Talent

ChatGPT, a language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence (AI), has been making headlines since its launch late last year.

Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy has already been utilizing a generative AI platform since early-2018 to enhance experiential learning for pharmacy professionals and students. Now, the School is looking to incorporate ChatGPT technology in that same platform.

It takes a great artist to create a great violin. The result is even more inspiring if that artist is an intrepid scientist and first-rate engineer. George Yu (BASc ’86, systems design engineering) is all of these things and more.

“We noticed in the last five to seven years a real increase in interest in creative writing courses. Students were asking for them, and our courses were always full with waitlists,” says Dr. Victoria Lamont, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies.

Eden Mekonen is a career advisor at the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Career Action (CCA), and one of two harassment advisors who are working with students to help them identify career paths and make decisions.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Waterloo to pursue collaborative research opportunities within Canada’s nuclear landscape.

Hospital emergency rooms are extremely busy, but a significant portion of avoidable ER visits can now be managed by pharmacists through the new expanded scope of practice for pharmacists, which gives them the ability to prescribe medications for 13 minor ailments.

Bertha Bridget Kankam (MBET ’22) recently completed her master’s degree in business, entrepreneurship and technology (MBET) at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. 

That is a worthy success in and of itself, but Kankam is not your typical MBET student. Better known to many as Yaa Yaa, she is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Ghana.   

Since its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has caused a stir, with a stream of op-eds and news stories focused on the ways the program opens possibilities for academic misconduct by students.

But for professors at the University of Waterloo, interest in the new AI is more about how it can be used in the service of education and how it impacts sectors across the economy.

When Joseph Abdelnour (PharmD ’24, in progress) accepted his recent co-op work term at Avalon Compound Pharmacy (ACP), he never anticipated the new challenges he would face.

With no children’s cold medications available in Ottawa and the inability to order from distributors, pharmacists were advising patients to visit nearby emergency rooms, where they must wait for many hours. The other common advice is to visit compounding pharmacies.