Current students

Pearl Sullivan, chair of Waterloo’s mechanical and mechatronics engineering department, will become Waterloo’s eighth dean of engineering on July 1, 2012. Sullivan, an award-winning professor and accomplished researcher, joined the university as a professor of mechanical engineering in 2004. She will succeed Adel Sedra whose second term as dean ends June 30, 2012. “The exemplary reputation of Waterloo Engineering fueled a lot of international interest in this position,” said Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the University of Waterloo.

School of Architecture professor John McMinn and his partner architect Melana Janzen of McMinn + Janzen Studio have pulled it off for a professional couple living in south Mississauga — they designed an urban loft on a quiet street lined with 1970s suburban ranch houses. The home, with radiant concrete floors inside and custom stainless steel wire mesh screens, provides a downtown urban feel while meeting the needs of a growing family leaning towards a suburban lifestyle. But success didn’t come easy, says McMinn. The first contractor couldn’t mix oil and water and was let go.

Lola Sheppard, a Waterloo School of Architecture professor, is concerned with how processed foods are threatening hunting traditions and the health of Inuit people in Canada’s North. Sheppard and her partner, Mason White, recently won a $100,000 Holcim Award for an infrastructure project they developed that seeks to reaffirm hunting and fishing traditions among the people of Baffin Island in the territory of Nunavut. The project’s goal is to create a network of shelters along snowmobile paths connecting 11,000 people who live in disconnected communities across Baffin Island.