Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) alum Christopher Pratley (BASc '91) represented Microsoft at the Waterloo Engineering Alumni Achievement Medal and Award ceremony last week to accept the Friend of the Faculty Award.
Pratley joined Microsoft a few years after graduating from Waterloo and currently serves as Corporate Vice President of media-related services, products and technologies in Office 365.
Spanning over three decades, the partnership between Microsoft and Waterloo Engineering continues to transform students’ lives with incredible learning and research opportunities.
Microsoft's investments towards student scholarships, experiential education at the IDEAs Clinic and co-operative employment have helped build a growing global pipeline of talent that meets the needs of industry and understands the challenges facing society.
Harold Javid and Christopher Pratley from Microsoft.
In addition, Microsoft provides Waterloo Engineering with support to further research and innovation focused on driving economic prosperity and improving the human condition. Its support of Waterloo.AI has given Faculty researchers access to funding, technology and expertise to explore innovative research in many aspects of artificial intelligence and machine learning across a wide range of disciplines.
Since 1987, Microsoft Canada and Microsoft U.S have together hired over 2,600 co-op students from Waterloo. Today, over 500 UWaterloo alumni are employed by Microsoft and its subsidiaries around the world.
“I urge all Waterloo engineering students to make the most of their co-op experiences,” Pratley says. “Not all will be the thing you want to do but they will help you figure out what it is you do want to do.”
Go to Celebrating alumni achievements and industry support for a full list of 2022 medal and award winners.