News

Waterloo researchers feature prominently in NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization competition

The University of Waterloo emerged as the Canadian institution with the largest involvement in the latest round of submissions selected by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization process.

School shutdown drives students, parents and teachers to Waterloo’s math and computer science courseware, increasing engagement by more than 200 per cent

When schools closed down due to the coronavirus pandemic, parents, teachers and students across Canada turned to the University of Waterloo Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC) website, increasing engagement with its courseware by 200 per cent.  

Not long after beginning his graduate program at Waterloo, Matthew Sullivan discovered a passion for Ultimate Frisbee. Today, he serves as the chief of the Ultimate Frisbee intramural program while continuing to referee and play as often as he can. Close to 450 students sign up to play every autumn. “Things like age, gender, or program don’t matter out there,” says Matthew. “Any student can go out and play. Like all the intramural sports at Waterloo, Ultimate provides a great way to de-stress, stay in shape, and balance the academic with the social.”

As many kids get ready to go back to school during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study indicates ways to minimize outbreaks and their impact on in-person instruction. 

The start of the Spring Term, at the height of COVID, had instructors moving their courses to a remote format with students spread across time zones. It changed delivery, assignments and testing as in the case of Anton Mosunov, an award-winning lecturer in the Faculty of Mathematics who altered the MATH 135 midterm to an oral exam.

Men who have sex with men (GbMSM) and who get tested at least once annually on average could help prevent a rise in bacterial sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a new study.

PhD candidate Stavros Birmpilis, co-supervised by Cheriton School of Computer Science Professors George Labahn and Arne Storjohann, has won one of two Distinguished Student Author Awards at ISSAC 2020, the 45^th International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation.

Most master’s students a year into their graduate program are hopeful their research will contribute to their discipline, but few will crack a long-standing problem and in so doing develop a solution that’s a major advance in the field.

The Ontario government contributed $148,000 for Chris Bauch’s research project, “How to Re-open Ontario's Economy Without Causing a Resurgence of COVID-19”.

Motivated by prior research that reports elevator buttons as a huge source of contamination, a new study co-authored by Waterloo Faculty of Math student presents a touchless elevator concept to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Prior research shows that elevator buttons produce the highest rate of bacterial contamination (97 per cent) and can house more germs than toilet stall surfaces. However, for many people (especially health-care and front line workers), elevators are a daily necessity.