Black, gold, and a whole lot of green: Karen Flanagan from Health Services submitted this photo of her son Alex in front of the new Environment 3 building after his convocation ceremony Wednesday. Mr. Flanagan received a degree of Bachelor of Environmental Studies (Honours Planning).

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Convocation at the half with math

With two days of ceremonies behind us and two more to go, the 104th Convocation is coming to a middle. Today, the emphasis on convocation turns to mathematics. A total of 802 mathematics students will receive their undergraduate or graduate degrees today.

This morning's ceremony, which begins at 10:00 a.m., will include mathematics students registered through St. Jerome's University.

John E. Dennis Jr. will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics (DMath). Dennis is the Noah Harding professor emeritus and research professor in tech Department of Computational and Applies Mathematics at Rice University and served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization at Waterloo from 1988 to 1993.

The valedictorian is Alexandra Russell (Mathematical Studies, Statistics Minor).

Matthew Harrison-Trainor (Pure Mathematics) will be given an Alumni Gold medal. Harrison-Trainor is also the inaugural winner of the Jessie W.H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research (see below).

Alfred Menezes of the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization receives the Distinguished Teacher Award.

Jacqueline Kay-Kay Mok Computer Science, Speech Communication Minor) will receive an award for outstanding service by an undergraduate in computer science.

In the afternoon session, Zvi Galil will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics (DMath). Professor Galil is dean of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computer and a fellow of the Association of Computer Machinery.

Valedictorian Ian Charlesworth (Pure Mathematics and Computer Science with Philosophy option) will deliver remarks on behalf of the graduating class.

Actuarial Science graduate Jeffrey David Baer is the winner of the Governor General's Silver Medal. In addition, Baer will receive the Samuel Eckler Medal for highest standing in Actuarial Science.

Stephen M. Watt will receive the J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation.

In addition, Simina Branzei of Computer Science will be recognized with an Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies Award at the master's level and Alexander Peter Nelson, Combinatorics and Optimization, will be awarded at the doctoral level.

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New award celebrates undergrad research

This is an excerpt from a longer piece that can be found here.

Matthew Harrison-Trainor, who convocates today, is also the first recipient of the Jessie W.H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research. The award, valued at $1,000, was created by Professor Ming Li and his family in honour and memory of his late wife, Jessie Wenhui Zou. Ms. Zou studied at Wuhan University in China, and at the University of Waterloo, graduating from the statistical finance master's program in 2000. With this award, the family wishes to support research activities at the undergraduate level within the faculty to carry on her passion for education. The award will be presented annually to an undergraduate student enrolled in his or her final year of any program within the Faculty of Mathematics. Students "must have demonstrated excellence in research and have been nominated by a faculty member who has supervised that research."

Harrison-Trainor, the inaugural winner, also won the Julie Payette-NSERC Research Scholarship, awarded to the top 24 applicants across Canada and has accepted the Berkeley Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was nominated by Professor Rahim Moosa, who supervised his work as an NSERC undergraduate student research assistant.

In this inaugural year, a total of eight Faculty of Mathematics undergraduates were nominated, spanning all of the faculty's departments.

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Engineers convocate tomorrow

Convocation's big finish involves the Faculty of Engineering on Saturday, June 16, when 1,359 students will cross the stage in two ceremonies.

The morning ceremony, starting at 10:00 a.m., will be the first for the university's management engineering program, which was established in 2007 to provide undergraduate students with the "engineering education required to understand, design, implement, and manage complex management systems upon which organizations depend." The first class of 40 students will be receiving their degrees.

This will also be the final Engineering convocation with Adel Sedra as Dean. Sedra is stepping down on June 30 after nine years at the helm of the faculty.

Réal "Ray" Tanguay will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering (DEng). Tanguay was the first Canadian to be named as a managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan in 2005, and has been a strong supporter of the University of Waterloo for many years, introducing Waterloo's co-operative education program to Toyota and helping to establish the NSERC/Toyota/Maplesoft industrial research chair in mathematics-based modelling and design.

The valedictorian for the morning ceremony is Doug Fournier (Mechatronics Engineering).

Matthew Daly of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering receives the Governor General's gold medal for highest standing in a Master's program.

Garry Rempel of the Department of Chemical Engineering is the winner of the award of excellence in graduate supervision.

Isaac Victor Roes (Chemical Engineering) receives the Alumni Gold Medal.

In the afternoon ceremony, which begins at 2:30 p.m., William M. Tatham will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering (DEng). Tatham's name should be a familiar one on campus, as it adorns the William M. Tatham Centre for Co-operative Education and Career Action, supporting the construction of the building with a donation in 2003. A graduate of the University of Waterloo's systems design engineering program, Tatham founded Janna Systems in 1990, which became a world leader in providing software for financial services. He is currently CEO of NexJ Systems.

Alex Sin (Computer Engineering, Management Sciences option) is the afternoon valedictorian.

Rongxing Lu of Electrical and Computer Engineering is the winner of the Governor General's gold medal for highest standing in a doctoral program.

Mohit Verma (Nanotechnology, Management Sciences option) will receive the Governor General's silver medal.

In addition, Arash Shahi (Civil Engineering) will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Graduate Student.

Other faculty awards winners include:

• Mary Elaine Hughes, the Albert Sherwood Barber Medal for best overall work term and academic performance
• Franklin Michael Jeffery Straus, The Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Gold Medal
• Nabeel Khan, The George Dufault Medal for excellence in communication
• Robert Michael Edward Sparrow, the John Fisher Award for Leadership
• Joshua Eli Rosen, The Ontario Professional Engineering Foundation for Education Gold Medal for Academic Achievement
• Hillary Dawn Yeung, the Roy Duxbury Leadership Award

The Sandford Fleming Foundation Medals for Academic Excellence are awarded to:

• John Stuart Haberl Baxter
  
• Harmeet Singh Cheema
  
• Michelle Seeun Cho
  
• Daniel Peter Draper
  
• Evan Daniel Goldenberg
  
• Curtiss Luong
  
• Jeffrey Ernest John McClure
  
• Jason Bradley Neevel
  
• Isaac Victor Roes
  
• Joshua Eli Rosen
  
• Phillip Wang
  
• Sheran Christopher Lalith Wiratunga
  
• Timothy David Worboys
  

The Sandford Fleming Foundation Medals For Co-operative Work Term Proficiency:

• Colin James Ahola
  
• Alex Jared Dueck
  
• Matthew P. Genovese
  
• Rajan Joshua Gill
  
• Christopher Alexander Gist
  
• Imaduddin Mohammad
  
• Kevin Shahbazi
  
• Stanislav Sokolenko
  
• David Edward Michael Sommer
  
• Spencer Russell Bennett Wheatley
  
• Christopher Wiebe
  
• Mikhail Zakharov
  

The Sir Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski Medal for Excellence in Communication will go to Amir Taleghani.

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