News

This afternoon, the School of Planning will celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of our 2023 graduates. Among this group of individuals are three doctoral (PhD) graduands who have proven their extraordinary level of academic aptitude and become subject-matter experts in areas related to planning. One of our newest PhD alumna, Dr. Niloofar Mohtat, was profiled along with other graduating PhD students from across the university. 

The School of Planning would like to extend a huge congratulations to Professor Pierre Filion for being inducted into the Canadian Institute of Planners' College of Fellows.  

Each year, the students from the University of Waterloo's Planning Students’ Association (PSA) and the Toronto Metropolitan’s Association of Planning Students (TMAPS) host the Waterloo - Toronto Metropolitan Undergraduate Planning Conference (WTMUPC) to build bridges, learn from each other, and connect in a fun way! This year's theme was "Cities in 2050", with threads of future, sustainability, and reconciliation.  

The School of Planning's Dr. Leia Minaker has recently published a report in partnership with Heart & Stroke which details how food and beverage companies employ dozens of tactics to market their products directly to children at point-of-sale locations across Canada, such as grocery stores and restaurants.

Updated March 2,  2023 - Domestic application deadline extended from January 15th to June 1st for MA/MES. Please contact potential supervisors prior to applying to discuss your interest in this program and confirm that they are still accepting new students.  

Congratulations to Alan Mak (Accounting and Finance), Matthew Van Bakel (Planning), Nathan Lee (Civil Engineering), and Samantha Kerry (Architectural Engineering) for winning the First Place Grand Prize at the Expand Your Empire Development Conference.

This year, the PLAN 211: Design Studio Foundations course, taught by Dr. Katherine Perrott, has partnered with the Sustainability Office to produce urban design visualizations that explore the possibilities of what the future of the University of Waterloo campus could look like when meeting the University’s sustainability goals. The students’ first project was to create a general idea of a sustainable campus by submitting prompts into the new cutting-edge technology: DALL-E 2. 

On November 23, the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada announced its support for a research project led by Dr. Michael Drescher, Professor in the School of Planning: “Residential development Impact Scorecard for the Environment (RISE) – An assessment tool for carbon stock and greenhouse gas impacts of residential developments”

School of Planning Associate Professor Michael Drescher and Associate Professor Luna Khirfan raise their concerns about the Government of Ontario's recently proposed a new bill, the More Homes Built Faster Act, or Bill 23 in an article published in "THE CONVERSATION".

We are pleased to see a large participation from students and faculty at the 2022 ACSP Conference.

The School of Planning's participation in the ASCP conference this year is excellent. You will find a number of student and faculty talks throughout the 3 day event starting on November 3rd and ending on November 5th.  The School's daily participation schedule is included below. We hope to see many more of you during the event. You can learn more about the event and view the full schedule at ACSP 2022.