Newtonville, a tabletop eco-friendly city, along with its enthusiastic Engineering and Science Quest camper architects provided the backdrop for the federal government’s $1.25 million Actua funding announcement made August 17 in E5. Actua is a national science, engineering and technology youth outreach network of which Waterloo’s ESQ and nine other Ontario university organizations are members.
Students from the University of Waterloo, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the University of Victoria today joined representatives from the federal government and General Motors to launch the universities’ participation in EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future. The latest advanced technology vehicle competition challenges these Canadian engineering students, together with 13 U.S. university teams, to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles without compromising performance, safety and other features.
University of Waterloo is among the best in the world in engineering and computer sciences. That is according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, which released its 2011 findings on August 15.
The influential ranking placed Waterloo in the top 52 to 75 universities worldwide for engineering and computer sciences, ranked with 24 other well-regarded institutions from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Europe, and Asia.
If you have ever had a question about adjusting to university life, planning your career, conducting a job search, entering the working world, dealing with an ethical conflict, or a similar topic, you might want to check out ‘Ask an Eng Alumni’.
The Engineering Undergraduate Office and the Engineering Alumni Office are launching a new on-line discussion board that connects students and engineering alumni. A group of seasoned engineering alumni have volunteered to share a wealth of knowledge, insights and experiences gained in developing successful careers.
Collaboration between University of Waterloo researchers and Ontario businesses was officially celebrated August 9 in Engineering 3. Under FedDev Ontario’s Applied Research and Commercialization Initiative the University of Waterloo has received $750,000 to partner with businesses on a total of 16 research projects. Duane Cronin of mechanical and mechatronics engineering spoke about his research at the event attended by government and university officials. Cronin is working with Polefab Inc. to make traffic and lighting poles safer and more stable in accidents.
Mohammad Bozchalui, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student, was recently honoured as the winner of MPrime’s award for Best Novel Use of Mathematics in Technology Transfer. MPrime, Canada’s only Network of Centres of Excellence for the mathematical sciences, brings together academia, industry and the public sector to develop mathematical tools vital to the knowledge-based economy. Bozchalui received his award at the seventh International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, which was held in Vancouver.
Four engineering researchers will benefit from the $12.7 million in provincial research funding to be received by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. The grants announced August 2 by Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Leeanna Pendergast in Waterloo’s Engineering 5 building will fund a total of 25 Waterloo and WLU projects. The engineering researchers receiving funding for their work are Slim Boumaiza and Patrick Mitran, both of electrical and computer engineering, James Craig of civil and environmental engineering, and Maud Gorbet of systems design engineering.
Vanessa Bohns, who joined Waterloo’s management sciences department last month, has been attracting media attention with work she did at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Bohns and a colleague showed that posture has a lot to do with the amount of pain a person can tolerate. Adopting a dominant posture can make you feel stronger while adopting a more submissive posture can make pain feel worse. Bohns was interviewed on the CBC and her research has been included in the Toronto Star and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The nominating committee established to identify a successor to Adel Sedra has begun its work. Sedra, who is also a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, joined the University of Waterloo in 2003 and will finish his second term as dean next year. A memo written by Provost Geoff McBoyle says input and feedback are welcomed by members of the search committee or others until this Sunday, July 31. Sedra says he still has a lot to accomplish between now and July 1, 2012 when the new dean officially takes office.
Waterloo’s Autonoumous Robot Racing Team took all four top awards in the International Autonomous Robot Racing Competition held July 23 and 24 at the University of British Columbia. The team received the overall grand award and won first place in the design competition, the drag race competition and the circuit competition. The team’s winning entry was a redesigned version of the vehicle that crashed just before last year’s competition. [race website]