Campus Notices
The Campus Peer Support Program, a pilot project funded by Health Canada, is open again this semester to serve students. Operating out of the Mawi'omi Indigenous Student Centre on the fifth floor of Dalton Hall, the service employs six students with lived experience in mental health and/or addictions who have been trained in peer support to talk to and support students who have their own concerns with these issues.
Peer support is the process of disclosing one's personal experience with mental health problems and/or addictions. It is an emerging area in the development of tools and resources to help people who are struggling with their mental health. In Prince Edward Island, the Canadian Mental Health Association – PEI division holds a contract with the provincial government to offer clinical peer support services as a part of the province’s mental health strategy. UPEI, in partnership with CMHA-PEI and with generous funding from Health Canada, is one of five pilot sites across the country to establish a campus peer support program.
Peer support is open at the following times:
Sundays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Mondays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Tuesdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Thursdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Fridays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Please direct inquiries to Kate Jeffery, Campus Peer Support lead, at k.jeffery@cmha.pe.ca or James Reddin, acting director of UPEI Student Affairs, at jareddin@upei.ca.
The Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs (APC) via the Atlantic Indigenous Economic Development Integrated Research Program (AIEDIRP) invites you to attend a presentation on their latest study: Innovative Governance Structures to Support Indigenous Economic Growth
The study’s purpose is to identify innovative governance structures to support Indigenous economic growth and development, and how these can be optimized for the benefit of communities, using Nation-building approaches. After the presentation, there will be opportunities for questions and comments.
Date: Thursday, February 8, 2024
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Kelley Memorial Building, Room 237, University of Prince Edward Island
Presenter: Jarvis Googoo, Director of AIEDIRP
Refreshments will be available.
If you have any questions, please email lois.daye@apcfnc.ca
Join us for a virtual overview of the services ITSS provides the campus, followed by a Q&A. This interactive session will be held on February 6 from 12 noon to 1:00 pm. Click on the link below to register:
This semester, the UPEI Healthy Campus Committee provides a free meditation and gentle yoga class for UPEI staff, faculty, and retirees. The classes take place on Wednesdays at 4:30 pm and Thursdays at 12:10 pm and will go until the end of June. Experience is NOT necessary. These classes are a great way to relieve stress, introduce some slow movements, and an opportunity to meditate and rest.
To register weekly, log in at recreation.upei.ca or through the new Panther Recreation app with your UPEI email address and password. Click on the wellness icon and find the class you would like to participate in. Please contact Angela Marchbank, Fitness and Wellness Coordinator, for assistance and/or questions.
Based on his new book, Time Flies: An Aerial History of Coastal and Ribbon Development on Prince Edward Island, Dr. Joshua MacFadyen will show that development in the coastal zone and along rural roads is accelerating on Prince Edward Island, just as the province is experiencing sustainability challenges in both areas. The talk will offer a unique combination of aerial photographs, historical maps, and more traditional sources, as it describes the province’s journey into modernity.
Sign up for 12 Gentle Yoga classes on Saturdays starting on January 27 and ending on April 13. 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.
The UPEI Alumni Association is pleased to invite alumni and friends to Mill River Resort for an outdoor winter family fun day on Saturday, January 27, 2024.
FAMILY FUN
Our friends at Mill River are offering UPEI alumni and friends a 20% discount on individual and family outdoor activity day passes and equipment rentals. You can get a family pass for just $44 and enjoy all the outdoor activities at Mill River! Your pass includes tubes, snowshoes, and cross-country ski rentals. Guests must bring their own skates. Discounted passes can be purchased at the Pro Shop with outdoor activities starting at 9:00 am.
Have no fear if Mother Nature decides to skimp on the snowflakes! Mill River Resort has its own snow machine to keep the tubing fun rolling!
GATHER TOGETHER
Join us for an end-of-day campfire with s'mores and hot chocolate beginning at 3:00 pm.
Please RSVP by email to alumni@upei.ca so that we can ensure that we have enough refreshments.
MAKE IT A WEEKEND GETAWAY
Want to make a weekend of it? Mill River is offering standard rooms (two queen beds) for just $179+ tax. This is $50 off regular rates, available for the nights of January 26 and 27 only. To take advantage of this special rate, please call Mill River Resort directly at 1-844-375-3555 and mention that you are part of the UPEI alumni group. This rate is based on room availability. Please book in advance.
The Teaching and Learning Centre is setting up a series of teaching squares for the Winter 2024 semester. Teaching squares are interdisciplinary groups of instructors from a range of career stages and appointments. Participants visit the classes of their teaching square colleagues to observe and reflect on their own teaching. Participation involves three class visits to colleagues' classes, welcoming these same colleagues to your classes, and meetings at the beginning and end to discuss goals and share reflections. In addition to helpful insights from taking time to reflect on teaching practices, this is a terrific way to demonstrate your efforts to continue to grow as an instructor for tenure and promotion purposes. Each teaching square is limited to four colleagues. Please email TLC@upei.ca to indicate your interest. If you could include the days and times when you are teaching, this information will help in setting up the teaching square groups.
The next deadline for submitting biosafety applications, including new applications, renewals, and/or amendments, is Friday, January 26, 2023. These applications will be reviewed at the February 15 meeting.
All research compliance applications, including biosafety application forms, must be submitted through the UPEI Researcher Portal. Information about the Researcher Portal, including instructions for using the site, is available at https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms.
Please contact the Research Compliance Coordinator at researchcompliance@upei.ca if you have any questions about accessing or using the Researcher Portal, or about the biosafety application, review, and approval process.
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.
Research Ethics Board (REB) applications involving "more than minimal risk" must be reviewed by the full UPEI REB. The next deadline for submitting these protocols is Friday, January 26, 2023, for review at the February 26 meeting.
Other ethics protocol submissions, including new applications that do not involve more than minimal risk, renewals, and amendments, may be submitted at any time. They will be sent for delegated review as soon as all necessary materials are received.
All research compliance applications, including for the REB, must be submitted through the UPEI Researcher Portal (https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/). Instructions for using the site are available at https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms.
Please contact the Compliance Coordinator at researchcompliance@upei.ca for more information about the Researcher Portal, or the REB application, review, and approval process.
The Campus Peer Support Program, a pilot project funded by Health Canada, is open again this semester to serve students. Operating out of the Mawi'omi Indigenous Student Centre on the fifth floor of Dalton Hall, the service employs six students with lived experience in mental health and/or addictions who have been trained in peer support to talk to and support students who have their own concerns with these issues.
Peer support is the process of disclosing one's personal experience with mental health problems and/or addictions. It is an emerging area in the development of tools and resources to help people who are struggling with their mental health. In Prince Edward Island, the Canadian Mental Health Association – PEI division holds a contract with the provincial government to offer clinical peer support services as a part of the province’s mental health strategy. UPEI, in partnership with CMHA-PEI and with generous funding from Health Canada, is one of five pilot sites across the country to establish a campus peer support program.
Peer support is open at the following times:
Sundays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Mondays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Tuesdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Thursdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Fridays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Please direct inquiries to Kate Jeffery, Campus Peer Support lead, at k.jeffery@cmha.pe.ca or James Reddin, acting director of UPEI Student Affairs, at jareddin@upei.ca.
The Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC), University of Prince Edward Island, is now accepting nominations for the Atlantic Award of Excellence in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Care.
Established in 2005, this annual award recognizes veterinarians who have made significant contributions to animal health and welfare in Atlantic Canada. The award will be presented at the 2024 Atlantic Provinces Veterinary Conference, which will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from April 19–21.
Anyone may submit a nomination. Nominees must be practicing or retired veterinarians in the Atlantic provinces to be considered for this award. Nominees do not have to be affiliated with the AVC. Completed nominations must be received by February 19, 2024, at 11:45 pm.
If you are interested in learning more about this award, past award winners, and the terms of reference, or to download a nomination form, please visit: https://www.upei.ca/avc/about/awards-and-honours
Nominations can be emailed to avcspecialevents@upei.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 UPEI Alumni Association is pleased to invite alumni and friends to Mill River Resort for an outdoor winter family fun day on Saturday, January 27, 2024.
FAMILY FUN
Our friends at Mill River are offering UPEI alumni and friends a 20% discount on individual and family outdoor activity day passes and equipment rentals. You can get a family pass for just $44 and enjoy all the outdoor activities at Mill River! Your pass includes tubes, snowshoes, and cross-country ski rentals. Guests must bring their own skates. Discounted passes can be purchased at the Pro Shop with outdoor activities starting at 9:00 am.
Have no fear if Mother Nature decides to skimp on the snowflakes! Mill River Resort has its own snow machine to keep the tubing fun rolling!
GATHER TOGETHER
Join us for an end-of-day campfire with s'mores and hot chocolate beginning at 3:00 pm.
Please RSVP by email to alumni@upei.ca so that we can ensure that we have enough refreshments.
MAKE IT A WEEKEND GETAWAY
Want to make a weekend of it? Mill River is offering standard rooms (two queen beds) for just $179+ tax. This is $50 off regular rates, available for the nights of January 26 and 27 only. To take advantage of this special rate, please call Mill River Resort directly at 1-844-375-3555 and mention that you are part of the UPEI alumni group. This rate is based on room availability. Please book in advance.
The Teaching and Learning Centre is setting up a series of teaching squares for the Winter 2024 semester. Teaching squares are interdisciplinary groups of instructors from a range of career stages and appointments. Participants visit the classes of their teaching square colleagues to observe and reflect on their own teaching. Participation involves three class visits to colleagues' classes, welcoming these same colleagues to your classes, and meetings at the beginning and end to discuss goals and share reflections. In addition to helpful insights from taking time to reflect on teaching practices, this is a terrific way to demonstrate your efforts to continue to grow as an instructor for tenure and promotion purposes. Each teaching square is limited to four colleagues. Please email TLC@upei.ca to indicate your interest. If you could include the days and times when you are teaching, this information will help in setting up the teaching square groups.
The next deadline for submitting biosafety applications, including new applications, renewals, and/or amendments, is Friday, January 26, 2023. These applications will be reviewed at the February 15 meeting.
All research compliance applications, including biosafety application forms, must be submitted through the UPEI Researcher Portal. Information about the Researcher Portal, including instructions for using the site, is available at https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms.
Please contact the Research Compliance Coordinator at researchcompliance@upei.ca if you have any questions about accessing or using the Researcher Portal, or about the biosafety application, review, and approval process.
Research Ethics Board (REB) applications involving "more than minimal risk" must be reviewed by the full UPEI REB. The next deadline for submitting these protocols is Friday, January 26, 2023, for review at the February 26 meeting.
Other ethics protocol submissions, including new applications that do not involve more than minimal risk, renewals, and amendments, may be submitted at any time. They will be sent for delegated review as soon as all necessary materials are received.
All research compliance applications, including for the REB, must be submitted through the UPEI Researcher Portal (https://upei.researchservicesoffice.com/Romeo.Researcher/). Instructions for using the site are available at https://www.upei.ca/research-services/forms.
Please contact the Compliance Coordinator at researchcompliance@upei.ca for more information about the Researcher Portal, or the REB application, review, and approval process.
The Campus Peer Support Program, a pilot project funded by Health Canada, is open again this semester to serve students. Operating out of the Mawi'omi Indigenous Student Centre on the fifth floor of Dalton Hall, the service employs six students with lived experience in mental health and/or addictions who have been trained in peer support to talk to and support students who have their own concerns with these issues.
Peer support is the process of disclosing one's personal experience with mental health problems and/or addictions. It is an emerging area in the development of tools and resources to help people who are struggling with their mental health. In Prince Edward Island, the Canadian Mental Health Association – PEI division holds a contract with the provincial government to offer clinical peer support services as a part of the province’s mental health strategy. UPEI, in partnership with CMHA-PEI and with generous funding from Health Canada, is one of five pilot sites across the country to establish a campus peer support program.
Peer support is open at the following times:
Sundays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Mondays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Tuesdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Wednesdays, 6:00-9:00 pm
Thursdays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Fridays, 1:00-4:00 pm
Please direct inquiries to Kate Jeffery, Campus Peer Support lead, at k.jeffery@cmha.pe.ca or James Reddin, acting director of UPEI Student Affairs, at jareddin@upei.ca.
Interested in learning about tools for high performance computing, Linux, or big data analysis? Training from ACENET for the winter semester is starting soon. Sessions are online and free of charge.
If you have questions about upcoming training or ACENET services at UPEI, contact Kaitlin Newson.
19 January, 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 its 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!
Register for Basics of Computers
Introduction to High Performance Computing
23 January, 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.
Register for Introduction to High Performance Computing
24 January, 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.
Register for Introduction to Linux
Introduction to Shell Scripting
25 January, 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.
Register for Introduction to Shell Scripting
26 January, 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 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.
Register for Job Scheduling with Slurm
20, 22 February, 1300-1600hrs Atlantic
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.
