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.
Systems design engineering professor Maud Gorbet has been honoured for her work in the community by the Women of Waterloo Region (WoW) in the Science and Technology category.
For the second year in a row three of the four graduate students to win the university's exceptional teaching award are from Waterloo Engineering. Arash Shahi of civil and environmental engineering, Andrea Murphy, of the School of Architecture, and Hamed Shateri of mechanical and mechatronics engineering will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student at spring convocation in June. The other winner is Keith Delaney of earth and environmental sciences. [DB article]
The latest round of funding for Canada Research Chairs awarded $7.5 to six CRCs campus-wide, including $1.4 million each to two in engineering. The new funding puts Waterloo in the top five research universities across the country. Carl Haas, a civil and environmental engineering professor and the CRC in Construction and Management of Sustainable Infrastructure, will use his funding for research his team is undertaking on finding the most sustainable ways to make and manage everything from roads and sewers to suspension bridges through technology including 3D scanning of things like road su
Chemical engineering professors Leonardo Simon and Raymond Legge are part of a new cross-university team of scientists formed to help Canadian companies bring their innovative bioproducts to market faster. The Ontario Biomaterials A-Team, led by Guelph-based Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, is made up of 10 members with complementary skills from seven Ontario universities. Known as the A-Team, its mandate is to bring together the skilled people, sophisticated equipment, speed of service and confidentiality companies require to fine-rune and test new products before they're brought to market.
Solar Novus Today features the work of electrical and computer engineering professor Omar Ramahi who received a $25,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for researching the harvest of non-visible light and is collaborating with chemists from Next Alternative Inc. on the project. “Over significant parts of the earth, the sun shines for a fraction of the day.
A Waterloo Engineering project, headed by mechanical and mechatronics professor Michael Worswick to develop energy-efficient cars through the use of new lightweight materials, will receive $3.7 million in federal funding.
Sasanka Nagavalli of mechatronics engineering has been chosen by the University of Waterloo as Waterloo Engineering's top co-op student of the year. The university will honour Nagavalli and students representing the five other faculties during a ceremony to be held at the William M. Tatham Centre on March 22 as part of National Co-op Week. Nagavalli's passion for space robotics fuelled a successful work term with Neptec Design Group, a company that develops advanced spaceflight sensors and rovers for space agencies around the world.
Systems design engineering professor Keith Hipel has received the 2012 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Eminent Scientist Award. The award is Japan's highest research prize for international scientists and is granted to researchers "who possess a record of excellent research achievements and who are mentors and leaders in their respective fields." This is the first time this prize has been awarded to a Canadian academic. [DB article]