Christopher Backhouse, an electrical and computer engineering professor, has been appointed the new director of Waterloo's nanotechnology engineering program. His term runs from May 1, 2012 to April 30, 2015. Backhouse will succeed current director Marios Ioannidis of chemical engineering.
Lola Sheppard, a School of Architecture professor, has been selected as the recipient of Architecture Canada's 2012 Young Architect Award.
Sheppard, who has been honoured with several awards in the past year including the 2011 Holcim Gold Award, is one of the founding directors of InfraNet Lab, a design research company dedicated to the role infrastructures and networks play in our environment.
William Tatham and Réal (Ray) Tanguay, both strong supporters of engineering education at the University of Waterloo, will receive honorary doctorates during the university's spring convocation ceremonies on June 16.
The research of electrical and computer engineering professor Sherman Shen has been recognized with two best paper awards. Shen and his research collaborators in Japan received the 2012 Best Paper Award at the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference for "End-to-End Delay in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks with Generalized Transmission Range and Limited Packet Redundancy." The conference was held in Paris, France, April 1-4. Shen and his doctoral students Y. Liu, L.X.
Three fourth-year management engineering students are the winners of the 2012 National Student Paper Award of Supply Chain Logistics Canada. Jessica McPhee, Ari Paunonen and Taufiq Ramji based their paper on their fourth-year design project entitled Night-Time Deliveries for Nestle Ice Cream. The team members will be presented with their award at the 45th Supply Chain Annual Conference and Tradeshow.
Akram Nour, a civil engineering doctoral candidate and Kevin Yeung, a fourth-year civil engineering student, are two of the winners of the 2012 national scholarship competition held by the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineers. Nour won the CITE Michel Van Aerde Memorial Award for doctoral students and Yeung was awarded the CITE HDR Undergraduate Award. The awards program honours outstanding achievement in transportation engineering and distinguished service to CITE.
On Tuesday, April 3, the University of Waterloo's Baja SAE design team unveiled their 2012 all-terrain vehicle in Engineering's Student Design Centre. Designed over the Spring and Fall 2011 school terms and constructed between January and March, the car will take part in a competition in Portland, Oregon, from May 2-5, 2012.
Neil Thomson has been reappointed as chair of civil and environmental engineering for a second term beginning May 1, 2012. He will be taking a one-year sabbatical beginning May 1, 2012. During his absence civil and environmental professor Don Burn will serve as acting chair.
On Saturday March 31st, the very last day of National Engineering Month, University of Waterloo Engineering was taken over by 112 Girl Guides and their leaders! The girls came from Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, New Dundee, Ayr, Baden and Stratford to participate in our Engineering Badge Day for Girl Guides.