News

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.

Quantum computers will now have help tackling the central problem in their performance – noise.

Joel Wallman, a researcher at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) and assistant professor of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, has developed a protocol that will help deal with the issue of noise in quantum computers so that they can tackle more complex problems.

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.”