Future undergraduate students

Systems Design Engineering (SYDE) is a unique program that originated at the University of Waterloo over 50 years ago, with the intention of teaching students methods for designing virtually anything.

A system is an interacting combination of people, materials, tools, machines, software, facilities, and procedures designed to work together for some common purpose. Our students learn to employ a systems approach to design, looking at a given system as a whole before attempting to solve the problem, and seeing how small changes can have much bigger impacts.

In our program, there is a core concentration on methods of modelling, analyzing, and designing systems of all sorts. As well, upper-year students often concentrate on one of four main areas of study:

• Human Systems Engineering
• Intelligent Systems Engineering
• Societal and Environmental Systems
• Systems Modelling and Analysis

Another unique aspect of our program is the exposure to hands-on design projects, which begins in the first term of study. The ability to work as an effective member of a design team is central to the systems approach. Through such experience, SYDE students simultaneously develop their collaborative and management skills along with problem-solving and engineering skills.

Do you prefer to think outside the box?​

If you know that you want to be an engineer due to your technical orientation but you want to keep your opportunities to specialize open and are looking for a challenging program, then Systems Design Engineering may be for you! However, if you’ve always known that you want to design bridges or build a mechanical arm for a machine, you may be happier in a more traditional engineering discipline such as civil or mechanical engineering.

Are you a flexible thinker?

Design is about finding workable solutions for open-ended problems. An open-ended problem consists of being given a situation of concerns, generating solutions, and then selecting and defending the solution that you believe is best for the issue at hand. Alternatively, many people prefer to focus on problems where there is a single “right” answer.

Systems design students are comfortable dealing with ambiguity and defendable decision-making, and enjoy coming up with a variety of solutions to a design problem.

Are you a risk-taker?

Design is about taking calculated risks…because most designs do not work well the first time. In systems design we provide students with a variety of approaches to tackling real-world problems, and then challenge them to see how well they can apply what they have learned. From the student’s perspective, this means being willing to try new things and new ways of thinking about problems. Often, it entails starting on a solution and then making revisions to the approach when it doesn’t turn out as expected. Fortunately, we teach some methods for dealing with that too!

Are you active outside of classes?

The creativity and broad application inherent to systems design is often appealing to students with many extra-curricular interests, whether they participate in music, sports, clubs and committees, community work, or part-time jobs—anything that enables them to see the world from different perspectives. In addition to offering a lot of flexibility in elective courses—more than any other Waterloo Engineering program—we encourage students to participate in competitions, student teams, and other problem-solving and design activities.

SYDE Graduating Class Census - Not your typical Exit Survey

Many universities ask their graduating students to answer a few questions about how they found their program and university experience. For the past several years, volunteers from the SYDE graduating class have created a slide-style report to give a candid insight into how their classmates spent their time at Waterloo and their post-graduation plans. 

• SYDE '17 by Atef Chaudhury and Joey Loi: Highlights (PDF) and full report. 
• SYDE '18 by Krishn Ramesh: Report (PDF)
• SYDE '19 by Nolan Dey and Jason Manson-Hing: Report (PDF)
• SYDE '20 by Stephanie Carras, Earvin Tio, and Tara Yuen: Report (PDF)  
• SYDE '21 by Kevin Chan, Aysha Cotterill, and Diwya De Silva: Report (PDF)