Nicholas Vadivelu, a Computer Science and Statistics double major and Spencer Whitehead a Pure Mathematics major are the recipients of the prestigious Jessie W.H.
Starting Friday, April 30th at noon, 127 Waterloo undergraduate students found themselves knee-deep in data for 48 hours at the University of Waterloo’s 2021 American Statistical Association (ASA) DataFest.
When Chris Salahub learned he could explore his passion for data in a dedicated math faculty at Waterloo, the high schooler had an easy decision to make. Just two years after graduation, when he was on the verge of finishing a master’s degree in Switzerland, he decided to return for a second degree. “About halfway through my master’s, I realized I wanted to do a PhD,” he remembered. “It just made sense to go back to Waterloo because I had discovered such a supportive community there.”
Like many of her peers, Paige McDougall entered the Faculty of Mathematics with more enthusiasm than direction. “I knew early on that math was a strong subject for me, but I had no idea where I would actually excel,” she acknowledged. With every new class and co-op term, she has found her way through the fog.
“Gaining broad technical skills in artificial intelligence and data science isn’t actually that challenging,” recognized Jaskirat Bhatia. “You can find countless tutorials on Youtube that will teach you the basics. But they can’t tell you which tools to apply to which problems. They can’t guide your learning in any way.” That’s where the Master of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (MDSAI) comes in.
Like many first-generation Canadians, Zahra Hirani (BMath’94) viewed higher education as a likely path to success after a rocky beginning. Born in Uganda to a family of Asian heritage, she and her parents and sister were forced to flee to Canada as refugees in 1974. “Growing up in Ottawa, it was really tough for us to get settled,” she remembered. Her parents emphasized education and she opted to study accounting at the Waterloo Faculty of Mathematics, in large part because its co-op program would provide financial support in addition to relevant work experience.
Two Faculty of Mathematics students were among the finalists in the Concept $5K competition. Greg Maxin from Arbitrium and Nathan Knight from Prospr, competed alongside their teams with the hopes of securing a $5,000 grant for their startups.
Lucy Gao has hardly stopped to take a breath since she accepted a role as an assistant professor of statistics at the Faculty of Mathematics. She graduated with a doctorate in biostatistics from the University of Washington in June 2020 and joined the Faculty a month later. “There are a million things I’m doing for the first time, from working with students in an advisory role to applying for grants,” she shared.
Lindsey Tulloch’s passion for computer science began when a close friend convinced her to install Linux on her desktop instead of Windows. “That’s certainly what got the ball rolling in my software development journey,” she recalled. “I’ve always been a problem solver—I enjoy the aspect of working through something and figuring it out on my own.”
Keshav Chawla has long harboured a passion for computer science and finance. When he discovered a way to pursue both disciplines simultaneously through Waterloo’s Computing and Financial Management program, his choice of university was clear. “I knew how robust and built-out the program was before coming in,” he explained. “Having that combination of both disciplines was the perfect fit for me.”