Math Strategic Initiatives

Development of a framework for collaboration in Faculty of Mathematics courses, informed by consultation with instructors and an understanding of best pedagogical practices.  

Feasibility study to define a 2026/27 pilot to promote student collaboration and foster a sense of community through group study opportunities for students in core first-year courses.  

Research project to assess the feasibility of meaningfully integrating ethics and ethical teamwork into the Mathematics curriculum.  

Plan and host a media junket to build awareness of the Faculty of Mathematics’ excellence and impact in fundamental research. 

Enhance existing tools to identify and categorize researchers’ areas of expertise, to help connect them with internal and external opportunities and with one another. 

Establish a sustainable system to group first-year students into “M section” cohorts to help establish peer relationships in first year to help foster well-being and community building for the remainder of their undergraduate careers. 

Achievements to May 2025 include: 

• In fall 2024 the first iteration of the M sections clustering model generated core course cohorts for 97% of students. 

• Fall 2024 M-sections deteriorated by around 30% from the generated clusters to actual final enrolment, due to course-level swaps, no shows and cancellations. 

• Surveys, focus groups and enrolment data analysis identified refinements for fall 2025 M-section clustering, scheduling, and use for orientation grouping. 

Develop and implement a multi-pronged approach to increase the number of Black applicants to Faculty of Mathematics programs.

Achievements to May 2025 include:

• Undergraduate Recruitment Officer secondment completed.
• Global reach expanded for two years with on-the-ground recruitment in Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Ghana, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Trinidad and USA.
• Domestic connections established with school boards and community groups
• Scholarship applicants who identify as Black doubled from 2022 to 2025.

Increase the number of Mathematics Undergraduate Research Awards (MURA) for undergraduates to engage in research opportunities with our faculty members, enriching the undergraduate experience, the research environment, and graduate recruitment efforts. 

Achievements to May 2025 include:

• 86 additional MURAs awarded over three years (over original offering of 20 per year). 

• 49% of all MURAs awarded in past three years were to international students, enhancing access to research opportunities for students excluded from the NSERC USRA program. 

• MURA website updated in 2023/24 for increased clarity and leveraging of all related programs. 

Establish a committee to research, discuss and evaluate possible options for enhancing undergraduate assessment practices in Math to: enhance student learning; encourage greater student engagement; and increase the quality and pedagogical value of feedback provided to students. 

Achievements to May 2025 include:

• Established Enhancing Assessment Practices Working Group and Educational Research Assistant role (1 co-op term in each pilot year). 
• Enhancing Assessment Practices published for instructors. 
• Created Artificial Intelligence in Math Assessment resource.
• Literature reviews completed of assessment in STEM courses and of universal design for learning (UDL) and assessment. 

• Systematic examination of assessment in all syllabi from Math Faculty courses. 

• Assessment-level data collected from all math core courses. 

• Math student questions about assessment included in the Student Experience Survey in alternate years, beginning in fall 2024. 

Introduce new strategic research awards to support specific researcher needs: to reduce obstacles for researchers to lead large collaborative projects; and to mitigate the effects of personal life events that are disruptive at critical career stages. 

• Pilot completed in 2024/25. 

• Bridge Support and Project Leader awards established and launched. 

• Bridge Support Awards provided, enabling continued research productivity during challenging personal times. 

Leverage social media channels through the intentional and regular creation of content to interest and excite more people about mathematics, statistics, and computer science and to highlight Waterloo Mathematics as a destination for top mathematical learning, talent and research.

• Two-year multimedia projects contract position completed
• 29 videos.
• Enriched recruitment campaigns, improved social media engagement and enhanced YouTube presence.

Customize resources for instructors to support students in developing teamwork skills and confidence working in groups, and to enhance the considered incorporation of group work in courses. 

• Pilot ended in 2024/25.

• 5 teamwork skills modules developed and pilot-tested in several COMM, CS and ACTSC courses. 

• Instructor and student feedback used to refine modules. 

• Modules located within the Faculty’s Teaching web space for all instructors to access.

Enhance current undergraduate scholarships by increasing the value and number of scholarships for undergraduate students.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2024/25. 

• Moved to ongoing Faculty operations. 

• Over the course of the pilot, 76 students were offered these scholarships and enrolled. 

• Acceptance rates were significantly higher than for non-scholarship offers and higher than for lower-value scholarship offers. 

• Average performance of these scholarship recipients was well above class averages. 

Host an annual showcase event that incorporates a series of programs and activities to meaningfully engage external partners with faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and their research.

Achievements to May 2024 include:

• Pilot completed in 2024/25.

• Inaugural event: 32 external partners registered; over 150 total attendees on day 1 and 80 on day 2. 

• Based on inaugural event experience, refined to a one-day event with a singular theme (Mitigating Risks of AI): 47 external partners registered; over 200 total attendees. 

• Transitioned in 2024/25 to multiple smaller, focused workshops annually to best meet the needs of researchers and partners. 

The Master of Mathematics for Teachers (MMT) program seeks to engage teachers who are Indigenous or who are teaching in Indigenous communities to encourage mathematical education and continuous learning. This full scholarship opportunity is designed to eliminate financial barriers that may exist for interested teachers and to increase awareness of mathematics amongst Indigenous teachers and the Indigenous communities they serve.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2024/25.

• Moved to ongoing Faculty operations. 

• 20 students accepted scholarships over 5 years. 

Provide Math-funded International Master’s Awards of Excellence (IMAE) to help bridge the tuition differential for international research master’s students and create new prestigious scholarships to attract top students to our doctoral programs.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2023/24.
• Program funding continued in ongoing Faculty operations, integrated into the new graduate funding model (see holistic review of graduate funding, above). Under this model, units determine allocation of funds rather than mandating guaranteed IMAEs in all units.

Develop and implement a large targeted undergraduate recruitment initiative aimed at increasing the number of registered students from India to help achieve the strategic goal of further diversifying the Faculty’s prospective international student pool.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2023/24.
• Moved to ongoing Faculty operations.
• Number of applicants and matriculated students whose last school attended was in India increased over baseline.
• Dedicated recruitment staff and outreach efforts are building a foundation for continued growth through strong connections with schools and school counsellors in India. 

Establish increased opportunities for interested PhD students to teach, supported by a systematic and coordinated training and feedback program.

• Pilot ended in 2023/24.
• Multiple graduate student teaching training programs are in place: the new course MATH 900 University Mathematics Teaching Techniques ; institutional programs (FUT, CUT) and the Wicked Problems course series.
• Mechanisms are in place to provide feedback to graduate students on their teaching.
• The limited number of overall teaching positions available constrains growth in opportunities for doctoral students. The focus going forward will be on improving operational processes to maximize the number of opportunities for graduate students to teach core courses.

Conduct a holistic review of Faculty of Mathematics graduate student funding, to streamline the administration of graduate funding and to enhance overall graduate student funding packages where necessary and as financially feasible. 

• Initiative successfully completed in 2023/24.
• The new model for allocating graduate student funding to units is simplified, facilitates planning, and lets units determine how best to allocate the funds.
• Total funds allocated by the Faculty saw a significant increase in the initial year.

Create a new position to focus on well-being and community within the Faculty of Mathematics. They will work with Faculty and University partners to create initiatives that will impact the lives of students, staff and faculty; create events that raise awareness about mental health issues; and engage in community-building activities to help ensure a positive experience for everybody within the Math Faculty.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2022/23.
• Programming moved to ongoing Faculty operations, supported by the communications and events team and integrated with undergraduate and graduate student relations roles.

Develop an engaging online presence for research in the Faculty of Mathematics, incorporating promotional videos and updated content to showcase our faculty members’ work.

• Initiative successfully completed in 2022/23.
• Professional videos and photography completed to showcase a variety of research areas and groups.
• Content and organization reviewed and updated. Ongoing updates will continue to be made in the context of the Faculty’s overall website maintenance practices.

• Pilot ended in 2022/23.
• Ongoing focus is on connecting Math community members with the growing portfolio of Campus Wellness training opportunities and resources.

Establish instructional support for core and service mathematics undergraduate courses, to improve course instruction, allow instructors more time to focus on student learning and ensure greater uniformity across sections.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2022/23.
• Moved to ongoing Faculty operations.

Create a grant that instructors can apply to for their professional development related to teaching. Provides support to faculty in all units to participate in conferences, workshops and seminars on teaching and learning.

• Pilot successfully completed in 2022/23.
• Moved to ongoing Faculty operations.
• The UW Math Teaching Colloquium and blog posts help disseminate knowledge gained at teaching conferences.
• Other benefits include nurturing a more scholarly approach to teaching and increasing interaction across the Faculty with respect to our teaching mission.

Reinvigorate the previous DDVP program to bring a leading international researcher in mathematics, statistics or computer science to Waterloo to be resident for one academic term and to offer a public lecture and full-term course.

Program paused in spring 2024 due to financial constraints.

Achievements prior to the program being paused included:

• Dr. Mostafa Ammar joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science in Fall 2022
• Dr. Sanjeev Khanna joined the Cheriton School of Computer Science in Winter 2024
• Dr. Philip Maini selected in 2023 to be hosted by Applied Mathematics in Fall 2024

Launch a prestigious postdoctoral fellowship program, which in a steady state will bring six outstanding postdoctoral fellows to the Faculty of Mathematics.

Program paused in spring 2024 due to financial constraints.

Achievements prior to the program being paused included:

• 35 nominations, 19 offers and 6 hires in the first 3 years of the program
• 2022 cohort: 1 AMATH, 1 CS; 2023 cohort: 1 AMATH, 1CS, 1 PMATH; 2024 cohort: 1 CS