News

The University of Waterloo Robotics team came within a hair's breadth of successfully completing the Level 1 of the Sample Return Robot Challenge, a part of NASA's Centennial Challenges prize program.

The event, hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute from June 5-7 in Worcester, Mass., drew robotics teams from the United States, Canada and Estonia to compete for a total of $1.5 million in NASA prize money.

Following on the New York Times naming the University of Waterloo “one of the world’s best technology schools”, the university continues to build its reputation for entrepreneurship internationally with USA Today referring to the area as a “the most vibrant start-up community in Canada” and Venture Beat reporting on the area’s “very high proportion of startups to population” and “unique” academic/industrial mentoring partnership. The Financial Post drew attention to Engineering successes including Thalmic Labs and BufferBox, concluding: “Where can you hire the best engineers and keep them?

The Globe and Mail recently published a special report titled, "Engineering in Canada, Sky's the limit", highlighting advancements in engineering education, research, outreach initiatives, and sectors experiencing growth and recruiting challenges.  

Musa Chunge, who will convocate with a BASc in civil engineering next month, has been awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which is one of the most prestigious international scholarships.   

Chunge was one of 51 recipients out of more than 3,500 applicants who were evaluated on criteria such as outstanding intellectual ability, leadership potential, commitment to improving the lives of others, and a good fit between the applicant's qualifications and aspirations and the postgraduate program at Cambridge for which the individual applied.

James Anthony Usas, a School of Architecture master's student, has been honoured with a Gold Remi for Experimental Drama for his film House of the Gathering, by the 2013 WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, based in Houston. House of the Gathering is based on the history of Kitchener, starting from when the city was known as Berlin. It was an official selection at the 2012 Grand River Film Festival and a feature-length version will go into production next April as part of the Multicultural Cinema Club's P3 Program.

A team of undergraduate students comprised mainly of Waterloo Engineering students won an international microrobotics competition, and  did so in less than one second.

The Mobile Microrobotics Challenge took place at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Karlsruhe, Germany. The Waterloo team won the Autonomous Mobility Challenge, where the microrobots must autonomously navigate a track in the shape of a figure eight.

School of Architecture student Sam Vickars won the 2013 Best of the Year in the Branding Category of the Student Design Awards by D&AD Awards in London England. The annual awards are regarded as a major event in the world of design and advertising. 

Recent management engineering students who will convocate in June took top prize in the design competition in this year's International Conference for Upcoming Engineers.  Hardeep Chagger, Scott Easton, Megan Maguire and Mark Santos won for Project Broadcast, a tablet-based app that consolidates all tools a project manager needs to successfully complete a project on time and within budget.

Paul Fieguth of systems design engineering will serve a second term as chair of his department. His new term begins September 1, 2013 and will run for four years.

In March, the University of Waterloo hosted the 3 Minute Thesis Competition (3MT) - a university-wide competition providing graduate students the opportunity to share their research with a non-specialist audience in three minutes with one static slide. Cash prizes were at stake, and the potential to advance and participate in the provincial finals held at Queen’s University.