Friday, June 19, 2026

Morning ceremony 

The first ceremony will be held at 10:00 a.m. in the PAC. Watch the livestream.  

The Valedictorian is Christina Vadivelu, and the mace bearer is Lori Labelle. The national anthem will be sung by Julie-Anne Desrochers.

Afternoon ceremony 

The second ceremony will be held at 2:30 p.m. in the PAC. Watch the livestream.  

The Valedictorian is Jessie Le, and the mace bearer is Jen Parks. The national anthem will be sung by Julie-Anne Desrochers. 

Engineering convocation ceremonies today and tomorrow

The Faculty of Engineering will celebrate convocation today and tomorrow.  

Grads by the numbers: 1,473 undergraduates, 324 Master’s students, and 77 PhD candidates.   

Distinguished awards for the Faculty of Engineering 

Governor General's Gold Medal award: Jing Du, Sarah Mae Sparks  

• President’s Award of Excellence: Aung Khant Min  
• Alumni Gold Medal: Matthew Charles Gordon  
• Honorary doctorates will be awarded to Allan Cain, Michael Joachim Stork, Paul Desmarais, Jr., Hélène Desmarais, and Roger Lloyd Martin
• Pearl Sullivan Emerging Global Leaders Award: Jarett Cameron Dewbury  
• Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education Gold Medal: Aung Khant Min  
• Roy Duxbury Leadership Award: Samantha Nicole Grieco   
• The Albert Sherwood Barber Medal: Mark Ositashvili   
• The John Fisher Award for Leadership: Kathryn Elizabeth Percy-Robb   

Evening ceremony  

The first ceremony will be held at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the PAC. Watch the livestream.  

The Valedictorian is Katherine Bendall, and the mace bearer is Mike Collins. The national anthem will be sung by Julie-Anne Desrochers.

Morning ceremony (June 20)

The first ceremony of the day on Saturday will be held at 10:00 a.m. Watch the livestream.

The Valedictorian is Sebastien Paradis, and the mace bearer is Derek Rayside.

Afternoon ceremony  

The second ceremony of the day will be held at 2:30 p.m. Watch the livestream.  

The Valedictorian is Mattie Kerrigan, and the mace bearer is Mario Ianonnidis.

Evening ceremony  

The last ceremony of the day will be held at 6:30 p.m. Watch the livestream. 

The Valedictorian is Isabelle Hersak, and the mace bearer is Scott Walbridge.

From Insight to Action: Building Waterloo’s GenAI Teaching Enablement Strategy

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

The University of Waterloo is advancing a coordinated approach to GenAI in teaching and learning through the GenAI Teaching Enablement Project, a university-wide initiative designed to support instructors navigate the impact of GenAI as it continues to reshape the work that we do.

Momentum for this work has been building across campus. At Waterloo’s 15th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference, conversations centered on the friction that AI creates in teaching and learning, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of integrating AI into higher education and underscoring the need for clear guidance, shared resources, and thoughtful implementation. These discussions reinforced the importance of moving forward with a structured, institution-wide strategy.

Initially announced in March 2026, the GenAI Teaching Enablement Project is a coordinated initiative designed to meet the demand for structured teaching support as generative AI reshapes and necessitates changes to instructional and assessment design. This work does not replace faculty-specific efforts. Instead, it aims to complement them by providing a centralized suite of practical tools and guidance.  

The project is driven by three core pillars:

• A Multi-Disciplinary Steering Committee: Featuring intentional representation from all six Faculties, Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA), the Integrated Teaching Support Unit (ITSU), and Information Services and Technology (IST). The Steering Committee will be asked to provide strategic direction to this initiative and liaise with faculty members from their respective units to ensure that this work is addressing what each Faculty needs.
• A cross-functional Working Group: Featuring representation from the Integrated Teaching Support Unit (ITSU) and Instructional Technologies and Media Services (ITMS). These team members are already deeply embedded in the Waterloo community, facilitating consultations, hosting instructional programming, and developing internal GenAI tools to enhance teaching productivity. Their ongoing work involves a continuous feedback loop consulting directly with instructors to ensure that the support systems being built reflect the needs of our various learning environments.  
• Teaching and Learning AI Fellowships: Five Fellowship projects have been selected after an initial open call, led by a small group of faculty members selected as Teaching and Learning AI Fellows. Their role will be to propose an innovation, test it, assess its effectiveness, and then share what has been learned, thus becoming its champion for UW instructors.

Work to Date: Resource and information audit on GenAI in teaching and learning at Waterloo

Before the working group begins in earnest, there is a recognized need to understand where exactly we stand now. To do this, a small sub-team of the Working Group has begun to look at our current GenAI teaching environment through a resource and information audit. They are cataloging all the teaching tips, websites, and digital tools already in use (or that are being promoted) across our campus to get a clear picture of our GenAI pedagogical landscape at Waterloo.  

This work is set to wrap up this month. The findings gathered will inform the workplan for the next phase of the project, helping to develop the specific tools, programming, and resources Waterloo instructors need.

Jian Zhao receives 2025 Early Career Research Award from CS Can

This article was originally published on the Cheriton School of Computer Sciene website.

Professor Jian Zhao has received the 2025 Early Career Research Award from CS-Can | Info-Can, the national organization that represents and advocates for computer science research, education and academic leadership across Canada.

Presented annually since 2009, the Early Career Research Award recognizes outstanding contributions to computer science research and is conferred upon exceptional faculty members at Canadian computer science departments, schools, and faculties who are within 10 years of completing their PhD.

“I am delighted that Jian has received an Early Career Research Award from CS-Can | Info-Can,” said Raouf Boutaba, University Professor and Director of the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “Jian’s contributions reflect exceptional scholarly achievement and a deep commitment to education, mentorship, service and societal impact. He is a leader in his field, and his forward-looking research agenda positions him well to shape the future of human-centred computing for years to come.”

More about Professor Zhao’s research, mentorship and service

Professor Zhao’s research is at the forefront of a rapidly evolving technological field shaped by ubiquitous computing and increasingly embedded AI. He and his students focus on designing, developing and evaluating interactive computing systems that augment human intelligence. Through the WVisdom Lab he directs, Professor Zhao leads a cohesive and influential interdisciplinary program, spanning interactive data visualization, AI-assisted programming, creative authoring tools, immersive media, mobile and AR/VR communication, and human-AI collaboration.

His research advances a long-term vision of symbiotic human–technology partnerships across four critical dimensions: enhancing human cognition, creativity, communication and collaboration. This work is both prolific and innovative, grounded in cognitive resilience, verifiable AI mediation, and continuity of user context across devices, modalities and agents.

Professor Zhao is also a dedicated educator and supervisor, committed to fostering student development and excellence. His research team consists of 14 current members. To date, he has advised five postdoctoral researchers, and graduated three PhDs and 12 master’s students. He has successfully guided students toward strong research outcomes, with nearly all publishing refereed conference or journal papers in premier venues as lead authors. His former postdoctoral researchers have secured tenure-track faculty positions at institutions including Arizona State University, Ontario Tech University, and the Southern University of Science and Technology. Many of his graduate students have continued at leading academic institutions including MIT, and have joined big tech companies among them Google and Snowflake. Supported by Professor Zhao, their thesis research has also received multiple prestigious scholarships, including the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarships, Ontario Graduate Scholarships, Autism Scholars Award, and Vector Scholarships.

Professor Zhao consistently receives excellent course evaluations for his engaging, well-structured teaching. He fosters a deep understanding of course concepts through hands-on, project-based learning. Outside the classroom, he is passionate about broadening access to InfoVis and HCI, participating in panels hosted by organizations including the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, GI 2025, IEEE VIS 2021, the Licensing Executive Society, and the Youth Tech Lab.

Professor Zhao’s service to the Cheriton School of Computer Science, Waterloo, and the broader research community is extensive and influential. He has served on the organizing and program committees of top-ranked conferences as well as the editorial boards of premier journals. He regularly organizes workshops and delivers talks, and is an active reviewer, mentor and community builder. Within the Cheriton School of Computer Science, he has served on various committees, and contributed significantly to an external review of its graduate program. At the university level, he serves on the Board of Directors for the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics, representing the Faculty of Mathematics.

Early Career Research Awardees at the Cheriton School of Computer Science

Professor Zhao is the 10^th faculty member at the Cheriton School of Computer Science to receive the Early Career Research Award from CS-Can | Info-Can. Previous recipients are Professors Ian Goldberg, Florian Kerschbaum, Kate Larson, Lap Chi Lau, Ondřej Lhoták, Bin Ma, Mei Nagappan, Éric Schost and Daniel Vogel.