News archive - April 2018

Thursday, April 26, 2018

The mathematics of quantum information focus of new book

$John Watrous$

A new textbook exploring fundamental concepts in quantum information is now available online or for free download.

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Mathematics graduate students awarded Huawei, Murray Martin Prizes for Outstanding Research Papers

$Sam Harris and Bill Zhang$

The Faculty of Mathematics recognizes three graduate students for their outstanding research papers. Sam Harris from Pure Mathematics and Ahmad Abdi from Combinatorics and Optimization each receive the 2018 Huawei prize, while Michael Cormier from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science wins the Murray Martin prize. The three PhD award winners include:

Monday, April 23, 2018

Does the echo chamber influence strategic voting and electoral outcomes?

$Kate Larson$

When an election is held we often employ a peculiar kind of logic. As we mull over the candidates we may have a top choice, but if we think our preferred candidate isn’t going to win we might vote for our second choice. Or maybe we cast a ballot for our second choice because we want to make sure that a frontrunner who doesn’t represent our view loses.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Researchers find new way of exploring the afterglow from the Big Bang

$Achim Kempf with the Pope$

Researchers have developed a new way to improve our knowledge of the Big Bang by measuring radiation from its afterglow, called the cosmic microwave background radiation. The new results predict the maximum bandwidth of the universe, which is the maximum speed at which any change can occur in the universe.

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is a reverberation or afterglow left from when the universe was about 300,000 years old. It was first discovered in 1964 as a ubiquitous faint noise in radio antennas.

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

WiCS receives 2018 Equity and Inclusivity Award

$Saadiya Desai, Helen (Shiqi) Yang, Anna Lorimer, Arshia Mufti, Fatema Boxwala, Professor Jo Atlee$

The Faculty Association of the University of Waterloo’s Equity Committee has awarded a 2018 Equity and Inclusivity Award to Women in Computer Science — a group of dedicated undergrad students, graduate students and faculty members that promotes women who are interested in studying computer science and who are pursuing careers in computing.