News

A group of engineering students from the University of Waterloo campus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) made history when they started the Canadian portion of their studies at the main Waterloo campus this month. The 12 students from Dubai are enrolled in undergraduate programs in chemical engineering and civil engineering, the first two programs offered at the UAE campus. The campus opened in September 2009 to extend the University of Waterloo’s highly acclaimed co-op education model internationally.

Two electrical and computer engineering professors have been appointed as associate directors of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE). Claudio Canizares is the new associate director, external partnerships, and Kankar Bhattacharya is the new associate director, advanced training. Both were appointed to two-year terms effective January 1, 2012. In announcing the appointments Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, and Jatin Nathwani, executive director of WISE,  said the positions further enhance the university’s commitment to be a leader in energy research.

Waterloo Engineering start-up BufferBox will launch what is believed to be the first parcel delivery kiosk service in Canada on January 12 in the Student Life Centre at the University of Waterloo. BufferBox was created by three recent Waterloo mechatronics engineering graduates as their fourth year design project to provide a reliable and secure parcel delivery alternative.

Engineering faculty, staff and students will have three opportunities the week of January 9 to hear from Pearl Sullivan, candidate for dean of Waterloo Engineering. Sullivan, currently chair of Waterloo’s mechanical and mechatronics engineering department, has been unanimously recommended by the dean of engineering nominating committee as the next dean of engineering for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2012. If successfully appointed, Sullivan will succeed current dean of engineering Adel Sedra whose second term as dean ends June 30, 2012.

Drew Higgins, a chemical engineering doctoral candidate, was recently awarded third place in the Dr. Bernard S. Baker Student Award Competition, an international award recognizing exceptional students in the field of fuel cell technologies. He was honoured at the Fuel Cell Seminar and Exposition which took place in Orlando, Florida in November. Selection for the award was based on the quality of completed and/or proposed student based research work and involved competition with many students working in various fuel cell related fields worldwide.

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.