***Course Announcement – Winter Term 2***

We are very pleased to announce that RES 500C is open to graduate students in all departments, please feel free to sign up if you are interested:

RES 500C:  Advanced Topics in Conservation Biology

Tu&Th 1:30 – 3:00 (to be adjusted as needed based on time zones)

http://ires.ubc.ca/courses/course-information/

Course Description

This course is a graduate level seminar with lecture and discussion covering advanced topics in conservation of biological diversity. We will read a mixture of foundational as well as recent papers covering a range of current topics within Conservation Biology. One of the most exciting aspects of the course is that students will have the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams on an active conservation project, commissioned by international and local NGOs. Students will prepare deliverables that will help these organizations in their current on-the-ground work, under the guidance of the instructor and the project lead(s) from respective NGOs. A partial list of this year’s projects is provided below. Group projects represent an exciting and unique opportunity to learn while contributing to conservation, and can lead to future projects or co-authored publications, resumé-building, and networking.  Students will also gain experience leading discussions and developing interactive class exercises.

All graduate students with some background in ecology and a strong interest in conservation are welcome.   Students with any prior experience in GIS, remote-sensing, OR other quantitative skills, OR social sciences/qualitative coding, botany, wildlife ecology, Indigenous knowledge systems, project management, literature review are also particularly encouraged to enroll. All departments are welcome.

2021 projects (partial list):

Nature Conservancy Canada

1. Bringing Indigenous ways of knowing into NCC’s conservation and land management planning
2. Evaluating use of scientific evidence in NCC’s conservation planning (building from a project this class conducted last year)
3. Use of NCC protected area network as avian migratory stop-over sites

Canadian Wildlife Service

1. Detecting spatio-temporal change in land condition in critical habitat for species at risk in British Columbia

UBC Botanical Garden/CGIAR/USDA

1. Developing a 10-yr action plan for botanical gardens for conserving crop wild relatives

I am writing today to share with you information about an upcoming virtual competition that I believe will interest your students: the GIX Innovation Competition 2021, sponsored by Microsoft FarmBeats, taking place this winter 2021.  I have included a flyer (attached) and information below that you can copy/paste into an email. Also, if you use social media, I have included links to a LinkedIn and Twitter post that you can share on your channels. We would greatly appreciate your help promoting this event with undergraduates from design, technology, computer science, engineering, or agricultural tech or science programs!   

An info session is coming up next week on Monday November 16 at 6:30 p.m (Seattle/Pacific Standard/UTC-8) or Tuesday November 17 at 10:30 a.m. (Beijing/UTC+8), where students will have the opportunity to ask questions and meet with Dr. Ranveer Chandra, Chief Scientist at Microsoft.

Please feel free to forward or share with anyone who might be interested.

Best regards,
Jill

JILL ARONSON PFAENDTNER
Interim Deputy Director

Global Innovation Exchange (GIX)

University of Washington
gixnetwork.org | jmap@uw.edu

Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) Innovation Competition 2021: Advancing global agriculture through data-driven technology

Sponsored by Microsoft FarmBeats, the GIX Innovation Competition 2021 invites submissions for teams to create an original, technologically inventive project in areas such as the internet of things, intelligent hardware, low-cost sensors, drones, robotics, computer vision and machine learning algorithms, and cloud computing to help address farming challenges. Prize pool of $7000 USD and growing!

• Who can participate:A team of 2-5 undergraduate students studying (but not limited to) design, technology, CS, or interdisciplinary studies and graduates within the last year located anywhere across the world.
• Registration deadline: February 15, 2021
• Information Session:Interested students and recent graduates are invited to attend the virtual info session featuring Dr. Ranveer Chandra, Chief Scientist at Microsoft. The info session will be hosted by Dr. John Raiti, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington.  The event starts at Monday November 16 at 6:30 p.m (Seattle/Pacific Standard/UTC-8) or Tuesday November 17 at 10:30 a.m. (Beijing/UTC+8). Sign up now.

Visit the website to review the challenge, sign up for the info session, and register to compete:  https://gixnetwork.org/outreach-programs/innovation-competition/

Innovation Competition Flyer

Hello, I am looking for three or more additional TA’s for my Food Microbiology course in Winter Term 2. The course is scheduled from 1 – 4 pm on Thursdays. TA’s will play an active role in the class sessions and therefore must be available to attend class from 1 – 4 pm on Thursdays. TA roles will include the following which will add up to 60 h each:

• Monitoring the chat box during lecture
• Facilitating student breakout room discussions
• Marking online discussion posts, assignments, and the final exam

Knowledge of food microbiology including foodborne microbes (bacteria, yeasts, viruses, moulds, and parasites), foodborne pathogens, spoilage microorganisms, intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting the survival of microbes (temperature, water activity, pH, nutrients etc.) is required. Priority will be given to students who have taken the course or a similar course.

The instructor (Patricia Hingston) will hold regular TA meetings to promote a teaching team environment in the course where expectations for each task will be clearly outlined and feedback from TA’s before and after tasks will be discussed. Grading rubrics and assignment examples will be provided for each assessment.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions! I can be reached at patricia.hingston@ubc.ca

Patricia Hingston, PhD
Assistant Professor of Teaching

Food Science | Food, Nutrition and Health Program | Faculty of Land and Food Systems
The University of British Columbia | Musqueam Traditional Territory
Room 223 – MacMillan Building – 2357 Main Mall | Vancouver BC | V6T 1Z4 Canada
Office: (604) 827-1604 | Cell: (604) 363-2110

UBC – Faculty of Land and Food Systems Announces The Oral Examination for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (Applied Animal Biology)

Augusto Mesquita L. Madureira

“Precision Dairy Technology and Its Association with Estrous Expression and Fertility Outcomes in Holstein Cattle”

9:00 AM on Wednesday, November 18th, 2020

Virtually

EXAMINING COMMITTEE

Chair: Dr. P. Yong

Supervisory Committee:
Dr. R. Cerri  – Supervisor
Dr. D. Weary – Committee member
Dr. K. Pohler – Committee member

Defense Committee Composition
Dr. R. Cerri  – Supervisor
Dr. D. Weary – Committee member
Dr. M. von Keyserlingk – University Examiner
Dr. R. Ng – University Examiner