The Welding and Joining Specialization at Waterloo has been strongly supported by a number of Canadian companies. Initial funding for the Welding and Joining Specialization was from donations by the following founding corporate partners and organizations:
- Alcan International Ltd.
- John Deere Ltd.
- Air Liquide Canada Ltd.
- Centreline (Windsor) Ltd.
- Associated Tube Industries
- CWB Group
- Magna International Inc.
- Ventra Group Inc.
- Babcock Wilcox Ltd.
- Panasonic Canada, Inc.
- The Nickel Development Institute
Additional Funding
Additional funding has also been received from:
- Budd Canada Inc.
- TRW Canada Ltd.
- Tregaskiss Ltd.
- Huys Industries Ltd.
These and other companies continue to support the Welding and Joining Specialization in many ways including loaning welding equipment, donations of materials and welding specimens, hosting of plant tours and providing guest lectures on industry specific topics.
As indicated below, some companies and organizations provide scholarships for students enrolled in the Specialization. Finally, many of these companies and others support the Specialization by hiring co-op work-term students and full time graduates from the Specialization.
The first graduates of the Welding & Joining Specialization convocated in May 1999. Since then, more than 139 students have followed. Most now have welding & joining-related jobs, or remain to do postgraduate degrees on welding and joining research.
There were 13 students graduated with the Specialization in the Mechanical Engineering class of 2010 and 12 students in 2011. There are currently 16 students in the class of 2012 taking the Specialization.