News

Extracted from University of Waterloo's story on September 21, 2020

When investors logged in to Y Combinator’s virtual summer 2020 Demo Day, they got to see Waterloo entrepreneurship in action. Four companies with ties to Velocity and the University of Waterloo took part in the event, including one co-founded by a recent Math alumnus, which brought together a class of 198 of founders from 26 different countries.

The 2019/2020 recipients of the Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching are Jordan Hamilton and Kathryn Hare.

The award recognizes the teachers’ consistent demonstration of outstanding pedagogical skills and a deep commitment to their students’ education.

The faculty presents a maximum of two Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching annually. Outstanding teachers at all levels, from first-year through to graduate studies, are eligible with recipients receiving a public citation along with a cash prize.

Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Jeffrey Shallit is one of five foreign members elected to the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters for 2020.

James Petrie places a high premium on intellectual freedom. After graduating with a degree in Engineering Physics from the University of British Columbia (UBC), he accepted a position as a firmware engineer for a leading multinational technology company. “A few months in, I realized I was missing the opportunity to view problems through a wider lens and pursue the things that interested me most,” he remembers.

Over 20 educators from the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics came together to develop a new course designed to help secondary school students whose education was interrupted abruptly by COVID-19.

The new online, skills-based course, MTHEL 199, gives Waterloo’s incoming students extra practice in six branches of mathematics: inequalities and absolute values, radicals and rational expressions, trigonometry, exponential and logarithmic functions, polynomials, and introductory calculus. 

Remembering Scott Vanstone and tracing his connections, influence and career

In 1972, Scott Vanstone (BMath '70, MMath '71, PhD '74) walked into Ron Mullin’s (MA '60, PhD '64) office and told him he wanted to be his student. Originally, Scott started studying chemistry at the University of Waterloo, but switched to math.

“While working as an instructional support assistant (ISA), I remember the first time a professor asked for a volunteer to teach a lecture while he was at a conference,” remembers Josué Kurke. “My hand shot up. I donned a professorial kind of jacket with the elbow patches and went all out. Over time, I’ve realized that I feel most at home in front of a classroom. I want to spend my career talking to people about math.”

More than doubling last year’s recipient pool, incoming Waterloo students are recognized with $80,000 and $100,000 Schulich Scholarships

A group of exceptionally talented incoming students are making their way to Waterloo with a prestigious scholarship in tow.

Thanks to a $100+ million investment by entrepreneur and philanthropist Seymour Schulich, Waterloo has more than doubled its recipient pool from previous years, allowing selected students pursuing STEM programs to begin their post-secondary careers with an extra $80,000 or $100,000.

With most classes continuing online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics has had to adapt other aspects of campus life, such as orientation.

The Fall 2020 orientation week, which runs from September 1st to September 7th, is completely virtual.

The nearly 2,600 incoming Faculty of Mathematics students are therefore experiencing an orientation like none before. The faculty’s orientation teams have expended great effort to recreate the fun and interactive aspects that are usually experienced by incoming students.

The University of Waterloo and Rogers Communications partner on advanced research for Canadian-made 5G solutions in a real-world setting

The University of Waterloo has become one of the first 5G smart campuses in Canada as part of a partnership with Rogers Communications that leverages the University’s global leadership in computing, engineering and co-operative education.