John Thistle, PEng

Dr. John Thistle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is a member of the Waterloo Formal Methods (WatForm) research group, which focuses on applying formal methods to hardware design and software engineering.

Dr. Thistle’s research interests include the control of discrete event systems, as well as the formal synthesis and verification of such systems, and applications to software development. He is particularly focused on the decidability and complexity of synthesizing both centralized and distributed controllers. His work has applications in traditional control engineering as well as in the design of distributed software systems.

• Control of discrete event systems, Formal synthesis, verification of discrete event systems, software development, Communication & Information Systems, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure integrity

• 1991, Doctorate PhD, University of Toronto, Ontario

• 1985, Master's MASc, University of Toronto, Ontario

• 1982, Bachelor's BSc, Queen's University, Ontario

• BME 356 - Control Systems
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• ECE 108 - Discrete Mathematics and Logic 1
  • Taught in 2026
• ECE 208 - Discrete Mathematics and Logic 2
  • Taught in 2021, 2023, 2025
• ECE 380 - Analog Control Systems
  • Taught in 2025
• MATH 213 - Signals, Systems, and Differential Equations
  • Taught in 2021
• MTE 481 - Mechatronics Engineering Design Project
  • Taught in 2023, 2024
• MTE 482 - Mechatronics Engineering Project
  • Taught in 2025
• SE 380 - Introduction to Feedback Control
  • Taught in 2026

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