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Jonathan Eyolfson, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student, is one of just four campus-wide recipients of the 2013 Amit & Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.  Eyolfson, a teaching assistant and instructor for various courses for several years, is noted by his students as having a deep understanding of the material and dedication to teaching. He's described as “a knowledgeable and approachable teaching assistant who really understands our confusion.”

Emily Peat, owner of EcoPlace Organics, took top honours at the Nicol Entrepreneurial Awards competition held in Ottawa March 27. This is the first time in six years that the University of Waterloo has taken the top prize at the national competition.

Peat, a current civil engineering undergraduate student and former University of Waterloo BET300 and E Co-op program participant, captured the award after winning first place in a campus-wide competition held in February at the Conrad Centre.

The 2012 Waterloo Engineering Awards dinner held on November 22 honoured engineering's exceptional students, alumni and a friend of the faculty. More than 2,500 students received awards this year for everything from top marks to extracurricular activities such as leadership, community engagement, and involvement in athletics.

A number of awards were distributed at the event, including:

Waterloo's School of Architecture is one of the top design schools in North America and the only Canadian institution chosen by AZURE, an award-winning magazine with a focus on contemporary architecture and design.  The ranking appears in the publication's November/December issue. In alphabetical order the top five schools are: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Southern California Institute of Architecture and Waterloo.

Simarjeet Saini of electrical and computer engineering had an article published about his silicon nanowire research in the print and online editions of LaserWorld magazine.“Low-cost measurements in optics are the holy grail for photonics researchers,” says Saini in the article.

Ibraheem Khan (MASc, PhD, mechanical) presented his Waterloo Engineering research on shape memory alloys during his keynote address at the Medical Manufacturing Innovations Conference held in Toronto at the end of October. Khan's doctoral thesis was on the discovery of  Multiple Memory Material Technology for which he and Norman Zhou, a mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor, are co-inventors. Kahn is currently president and CTO of Smarter Alloys and a research associate at the University of Waterloo's Centre for Advanced Materials Joining.

John Wen, a Waterloo mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor, has been awarded funding from BioFuelNet Canada for his grant proposal entitled Emission Performance and Catalytic Combustion of Fuel Blended with 3-OH Methyl Esters. Wen will receive initial funding of $68,000 towards his research into developing next generation biofuels.