Engineering

Douglas Wright was the first dean of Waterloo Engineering and the third president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo. He died last week at the age of 92.

The following editorial was published in The Waterloo Region Record. It is reposted here with permission.

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The University of Waterloo that greeted Douglas Tyndall Wright in 1958 was a distinctly unimpressive place.

Park Reilly, a long-time Waterloo chemical engineering professor, died in early May, just 12 days shy of turning 100.

Reilly, who joined the University of Waterloo in 1967, was a respected scholar engaged in research and teaching on the application of statistics in engineering.

He held cross appointments in engineering's management sciences department and math's statistics and actuarial sciences department.

What would our shelter-in-place COVID-19 experiences be like in Canada without engineering technology advancements such as smart phones, Zoom, Amazon or Netflix? What would the mortality outcomes of COVID-19 be without technology advances in health care that have allowed us to decode the novel Coronavirus genome in a month, access geospatial information systems to help pinpoint areas of infection and the use of ventilators to treat critical patients?

Robert Wagner ran into a problem while building a see-through booth so healthcare workers can test people for COVID-19 without using gowns, masks and other scarce personal protective equipment (PPE). 

But it wasn’t a problem for long.

When all he could scrounge up for his contraption were two left-handed gloves, the longtime engineering technician at the University of Waterloo simply turned one of them inside out and carried on.

It began as a few words on a sticky note while a team of engineering students at the University of Waterloo brainstormed ideas for their fourth-year design project.

Now, little more than six months later, the students have a working prototype of a portable, low-cost ventilator they hope could soon help save lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s a total fluke, but our project couldn’t be any more relevant than it is today,” says Connor Simmons, one of four team members from the mechatronics and mechanical engineering programs.

A professor at the University of Waterloo is drawing on two decades of research into disinfection using ultraviolet (UV) light to help solve a shortage of masks for front-line healthcare workers in the COVID-19 crisis.

Bill Anderson, a professor of chemical engineering, has consulted with officials at several hospitals in southern Ontario as they explore ways to reuse N95 respirators instead of throwing them out after each use.

Mary Wells will rejoin Waterloo Engineering as the Faculty's next dean.

Wells, an accomplished materials engineer, is known for her strategic leadership in building collaborative and strong relationships within a university setting and for her work in attracting, engaging and retaining women in the engineering industry.

Wells currently serves as University of Guelph’s Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, a position she has held since 2017.

How do you top the surprise arrival of a Canadian military helicopter carrying special operations soldiers who slide down ropes as it hovers right outside?

About 1,500 young people might just find out this weekend when they come together at the University of Waterloo for Hack the North, a three-day whirlwind of activity that is the largest hackathon in Canada and one of the largest in North America.

There is at least one advantage – and a bit of drawback – to being former rugby players and identical twin brothers on a concrete toboggan team.

Size, strength and symmetry make Russell and Graham Giles ideal pushers to get a 300-pound contraption with five helmeted passengers off to a fast, straight start at annual races.

And the drawback?

Their usefulness at the top of the hill means the Cambridge brothers have never actually got to ride in a toboggan with a concrete sliding surface as it hit speeds of up to 50 km/h on the way down.

Making photocopies wasn’t part of Jordan Grant’s job description. Neither were taking minutes, writing reports or any of the run-of-the-mill duties you’d expect to encounter in your first-year work term.

Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the University of Waterloo, and Jordan Grant, recipient of Waterloo Engineering’s co-op student of the year 2015 award for his Deloitte Tech Exchange competition.