Current students

Drew Higgins, a chemical engineering doctoral candidate, was recently awarded third place in the Dr. Bernard S. Baker Student Award Competition, an international award recognizing exceptional students in the field of fuel cell technologies. He was honoured at the Fuel Cell Seminar and Exposition which took place in Orlando, Florida in November. Selection for the award was based on the quality of completed and/or proposed student based research work and involved competition with many students working in various fuel cell related fields worldwide.

Engineering faculty, staff and students will have three opportunities the week of January 9 to hear from Pearl Sullivan, candidate for dean of Waterloo Engineering. Sullivan, currently chair of Waterloo’s mechanical and mechatronics engineering department, has been unanimously recommended by the dean of engineering nominating committee as the next dean of engineering for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2012. If successfully appointed, Sullivan will succeed current dean of engineering Adel Sedra whose second term as dean ends June 30, 2012.

Waterloo Engineering start-up BufferBox will launch what is believed to be the first parcel delivery kiosk service in Canada on January 12 in the Student Life Centre at the University of Waterloo. BufferBox was created by three recent Waterloo mechatronics engineering graduates as their fourth year design project to provide a reliable and secure parcel delivery alternative.

Two electrical and computer engineering professors have been appointed as associate directors of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE). Claudio Canizares is the new associate director, external partnerships, and Kankar Bhattacharya is the new associate director, advanced training. Both were appointed to two-year terms effective January 1, 2012. In announcing the appointments Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, and Jatin Nathwani, executive director of WISE,  said the positions further enhance the university’s commitment to be a leader in energy research.

A group of engineering students from the University of Waterloo campus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) made history when they started the Canadian portion of their studies at the main Waterloo campus this month. The 12 students from Dubai are enrolled in undergraduate programs in chemical engineering and civil engineering, the first two programs offered at the UAE campus. The campus opened in September 2009 to extend the University of Waterloo’s highly acclaimed co-op education model internationally.

Tom Jenkins, chair of Open Text and a member of Waterloo Engineering’s Dean’s Advisory Council (DAC), has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work in industry, commerce and business. DAC’s members, leaders from industry, academia and the public sector, advise Waterloo Engineering on many matters, including research and educational partnerships, philanthropic partnerships, academic programs, and advocacy and government. Jenkins and other inductees will be presented with their awards by Governor General David Johnston, past president of the University of Waterloo. 

Andrew Clinton (BASc ’05, Comp) is among the 28 recipients of scientific and technical achievements for the Academy Awards 2012 Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation to be held February 11 in Beverly Hills, California.

Waterloo School of Architecture professor John McMinn and graduate Melana Janzen of McMinn + Janzen Studio located in Toronto have won a 2011 North American Wood Design Citation for their CP Harbour House project. CP Harbour House is a vacation home shared by two families on the shores of Georgian Bay. McMinn and Janzen’s project was one of 16 honoured by the North American Wood Design Awards Program out of over 100 entries.

Apurva Narayan, a systems design engineering doctoral candidate, received the best paper award at the recent 35th Annual National Systems Conference organized by the Systems Society of India, and jointly by Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Indian Institue of Technology, Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India. His paper entitled “Neuro-Fuzzy (m-ANFIS) based Technique for Short-Term Load Forecasting in Large Geographical Area: Ontario, Canada” was co-authored by systems design engineering professors Fakhri Karray and K. Ponnambalam, who is also Narayan’s graduate studies supervisor.