Contact Info
Combinatorics & Optimization
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext 33038
PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
While an undergraduate student at Cambridge in the 1930's, William Tutte, along with Cedric Smith, Leonard Brooks, and Arthur Stone, established deep results on "squaring the square" - finding dissections of squares into squares of unequal sizes. The smallest such dissection of a square is now known to contain 21 subsquares (illustrated in the cross-stitch creation on the right by C&O PhD student Cynthia
Rodriguez Villalobos), the smallest dissection of the square found by Tutte and his friends was a bit larger. The square used today is a dessection of a 33 by 32 rectangle into 9 unequal squares.
Does it look familiar to you? This square is found throughout our department as an unofficial logo. Specifically used as stickers for newcomers to welcome them into the fold!
Combinatorics & Optimization
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario
Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: 519-888-4567, ext 33038
PDF files require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.