Dr. Nashid Shahriar has won the 2021 Mathematics Doctoral Prize. Now in its third year, these prestigious awards are conferred annually to recognize the achievements of top graduating and graduated doctoral students in the Faculty of Mathematics.
When Sacha Tihanyi was halfway through an undergraduate economics degree at Laurentian University, he recognized a budding passion for mathematics. “I had many broad interests in school, but something flipped for me during that program, and I knew I needed to do a whole different degree focused on math,” he remembered. “I chose Waterloo because it had a reputation as the best mathematics school in Canada.”
Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Kate Larson and her international colleagues have published a commentary in Nature about the need for cooperative artificial intelligence — beneficial AI with social understanding.
AI assistants and recommendation algorithms interact with billions of people every day, yet they have little understanding of humans. Professor Larson and her colleagues argue that AI needs social understanding and cooperative intelligence to integrate beneficially into society.
Eliciting curiosity — the intrinsic desire to explore and to find new information — enhances learning, promotes information-seeking and improves memory. Understanding how to elicit and maintain curiosity in students could help us design educational robots that stimulate interest, engagement and a quest for knowledge.
A team including four Waterloo students came in first place in the Challenge stream of this year’s Challenge4ClimateAction competition.
The winning team, Team Golden Marauders, consisted of Waterloo Double Degree students Miraal Kabir, Alex Shehdula, Daria Margarit, and Martin Turuta. The team also included Hanna Rao from McMaster University and Kiana Dhindsa from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Dr. Zack Cramer, a Lecturer in the Mathematics Undergraduate Group within the Faculty of Mathematics, receives the WUSA Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award is presented yearly by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) to professors who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to undergraduate student learning.
“Imagine being out on a lake on a windy day and you’re getting pushed around by waves,” says Marek Stastna, an oceanographer and professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics. “What you may not realize is that in the interior of the ocean, there are waves one hundred times that size. My passion is to create mathematical models of that type of movement.”
Each year, the University of Waterloo recognizes employees by celebrating their milestones of distinguished service to the University of Waterloo community.
Staff and faculty celebrating 5 to 50 years of service were honoured across a series of virtual events to recognize their contributions and tireless work that have impacted the success of the university. Join in the celebration and view messages of congratulations on the celebration board.
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.