Waterloo management engineering students came second and third in the IIE Ryerson-Siemens Competition hosted by the Ryerson University student chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers on September 30. The competition, in which over 100 engineering students representing Waterloo, Ryerson and the University of Toronto took part, was sponsored by Siemens and Canadian Tire.
Current students and graduates of University of Waterloo School of Architecture are hosting four installations at this year’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche that is being held in Toronto, Ontario starting at 7pm on Saturday, October 1.
Tech-savvy students will put their coding skills to the test during the Great Canadian Appathon taking place September 30 to October 2 at the Conrad Business and Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre and other university and college ‘hubs’ across the country. Student teams will have 48 hours to create a mobile game they think could become the next top selling smartphone app. CBET already has over 30 teams registered, more than three times the number that particpated last year.
Congratulations to Maclean’s on publishing an article highlighting the need to encourage more top Canadian engineering students to pursue graduate studies in Canada. (“Engineering: The home advantage),” Maclean’s magazine, September 19, 2011)
It should be noted, however, that many Ontario engineering schools have already begun to make significant progress in this regard under the Government of Ontario’s “Reaching Higher” program.
Members of Waterloo’s EcoCAR team received $25,000 from corporate sponsor GM Canada on September 21 to help fuel their drive towards the greening of a Chevy Malibu.Fifteen universities across North America are competing in the EcoCAR 2 challenge that spans three years and is intended to produce an environmentally-friendly vehicle people will want to buy and drive. “Cars are around to stay whether we like it or not,’ said Josh Lo, a chemical engineering student. “Reducing pollution and making cleaner cars is always going to be a goal.”
University of Waterloo research project looking to expand the concept of a “smart grid” beyond electricity is receiving a $10,000 grant from Union Gas to create a fully integrated “smart energy network.” The project being run by the Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Energy is building on work ongoing in Ontario to develop a smart grid for the province’s electricity system, using digital two-way communication to allow utilities to respond instantly to changes in demand and automatically fix power outages, as well as giving consumers more control over how and when they use power.
David Weckman of mechanical and mechatronics engineering has been honoured with the American Welding Society’s 2011 Charles H. Jennings Memorial Award for most valuable paper written by a college student or faculty representative published in the Welding Journal during 2010. It is the second time Weckman has won the award. The paper entitled Double-Sided Arc Welding of AA5182-O Aluminum Sheet for Tailor Welded Blank Applications was co-written by Jeff Moulton, Weckman’s graduate student. The award will be presented in November at the AWS annual awards lunch in Chicago.
David Roulston, an internationally recognized researcher in bipolar semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, who was a faculty member in Waterloo’s electrical engineering department from 1967 to 1996, will be recognized with an honorary doctor of engineering degree at fall convocation on October 22. Roulston will also be the central figure of a “celebration” October 20-22 that will include several social events and a Friday afternoon public lecture.
Keith Hipel, a professor of systems design engineering, is the recipient of this year’s Royal Society of Canada’s Sir John William Dawson Medal. Hipel, who was named an RSC fellow in 1998, will be awarded the medal November 26 at the Ottawa Convention Centre.
First-year students weren’t the only ones attending orientation sessions last week — new engineering faculty members were also officially welcomed to Waterloo Engineering. On September 8 new professors were greeted by Adel Sedra, dean of engineering, and listened to presentations made by four associate deans of engineering.