News

Karim S. Karim of electrical and computer engineering has won a $100,000 grant from Grand Challenges Canada to help improve global health by developing an inexpensive tuberculosis test to combat the disease in developing countries. Karim was one of 15 researchers recognized on February 9 by Grand Challenges Canada’s rising stars awards handed out to the country’s most creative innovators to improve global health.

Gordon Stubley, a mechanical and mechatronics professor, has been appointed Waterloo Engineering’s first associate dean, teaching, for a three-year term beginning May 1, 2012. A memo written by Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, says the new position has been created to address a Vision 2015 strategic priority to enhance Waterloo Engineering’s support for teaching.

Five Waterloo Engineering teams placed either first or second in this year’s Ontario Engineering Competition and will advance to the Canadian Engineering Competition to be held March 8 to 11. Dhananja Jayalath, Neil Olij, Chris Wiebe and Ryan Mann, all fourth-year electrical engineering students, took top spot in OEC’s Innovative Design contest with their Muscle Activation Detection Suit entry. In addition, team members also took home the Technical Excellence award presented to the team displaying the greatest consideration and attention to technical aspects of design.

Fathy Ismail of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will serve as interim chair of the department from February 1 to December 31 2012. He will replace Pearl Sullivan who is succeeding Adel Sedra as dean of Waterloo Engineering on July 1, 2012. Sullivan is resigning as chair of MME on January 31 to allow time for the transition of the dean’s position. A full search will take place for Sullivan’s permanent successor.

Waterloo management engineering students won a number of awards, including the overall conference grand prize trophy, at the Institute of Industrial Engineers National Student Conference held January 19-21 in Halifax. The Golden I trophy was awarded based on the points the students earned for winning individual and team competitions, contributing a school video and cheer, and for participating in various conference events.

A Waterloo Region Record article, entitled UW chemical engineering students hope to change the future, takes a look at the wide range of innovative research taking place in the department’s new home in Engineering 6. Undergraduate and graduate students, as well as current faculty and retired faculty members were interviewed for the feature that describes Waterloo’s chemical engineering as “hot stuff.” The department, once housed in the first facility built on Waterloo’s campus, now has 800 undergraduate students, 155 grad students, 35 faculty, 15 staff and more than 4,000 alumni.

Prithula Prosun, a recent graduate of Waterloo’s School of Architecture, has won a Canadian Architect Student Award of Merit for her master’s thesis project Lift House that provides flood-proof housing for the Bangladeshi poor. Prosun developed a house that rises with flood waters and then lowers once flooding recedes. In October, Prosun’s project was honoured by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for applying leading-edge research to real-world situations. 

Engineering 5, designed by Perkins+Will of Toronto, has won a 2011 Global Excellence Award Best of Category in the Cultural/Institutional/Educational Category, by the International Interior Design Association (IIDA). Winners of the competition were chosen from 92 international design firms from 32 countries judged on representation of outstanding originality, and excellence in the creation of international interior design and architecture projects. Awards will be presented at the Maison & Objet Show in Paris in mid January.

Jackie Rehkopf, who graduated from civil engineering with both her BASc and PhD, has had her book “Automotive Carbon Fiber Composites: From Evolution to Implementation” published by SAE International. Rehkopf is a senior researcher at Plasan Carbon Composites, a Tier 1 producer of carbon fiber composites for the U.S. automotive industry. She is also a principal investigator of a three-year project on predictive modeling of carbon fiber composites in automotive crash applications.

Stephen Teeple, a School of Architecture graduate, is piloting an award-winning architecture firm called Teeple Architects, which specializes in a broad range of institutional, commercial and residential projects, including community and recreation centres, libraries, schools and university buildings. The current mix includes The Stephen Hawking Centre (a major expansion of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo) where Mr.