Current students and graduates of University of Waterloo School of Architecture are hosting four installations at this year’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche that is being held in Toronto, Ontario starting at 7pm on Saturday, October 1.
Tech-savvy students will put their coding skills to the test during the Great Canadian Appathon taking place September 30 to October 2 at the Conrad Business and Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre and other university and college ‘hubs’ across the country. Student teams will have 48 hours to create a mobile game they think could become the next top selling smartphone app. CBET already has over 30 teams registered, more than three times the number that particpated last year.
Congratulations to Maclean’s on publishing an article highlighting the need to encourage more top Canadian engineering students to pursue graduate studies in Canada. (“Engineering: The home advantage),” Maclean’s magazine, September 19, 2011)
It should be noted, however, that many Ontario engineering schools have already begun to make significant progress in this regard under the Government of Ontario’s “Reaching Higher” program.
Members of Waterloo’s EcoCAR team received $25,000 from corporate sponsor GM Canada on September 21 to help fuel their drive towards the greening of a Chevy Malibu.Fifteen universities across North America are competing in the EcoCAR 2 challenge that spans three years and is intended to produce an environmentally-friendly vehicle people will want to buy and drive. “Cars are around to stay whether we like it or not,’ said Josh Lo, a chemical engineering student. “Reducing pollution and making cleaner cars is always going to be a goal.”
University of Waterloo research project looking to expand the concept of a “smart grid” beyond electricity is receiving a $10,000 grant from Union Gas to create a fully integrated “smart energy network.” The project being run by the Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Energy is building on work ongoing in Ontario to develop a smart grid for the province’s electricity system, using digital two-way communication to allow utilities to respond instantly to changes in demand and automatically fix power outages, as well as giving consumers more control over how and when they use power.
David Weckman of mechanical and mechatronics engineering has been honoured with the American Welding Society’s 2011 Charles H. Jennings Memorial Award for most valuable paper written by a college student or faculty representative published in the Welding Journal during 2010. It is the second time Weckman has won the award. The paper entitled Double-Sided Arc Welding of AA5182-O Aluminum Sheet for Tailor Welded Blank Applications was co-written by Jeff Moulton, Weckman’s graduate student. The award will be presented in November at the AWS annual awards lunch in Chicago.
Keith Hipel, a professor of systems design engineering, is the recipient of this year’s Royal Society of Canada’s Sir John William Dawson Medal. Hipel, who was named an RSC fellow in 1998, will be awarded the medal November 26 at the Ottawa Convention Centre.
Tour Bombardier Aerospace and Pratt and Whitney operations. Stand nose-to-nose with the Q400 Series aircraft. Rev up with the PW300 family of engines. Network with Canadian aerospace industry executives. These are a few of the activities planned for the Canadian Student Summit on Aerospace from September 16 to 17 hosted this year by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute student branch at Ryerson University. For more information or to register visit: casi.ca
Robert Varin of mechanical and mechatronics engineering has received a Science Technology Transfer Award from the World Association for Innovative Technologies for his Keynote Opening presentation entitled: “Nanomaterials for Solid State Hydrogen Storage-Synthesis and Properties” (co-authors Les Zbroniec and Minchul Jang). The keynote was given at the International Conference for Innovative Technologies IN-TECH 2011, which was held September 1-3 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Canadian engineering students interested in graduate studies are being invited to apply to the 50 Graduates Weekend being organized by Waterloo Engineering. The Faculty will pay travel expenses for 50 selected Canadian students interested in master’s and PhD studies to learn about graduate programs at Waterloo and experience life in one of Canada’s most vibrant communities.