News

Waterloo Engineering start-up BufferBox is launching a network of parcel pickup locations at GO Train stations after landing a contract with Metrolinx, the agency that oversees GO Transit stations in Ontario. Beginning with installations in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), BufferBox will enable GO Transit riders to conveniently pick up goods purchased online at a BufferBox in their local GO Station. 

A paper written by Rafael Lotufo, an electrical and computer doctoral candidate, Zeeshan Malik, a computer science master's student, and their supervisor Krzysztof Czarnecki, an electrical and computer engineering professor, won the best paper award at the International Conference on Software Maintenance held in Riva del Garda, Italy. Their paper, entitled Modelling the ‘Hurried’ Bug Report Reading Process to Summarize Bug Reports, was singled out from 181 submissions. 

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.

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.

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."