News

This fall semester, a new Living and Learning Community (LLC) program focused on Honors Math will launch. The program will connect first-year students living in residence by creating clusters of students who take classes together, live in the same residences, and participate in intentional community-building activities.

Four teams of students from the Cheriton School of Computer Science and the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization, each with a triad of exceptional coders, competed on Saturday, February 25 at the 2022 East Central North America Regional International Collegiate Programming Contest.

Congratulations to Pure Mathematics PhD candidate Jacob Campbell and recent Computer Science master’s graduate Mahbod Majid, the 2023 recipients of the Faculty of Mathematics Graduate Research Excellence Awards. The prestigious recognition comes with a $5,000 cash prize and is conferred annually to two graduate students in the Faculty of Mathematics who have authored or co-authored an outstanding research paper.

Ronald Garth Dunkley (C.M), aged 92, of Waterloo, Ontario, passed away on February 19, 2023. Dunkley was a long time professor in the Faculty of Mathematics, the founding director of the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC), and the co-creator of the Canadian Mathematics Competition. 

RBC President and CEO Dave McKay (BMath ’87) has been named Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year for 2022. This prestigious award is presented annually by Bennett Jones LLP, Caldwell Partners International Inc., and the National Post to recognize outstanding business leadership in Canada.

The Faculty of Mathematics will be partnering with the IC3 Institute, an institution that seeks to promote and nurture guidance and career counselling as a profession. In many countries, including the IC3’s home of India, high school students often do not have access to qualified guidance counselors to help them prepare for higher education and careers after graduation.

Sepehr Assadi, who is joining the Cheriton School of Computer Science as an Associate Professor in July 2023, is one of 125 recipients of a 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Sophie Spirkl, an assistant professor of Combinatorics and Optimization, has received a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Spirkl is one of 125 early career researchers in the United States and Canada who received a Fellowship this year.

Master’s candidate Niki Hasrati and Professor Shai Ben-David have received the best paper award at ALT 2023, the 34^th International Conference on Algorithmic Learning Theory. This year, the annual meeting that explores the theoretical and algorithmic aspects of machine learning will take place in Singapore from February 20 to 23.

When Sarah Wilson graduated high school a year early and started in the Computer Science program at Waterloo, there were big expectations. As a high school student, Wilson was elected as a student trustee for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, served as chair of the Ontario Student Voice Awards with the Ontario Student Trustee Association and volunteered in several community roles.