Congratulations to the math and computer science students who are members of companies who were successful in pitches at this past Velocity Fund Finals. The Playful Pixel and Gymnatik are two companies who were successful in being awarded $5,000 while Knote and UpGrain Inc were both awarded $25,000. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the Faculty of Mathematics.
Congratulations are also due to Professors John Watrous and Ruxandra Moraru on being awarded Faculty of Mathematics Awards for Distinction in Teaching. Both John and Ruxandra were nominated for the award by their students for creating a challenging and interesting learning environment.
If you've caught on to the Pokemon Go craze, you're not alone. Professor Bill Cook (who is currently at Princeton) recently applied the Travelling Salesman Problem to the game in order to visit the most PokeStops in the shortest amount of time. This doubles as a note to watch for distracted faculty, staff, and students while travelling around Ring Road.
Good luck to our International Olympiad in Informatics competition team as they head off to Russia to compete against the best. This year's competition runs from August 12 to August 19th.
Congratulations to Mary Thompson, Changbao Wu, Matthias Schonlau and Christian Boudreau, who have received new funding for their role in the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project.
You may have received an email from the Mathematics Orientation team inviting faculty to participate in our annual Orientation Week Earn Your Tie event on Wednesday, September 7. If you're interested and have yet to RSVP, please do so, so the team can prepare accordingly.
And on that note, I hope everyone is able to take time this month to enjoy the summer and spend some time with friends and family. Before you know it, there will be an abundance of fresh faces on campus and we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Stephen M. Watt, Dean
Faculty of Mathematics
University of Waterloo
