Derek Rayside, PEng (he/him)

Derek Rayside is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and is cross-appointed to the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He is the Faculty Advisor for Watonomous, the autonomous vehicle student design team in the SAE AutoDrive Challenge. Professor Rayside also taught the inaugural SE Ideas Clinic Activity in the Fall 2018 term.

His research interests include software engineering, lightweight formal methods, visualization, verification, specification, programming languages, static and dynamic program analysis, and software design extraction or reverse engineering. Additionally, Professor Rayside’s interests also include: engineering design – comprised of decision support, design evolution and multi-objective optimization, autonomous vehicles, and blockchain, specifically verification of Smart Contracts.

He has published in venues such as the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), the International Conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z (ABZ), and the ACM International Conference on Generative Programming: Concepts & Experience (GPCE).

• Software engineering

• debugging

• lightweight formal methods

• visualization

• verification

• specification

• programming languages

• static and dynamic program analysis

• software design

• extraction\/reverse engineering

• Engineering Design

• decision support

• design evolution

• multi-objective optimization

• Cybersecurity

• Infrastructure integrity

• autonomous vehicles

• blockchain, specifically verification of Smart Contracts

• 2010, Doctorate Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S.A

• 2001, Master of Applied Science Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 1999, Bachelor of Applied Science Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2023-present Associate Dean, Co-operative Education and Professional Affairs

• 2020-2023 Software Engineering Director

• 2017-2019 Software Engineering Associate Director

• ACM

• IEEE

• SAE

• PEO

• CS 138 - Introduction to Data Abstraction and Implementation
  • Taught in 2022
• CS 493 - Team Project 1
  • Taught in 2021, 2023
• CS 494 - Team Project 2
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2024
• MTHEL 398 - Mathematics Elective Topics 3
  • Taught in 2024, 2025
• SE 463 - Software Requirements Specification and Analysis
  • Taught in 2022
• SE 464 - Software Design and Architectures
  • Taught in 2023
• SE 490 - Design Project 1
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023
• SE 491 - Design Project 2
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• SFM 403 - Integrated Planning, Reporting, and Risk Management for Sustainability
  • Taught in 2025
• SFM 413 - Integrated Policy and Regulation for Sustainability
  • Taught in 2025

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.