The University of Waterloo Student Design Centre will be named to honour Adel Sedra who served as dean of Waterloo Engineering from July 1, 2003 to June 30, 2012. Sedra is one of the world’s leading electrical engineers and an engineering educator specializing in the areas of microelectronics and the theory and design of circuits for communication and instrumentation systems.
He received his BSc from Cairo University and his MASc and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto. Before joining the University of Waterloo, Sedra was part of the University of Toronto and served in a number of capacities including vice president, provost, and chief academic officer of the institution. In recognition of Sedra’s contributions to the University of Waterloo, Savvas Chamberlain, the founder of DALSA Corporation, led a campaign to establish the Adel Sedra Entrepreneurship Award for Capstone Design.
Opened in October 2010, the Student Design Centre in Waterloo's Engineering 5 building is a state-of-the art 20,000-square-foot facility that is home to 21 Waterloo Engineering’s student competition teams. A special event will be held October 18 to mark the new name of the world-class facility: the Sedra Student Design Centre.