October 2023 was an important milestone for our Department and the University of Waterloo – it was the first time we hosted the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference (CUPC) since 1989! We are so very proud of the students who gave hundreds of hours of their spare time (while on study and work terms) to make this happen. How many of our alumni remember being a part of this conference? We’re sure many of you do if you were active in research as an undergraduate student!
For those who don’t know, the CUPC is an annual conference governed by the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) but managed by the student-run, local organizing committee of the host institution. This conference provides a platform for undergraduate students studying physics to present their research, exchange ideas, and engage with the broader physics community. It often includes presentations, poster sessions, and networking opportunities for students interested in physics. Every conference brings with it a unique twist, and we wanted ours to be special and memorable!
Let’s backtrack to the very beginning to share our story about how we won the bid to host CUPC. It all started when Kat Bogopolskaya and her peers attended CUPC 2022 at the University of Guelph. Being one of the first conferences to be in-person since the pandemic, the experience was memorable and something that Kat wanted to bring to UWaterloo for 2023 with the help of likeminded peers: Gabriel Gorbet, Isabelle Marincic, Courtney Kates, Madi Schuetze, Rye Godin, Sarah Moritsugu, Luca Galler, Khurshid Usmanov, and Maggie Bérubé. This is how the organizing committee was born. Working with the Department, Dr. Brenda Lee was chosen as their Faculty Liaison to provide support throughout the organization of the conference and to help bridge the gap between CAP and UWaterloo, especially when it came to finances and administrative needs.
When asked about her experience with CUPC, Kat said: “I’ve been involved in several extra-curriculars within the Physics community at UW and decided to aim for a bigger project. The team’s support meant everything to me and gave me the confidence to believe in my ideas and persist for the Department’s approval for CUPC to happen at Waterloo!”
From October to December 2022, an immense amount of time was spent on developing an exciting program to bring to young Canadian physicists. As the program grew, so did our budget and the team had spent weeks reaching out to different vendors and venues to ensure that a sustainable budget and sponsorship plan could be created. With the help of Science Advancement and select Department members, we completed our 24-page bid and submitted it to CAP in January.
After the announcement from CAP about our winning bid, we started moving forward in March 2023 with the design of the CUPC 2023 logo – a goose with eggs in a Newton’s cradle. Why a goose? Because for anyone who remembers our campus, it’s filled with geese who call it their home and raise their goslings here. Over the next few months, different rosters of the Executive organizining committee worked day and night to tackle different parts of the conference. We had split the tasks into subcommittees of: Sponsors, Venues, Website & Tech, Media & Marketing, EDI, Events & Itinerary, Finances, Internal, and Volunteer Coordination – each led by an Executive member with deadlines to ensure completion and progression. Weekly meetings over MS Teams were mandatory so that everyone knew what their task was for the next week, with additional meetings as needed throughout the week for each subcommittee.
When the program was finally complete, an itinerary was created. As the conference approached, the stress levels certainly increased for everyone as everything started to fall into place. Our keynote speakers were chosen and finalized:
- Dr. Laurie Rousseau-Nepton | University of Toronto
- Nobel Laureate, Dr. Donna Strickland | University of Waterloo
- Dr. Robert Mann | University of Waterloo
- Dr. David Cory | University of Waterloo
- Dr. Magdalena Bazalova-Carter | University of Victoria
We also decided to showcase several faculty and graduate students in terms of demonstrations, lab tours, and topic panels:
- Demonstrations: Laser & Optics by Urja Nandivada and Jim Martin
- Campus Tours:
- Gustav Bakos Observatory / Astronomical Observations: Victor Arora & Sotirios Mygdalas
- Nanoscale Biophysics Lab: Dr. Zoya Leonenko
- Ultrafast Laser Matter Lab: Dr. Joe Sanderson & Dr. Reza Karimi
- Low Temperature Group: Dr. Jan Kycia
- Quantum Labs: Dr. David Cory
- Panels:
- Science Communications Panel: Dr. Sarah Rugheimer, Dr. Luna Zagorac, Cassidy Swanston
- Rainbow Collider Tea & Talk: led by our FemPhys student club at UWaterloo
- EDI Panel: led by Dr. Carla Fehr, Emma McKay, Kaylee Biggart, Thelma Akyea
The week the event was to start, it was crunch time. Everyone stayed up really late to pack swag bags with delegate T-shirts, goose plushies, pens and notebooks…and woke up really early to start registration at Delta Hotels Waterloo. As we piled in to the conference room and set up, the excitement was off the charts – the team was finally able to see their year’s worth of hard work come to fruition! The opening ceremony featured an introduction from the Executive, our Department Chair Dr. Brian McNamara as well as the Executive Director of CAP: Francine Ford.
On Friday the student presentations began. Apart from having the organizing committee screen abstracts, we must thank the efforts of Dr. Zoya Leonenko and Dr. Rick Marta for offering up so much of their time to review the abstract submissions. Ultimately, we organized over 70 oral and 35 poster presentations and everyone did an amazing job!
On Saturday, the student presentations continued but we also held our Grad & Industry Fair which was organized with the help of the Institute for Quantum Computing at UWaterloo. 22 participants were featured during the day-long grad fair, with hundreds of delegates enjoying the opportunity to network and learn more about post-graduate studies and career opportunities.
On Sunday, CUPC 2023 came to a close with a closing speech by Dr. Melanie Campbell (past President of CAP) as well as the executive organizing committee. Awards were announced, and we were extremely pleased to present awards to students who did a phenomenal job with their presentations!
The keynote talks were all very well received- so much so that each lecturer found a trail of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students following them with dozens of questions.
The student oral presentations and posters were done very well. There were over 100 total presentations, with students from all over Canada sharing exciting talks on various physics research taking place at other universities. In order from 1st to 3rd, prizes were awarded to Udbhav Ram (McMaster University), Kaitlyn Sims (Toronto Metropolitan University), and Sam Moir (University of New Brunswick) for the oral category. Harmoon Bovee and Emery Pattison (University of Alberta, both) shared 1st place for the poster category, with 3rd awarded to Jack Plant (University of British Columbia). We’re honored to host so many bright, aspiring scientists and give them the platform and opportunity to speak.
It was important to our organizing team to make a donation to a local Indigenous organization as we were hosting a national conference on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. On behalf of the CUPC 2023 Executive Committee, the University of Waterloo and the Canadian Association of Physicists, we were able to donate a portion of our funds to Protect the Tract.
Finally, we must thank all of our sponsors for making this event a success. We had an excellent time creating an unforgettable experience for young physicists across Canada, and it would not have been possible without the support of the following organizations: University of Waterloo Science Society, University of Waterloo Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo Department of Physics & Astronomy, Delta Hotels Waterloo, University of Waterloo Faculty of Science Foundation, Institute for Quantum Computing, CryoDragon Inc., PhysClub, Perimeter Institute, University of Calgary, Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics, Queen’s University, Triumf, Snolab, McMaster University, and Red X Carbon.
We look forward to seeing how CUPC 2024 turns out and you can find out more information here if you wish to learn more.
