Awards, Honours and Rankings

Jeffrey Azzolin has a plan to give Canada's grand old game a bit of a lift and he’s got at least two former NHL players behind him.

A recent University of Waterloo graduate in mechanical engineering, Azzolin has invented a spring-loaded hockey skate. He says it should improve both speed and acceleration while also reducing knee injuries.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Friday, September 6, 2013) – A professor from the University of Waterloo who is an expert in human rights and race relations in Canada has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC).

Professor Jim Walker of the Faculty of Arts received the honour after his peers selected him from a list of exceptional candidates. He teaches in the Department of History at Waterloo.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Tuesday, August 27, 2013) – A provocative play written and performed by University of Waterloo students to help those entering first year adjust to campus life will celebrate 25 years on the stage on Friday, and will be part of Waterloo's Orientation.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, August 15, 2013) - The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) has named the University of Waterloo among the top 50 universities in the world for academic achievement in engineering/technology and computer science for the second year running.

Waterloo ranked at 43 in the world for Engineering and amongst the top 200 universities overall globally. The results mark the fourth year running that the group has named Waterloo in the top 200 worldwide and places it seventh out of 23 Canadian institutions.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, July 25, 2013) – A wearable health monitor and music-making application were among four winners awarded $25,000 funding from the University of Waterloo VeloCity Venture Fund today.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Thursday, July 18, 2013) – VeloCity, a student startup program of the University of Waterloo, will be announcing the recipients of $100,000 grant funding at the Spring 2013 VeloCity Venture Fund Finals and Demo Day on July 25. Ten finalists are competing for a $25,000 share of the grant funding and the opportunity to build their businesses within the VeloCity program.

A University of Waterloo scientist has won the prestigious W. Garfield Weston Postdoctoral Fellowship in Northern Research for the second year in a row.

Igor Lehnherr, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences focuses on the impact climate change is having on fresh water lakes and ponds in the Arctic.

Devon Rizzo has the shot of a lifetime and it might just be coming at the right time for the fourth-year University of Waterloo varsity golfer. 

Rizzo, an engineering student, has been granted an exemption to play in the one-day qualifying event for the 2013 Manulife Financial LPGA Classic. The Warrior golfer is coming off an impressive second place finish at the Eastern Provinces Championship in Kingston, an event well-known for its deep field of recognized amateur women golfers.

WATERLOO, Ont. (Saturday, June 15, 2013) – More than 5,400 students crossed the stage at the University of Waterloo's 106^th Convocation, taking place this week. There were 4,554 undergraduate degrees and 918 graduate degrees handed out at ceremonies taking place over five days.

Among the highlights:

This year saw the first graduating class from the Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation.

Convocation is a ceremony of ancient traditions and weighty symbols.

Once graduating students have entered the ceremony, faculty members enter walking two by two, followed by university officials, all in their academic finery. Near the end of the procession, a selected faculty member will carry the Mace, a traditional symbol of the university’s authority.