Class notes

Gaston Gonnet (MMath ’75, PhD ’77): Gaston Gonnet is a co-founder of OpenText, one of the 25 most innovative Canadian companies in 2024 according to Canadian Business. Last year, OpenText launched Aviator AI, a platform to help customers automate workflow processes and identify anomalies in data. Read more...
 

Rob Wellstood (BMath ’83): Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) welcomes Rob Wellstood to their Board of Directors. Read More...

Charmaine Dean (MMath ’84, PhD ’88): Charmaine Dean shares about the new collaboration between the University of Waterloo and Georgia Tech aimed at advancing artificial intelligence initiatives through dual degree programs, conferences, student exchanges, and joint research opportunities. Read More...

Jonathan Schaeffer (MMath ’80, PhD ’86): Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Co-founded by Jonathan Schaeffer, secures $3 million from Prairiescan to fuel AI adoption in the prairies. Amii plans to use this funding to help small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba adopt artificial intelligence (AI). Read more...

Ian Goldberg (BMath ’95): Ian Goldberg, a University of Waterloo professor and alumni, was awarded $800,000 by the Canadian Foundation for Innvocation (CFI) Fund for his project named "Understanding Privacy, Security, and Cryptography in Online and Physical Environments". Read More...

Johan (John) Wall (BMath ’99): Howmet Engineered Structures, a global provider of advanced engineered solutions for the aerospace and transportation industries, welcomes John as the President. Read More...

Martin Mainwright (BMath ’94): Martin Wainwright, the Cecil H. Green Professor in MIT’s departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Mathematics, has been named the new director of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). Read More...

David Dowson (BMath ’93): David Dawson, owner of Instant Print and Promotion, is named a director for the American National Print and Sign Owners Association (NPSOA), becoming the first Canadian to serve on the NPSOA board. Read More...

Chantalle Butler (BMath ’99): Molson Coors Beverage Company appoints Chantalle Butler as president of its Canadian operations. Read More...

Jeff Shiner (BMath ’92): - Jeff Shiner is the CEO of 1Password, the popular password manager. Recently, 1Password launched a new product, named Extended Access Management, to help businesses with device security. Read More...

Bonnie Foley-Wong (BMath ’97, MAcc ’97): Bonnie Foley-Wong is one of the founders of Spring, a company that empowers socially minded capitalists through educational and acceleration programs, aiming to prioritize positive social impact alongside financial returns. Spring is one of the 25 most innovative Canadian companies in 2024 according to Canadian Business. Read More...

James Ciesielski (BMath ’03): Rewind, co-founded by James Ciesielski, was selected as one of the 20 fastest-growing companies in Ottawa. Rewind is a backup service for online applications, protecting business-critical data that power organizations of all sizes. Read more...
 

Matei Zaharia (BMath ’07): Databricks, the multibillion-dollar company co-founded by Matei Zaharia, was long expected to make its public market debut. Instead, they are taking a different approach: choosing to act as a public firm by self-reporting business performance. Read More...

Stephanie Simmons (BMath ’08): Stephanie is the Chief Quantum Officer and Co-founder of Photonic, a company that is designing and manufacturing quantum computers. Stephanie was selected amongst the 100 Canadians Shaping the Country in 2024, thanks to her contributions in the quantum field. Read More...

Swati Matta (BCS ’10): Swati Matta, previously the founder and CEO of Koble Care Inc., has been appointed as the Head of Women's Health at Dialogue Health Technologies Inc. (Dialogue), a virtual healthcare and wellness platform, following Dialogue's acquisition of Koble. Read More...

John Yue (BCS ’17): John Yue, Co-Founder and CEO of Inference.ai, tells the story of his company and discusses the role AI will play for businesses and how Inference.ai supports startups with the computing power necessary for AI. Read More...

Avi Itskovich (BMath ’14): Avi Itskovich, a co-founder of Watershed, is focused on motivating companies to transition to clean power sources. He and his team aim to inspire “climate awakenings” at scale, encouraging businesses to take measurable steps towards decarbonization. Read More...

Alex Qi (BMath ’10): Alex Qi is a co-founder of Pontosense, a company that uses mmWave technology to analyze environments and offer insights for applications such as healthcare and home security. Pontosense is one of the 25 most innovative companies of Canada according to Canadian Business. Alex envisions a future where their sensors could preemptively identify health issues and enhance safety in various settings. Read More...
 

Katya Potapov (BCS ’22): Katya is a Senior Software Engineer at Floodbase, where she uses her computer science expertise and understanding of human-computer interaction to help communities understand and respond to flood risks. She was recognized as one of the leading women in Earth Sciences by Radiant Earth. Read more...

David Radke (PhD ’23): Dr. David Radke from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, developed a convolutional neural network named FireCast to integrate AI and GIS for predicting future wildfire spread based on site characteristics and weather predictions. Read more...

Kyne Santos (BMath ’21): UWaterloo alum, drag queen and self-described "math queen" Kyne Santos joined CBS Mornings to talk about her new book, "Math in Drag,” where she investigates mathematical mysteries all while educating about the art of drag. Read more...

Robin Wen (BMath ’22): Robin Wen, who graduated from Mathematical Physics and Statistics with an Alumni Gold Medal, has written about a new model explaining the apparent inconsistencies with the predictions of general relativity, named the "cosmic glitch". Read more...

Colour Theory: We sat down with Muralist Stephanie Boutari to discuss mathematical inspiration, her journey as an artist, and her changing relationship to architecture. Read more...

The Women in Mathematics Directed Reading Program (DRP) builds an inclusive culture in Math. Read more...

How CS student Fahim Ahmed went from pre-teen hobbyist to founder of Waterloo Blockchain. Read more...

Meet Pengyu Nie, a professor who uses machine learning and natural language processing to improve software engineering. Read more...

Notes and Numbers: JamNetwork club explores the diversity and harmony in music. Read more...

CS professor M. Tamer Özsu receives IEEE TCDE Education Award. Read more...

CS director Raouf Boutaba receives Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision. Read more...

Ian Goldberg receives $800,000 in funding as Waterloo researchers receive Government of Canada funding to solve some of humanity’s most critical problems. Read more...

Liyuan Lin wins Graduate Research Excellence Award. Read more...

Two professors from the Faculty of Mathematics, Ruodu Wang and Aukosh Jagannath, named Canada Research Chairs. Read more...

CS student Jessica Bohm named Co-Op Student of the Year. Read more...

Yaoliang Yu receives Ontario Early Researcher Award to develop pushing-forward deep generative models. Read more...

Janani Sundaresan receives 2024 Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Research Excellence Award. Read more...

Daniel Vogel and colleagues form Inria Associate Team to explore input for real-time interaction. Read more...

Creating a beginner-friendly hackathon: How StarterHacks founders William Nippard and Marium Kirmani built equity and accessibility into their hackathon’s DNA. Read more...

"A push-up to $6.5K USD": William Wang wins big at ETHDenver’s 2024 Hackathon. Read more...

Math Marvels: We sat down with Benoit Charbonneau to talk about his research and administrative work, his love of geometry, and why he does what he does. Read more...

Math students participate in Interdisciplinary Capstone Design Symposium. Read more...

CS Professor Florian Kerschbaum receives $2 million grant from ORF to enhance data security in fintech and manufacturing. Read more...

Second-annual Math Teach-Off has impressive results. Read more...

Computer Science startup SheepIt wins Velocity $5K Pitch Competition. Read more...

Computer Science ranked 21st worldwide as Waterloo rises again in QS World Subject Rankings. Read more...

Hans De Sterck designated Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Read more...

Maura R. Grossman, JD, PhD, answers the questions about generative AI and its implications on the legal system. Read more...

Alfred Menezes named Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research. Read more...

Identifying the next deadly virus: Waterloo researchers use machine learning to classify 191 of the world’s most damaging viruses. Read more...

Math professor’s algorithms could solve the problem of ice buildup on planes. Read more...

2024 Math Doctoral Prize winners announced. Read more...

University of Waterloo names Cheriton School of Computer Science Director Raouf Boutaba a University Professor. Read more...

Decades of Water Data: Doug Mulholland reflects on the environment, his research, and Earth Day. Read more...

Two teams of Waterloo coders take on the global competition at simultaneous 46th and 47th ICPC World Finals. Read more...

Cecilia Cotton and Jordan Hamilton win Distinguished Teacher Awards. Read more...

Applied Math professors receive over $1 million in National Research Council grants. Read more...

Marek Stastna and team awarded $1.65 million in funding for CREATE program. Read more...

We are sad to announce that on January 26, 2024, at the age of 83, Robert William Schellenberg (Kitchener, Ontario), born in Leamington, Ontario passed away. Read more...

We are sad to announce that on February 10, 2024, Scott Goodwin passed away. Read more...

It is with great sadness that we convey the news of the death of Phil Scott. Read more...

Dr. Lawrence V. Saxton of Regina, Saskatchewan passed away peacefully at Wolseley Memorial Integrated Care Centre on October 13, 2022. Read more...

Joseph (Joe) Shortt, a man of adventure and intellect, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 23, 2023. Read more...