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.”
All Waterloo teams performed exceptionally well at the East Central North America International Collegiate Programming Contest, held on Saturday, March 6, including taking the top spot.
“I like to think I’m a curious person,” said Jennifer Haid (BMath ’04), a native of the Waterloo Region. When she learned about Waterloo’s Math Day from her high school math teacher, she decided to attend in hopes of learning about a career path that would leverage her aptitude for mathematics in the business world. “I remember watching a professor deliver a presentation about actuarial science and thinking two things: It was challenging, and I could do it,” she shared.
The University of Waterloo finds itself amongst the top universities in Canada and around the world, according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) worldwide university subject rankings.
Computer Science remains Waterloo’s top-rated subject internationally, ranking 23. Mathematics ranks 35 globally, joining Computer Science in the top 100 this year along with 12 other Waterloo programs. Mathematics and Computer Science are two of three university subjects in the top 50 globally.