News

Nigel Swytink-Binnema, a mechanical engineering master's student, won the top award in the poster presentation/competition at the Canadian Wind Energy Association meeting and annual research meeting of the NSERC-funded Wind Energy Strategic Network (WESNet) held in Toronto from October 15 to 18. The poster was judged by faculty members from the 16 universities participating in the cross-Canada network. Swytink-Binnema is supervised by WESNet member David Johnson who is a Waterloo mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor.

Chemical engineering professor Frank Gu has been awarded a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Advanced Targeted Delivery Systems.  His new chair recognizes his research that is changing medical treatment and diagnosis on a nano-scale, by bringing biology and engineering together.

Willem Petersen, a Waterloo systems design engineering doctoral candidate, won the best presentation award at the recent 2012 International Society for Terrain-Vehicle Systems conference held in Pretoria, South Africa. Petersen presented the work he's collaborated on with John McPhee, his doctoral supervisor, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). They have developed advanced models for planetary rovers and wheels on soft (Martian) soils to help the CSA design, control, and plan for future rover missions.

Anwar Hasan, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has been appointed associate dean, research and external partnerships. His three-year term begins January 1, 2013. Hasan will succeed Rick Culham who has served in the role for the past four years. 

"I am extremely grateful to Rick for his dedicated service to Engineering and want to thank him for his significant efforts in developing new opportunities and raising our profile during his term as Associate Dean," said Engineering Dean Pearl Sullivan in a memo to engineering staff and faculty.

Winners of the 2012 Waterloo Engineering awards were celebrated at  the annual Faculty of Engineering dinner held October 4.

Sanjeev Bedi of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, Mark Pritzker of chemical engineering, and Mark Smucker of management sciences received the Faculty's Teaching Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and commitment to the enrichment of Waterloo Engineering education.

Mark Smucker of management sciences and Charlie Clarke of computer science have been honoured with the best paper award by the ACM Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval at its annual conference, considered to be the premier one in the field of information retrieval. The University of Waterloo professors' winning paper is entitled "Time-Based Calibration of Effectiveness Measures."

Claudio Cañizares has received one of Canada's highest academic honours by being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The electrical and computer engineering professor is among the recipients of 11 medals and awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in several fields of research and scholarship.

Engineering's alumni list officially increased June 16 with the convocation of 1,359 students in two ceremonies. Highlights included the first class of 40 management engineering students receiving their degrees. The management engineering program was established in 2007 to provide undergraduate students with the "engineering education required to understand, design, implement, and manage complex management systems upon which organizations depend."

A University of Waterloo team, headed by Eihab Abdel-Rahman of systems design engineering, is receiving a $1.2 million boost in federal funding. Abdel-Rahman leads a team working on a system of sensors that will detect, through hand movement on a steering wheel, whether a driver has any alcohol in his or her system.

Kaan Inal of mechanical and mechatronics engineering and Sheshakamal Jayaram of electrical and computer engineering will be able to take their research further thanks to the 2012 NSERC funding announced in Toronto May 23. The engineering professors were among 123 researchers throughout Canada who will receive $120,000 over the next three years through the Discovery Accelerator Supplement program.