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Canadian provinces such as Ontario and Quebec should wait several more months before lifting social distancing restrictions, according to the findings of a new mathematical model developed by University of Waterloo researchers.

The new model, called Distancing-SEIRD, indicates that continuing social distancing at the current levels in Ontario and Quebec for six months (until mid-September), could save close to 100,000 lives. 

The machine learning-enabled model was recently the subject of a study that is pending peer review. 

Every day we learn about the number of new positive cases, the number of deaths and the number of resolved cases of COVID-19. But is there more information we should be collecting about who the virus is infecting?

In open source software repositories such as GitHub — an online platform for software development where developers store their projects and collaborate with other developers — the quality of a coder’s technical contributions is undoubtedly important. Such communities have long seen themselves as meritocracies where code is king and decisions are based solely on technical excellence.

Jackson Mills saw a problem with student feedback. Originally, he thought that students were falling behind in some classes because of a translation error due to the use of jargon. He and another classmate thought that if they translated lectures into more visual metaphors it would eliminate the use of jargon. Although that’s no longer the problem he’s working on, he’s had the chance to explore what it’s like to be an entrepreneur during his Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) term.

“Looking around the table at WATonomous, it’s amazing to see people come together to create something extraordinary.”

Researchers have developed a method that can identify future COVID-19-like viruses within minutes, which could allow for quicker development and deployment of vaccines and treatments. 

In a new study, researchers at the University of Waterloo used a machine learning-based alignment-free approach to accurately and rapidly identify and classify COVID-19 virus genome’s relationship with other viruses.

For two graduate students at Waterloo, unraveling the mysteries of the human genome requires more than just science. These two students, both given a departmental research presentation award by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, are passionate about bringing their skills to the field of biostatistics.

Learn more about the research of Qihuang Zhang and Ce Yang.

“Waterloo is a place where students have the opportunity to try so many different things.”

Many students feel pressured to decide on a defined career path early on in their undergraduate career. Joy Zhang isn’t one of them. The second-year Financial Analysis & Risk Management (FARM) student is embracing the opportunity to explore her options in her time at the University of Waterloo.

As global COVID-19 lockdowns have us sitting through days of videoconferences, it becomes clear that paying attention online is hard work.

In two new papers, researchers from the University of Waterloo and Microsoft Research explore people’s attentiveness in videoconferences to understand how to make the online meetings more comfortable and effective.

The University of Waterloo’s first-ever virtual Concept $5K competition challenged entrepreneurs to pitch to an online audience instead of a packed auditorium. Confident in the value of their creation, the founders of Reflect rose to the occasion and walked away with $5,000 to invest in their growing business.