About this award
One or more awards, valued at $1,500 or more, will be provided annually to eligible students who have completed an outstanding interdisciplinary project. To be considered, individuals or teams are to submit an application and supporting documentation by April 30 for projects completed after May 1 of the previous calendar year. This fund is made possible by donations from friends and family in memory of Linda Carson, as well as from Linda herself, to promote interdisciplinarity at the University of Waterloo.
Eligibility criteria
- This award is for full-time undergraduate students or student teams enrolled in any faculty who have completed an interdisciplinary project as part of an honours thesis, special topic, project, or reading course.
- Students may apply based on an individual project or on behalf of a team project.
- All candidates must be in good academic standing and have a minimum cumulative average of 70%.
Selection criteria
- Selection will be based on the submission of a description and details of the project as well as an explanation as to why it is interdisciplinary in nature.
- The winning submission will be one that, in the opinion of the selection committee, is the most outstanding interdisciplinary project. To that end, the winning submission should include at least one of the following elements:
- Novelty of perspective: Integrating two or more disciplines that are not commonly combined.
- Novelty of approach: Proposes the application or adaptation of frameworks/tools/methods/techniques from one discipline to solve a problem in another discipline.
- Project design: Project tasks were executed from an integrative perspective with knowledge from multiple disciplines, as opposed to a collage of separately conducted work in several disciplines.
- If a team project is selected, the award funds will be divided equally among the group members.
Application requirements
- Complete and submit this application form including all required documentation. You will be asked to upload all of the following:
- A description of the project completed (maximum 500 words) and why it is interdisciplinary in nature.
- A copy of the course outline.
- A copy of the assignment and assessment criteria.
- Documentation, signed off by the instructor, of the completed project as it would appear in a final presentation or portfolio, formatted as a multi-page PDF. This may include media such as photos, videos, prototypes, infographics, or other relevant research.
- For group projects, a signed document/letter indicating that all members agree to submit the award application is required.
- Team project submissions are to be handled by a designated team lead.
Application deadline: April 30, 2025, for projects completed between May 2024 and April 2025.
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