News

The winners of this year's Waterloo Engineering awards were honoured at the annual Faculty of Engineering dinner held on October 10.

The Faculty’s Teaching Excellence Award recognizes outstanding teaching and commitment to the enrichment of Waterloo Engineering education. This year’s deserving recipients are David Brush of civil and environmental engineering, Keith Hipel of systems design engineering, and David Wang of electrical and computer engineering.

Xtreme Labs, founded by a Waterloo electrical and computer engineering graduate, has been purchased by California-based Pivotal to expand its mobile space market. Co-founded in 2007 by Amar Varma (BASc '99, Elect), Xtreme Labs is one of Canada's top mobile developers.  Farhan Thawar, a Waterloo computer science and electrical engineering graduate, is the company's vice president, engineering.  

According to Xtreme Labs, all the company's 350 jobs will stay in Canada.

Mahsa Shayan, a civil and environmental engineering PhD student, was honoured with 2013 Toth Award for the Best Student Paper in Canadian Hydrogeology by the International Association of Hydrogeologists.  She received the award at the annual IAH-CNC/CGS groundwater conference held recently in Montreal. Shayan's doctoral supervisors are Neil Thomson, chair of civil and environmental engineering, and Jim Barker of earth and environmental sciences.  

The life span of a single tweet may only be seconds, but the buzz surrounding Twitter and Square founder, Jack Dorsey's, visit to campus is still resounding weeks later.

During Dorsey's visit to Waterloo Region, hundreds of students, faculty and staff attended his talk at the University of Waterloo titled, "Punk, Dropout, Massage Therapist", but only a select group of students attended the exclusive lunch with Dorsey hosted by Communitech. 

Edward Cyr not only competes on two different varsity teams, he also achieves excellence in the classroom. Cyr, a mechanical engineering master's student, was part of the University of Waterloo's 2013 men's curling national championship team and competed on the Warrior's swimming team  while maintaining an overall average of 95.5 per cent.

A successful entrepreneur who has made his mark in the high-tech world by providing data protection is returning to the University of Waterloo after launching a new fund to support budding entrepreneurs studying engineering.

Tim Leschuk (BASc '13, Chem) has been honoured with a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, which recognizes top academic achievement and leadership skills. Leschuk is one of three University of Waterloo scholarship recipients who will each receive $50,000 a year, for three years. His proposed research project involves the application of nanotechnology for water purification and builds on the university's established excellence in these areas.

Transport Canada has asked a team of University of Waterloo experts to study the safety of level crossings across the country saying that the university is the only known institution in North America with the required specialized knowledge and expertise.

Liping Fu, a civil and environmental engineering professor, is leading the rail crossing research at the university, which includes the development of GradeX, a web-based software program that can identify crossings, calculate the risk and then rank the safety level of crossings from high to low.

Samir Elhedhli is the winner of the 2013 Canadian Operations Research Society (CORS) Service Award, which recognizes members of the society who have made outstanding contributions of time and service to it. The Waterloo Management Sciences Professor was President of the society for the 2011-2012 year. He also served as a CORS Councillor from 2007 to 2009, the Education Chair from 2007 to 2010 and as the Program Chair for the 2012 Joint CORS/MOPGP Conference held in Niagara Falls.

Jack Dorsey not only came to campus today to speak to University of Waterloo students, but also to announce that his new company Square will open an office in Waterloo. The co-founder of Twitter made the announcement as part of a speech delivered on campus, saying it was an easy choice to establish a presence in this area, with "its abundant tech sector."