News archive - July 2011

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Search under way for new dean of engineering

The nominating committee established to identify a successor to Adel Sedra has begun its work. Sedra, who is also a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, joined the University of Waterloo in 2003 and will finish his second term as dean next year. A memo written by Provost Geoff McBoyle says input and feedback are welcomed by members of the search committee or others until this Sunday, July 31. Sedra says he still has a lot to accomplish between now and July 1, 2012 when the new dean officially takes office.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Clean sweep for autonomous robot team at UBC

Waterloo’s Autonoumous Robot Racing Team took all four top awards in the International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition held July 23 and 24 at the University of British Columbia. The team received the overall grand award and won first place in the design competition, the drag race competition and the circuit competition. The team’s winning entry was a redesigned version of the vehicle that crashed just before last year’s competition. [race website]

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Team chosen to bring new life to campus entrance

The design of Team Inove, made up of Amer Abu-Khajil and Jacqueline Doucet, both third-year civil engineering students, and Nader Alkadri and Josh Layton, both fourth-year urban planning students, will be redesigning the main entrance to the Waterloo campus. Team Inove beat out two other teams in the i3 Challenge, the student competition to design an element of the campus. The deciding factor for Team Inove was the elegance and simplicity of its design, said i3 Challenge committee chair Jeff Casello, a professor in the faculties of engineering and environment.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Students to exhibit sports engineering designs

Waterloo systems design engineering students will showcase product designs offering innovative solutions to problems that can occur in sports activities. On July 22 12 student groups in a third-year systems design engineering course will present their work from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in room 1301 of the Davis Centre. The design prototypes address a variety problems including improving synchronization for dragon boating and reducing skidding in bicycle racing. [news release]

Monday, July 18, 2011

UAE campus director discusses co-op benefits

Peter Douglas, director of the university’s UAE campus, was recently interviewed by Gulfnews.com about Waterloo Engineering’s unique co-op program which is manadatory for all engineering students in Canada, as well as the UAE. “The idea behind our cooperative education program is a work and study experience offering students much more than an internship,” said Douglas, a chemical engineering professor. The first 15 chemical and civil UAE-campus engineering students will join the 3A classes in Waterloo starting January 2012 and will complete their degrees in Canada.