Keith Hipel, recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award, 1996

Systems Design Engineering

Keith Hipel, professor of systems design engineering, has been associated with the University of Waterloo since October 1974. Professor Hipel's contributions include his work at the University and in the international arena. Professor Hipel is consistently described as an approachable, passionate and dedicated professor. He is generous with his time and does not hesitate to get to know his students with an accessible and welcoming manner. In his teaching, he has the ability to take challenging subjects and make them comprehensible while paying close attention to detail and the overall picture. Keith Hipel has authored three textbooks in systems design engineering one of which has been translated into Japanese. Besides these achievements, in 1986, Keith Hipel played a major role as the originator of the Tottori exchange program, which has been credited as one of the most successful international educational opportunities in both Canada and Japan. He is also involved with the Kyoto Exchange Program in Japan. Both of these exchange programs have developed successful internationalized engineers. Professor Hipel has been instrumental in the development of a Canada/China management education project (associated with CIDA, 1991), and has collaborated in a Russian educational venture that has continued to establish important international research links. Professor Keith Hipel is exceptionally dedicated, maintains high teaching standards and has provided valuable international partnerships to the University of Waterloo.