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There was no denying it. The existing University of Waterloo campus map was out of date for a school leading the country in technical innovation. The map needed replacing.

With its renowned Geography, Geomatics and Planning programs, and as an Esri Canada Centre of Excellence, the Faculty of Environment was the perfect candidate to bring the University of Waterloo’s campus map up to date. 

The 9,000+ students from across Canada and around the world joining the University of Waterloo as new students this September all have one thing in common: an invitation to attend Fall Orientation 2015.

That’s where the similarities end though, because Waterloo is welcoming a diverse group - everyone from first-year students and transfer students to graduate students. Waterloo’s Orientation programs have evolved to support this diverse student community.

They are travelling from as close as Oakville, Ontario and as far away as Coquitlam, British Columbia, but this year’s Schulich Leader scholarship winners were all drawn to the Univeristy of Waterloo by its reputation for innovation, high standards, and entrepreneurial spirit.

For some, calling Waterloo home will mean the realization of a lifelong dream:

The transition to first-year university is a big one for all incoming students, but for January Fan, a student originally from Shanghai, China, the challenges were greater because she didn’t know a single person on campus.

The University of Waterloo will welcome about 9,000 new students for Fall Orientation 2015 with events that include new undergraduate, graduate and international students, parents and community members.

Programming starts tomorrow with a new three-day program for undergraduate international students in their first year. Orientation for all students takes place between September 6 and 12. Members of senior administration, deans, faculty and orientation leaders will help students move into their new homes on campus on the Sunday and Monday of the Labour Day weekend.

Professor Ian Milligan at the University of Waterloo is charting the content of millions of archived political web pages spanning the last decade, allowing the public to compare what Canadian political leaders and pundits said in the past compared to now.

Photo credit: Johner Images/Getty Images

Very sick children in need of mental health treatment are ending up in adult psychiatric units because there’s nowhere for them to go when they are in crisis, says a Waterloo researcher.

On Tuesday, August 18, local startup Varden Labs will achieve a first in Canada when they run their autonomous (self-driving) shuttle on Ring Road at the University of Waterloo main campus.

This is the first time an autonomous vehicle will run on Canadian roads. Varden Labs was co-founded by two University of Waterloo Mechatronics Engineering students, Alex Rodrigues and Michael Skupien.

With visually impaired athletes competing in everything from cycling to judo at the 2015 Parapan Am Games in Toronto, spectators may wonder how organizers keep the competition fair for all athletes.

How do athletes know they are competing against others who share a similar visual impairment? How important, for example, are certain types of vision for each sport?