News

Thursday, January 14, 2021

Coding the future of finance

$Chao Qian$

Two years into his undergraduate degree at Sichuan University, Chao Qian regretted his decision to study business management. “I came to the realization that management skills are better learned outside of the classroom,” he said. “I wanted to learn something more solid and quantitative. That’s where my journey to Waterloo began.”

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Faculty of Mathematics professor Ihab Ilyas named ACM Fellow

$Ihab Ilyas is a professor in the University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics' David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science$

University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics professor Ihab Ilyas has been named a 2020 ACM Fellow for his contributions to data cleaning and data integration.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Changing course

$Jonathan Lucki$

A year into his undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo’s School of Accounting and Finance, Jonathan Lucki felt pulled in an unexpected direction. “My whole life, I had plans to be an accountant,” he remembered. "I ended up enrolling in the Math/Business Accounting program within the Faculty of Mathematics. But even before university, math had become my favourite subject in school and I found myself writing computer programs in my spare time for fun."

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Faculty of Mathematics researchers named Vector Institute Faculty Affiliates

Nine University of Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics professors named 2020 Vector Institute Faculty Affiliates.

The cohort includes both new faculty affiliates as well as those returning for a second term. The new faculty affiliates are Ihab Ilyas and Gautam Kamath of the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science.

Thursday, December 24, 2020

The pragmatist

$Alex Hoff$

Like thousands of other business leaders across Canada, Alex Hoff (BMath ’04) reckoned with the harsh financial reality of a global pandemic at the beginning of 2020. “As a leadership team, we had to scale back and make tough hiring decisions once we realized that we couldn’t grow as quickly as anticipated,” he shared.

Friday, December 18, 2020

Driving social impact

$Jinjiang J.J. Lian$

Jinjiang ‘J.J.’ Lian first realized he wanted to become a data scientist while working as a data manager for clinical research at a university healthcare facility in the US. “I noticed that many healthcare workers lacked the skill set to collect and interpret patient data correctly, which negatively impacted patient care,” he recalls. “I decided that whether I ended up in healthcare, tech, or another industry altogether, I wanted to use my data skills to help people.”

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Using AI to clear elective surgery backlog during COVID-19 pandemic

$Doctors performing a surgery$

AI models can optimize health-care delivery to help offset the backlog of elective surgeries caused by COVID-19.

In a new study led by University of Waterloo student Natasha Rozario, machine learning was used to create customized models to optimize the efficiency of operating room (OR) booking times. The model enables a 40 per cent increase in the frequency of ORs running on time.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Mining footprints

$Mei Nagappan$

Professor Mei Nagappan spends most of his time following digital footprints to see where they lead. “The goal of our research is to make the life of a software engineer slightly easier tomorrow than it is today,” he explained.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

“Coding strip” uses comic strip to teach coding

$Sangho Suh, a PhD student in Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science$

Researchers have found a way to use comic strips to teach coding to novice learners.

Coding strips utilize comics to present programming concepts in a more accessible way. They chose comics because it is a medium well-known for its ability to explain complicated concepts and processes effectively through visual storytelling.

Monday, December 14, 2020

Faculty of mathematics students reimagine the hockey fan experience

With COVID-19 preventing hockey fans from watching games in person this year, the University of Waterloo, Rogers Communications, and Sportsnet are seeking new ways to enhance the experience of watching hockey from home. They recently partnered to host the Sportsnet Hockey Hack, a virtual hackathon that challenged Waterloo students to design applications using 5G technology to deepen and enrich fan engagement.