C++, adding features, porting to a new machine, or patching errors, or if you need to extend packages like OpenFOAM which are written in C++, then this workshop is for you.

C++ was designed as an extension of the C language but has its own distinct idiom or style. This workshop assumes that you already know C to the level reached in the ACENET workshop, "C as a Second Language."

Prerequisites: "C as a Second Language" or prior experience with C programming.

Introduction to Neural Network Architecture

April 2, 2024, 1:00--4:00 pm

Have you wondered how machine learning models can suddenly do so many different types of work? How is it that machines can learn things like language, vision, and translation in such a short amount of time, and what has helped drive these kinds of improvements? The obvious answers--big data and big processors--are only part of the story, and to understand the full picture, we need to take a closer look at the models driving the AI revolution. This talk is aimed at people who are familiar with the basics of feed-forward neural networks, and will involve an in-depth explanation of how information is represented for machines to learn on, how machines can make sense of information, and the challenges presented.

Prerequisite: Familiarity with feed-forward neural networks.

Introduction to Natural Language Processing

April 16, 2024, 1:00--4:00 pm

How do computers understand language? It seems impossible that zeroes and ones could ever add up to words that humans can understand, but machine language has come a long way in the past few years. Let us take you behind the code to explain how machines simulate language comprehension, and why it’s a far more complicated problem than “bonjour = hello.” This talk is aimed at an audience who is not necessarily familiar with computers or language comprehension, but would like a primer to the field, and what it can realistically do. We will explain natural language processing from the perspective of machines that cannot understand words, but capture semantic meaning by processing data.

Fortran as a Second Language

April 24, 2024, 10:00 am--4:00 pm

Fortran, one of the initial high-level programming languages, continues to be an excellent option for high-performance computing due to its superb performance. The newer versions offer many modern features, including object-oriented programming capabilities to programmers. This course will cover some of these features.

Prerequisites: Familiarity with another programming language.

The UPEI Department of Music is pleased to present the 2024 Dr. Frances Gray Music Performance Competition, featuring five finalists selected in a preliminary round:

Devyn Collette, alto saxophone
Dre Knowles, piano
Timothy Luk, piano
Janey-Lynn Perrier, soprano
Jacob Reddin, trombone

The annual Dr. Frances Gray Performance Competition is a public recital that showcases five of the UPEI Music Department’s outstanding emerging artists. The top awards include a cash prize, and will be chosen by an adjudication panel consisting of distinguished members of PEI's musical community. We gratefully thank this year's adjudicators – Lindsay Connolly, Mark Parsons, and Heather Taves.

This event will take place on February 2 at 7:30 pm on the SDU Stage, Dr, Steel Recital Hall. Admission is by donation at the door (suggested: $20 adults, $10 students).

The Robertson Library invites the campus community to two candidate presentations for the permanent-track position of One Health & Scholarly Communications Librarian. 

Candidate: Keri McCaffrey, MLIS

Title: What can the Library do to support scholarly communications at a university like UPEI?

When: Monday, February 5, 2024, 10:45 AM

Where: AVC 287N

Keri earned her Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. She is currently a Legislative Research Analyst with the Government of Prince Edward Island.

Candidate: Dan Phillips, MI, MREM

Title: What can the Library do to support scholarly communications at a university like UPEI?

When: Monday, March 4, 2024, 2:45 PM

Where: AVC 286

Dan Phillips earned his ALA-accredited Master of Information and Master of Resource and Environmental Management from Dalhousie University. He is currently a Clinical Librarian with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. 

Your journey to delivering great presentations and public speaking with ease begins here! Finding your authentic voice. Delivering your key messages effectively. How to engage your audience.  How your preparation lays the groundwork for your success. 

Come join in to learn about strategies, tips and tools that will enhance your engagement with your students, peers, and everyone else! Our facilitator, Ann Worth from Worth Consulting Group, is a highly experienced communications trainer.

One of our colleagues, Dr. Bill Whelan, had this to say about his experience: "I suffer off and on from anxiety prior to research talks or public presentations. I walked away from Ann’s workshop with a renewed excitement for public speaking, along with a toolbox of strategies to put me at ease the days leading up to and during a presentation, and ways to better engage with the audience. I tested this out 2 weeks later in the US and it was the most enjoyable presentation experience in years."  

Join us on Tuesday, February 20, 2024 (snow date: Thursday, February 22) for this interactive session that explores how you can take your public speaking and presenting to the NEXT LEVEL OF IMPACT and EFFECTIVENESS in the Teaching and Learning Centre, Robertson Library Annex, Room 230, from 11:00 am–12:30 pm. Seats are limited. Please RSVP  

Colleagues at Brock University are pleased to co-host the virtual book launch for Perspectives on Indigenous Pedagogy in Education: Learning From One Another on February 6 from 12:00 - 1:30 EASTERN. This session will feature the authors and editors, Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek and Taima Moeke-Pickering, discussing the book as a whole. Non-Brock registrants are invited to register using this online form.  

Learn the basics of zine-making from Ch'town Zine Fest organizers Jordan Beaulieu and Evan Furness at a workshop from 1:00 to 3:00 pm on February 16. The workshop will outline a brief history of zines, their uses in the classroom, and different approaches to making them, including a hands-on component in which participants will be provided materials and instructions to make their own zines.

Limited seats are available.

Register here: https://forms.office.com/r/VcPDbfvEJU

If you have any questions, contact Kristy at kmckinney@upei.ca.

Sign up for 12 Gentle Yoga classes on Saturdays starting on February 3 and ending on April 20. The classes will take place each Saturday from 10-10:45 am in Studio One, Chi Wan Young Sports Centre. The cost is only $45 for full-time students and $55 for UPEI staff and faculty (less than $5 a class!), and $115 for other participants. This class will start your day and set the tone to help you build strength, increase flexibility, and find focus. During this "all levels" class focusing on alignment, beginners will safely learn the basics while more experienced yogis can take postures to a deeper level. 

How to register for a specialty fitness class:

Go to recreation.upei.ca. UPEI students/faculty/staff: Click on the green UPEI LOGIN button and sign in with your UPEI email address and password. You will need to use your UPEI ID number. Community members can sign in using their email or username in the Community sign-in box.

Once you are signed in, click on the Fitness Programming ICON and then the Specialty Fitness Class icon. Select the class you would like to register for, sign the online waiver, and click on the checkout button, Add your credit card information for payment online, and click on the pay now button. When the proceed to checkout button pops up, click on checkout. You are now registered for the specialty class you selected.

On Wednesday, January 31, ITSS will conduct routine maintenance on the myUPEI portal and related services from 8:00 pm to midnight. During this time, there may be intermittent access to and performance issues with myUPEI, Self-Service, and Colleague.

We encourage students, faculty, and staff who may need documents or links located on myUPEI to plan ahead and bookmark or download the resources they may need during this period.

As a reminder, you can access Moodle directly using https://moodle.upei.ca and Outlook email directly using https://outlook.office.com.

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

Greetings from the UPEI Debate and Model United Nations Club, 

We are an officially recognized debate/Model United Nations (MUN) club under the UPEI Student Union, with the aim of creating a thought-provoking, innovative, and diverse community of debaters, philosophers, conversationalists, diplomats, writers, and innovators of ideas across various universal and global subjects and issues. 

We are pleased to present UPEI’s second Model United Nations Conference.

Dates: February 2 and 3, 2024

Time: 4:30--9:00 pm on February 2; 9:00 am--7:00 pm on February 3

Venue: Don and Marion McDougall Hall

MUN committee topics:

• UNHRC: Human Rights Violation in the Israel-Palestine Conflict
• UNICEF: The Protection of Children in Yemen
• World Bank: Global Inflation in the Wake of Wars and Crime
• International Press: Photographers, journalists, content creator

Registration links: https://linktr.ee/upeidmc?fbclid=IwAR3LJlFcy5hNwCnbFzx3_R6A37MpjHftKI96NJQ4zCuXCxjzVoY1hjfqGMM. Registration is FREE for all members and $5.00 for other UPEI students.

For inquiries, please contact upeidebate@upeisu.ca. Thank you in advance on behalf of the UPEI Debate/MUN Club!

UPEI annually acknowledges individuals for their outstanding contributions to the success of the University. The awards are valued at $1,000 each and given in recognition of excellence of faculty, librarians, clinical veterinary professionals, clinical nursing instructors, sessional instructors, and staff.

Nominations are open and must be submitted to universityawards@upei.ca by the last Friday in February each year. This year, nominations close on Friday, February 23, 2024. 

For further details about the awards and the nomination process, please visit https://www.upei.ca/president/university-awards-of-excellence

This free eight-week Learn to Run program, which starts the week of January 29, will provide participants the opportunity to train with Danie Marais, a fourth-year kinesiology student who will encourage them throughout their running journey and provide a running program, warm-up and cool-down stretches, and other helpful information. The beginner group is on Wednesdays at 12:10 pm, and the intermediate/advanced group is on Mondays at 4:30 pm. Participants can attend either or both training times regardless if they are beginners, intermediate, or advanced.

The program is for UPEI students, staff, faculty, and retirees only. Participants will submit weekly kilometres for weekly draw prizes. More information will follow once participants have registered.

To register: Log into recreation.upei.ca or through the Panther Recreation App. Log in using your UPEI email address and password by clicking on the UPEI LOGIN button. Then click on the wellness icon where the Learn to Run program is listed. Click on the Learn to Run link and follow the prompts.For questions, please contact Angela Marchbank at amarchbank@upei.ca.

A reminder that the deadline for the 2nd Semester (Winter) Award Cycle is Thursday, February 1, 2024, at 11:59 pm.

Applications are accepted electronically through the Scholarship and Award Application portal. Click the link provided or find the link listed on your MyUPEI account in the UPEI Forms section.

Be sure to submit your application to be considered for numerous scholarships and awards!

For more information, please contact scholarships@upei.ca. Best of luck to all who apply!

From February 12-16, 2024, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (Alliance) and the Alliance Federation will offer an introductory digital research tools webinar series for humanities, arts, and social sciences researchers. These are introductory, beginner-level sessions. No prior experience or knowledge is required.

Tools available through the Alliance and Federation will be discussed, as well as some out-of-the-box tools available to Canadian researchers, and additional information and techniques relevant to digital research projects.

You may register for as many or as few of the sessions as you wish. Registration for English sessions is available here. 

Sessions at-a-glance:

• Keynote: Dr. John Simpson (ISED)
• Introduction to Canadian Certificate of Digital Humanities (cc:DH/HN)
• Canadian HSS Commons platform
• Introduction to GIS
• DMP Assistant
• Managing sensitive data in Canada
• Introduction to FRDR, Lunaris, Borealis, and Odesi platforms
• Stylo: semantic text editor
• TEI (Text Encoding Initiative)
• Introduction to interactive coding notebook environments: Jupyter and Colab
• Introduction to Python
• Introduction to R
• Machine Learning 
• 3D Visualization

Most sessions are in both French and English. For further information, contact hss-series@gw.alliancecan.ca.

There will be a basic biosafety training session on February 14, 2024, at 9:00 am in AVC 287N. Topics will include basic biosafety principles and how they are applied at the University of Prince Edward Island, as well as biosecurity training. This session is open to everyone, including graduate students.

To attend, you must pre-register by contacting Jacky Buell by the end of the day on February 7, 2024, by email (hse@upei.ca) or by phone (902-566-0901). Please provide your name, department, your supervisor’s name (if applicable), if you are a graduate student, email address, and phone number in your email or voice message.

NOTE: An online basic biosafety training refresher course is available for those who need it. 

The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) is now accepting applications for the Dr. Tim Ogilvie AVC Vet Camps, taking place in July/August 2024.

Designed for students entering grades 7-9 or 10-12, each of the four week-long camps will provide campers with a behind-the-scenes look at the world of veterinary medicine. Campers will learn about caring for animals, go on field trips, and take part in fun and educational activities.

For more information, and to apply, visit www.upei.ca/avcsummerprograms/vetcamp

The deadline for applications is March 18, 2024.

Colleagues at Brock University are pleased to co-host the virtual book launch for Perspectives on Indigenous Pedagogy in Education: Learning From One Another on February 6 from 12:00 - 1:30 EASTERN. This session will feature the authors and editors, Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek and Taima Moeke-Pickering, discussing the book as a whole. Non-Brock registrants are invited to register using this online form.  

On Wednesday, January 31, ITSS will conduct routine maintenance on the myUPEI portal and related services from 8:00 pm to midnight. During this time, there may be intermittent access to and performance issues with myUPEI, Self-Service, and Colleague.

We encourage students, faculty, and staff who may need documents or links located on myUPEI to plan ahead and bookmark or download the resources they may need during this period.

As a reminder, you can access Moodle directly using https://moodle.upei.ca and Outlook email directly using https://outlook.office.com.

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