Please join us on Friday, January 31, at 3:30 pm in FSDE 128B for the next lecture in our Pizza Seminar series. In this seminar, David LeBlanc will give a talk on the potential of machine learning techniques to evolve into models of human intelligence. Pizza and pop will follow the presentation.

The excitement for this Saturday's Gold Rush draw is growing as big as the pot! With no winners in the last FOUR draws, the total pot has grown to more than $16,300!

Gold Rush is a virtual fundraising initiative that raises funds for UPEI’s athletic and recreation programs. You can now select a specific team, club, or program to direct your proceeds from each of your tickets. 

Play today and every week for a chance to win! Download the UPEI Panther Recreation app from the App Store or on Google Play, or play from your computer. The weekly draw is held at 8:00 pm every Saturday.

UPEI Class of 2025 Mix and Mingle!

Event Date: Friday, April 4, 2025, 5:00 pm

Location: W.A. Murphy Student Centre

Room: McMillan Hall

Join us as we welcome the UPEI Class of 2025 to our alumni family! This event is open to all 2025 grads and UPEI/SDU/PWC alumni.

Celebrate the last day of classes with free refreshments, live music entertainment, fun door prizes to be won, and more!

Please RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRWenZcxnWDFxotOXDWGMUsK8vKwzP3V-UfBY55I-5mOhfDw/viewform?usp=header

If you have any questions, please contact Faith Phillips at fsteeves@upei.ca or 902-566-0687. 

Accessibility Services invites colleagues to our session, “What are Executive Functions,” on Thursday, January 30, 2025, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in the TLC. Learn about executive functions, what they look like in action, and effective supports and strategies for instructors and students. Specifically, the session will cover prioritizing and goal selection; planning and organizing; working memory; attention and flexibility; self-regulation; inhibition and initiation; and execution and goal attainment.

Through a generous endowment from the Fondation J.-Louis Lévesque, UPEI has established the Lévesque Undergraduate Research Awards in Human Health. This program is intended for students interested in performing human health-related research during the summer of 2025.

Please visit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities page for the call for applications and application forms.

The deadline for applications is Friday, February 21, 2025, by 4 pm.  

For more information, contact Leslie Cudmore, Research Grants Coordinator, at lcudmore@upei.ca or 902-566-0709.

Looking to apply for the HWMEP UPEI Panther Pitch? 👀 Don’t miss this Business Model Canvas Workshop:

🗓 When: Wednesday, January 29
🕓 Time: 4:00--6:00 pm
📍 Where: Catherine Callbeck Centre for Entrepreneurship, 201 Robertson Library

This is the first workshop in our series to help you prepare for the HWMEP Panther Pitch before the February 6th deadline. Perfect for anyone seeking extra guidance to complete their Business Model Canvas! 

Tag your team members, share with friends, and help spread the word! 🙌

✅ Sign up at https://forms.office.com/r/y2GZUJpLAT

The Faculty of Science Graduate Studies Committee invites the campus community to the next presentation of the 2024-25 Environmental Sciences & Human Biology seminar series on Friday, January 31, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. in Duffy Science Centre, Room 204. Dr. Enooyaq Sudlovenick, Faculty of Indigenous Knowledge, Education, Research, and Applied Studies, will present “Beluga whales, arctic marine mammals, and Inuit knowledge.”

The Department of Religious Studies presents Theology on Tap on February 3, at 7:00 pm, at the Salvador Dali Cafe, The Arts Hotel, 155 Kent Street, Charlottetown.  Professor Peter Koritansky will ask the provocative question, "Does Morality Depend on God?"  We look forward to an engaging talk, excellent discussion, and much fellowship and fun. Please join us! For more information, visit our Facebook page. 

The Department of Companion Animals will interview Dr. George Munguia for a tenure-track faculty position in Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care. Dr. Munguia will be on campus on Tuesday, January 28, and Wednesday, January 29, 2025. 

Dr. Munguia received his DVM in 2020 from the Atlantic Veterinary College, UPEI. He then completed a small animal rotating internship and is currently completing an MSc and clinical residency program in emergency and critical care at Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. 

As part of the interview process, he has been asked to present a 50-minute seminar on two separate topics: the first, a topic that would be appropriate to teach to third-year veterinary students; the second, to present his research interests:

SEMINAR NOTICE - Dr. George Munguia

Initial Triage and Stabilization of the Acutely Seizing Patient

Shoot For The…Clouds: A Practical Approach to Clinically Relevant Research

Tuesday, January 28, 2025, 12:30 pm, AVC Lecture Theatre “A”

Any interested faculty and staff are invited to attend. A copy of his CV and cover letter will be available from Jill Blaquiere (jnblaquiere@upei.ca). 

Note to Professors and Course/Lab Instructors: 

Please add the testing information (date, test length, test format, aids allowed, test open or closed book, contact information, and test start time – we do not need the test file immediately) for any in-person quizzes, tests, and midterms for the Winter 2025 semester to Accommodate as soon as possible.   

Students who are registered with Accessibility Services and want in-person testing accommodations must submit a booking request at least seven days in advance. They cannot schedule their test until you have entered the testing information in Accommodate. 

You do not need to add the test file until a few days before the test date. If needed, changes can be made to test dates after testing information has been added. 

Below are some faculty how-to resources: 

How to schedule a test in Accommodate: Video | Step-by-step guide 

How to view student accommodations: Video | Step-by-step guide 

If you have any questions about adding a test in Accommodate or testing with Accessibility Services, please contact astesting@upei.ca. 

On Wednesday, January 29, 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 using https://outlook.office.com.

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

The UPEI Alumni Association Panther for Life Spirit Award is given to a current UPEI student (of no particular standing), who exemplifies true Panther pride inside and outside of the classroom. This individual has contributed to the campus community in a meaningful way, whether it be through their volunteerism, participation in UPEI-related events and activities, support of Panther sport, or any other significant way that makes them a strong ambassador for UPEI, both now and as a future Panther alumni.

The recipient will receive an engraved award and a $500 cash prize and will be recognized during a celebratory student event.

Any student, staff, or faculty member may submit nominations for this award. Nominations must be received by February 28th at 4 pm to be considered for 2025.

To nominate a current student, please fill out the Panther for Life Spirit Award Nomination form here: https://www.upei.ca/alumni/awards-and-recognition/panther-for-life-spirit-award

For more information, email alumni@upei.ca.

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 familiar with Linux and Shell Scripting, or for experienced users transitioning to Slurm or seeking to improve efficiency with the scheduler.  

Register at https://www.acenet.training/courses.

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.

Register at https://www.acenet.training/courses.

Linux is the terminal interface used to enable you to use the ACENET and the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) 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, how to 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 in working with a terminal interface.

Register at https://www.acenet.training/courses.
 

The Robertson Library’s OER Development Program is accepting grant applications for the creation or adaptation of open educational resources (OERs). The grant types include

• Open Educational Resource or Textbook Grant (up to $7,000) for the development of a new open textbook on a topic that is currently not covered by an existing open textbook, or major adaptations of existing textbooks
• Open Textbook Adaptation Grant (up to $4,500) for the adaptation of one or more open educational resources or open textbooks to create a new version or edition of a resource (i.e. a Canadian edition of an existing open textbook)
• Supplementary Resources Grant (up to $2,500) for the creation of ancillary materials for existing open textbooks, including, but not limited to test banks, slide decks, recordings, or interactive media, etc. 

Applications that support first-year courses will be given priority as they reach the greatest number of students, but all applications will be reviewed and considered. The deadline for applications is January 31, 2025. For more information, or to apply, visit https://library.upei.ca/OERProgram/grants. 

Questions about your grant idea? Don’t need a grant, but you’d like to make an OER? Contact Keri McCaffrey, One Health and Scholarly Communications Librarian, at knmccaffrey@upei.ca or Charlene VanLeeuwen, UPEI Teaching and Learning Centre, at cvanleeuwen@upei.ca. 

The third UPEI Board of Governors meeting of the 2024-2025 academic year will take place on February 6, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. in Room 102, Alumni Hall.  All board meetings generally include sessions that are open to the public. Certain agenda items, including but not limited to human resources discussions, may require the board to go into a closed session. For logistical purposes, members of the public who wish to attend the open session of a meeting are asked to contact board@upei.ca one week prior to the meeting. Members of the public wishing to attend the public portion of a meeting must adhere to the UPEI Board of Governors' Meeting Observer Guidelines.

Accessibility Services invites colleagues to our session, “What are Executive Functions,” on Thursday, January 30, 2025, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm in the TLC. Learn about executive functions, what they look like in action, and effective supports and strategies for instructors and students. Specifically, the session will cover prioritizing and goal selection; planning and organizing; working memory; attention and flexibility; self-regulation; inhibition and initiation; and execution and goal attainment.

Check out this Gettin' Air podcast episode with Ann Gagne, Senior Educational Developer for Accessibility and Inclusion at Brock University. They discuss the importance of inclusive language, the challenges of maintaining a blog and podcast, and Ann's unique approach to making educational content accessible.

Through a generous endowment from the Fondation J.-Louis Lévesque, UPEI has established the Lévesque Undergraduate Research Awards in Human Health. This program is intended for students interested in performing human health-related research during the summer of 2025.

Please visit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities page for the call for applications and application forms.

The deadline for applications is Friday, February 21, 2025, by 4 pm.  

For more information, contact Leslie Cudmore, Research Grants Coordinator, at lcudmore@upei.ca or 902-566-0709.