1960s
1960
At the invitation of Dean of Engineering Douglas Wright, George Soulis, a prolific mechanical engineer with over 50 patents, joins the University of Waterloo.
1963
Peter Roe, under the supervision of Dr. Hiremaglur K. Kesavan in Electrical Engineering, is awarded the first doctoral degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo.
1964
Professors Soulis, Roe and Kesavan establish the Department of Design within the Faculty of Engineering, with Professor Soulis as Chair. The Department of Design initially focused on two major areas of study: architecture and industrial design, both from an engineering perspective. Professor Soulis also founds the Institute of Design at Waterloo, a collaboration between the Faculty of Engineering and the Doon School of Fine Arts.
Professors Soulis and Roe, with Professor Vir Handa from Civil Engineering, begin teaching engineering design (GE 11) to all first-year undergraduate engineering students.
1965
The Department of Design offers a master’s degree program in engineering design.
1967
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition (Expo 67) is held in Montreal, Quebec.
Soulis joins the University’s design team for Expo ’67, which worked on three pavilions at the event, including Kaleidoscope, one of the most popular exhibits.
The Department of Design offers a doctoral degree program in engineering design and an undergraduate program in architecture.
Professors Soulis, Roe and Handa publish The Discipline of Design to serve as the foundation of teaching undergraduate engineering design.
1968
The Department of Design becomes the Department of Systems Design Engineering (SYDE), with Dr. Kesavan as Chair. The SYDE undergraduate program is approved by the Engineering Faculty Council.
Why ‘SYDE’? The name combines the research interest areas of Soulis in design and Kesavan in the graph theoretic approach to systems modelling.
1969
The first cohort of 60 Systems Design Engineering undergraduate students is admitted. SYDE faculty cold-called prospective students to build awareness of the program!
1970s
The primary location of SYDE offices, classrooms and labs in Engineering 2 (E2). Leonardo da Vinci's The Vitruvian Man, which blends science, art and philosophy becomes the department's unofficial symbol.
1972
Professor T. Morris Fraser, a medical doctor who introduced the human systems aspect to the department, becomes Department Chair.
1974
The first SYDE undergraduate class graduates.
1978
Professor Koncay Huseyin, an expert in chaos theory and non-linear dynamical systems becomes Department Chair.
1980s
1980
Professor Ed Jernigan forms the Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Research Group. VIP grew to become one of Waterloo’s largest graduate research groups, led by SYDE faculty Professors David Clausi, Paul Fieguth, Alexander Wong, and John Zelek.
1981
Professor Soulis joins the Shad Valley summer program to attract outstanding high school students to the University of Waterloo.
The Canadarm, Canada’s most notable robotic achievement, was signed over to NASA and travelled to space. It remained in space for 30 years, completing 90 missions.
1984
Professor Ed Jernigan becomes Director of the Waterloo Shad Valley program and will hold the position until 2015.
1987
Professor Muthu Chandrashekar becomes Department Chair. Dr. Chandrashekar (MASc ’70, PhD ’73, systems design engineering) was a researcher in solar energy and developed computer models for the analysis and design of energy systems.
1990s
1990
John Vellinga (BASc ’91, systems design engineering) founds the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Foundation (WEEF), with Avi Belinsky (BASc ’90, electrical engineering). The interest from the fund is used to purchase equipment for undergraduate engineering education. The endowment reached $20 million in 2021.
1993
Professor Keith W. Hipel (BASc, ‘70, civil engineering, MASc, ’72 systems design engineering, PhD ’75 civil engineering) becomes Department Chair. His research interest is in conflict resolution and decision-making methodologies applied to societal and environmental systems.
Dr. Hipel hosts the first International Conference on Water Resources and Environment Research (ICWRER) at the University of Waterloo in honour of SYDE Professor T.E. Unny.
1996
SYDE hires its first female tenure-track faculty member, Professor Carolyn MacGregor (BA '83, psychology). Dr. MacGregor's research interest is human factors engineering.
1998
Professor Ed Jernigan becomes Department Chair
Professor Hipel is elected to the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). In 2011, he receives the Society’s Sir John William Dawson Medal in recognition of his contributions of knowledge in multiple domains.
2000s
2002
Professor John McPhee, with Professors Rob Gorbet, Jan Huissoon and Farid Golnaraghi from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, found the Mechatronics Department
2004
Professor Glenn Heppler, an expert in dynamics of structures, and multilink and single link systems, becomes Chair.
SYDE completes the first major proposal for a Biomedical Undergraduate Engineering program
2008
Professor Jernigan founds the Knowledge Integration program in the Faculty of Environment, a program for problem-solvers who transcend disciplines.
2010s
2010
Dr. Paul Fieguth, an expert in multiscale statistical modelling and machine learning becomes Department Chair
SYDE moves into the new building, Engineering 5.
2014
The first cohort of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students is admitted.
2017
Dr. Paul Calamai serves as acting Chair
2018
SYDE celebrates its 50th anniversary
Teaching and research labs in Douglas Wright Engineering (DWE) become dedicated Biomedical Engineering spaces.
2019
Dr. Maud Gorbet, an expert in biocompatibility in ocular and cardiovascular environments, serves as interim Chair
The first cohort of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students graduates.
2020s
2020
Dr. Lisa Aultman-Hall, an expert in transportation systems and associated emissions, becomes Chair
Professor Alexander Wong elected to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists
The Autonomous Vehicle Research and Intelligence Lab (AVRIL) opens
2025
The Biomedical Engineering Graduate program admits its first cohort of students.
Professor John McPhee elected to the Royal Society of Canada
2026
The first master’s student graduates from the Biomedical Engineering graduate program.