News

Two engineering students will be honoured with the university's  Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies Designation at fall convocation on October 20.  One of three of the designations for a master's student will be awarded to Mohammad Rostami of electrical and computer engineering. Thomasz Glawdel of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will receive one of the three designations for a PhD student.

Sergey Bogdanov, a Waterloo mechanical engineering doctoral candidate, won the best poster presentation at the International Conference on Fatigue Damage of Structural Materials IX held September 16-21 in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The conference was attended by almost 200 experts from 58 countries. Bogdanov's work will be published in the form of a full-length paper in the International Journal of Fatigue Journal.

For the second year in a row three of the four graduate students to win the  university's exceptional teaching award are from Waterloo Engineering. Arash Shahi of civil and environmental engineering, Andrea Murphy, of the School of Architecture, and Hamed Shateri of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student at spring convocation in June.  The other winner is Keith Delaney of earth and environmental sciences. [DB article]

Two recent civil engineering master's students have won the top 2012 American Water Works Association Academic Achievement Awards for their master's theses.  Ryan Snider placed first for his thesis entitled "Impact of Design and Operational Parameters on Rapid, Deep Bed Biological Filtration of Drinking Water." El-Hadidy, now a civil engineering doctoral candidate, took second place for his work entitled “Removal of Enteric Viruses by Ultrafiltration.” The prestigious awards that recognize academic excellence in the field of public water supply will be presented at the AWWA’s annual confere

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.

The University of Toronto is offering an Advanced Skills in Journalism for Engineers program for engineering alumni and engineering graduate students who wish to work in media. The program will provide up to 10 engineers with eight months of mentored experience as freelance business correspondents to major news organizations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. including: the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Postmedia Network , the Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Financial Times, the BBC and The Washington Post.

Engineering graduate students and alumni are invited to attend Engineering Connections on November 8, 2011 from 5:30-7:00 p.m. at the Best Western hotel in Orangeville. The free networking event for engineers of all disciplines, experience levels, and graduate students exploring employment opportunities is sponored by the Workforce Planning Board of Waterloo Wellington Dufferin.

Prithula Prosun, a recent graduate of Waterloo’s School of Architecture, was recently honoured by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for applying leading-edge research to real-world situations. Prosun, one of 12 recipients of the NSERC 2011 Innovation Challenge Awards, was recognized for her work on low income flood-proof technology (LIFT) housing for the Bangladeshi poor. For her architecture master’s thesis Prosun developed a house that rises with flood waters and then lowers once flooding recedes.

Morteza Ahmadi, a Waterloo systems design doctoral candidate, has been honoured with the Krescent (Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program) Allied Doctoral Award for his project on a nanotechnology-based wearable artificial kidney. The award is one of only two presented this year by the Canadian program. Ahmadi’s doctoral supervisor is John Yeow of systems design engineering.