News

University of Waterloo students on a multi-school autonomous racing team achieved a personal best speed of 173.8 kph at a race on the Monza F1 Circuit in Milan, Italy. The race, which featured five teams with members from universities around the world, was the Waterloo students’ fifth race, and the first on a road course rather than a banked oval track. Bilal, a student in Computing and Financial Management, was one of the members that bought the car up to speed. 

The Computing and Financial Management (CFM) program celebrated its spring 2023 graduates at a recent convocation ceremony held on Thursday, June 15 at 6:30 pm. This ceremony was the first time that a CFM student was selected as its valedictorian. Ammar Kamran (CFM '23) who began his studies in 2018 with twin brother Ayman, addressed the crowd of distinguished guests, faculty, graduating studies, families, President and Chancellor in an inspiring speech about new beginnings.

CFM co-director Justin Wan has received the 2023 Arthur Beaumont Distinguished Service Award from CAIMS, the Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society. Named after its first recipient, the award was established in 1987 to honour Waterloo Applied Mathematics Professor Arthur Beaumont for his many years of service to the society.

Congratulations to our 2023 spring graduands, many of whom attended the CFM Graduation Dinner that was held on April 11 in their honour. The soon-to-be alumni spent the evening enjoying drinks at the open bar, socializing over a delicious dinner provided by UW Catering and Events Services, and listening to a few inspiring words from CFM Co-Directors Justin Wan and James R. Thompson.

In an interview conducted by Jon Parsons for UWaterloo news, Co-Director James R. Thompson discusses the current banking crisis and its resemblance to the banking issues that took place back in 2008. James goes in-depth to discuss the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) along with other US banks, the subsequent effect of this on Canadian companies and European banks, and advice for Canadians who are concerned about the recent banking instability.

We would like to congratulate our very own CFM student, Alex, on being named Co-op Student of the Year for the Faculty of Mathematics! From hybrid work at Mastercard to launching a first-of-its-kind call centre savings initiative, Alex has made outstanding progress and has proven time and time again that he has dedication and terrific work ethic.

On February 13, 2023 at the Toronto Sheraton Centre, CFM student Piero C. spoke at the DECA Provincials for their Leadership Development Academy. Piero’s portion of the presentation 一 which he delivered alongside Harrison C. 一 focused on educating prospective students about FinTech and CFM.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Co-op Prep Session 2 that was held on January 12th, which included dinner, an engaging presentation, and volunteer-run information booths. The turnout was bigger than expected! Also, a special thank you to our presenter Melanie Bullagao and all of our amazing volunteers.

One of our CFM students, Rachel, has written a thoughtful article detailing 5 lessons that they have learned during the final term of their second year, after the switch was made from online to in-person studying. From useful insight on productivity to motivational advice on starting new habits, Rachel offers a polished article that is definitely worth taking a look at.

The Second Annual CFM 101 Team Competition was held in December. Teams were again required to choose from a basket of stocks to include in their portfolios to meet pre-set goals. Importantly, students did not know the basket of stocks from which their code must choose. This year, there were some devious and unexpected curve-balls thrown into stock ticker list in an attempt to get their code to do unexpected things. Happily, many groups wrote thorough code which produced very reasonable portfolios.