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Monday, December 18, 2017

First Indigenous language course offered at Waterloo

by Taylor Legere, University Relations

“Shé:kon, oh niiohtonhátie?,” “Hi, how are you doing?” is one of the first phrases taught in the University of Waterloo’s first Indigenous language course, Introduction to Kanien’kéha.

The Mohawk language course is being offered at Renison University College, partly to fulfill the recommendation from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada for post-secondary institutions to create degree programs in Indigenous languages. 

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Waterloo students reducing mental health stigma with peer-to-peer support

by Taylor Legere, University Relations

Stressed student with text books
Your education is important but it should never come at the cost of your wellbeing says student mental health advocate on campus.

I know that sounds terrifying to people who have put a lot of effort into it but if you need to take a term off, if you need to take a few weeks off, or even if you need to take a day off, or drop a course for your mental health then it’s going to be worth it.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Meet the Autonomous car student design team

by Julie Stauffer, Faculty of Engineering

In October, WATonomous, the autonomous car student design team drove a gleaming white Chevrolet Bolt into the bay at Waterloo Engineering’s Sedra Student Design Centre. By 2018, the car will be driving itself out.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

#16daysUW: Putting gender-based violence in the spotlight

by Taylor Legere, University Relations

The 2017 campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence has ended, but the University of Waterloo’s new sexual violence response coordinator is hoping the conversation continues.

“It’s important to have the 16 days initiative to bring attention to the ongoing issue of gender-based violence and to engage the campus community in a dialogue around this issue in a variety of different ways,” said Amanda Cook, Waterloo’s first sexual violence response coordinator.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Blueprint helps not-for-profits with tech

by Carol Truemner, Faculty of Engineering

When Luisa San Martin heard about Blueprint on a co-op term at Google in Seattle, she knew the student team was the ideal fit for Waterloo. Started at UC Berkeley in 2012, Blueprint partners with not-for-profit organizations to create technology such as websites, mobile applications and analysis tools — all free of charge.

“Some of my fellow interns at Google were members of the team in California,” says San Martin, a software engineering student.  “When I found out more about it, I thought it was a really cool idea and one that I wanted to bring to Waterloo.”

Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo, signed three agreements last week expanding the institution’s teaching and research partnerships with two universities in Hong Kong.

Two of the agreements are with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and include a strategic partnership agreement as well as a memorandum of understanding to increase collaboration.

Waterloo also signed an agreement with Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, where the two institutions have agreed to start an undergraduate exchange program.