Tuesday, May 20, 2025

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• Spotlighting Teaching Innovation Incubator projects transforming teaching and learning at Waterloo

• Strategies for success: Building a strong, supportive network 

• United College launches presidential search

• Remembering Distinguished Professor Emeritus Rolf George

Spotlighting Teaching Innovation Incubator projects transforming teaching and learning at Waterloo

A message from the Office of the Associate Vice-President, Academic.

Waterloo’s Teaching Innovation Incubator recently announced the outcome of its inaugural open call for project teams seeking to transform the future of education at the University of Waterloo. This week, the Daily Bulletin will feature a spotlight article about each inaugural Incubator project. Today, we will look at the Learning by Teaching a Large Language Model (LLM) project, and the partnership happening between graduate student, Prashanth Arun, professors Dr. Pascal Poupart and Dr. Igor Grossmann, and Incubator staff in testing and leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist with deep student learning and retention of complex course content. 

Learning by Teaching an LLM:

This project aims to transform traditional pedagogy by leveraging an in-house designed LLM, Chrysalis, to create a novel assessment tool that both evaluates students’ knowledge of course content and also assists in promoting deep student learning and retention.

About Chrysalis

The LLM being developed by Prashanth for this project, Chrysalis, is modelled after study partner and tutoring situations, where the byproduct of this instructional approach is that the individual teaching often furthers their own understanding and knowledge through reviewing course material while teaching. In this pedagogical approach, the LLM roleplays as the student, requiring the actual student to teach it relevant course content based on their own understanding through conversation. This model requires students to use active recall of what they have already learnt, removing the option for the student to passively engage in the interaction with the bot. They instead have to rely on their own knowledge to teach Chrysalis, effectively consolidating their learning and improving knowledge retention.

Following the student’s interaction with the bot, Chrysalis undergoes an assessment of the content it's been taught, indirectly assessing the student-instructor’s knowledge as its answers are limited to what the student taught it. Through this assessment, the student can see and understand the depth, breadth, and accuracy of their knowledge of course content.

Project scope and timeline

The development of Chrysalis’ first iteration is wrapping up, and initial user testing will begin soon. In Fall 2025, Chrysalis will be piloted in two courses, a 200-level psychology and computer science course, to test its efficacy for improving knowledge retention and as a novel assessment tool. Beyond the Fall, the project team hopes to transfer Chrysalis’ use to other disciplines and to scale up its use to potentially establish it as a centralized pedagogical tool for instructors at Waterloo.

Keep an eye out in the Daily Bulletin and the Incubator website for project updates and engagement opportunities.

Strategies for success: Building a strong, supportive network

This is the latest in a series of articles from the 2025 Waterloo Magazine.

Jennifer Lee (BA ’00), vice-chair and senior partner at Deloitte Canada, emphasizes the importance of strong networks and relationships for advancing gender equality and empowering women in the workplace.

She co-founded Asian Tiger Moms (ATMs), a platform for Asian C-suite leaders, which evolved into a supportive network for balancing career, family and personal growth. Lee also launched the Asian Impact Maker C-suite community to foster business connections among Asian leaders.

Her journey from Waterloo co-op student to senior leader highlights the value of meaningful relationships. 

Read Lee’s six tips for building strong, supportive connections towards building an impactful legacy.

United College launches presidential search

This article was originally published on the United College website.

On June 30, 2026, Dr. Richard Myers will complete his ten-year appointment as Principal of United College.  Over the past decade, Principal Myers has provided thoughtful and steady leadership, advancing the College’s mission and strengthening its role within the broader University of Waterloo community. His commitment to student success, inclusive education, and a collaborative and successful institution will leave a lasting legacy.

With that in mind, a formal search for his successor has been launched.

The United College Board of Governors voted in favour of a title change to ‘President’ once Dr Myers’ successor takes office. According to Board Chair Tracy Mann, “there has been a trend at affiliated institutions across the country to change the title of their chief executive officer from ‘Principal’ to ‘President.’ Here at Waterloo, United College was the only institution still using the title Principal. To avoid confusion, it made sense to the Board to adopt the same nomenclature as the other AFIW institutions.”

The President will serve as the chief executive officer of United College and will be responsible to the Board of Governors for the academic and administrative operations of the institution. The President will provide inspirational, strategic, academic, and financial leadership, working collaboratively within the College and with the University of Waterloo to strengthen and expand its programs and activities in ways that reflect the College’s mission and values.

In this role, the President will represent United College to external communities, cultivate new partnerships, secure resources, and advance the College’s impact and profile locally, nationally, and internationally.

United College expresses its deep gratitude to Principal Myers for his service and dedication. Opportunities to celebrate his many contributions will be shared with the College community in the months ahead.

For inquiries about the presidential search process, please email UnitedCollege@lavernesmith.com.

Remembering Distinguished Professor Emeritus Rolf George

A message from the Department of Philosophy.

The Department of Philosophy shares the news of the recent passing of Distinguished Professor Emeritus Rolf George, who joined the brand-new Department of Philosophy at the University of Waterloo in 1966.

Born in Germany in 1930, Professor George studied German Literature and History at the University of Munster before going to the US on a Fullbright Fellowship in 1953. He earned his PhD at Michigan State University in 1963, where he completed a dissertation on Infinity and Continuity in 18th Century Philosophy. He held positions at the Michigan State and at California State University at San Fernando before arriving at Waterloo.

He served as Chair of Philosophy from 1980 to 1985, and then as Associate Dean of Arts, Graduate Studies from 1986 to 1990. He also served on the University Senate and the Board of Governors. George held Visting Professorships at Gottingen, Hamburg, and at Pittsburgh’s Centre for Philosophy of Science. 

An internationally respected scholar with a broad range of expertise, he published extensively on historical figures from the 18th to the 20th century, with particular attention to Kant, Bolzano, Brentano, and Carnap. He was a skilled translator of philosophical works from German to English, starting with Carnap’s The Logical Structure of the World (1967), and ending with Bolzano’s four-volume Theory of Science (2013, with Paul Rusnock). He also worked in formal logic and the philosophy of science, among other topics.