Awards, Honours and Rankings

A social activist who started Waterloo’s software engineering program this semester is passionate about seeing what she can accomplish as a new student.

Charlene Rocha brings with her a wide range of experience from leading climate change events and strikes at Queen’s Park to heading up a Canadian high school chapter of an initiative to 3D print prosthetic limbs and advocating for women in STEM.

This fall, 274 Faculty of Health graduands will celebrate their achievements as students and begin their journeys as alumni of the University of Waterloo. Some will pursue graduate studies, others will be embarking on new careers – but all will be doing what Health graduates do: Improving the health and well-being of individuals, communities or populations.

We asked a couple of graduating students to tell us what motivated them during their studies and what they will miss most as they move on to a new phase of their lives:

For the second year in a row, a winner of a prestigious national scholarship has chosen to study systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Malik Dahel of Montreal started his academic career at Waterloo Engineering this fall as a 2021 Loran Scholar backed by up to $100,000 over four years for living expenses, tuition, summer work opportunities and other benefits.

The University of Waterloo has secured its top spot as most innovative University in Canada. For 29 years, Waterloo held this title, 2020 being the exception. The University of Toronto and University of British Columbia follow in second and third place.

From facilitating affordable, accessible energy to encouraging students to think beyond their job descriptions, empowering students was a common theme for many employers in 2020.  Many employers continue to find new ways to prepare students for a future none of us would have pictured.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, work, and the future of work, has changed considerably. Companies saw their workforce, including some co-op students, working from different countries and some moved to fully remote work.

Three first-year students at Waterloo Engineering are starting their studies with support from a technology giant.

Shivam Jindal of Mississauga, Mulei Mao of Scarborough and Sophia Nguyen of Toronto are among the first 10 recipients of $30,000 scholarships from Amazon.

The new Amazon Future Engineer Canada program was created to help graduating high school students in underserved and underrepresented communities cover their university tuition.

The University of Waterloo has risen to 24^th in the world and top 5 per cent among participating institutions for the 2022 QS Graduate Employability Rankings. With an overall improvement of one spot from 2020 (no rankings were released in 2021), Waterloo saw year-over-year gains across all indicators including:

The start of the term hustle and bustle brings with it a sense of excitement; especially for three new AMTD scholars, who are joining the University postdoctoral community.

Five new students at Waterloo Engineering are starting their academic careers backed by $100,000 scholarships from a prestigious national organization.

Software engineering students Saptarshi Bhattacherya and Kushal Mujral, mechatronics engineering student Shanaya Barretto, Aung Khant Min of computer engineering and Dina Orucevic of systems design engineering are among 10 campus-wide winners of 2021 Schulich Leader Scholarships.

The Schulich Leader Scholarships are a national undergraduate STEM scholarship, established by businessman and philanthropist Seymour Schulich to encourage the next generation of entrepreneurial-minded, technology innovators. This year, the Schulich Foundation is celebrating their tenth anniversary, and in 2021 they’ve awarded up to 100 scholarships to students across Canada entering university. Since 2012, Waterloo has ranked as the top recipient with the largest number of qualifying applicants.