Mathematics convocation today

Friday the 13th is Math's day to shine at Convocation, as 353 St. Jerome's University and Waterloo students receive their degrees in Applied Mathematics, Combinatorics and Optimization, Computational Mathematics, Information Technology Management, Mathematical Economics, Mathematical Finance, Mathematical Physics, Mathematical Studies, Mathematics/Business Administration, Mathematics/Charted Accountancy, Mathematics/Financial Analysis and Risk Management, Mathematics/Teaching, Mathematics Three Year General, Operations Research, Pure Mathematics, and Scientific Computation/Applied Mathematics.

Professor Dan-Virgil Voiculescu will receive and honorary Doctor of Mathematics. Professor Voiculescu is professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. Born in Bucharest, Romania, he studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest, earning his doctorate in 1977. Since his appointment at Berkeley in 1986, he has held visiting positions at Centre de Recherches Mathématiques Montreal, at the Institut Henri Poincare in Paris, and at Université Paris 7. In his distinguished career, he has published more than 100 research papers in the fields of operator theory and operator algebras, and his work has been recognized by fellowships and awards. He has been invited to address the International Congress of Mathematicians on two occasions, in 1983 and 1994.

Vithushan Jeyakumaran will deliver the valedictory address.

Levent Tunçel will receive the Distinguished Teacher Award.

In the afternoon ceremony, beginning at 2:30 p.m., 734 graduands will cross the stage to receive their degrees in Actuarial Science, Bioinformatics, Business Administration and Mathematics, Computer Science, Computing and Financial Management, Health Informatics, Quantitative Finance, and Statistics.

Professor Ronald Rivest will receive an honorary Doctor of Mathematics. Professor Rivest is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is one of the world’s pre-eminent cryptographers. His most well-known achievement is the co-invention in 1977 of the RSA public-key encryption and digital signature schemes, and he has co-founded several successful companies including RSA Data Security and Verisign. As well, he is co-author of Introduction to Algorithms, arguably the most widely- used algorithms textbook in the world. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the 2002 AM Turing Award.

Carmen Quan will deliver the valedictory address.

Jeromy Carriere will receive the J. Wesley Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation.

Jeremy Roman will receive the Governor General’s Silver Medal, which is given out for the highest standing in an undergraduate degree program.

Luke Schaeffer will receive receive the Governor General’s Gold Medal, given out for the highest standing in a Master's program.

Pravin Varadarajan will receive the University of Waterloo Alumni Gold Medal in recognition of academic achievement.

Alexander Shum will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

Jeromy Carriere will receive the J. Wesley Graham Medal in Computing & Innovation.

The Jessie W.H. Zou Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research will go to Gareth Davies.

Niall MacGillivray will receive the Samuel Eckler Medal for highest standing in Actuarial Science.

Marcel Silva will receive the award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies (doctoral).

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Engineering convocation tomorrow

Convocation closes out Saturday with two ceremonies for Faculty of Engineering graduates.

On the morning of Saturday, June 14 at 10:00 a.m., 811 students will receive degrees in Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geological Engineering, Management Engineering, Management Sciences, Mechanical Engineering, and Mechatronics Engineering.

Professor Bruce Rittmann will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering. Professor Rittmann is director of the Biodesign Institute in the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology, and is a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. As a distinguished academic and a successful innovator with multiple patents, he earned his PhD in environmental engineering from Stanford University in 1979 and he is considered to be a world leader and a visionary in the area of environmental biotechnology. Among his many achievements, he has successfully developed new methods to deal with a variety of environmental problems such as cleaning up pollution, treating water and wastewater, capturing renewable energy, and improving human health.

Michael Weingert will deliver the valedictory address.

Stanley Craig will receive the Alumni Gold Medal, which is given out in recognition of academic achievement.

In Saturday's afternoon ceremony, which starts at 2:30 p.m., 652 students will receive degrees in Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Nanotechnology Engineering,
Software Engineering, Systems Design Engineering.

Professor Ralph Keeney will receive an honorary Doctor of Engineering. Keeney is professor emeritus of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California and a research professor emeritus at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He earned his doctorate in operations research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, and he has pioneered the development, use, and dissemination of systems engineering concepts and techniques that help governments, businesses, and individuals facing important decisions. In 1995, he was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the highest honour for an engineer in the United States.

Ayman Nadeem will deliver the valedictory address.

Mehrdad Eichel will receive the Amit and Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

Matthew Brymer will receive the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering Gold Medal, which is granted for outstanding academic achievement in mechanical engineering:

Muhammad Iqbal will receive the George Dufault Medal for Excellence in Communication.

Christina Belbeck will receive the John Fisher Award for Leadership.

Ming-Ho Yee will receive the Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education Gold Medal for Academic Achievement.

The Roy Duxbury Leadership Award will go to Alexander Rosewarne.

Sonja Vangjeli will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies award (master's) and Shiva Abbaszadeh will receive it in the doctoral category.

Anthony Cerami will receive the Sir Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski Medal for Excellence in Communication.

A number of students will receive the Sandford Fleming Foundation medals for Academic Excellence and for Co-operative Work Term Proficiency.

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Celebrating Global Experience Certificate grads

by Kayla Dixon.

This week 28 UWaterloo students will celebrate their convocation with a Global Experience Certificate (GEC). The GEC gives students the opportunity to participate in an international study term, co-op work term or volunteer experience to broaden their perspectives on the world around them and learn in an international setting.

More than 250 students, from all faculties, are currently working toward completing the certificate’s required components; three for-credit courses, an international experience, and a cross cultural volunteer experience. To get an idea of what exactly these students are doing please take a look at our GEC student profiles. They inspire us with their passion!

As the University of Waterloo re-affirms its internationalization goals through strategic planning, it’s important to share and acknowledge how our students are choosing to ‘internationalize’ their undergraduate degrees. The GEC is one of the ways that Waterloo International is helping the University of Waterloo to educate globally literate and world ready graduates. To learn about the many ways students can internationalize their degree, visit the Waterloo International website.

 

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The only thing missing was the ants

by Carrie Gabla.

The weather gods bestowed a perfect day last Friday for the annual Keystone picnic. A record crowd of faculty, staff and retirees filled the DC quad to enjoy a barbeque lunch, win a prize, satisfy their sweet tooth with a cupcake or candy floss, and laugh with colleagues as unfortunate “volunteers” succumbed to a fast arm and the chilly depths of the dunk tank.

The picnic committee wants to extend their sincere thanks to the many prize donors and sponsors, to the senior leaders who pitched in to serve food, and most of all, to the hundreds of people who came out to “celebrate family” at Waterloo.  

If you are inspired to join your colleagues in support of Waterloo, please consider making a gift in support of our University and visit our online giving page.

Check out all the fun photos on the Keystone Picnic event page. See you next year!

 

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Town hall debugged academic programming

The fourth in a series of mini town hall meetings on the implementation of the University's Strategic Plan was held on Monday, May 12 in room 1304 of the Davis Centre.

Presenting on behalf of the Academic Programming theme group were Mario Coniglio, associate vice-president, academic, Sue Horton, associate provost, graduate studies, Cyntha Struthers, associate professor, statistics and actuarial science, Gordon Stubley, associate dean of teaching and professor of engineering, Cathy Newell Kelly, director of the Centre for the Centre of Extended Learning and Coleen Even, graduate teaching assistant and PhD student. Donna Ellis, director of the Centre for Teaching Excellence, participated in the social media discussion that preceded the mini town hall as a Subject Matter Expert (SME).

The theme leads outlined the objectives for the "Outstanding Academic Programming" theme and fielded questions from the floor, from email, and from social media on such topics as upgrading teaching facilities, the use of professor evaluations as a tool for performance measurement, MOOCs (massive open online courses), student-faculty ratios, and LEARN.

The webcast of the mini town hall has been archived and is available for download.

 

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