The 'University of Waterloo' (also referred to as 'UW', 'UWaterloo', or 'Waterloo') is a medium-sized research-intensive public
university in the city of
Waterloo,
Ontario,
Canada. The school was founded in 1957.
Enrollment
The enrollment for 2006 was 23,729 undergraduate and 3,013
graduate students, with 963
full-time faculty members and 2,167 staff.
[ About UW ] The school has approximately 130,000 alumni in 141 countries.
History
The University of Waterloo was originally conceived in 1955 as the Waterloo College Associate Faculties (WCAF), a semi-autonomous entity within Waterloo College (now
Wilfrid Laurier University).
The university's first president,
Gerry Hagey, gathered teachers of engineering and basic sciences, and also obtained an initial grant of $625,000 from the government. The first 74 students began classes on July 1, 1957, in makeshift temporary buildings on the Waterloo College campus. In January 1958, Hagey and colleagues purchased 184 acres of farmland a kilometer west of Waterloo College's main campus in order to meet the growing expansion needs
[ How the Offer of 180 Acres of Farmland Changed the Identity of UW ]. Soon, construction began of the first academic building on the new site, known as the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Building, later renamed Engineering 1 and now named after Douglas Wright, UW's first Dean of Engineering.
[3]
Through a series of delicate negotiations which turned into bitter hostilities, the "Faculty of Science and Engineering" broke free from Waterloo College, partly due to the fact that the two campuses were now disjoint. Hagey himself was opposed to the break, as his dream had been to establish a world-class university built on the strengths of Waterloo College's liberal arts strengths and the applied science education of WCAF. In early 1959, the government established three universities: Waterloo Lutheran University,
University of St. Jerome's College, and the University of Waterloo. Initially, St. Jerome's and Waterloo Lutheran were both expected to federate with the new UW, but in the end Waterloo Lutheran chose to remain independent. UW then quickly created a
faculty of arts in order to gain respect as a university. In the same year, arts students joined the science and engineering students in the new campus.
Three more church colleges ended up joining the university:
Renison,
Conrad Grebel, and
St. Paul's. Waterloo created the first Faculty of Mathematics in North America, and the first co-op programs outside of engineering soon followed. The co-op system then was revised in involving four-month terms rather than the initial three-month terms. In 1967, the College of Optometry of Ontario, at the moment an independent institution in Toronto, moved to Waterloo and became affiliated with the university. In 1967 the world's first Department of Kinesiology was created, which later grew into the Faculty of Applied
Health Sciences. The Faculty of
Environmental Studies was created soon after.
More recently, in 2004, the
School of Architecture was relocated to downtown
Cambridge in an effort to enhance the school's facilities and strengthen its community ties. The School, located in a former industrial building on the
Grand River, is an important part of plans to bolster the economy of Cambridge's downtown area.
In 2001, the University of Waterloo announced its intentions to develop a Research and Technology Park on the university's north campus. The park intends to house many of the high-tech industries in the area and maintain the partnership between university and
private-sector innovation.
Sybase/iAnywhere Solutions and
Open Text Corporation were the first two tenants, and the multi-tenant Accelerator Centre building opened in April 2006.
Campus
The
brutalist Math and Computer Science building, as seen from the B2 Green.
The Student Life Centre courtyard.
The main campus is located along University Avenue in
Waterloo, Ontario on, what was until the 1960s, farmland. Since its creation, a considerable level of commercial and
residential development has built up around the Waterloo campus, notably with many offices of high-tech firms.
The
geographical coordinates of the main UW campus are .
The
School of Architecture was relocated to a former mill in
Cambridge, Ontario, in 2004.
A new campus for the health sciences program is being built in
Kitchener, Ontario and will include a satellite of
McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine. Completion is scheduled for 2007.
Reputation
More Canadian high-tech and knowledge-based spin-off companies trace their roots to the University of Waterloo than to any other school, and as such, the University of Waterloo and the
Waterloo region is often called the "Silicon Valley of the North".
[ Seizing Opportunities ]
This is reflected in the performance of its students in academic competitions such as the
William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition and the
ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest.In the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, Waterloo students have won gold medals in 2000
[ 2000 ACM ICPC World Finals ], 2001
[ 2001 ACM ICPC World Finals ], 2002
[ 2002 ACM ICPC World Finals ] and 2005
[ 2005 ACM ICPC World Finals ].
Great emphasis is placed on furthering the growth of research by quick and steady expansion of resources. The
Institute for Quantum Computing, established in 2002, is one of a number of institutes and centres for research established, and has already begun to attract international scientists and a
nobel laureate to the university.
The university became a leader in
environmental education and research by creating the first Faculty of Environmental Studies in Canada. The
Green with Innovation website highlights the many environmental programs, student groups, and research at UW.
''Maclean's'' rankings
Waterloo prides itself on its high performance in ''
Maclean's'' magazine's
Canadian university rankings - the Canadian counterpart to America's
US News annual ranking of universities. The university routinely places in the top three in the numerical Comprehensive ranking,
[ 2005 Overall Rankings Chart: Comprehensive ranking ] and in the reputation survey it placed first as best overall 13 out of 15 times that the ranking was published.
[ UW's historical rankings in Maclean's magazine ] ''Maclean's'' describes the university as "strong in math, engineering and computer science," as well as being "internationally recognized for the unparalleled success of its more than 100 undergraduate and graduate co-op programs."
[4]
Co-operative education
Waterloo is famous for being the groundbreaking proponent of
co-operative education in Canada and currently maintains the largest such program in the world. In the official annual national university report by ''Maclean's'', the University of Waterloo has placed best overall out of 47
universities in Canada for the past 13 of 15 years since the survey began.
4
Controversies
Beavers Killed on Campus
In November 2006, four beavers were trapped and killed on the university campus after they gnawed down several trees. The beavers were considered a safety risk, and a licensed trapping company was contracted to install traps on campus which killed the beavers by drowning. The university community reacted with anger to the decision to kill the beavers.
[5]
The local and national press coverage of the university's actions resulted in a storm of public condemnation. Over 300 letters of complaint were sent to the city newspaper, and numerous alumni contacted the university in protest and cancelled their donations.
[6]
Professor Elmasry's remarks on Michael Coren Show
During a television show in 2004, Professor
Mohamed ElMasry stated that anyone in Israel over the age of 18 was a justifiable target of Palestinian attacks, since all adult Israelis are "part of the Israeli army, even if they have civilian clothes. The same, if they are women in the army . . . . Everybody above 18 is a combatant."
[7]
The university's investigation concluded that the remarks made by Professor Elmasry were "entirely unacceptable and inconsistent with the values of inclusiveness and tolerance for which the University of Waterloo stands."
[8]
However, no disciplinary action was taken. Professor Elmasry has now retired from teaching.
[9]
Agreement with Microsoft
The university announced a controversial agreement with Microsoft in 2002.
[10]
As part of this agreement, the University of Waterloo was to receive $2.3 million in funding from the Microsoft Canada Academic Innovation Alliance in exchange for introducing Microsoft's C# programming language in some programs at UW. UW's School of Computer Science declined to participate, and currently teaches Java and Scheme in its introductory courses. The university administration asserted that this agreement would not jeopardize academic integrity at the institution, though the University president acknowledged making mistakes in announcing the Microsoft deal.
[11]
Ties with industry
Through its large co-op program (the largest in the world) and many spin-off companies, the university maintains very close ties with the high-tech industry.
UW has a long-standing
intellectual property policy
[ Policy 73 -- Intellectual Property Rights ] that leaves ownership rights with the inventor, rather than the university, which has helped create many spin-off companies that maintain a good relationship with UW. In particular, it has a strong connection with
Research In Motion that goes beyond its close physical proximity. Co-founder and CEO
Mike Lazaridis was a UW student before he started RIM, and is currently the
chancellor of the university. RIM hires hundreds of UW co-op students each term and a large proportion of its employees are UW alumni.
During his visit to Waterloo in October 2005,
Microsoft co-founder
Bill Gates stated, "Most years, we hire more students out of Waterloo than any university in the world, typically 50 or even more."
[ Bill Gates draws a crowd at Waterloo university ]
Some students and faculty have been critical of the level of corporate involvement in UW's academics. The university came under harsh criticism in August 2002 when the Faculty of Engineering accepted funding from
Microsoft to develop courses using Microsoft's
.NET Framework.
[ Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Waterloo and Microsoft Canada ]
Spin-offs
Several companies have roots in, or have been spun off from the university. Some of the most notable include:
★
Certicom - founded by two Waterloo professors,
Scott Vanstone and
Gordon Agnew
★
Intelligent Mechatronics Systems Inc. - founded by a Waterloo professor,
Otman Basir
★
Dalsa - founded by Waterloo
electrical engineering professor Savvas Chamberlain
★
Maplesoft - founded by two Waterloo professors,
Keith Geddes and
Gaston Gonnet
★
Open Text Corporation - originated from the university's
Oxford English Dictionary project
★
SlipStream Data - founded by two Waterloo professors, En-hui Yang and Ajit Singh
★
Watcom - originated from the university's
Computer Systems Group
Notable companies founded by alumni
★
Research in Motion
★
QNX
★
MKS Inc. (formerly Mortice Kern Systems)
Future plans
With a lake and a
conservation area on campus, Waterloo is home to a variety of vegetation and wildlife.
The fields just north of the University of Waterloo, pre-development of the technology park.
The Faculty of Engineering, citing a shortage of space compared to the undergraduate and graduate enrollment and number of faculty members, is planning a $150M expansion between 2008 and 2012 in the form of three new buildings. Two are to be located outside Ring Road and linked back to the main campus by a walkway, while one will be built inside Ring Road in proximity to the current Engineering side of campus. ''The Iron Warrior'' reports that the Faculty has secured funding and received approval for the first of these three buildings, to be called Engineering 5, which will house a Student Design Centre showcasing the Waterloo Engineering student teams, along with space for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, and the Department of Systems Design Engineering. The latter's original hopes for an exclusive building just for Systems are now dead according to Dean of Engineering Adel Sedra, as they were not able to locate the sufficient funds.
[3]
The university and the
City of Kitchener are constructing a health sciences campus, including a
School of Pharmacy, in the central Kitchener
warehouse district. The project will cost $34 million for the first phase. The Honours co-operative Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy program begins in January 2008.Preliminary operations, including staffed medical and optometry clinics, are based out of the former Victoria Public School in Kitchener's downtown.
The Kitchener site will also host a
satellite campus of
McMaster University's
medical school, bringing 15 first-year medical students to Waterloo Region each year to study. They will remain until the end of the three-year McMaster program, and have the option of continuing as a resident in the area.
On October 16, 2006, President Johnston announced that the university has entered discussions with the City of Stratford and the
Stratford Festival of Canada exploring the possibility of establishing a satellite campus in Stratford. On the same day, Stratford City Council unanimously endorsed a
memorandum of understanding to continue exploration of the issue. The nature of the academic program offered at a satellite campus is yet to be discussed, though it is expected to be a liberal arts program.
With donations by alumni and matching contributions from government, the university announced in April 2004 the founding of the
Institute for Quantum Computing.
[ UW welcomes federal investments in research and innovation ][ UW welcomes provincial government's investments in research and innovation ]
Construction will begin in October for the Quantum-Nano Centre, a massive building which will house the Institute for
Quantum Computing as well as the new Nanotechnology Engineering undergraduate program. The building will be located in the centre of campus and its cost will exceed $100M. It is planned to be opened in September 2010.
[13]
The university is also planning a new building to house the School of Accountancy, expected to be ready for occupancy by March 2008. The School of Accountancy's expanded space will be constructed between the Arts
Lecture Hall, Tatham Centre, and Hagey Hall.
The university is currently planning for its sixth decade (2007 - 2017) with an "ambitious plan".
[ Pursuing Global Excellence: Seizing for Canada University of Waterloo (UW) Sixth Decade Plan ] According to the plan's documentation, some objectives are benchmarked by the following targets:
★ By 2017, at least 12 UW academic programs will be the best in North America
★ By 2017, at least 12 out of 44 departments/schools will be ranked top 12 in North America
★ By 2017, at least 20 UW departments/schools will be ranked top three in Canada
★ Each department/school will participate in a
doctoral program
★ All departments/schools will be ranked top 25% in Canada
Facts and figures
★ The Faculty of Mathematics is the world's largest faculty in the mathematical, statistical, and computer sciences.
[14]4
★ UW accounts for more than $1.6 billion of economic activity (1999) in Ontario.
[15]
★ Annually, UW attracts about 350,000 visitors from outside the region.
15
★ The university is represented in
Canadian Interuniversity Sport by the
Waterloo Warriors.
★ The University of Waterloo's
solar car, Midnight Sun VII, holds the world record of 15,070 km for longest journey by a solar electric vehicle.
[16]
★ Gays and Lesbians of Waterloo (GLOW), one of the student services, is recognized as the longest running
LGBT campus organization in Canada. GLOW aims to provide a friendly environment for
queer people, support the
coming out process and provide awareness to the university community.
About GLOW ★ On
December 1,
2001, UW received a
gneiss rock which is displayed at the Centre for Environmental and
Information Technology. It measures 9.14 meters tall.
★ In 2006, UW completed construction of a $3.5 million addition to the Physics building to house a 768 node cluster with 1536 dual-core CPUs, for use in the
SHARCNET (Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computing Network) supercluster. The extension also links the Physics building and the Engineering complex, and as extra office space and computing facilities for the Faculty of Physics and Faculty of Engineering.
[ Pixels in the big picture ]
Traditions and peculiarities
The Student Life Center, as seen from the MC building.
★ Student life converges upon the popular Student Life Centre, which has food, lounge, study and activities spaces and other services for students. The Turnkey Desk, located in the Student Life Centre's Great Hall, has been operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year almost continuously since the opening of the Student Life Centre (then the Campus Centre) in 1968. Turnkeys are so-named because they are the keepers of the keys for the many rooms in the Student Life Centre, and share their name with ancient jailers.
★ A unique species of tree is donated by each graduating class and planted on
Alumni Lane.
★ According to the Waterloo tour site, the Davis Centre is designed to look like a microchip in an aerial view of the building.
★ Similarly, the Math & Computer building is designed to look like a giant
slide rule when viewed from the side. An alternative viewpoint is that it was designed as an homage to Le Corbusier's
La Tourette Monastery.
★ A relatively common
urban legend surrounding libraries has been attached to the
Dana Porter library: namely, that the building is subsiding, as its
structural engineering had supposedly not accounted for the weight of the books it contains. This, like similar legends pertaining other educational institutions' libraries, is false.
[1] [2]
★ On the day of the
Iron ring ceremony during an engineering class's final term, it is customary for the seniors to celebrate starting in the morning before the ceremony and during the Iron Ring Stag Party in the evening.
Orientation week
★ Students in the Faculty of Science receive
safety goggles during
orientation week.
★ Students in the Faculty of Engineering receive a yellow
hard hat during orientation week.
★ Students in the Faculty of Mathematics receive a pink tie during orientation week, which is recognized as the unofficial symbol for mathies (math students). The story of the pink tie can be found at the
Legend of the Pink Tie UW page.
★ Students in the Software Engineering program, run jointly by the Faculties of Engineering and Mathematics, receive both a yellow hard hat and pink tie.
★ Students in the Faculty of Environmental Studies enjoy an afternoon of outdoor fun at a nearby conservation area.
★ Students in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences participate in their version of the Olympics which test body and mind.
King Warrior, the athletics mascot
Mascots
★ The University's athletics mascot is a lion named King Warrior. The Warriors are the University's
sports team and King Warrior's initials, K-W, reflect a common nickname for the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo.
★ The mascot for the undergraduate students' Mathematics Society (MathSoc) is the Natural Log (see
natural log), which is a wooden log about 60 cm (two ft) long, often mistaken as the Faculty's mascot.
★ The mascot for the Faculty of Mathematics is a 12.2 m (40 ft) long and 3.4 m (11 ft) wide pink tie, often mistaken as MathSoc's mascot.
★ The mascot for the Faculty of Engineering is a 60" (1.5 m)
pipe wrench called The TOOL, formerly the
RIDGID Tool, because it was donated by the
Ridge Tool Company in 1968.
★ The mascot for the Faculty of Arts is a statue of a boar which was donated to the University of Waterloo Math Faculty in 1978, and in turn donated to the Arts Faculty. It is one of several copies of Italian sculptor Pietro Tacca's (1577-1640) "Il Porcellino" statue. Some students claim that rubbing the Boar's nose brings luck.
[3]
★ The mascot for the Faculty of Environmental Studies is The Big Banana, which is actually a designated orientation leader dressed in a banana costume.
★ The mascot for the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences is a Kangaroo.
★ The mascot for the Science Society (SciSoc) is Arriba the Amoeba, a giant human-sized amoeba dressed in a
lab coat.
Coat of Arms
University Logo
The
coat of arms of the University of Waterloo was granted in 1987. The shield's
blazon is as follows:
''Or, on a chevron Sable between three lions rampant Gules a chevronel Argent.''
The full blazon of the arms (rarely used) continues:
''Above the Shield is placed an Helm suitable to an Incorporation (a Salade proper lined Gules) with a Mantling Sable doubled Or, and on a Wreath of the Liveries is set for Crest between two maple branches in saltire a trillium displayed and leaved all Proper, and in an Escrol over the same this Motto "CONCORDIA CUM VERITATE".''
Representing Waterloo's location in the
twin cities of
Kitchener-Waterloo, the double-chevron is taken from the coat of arms of
Earl Kitchener, and the red lions are taken from the symbol of
Arthur, Duke of Wellington, the victor at
the Battle of Waterloo.
Administration
Chancellors
★
Mike Lazaridis (2003 - present)
★
Val O'Donovan (1997 - 2003)
★
Sylvia Ostry (1991 - 1997)
★
J. Page Wadsworth (1985 - 1991)
★
Josef Kates (1979 - 1985)
★
Carl Arthur Pollock (1975 - 1978)
★
Ira G. Needles (1966 - 1975)
★
Dana Porter (1960 - 1966)
Presidents
★
David Lloyd Johnston (1999 - present)
★
James Downey (1993 - 1999)
★
Douglas T. Wright (1981 - 1993)
★
Burt Matthews (1970 - 1981)
★
Howard Petch (1969 - 1970)
★
Gerry Hagey (1957 - 1969)
See also
★
List of University of Waterloo people
★
University of Waterloo Federation of Students
★
Waterloo Warriors
★
Waterloo Co-operative Residence Incorporated
★
Group of Thirteen (Canadian universities)
★
Centre for Applied Cryptographic Research
★
Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing
★
Elliott Avedon Museum & Archive of Games
★
JobMine
★
Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference
Notes and references
1. More than million a week
2. About UW
3.
0M Engineering Expansion to Begin Next Year
4. Comprehensive winner: University of Waterloo Danylo Hawaleshka
5.
Drowned beaver tales draw out student suffrage
6.
Fur flies after beavers killed by University of Waterloo
7.
Transcript Of Dr. Mohamed Elmasry's Remarks On Michel Coren Show
8.
Elmasry statement from UW
9.
Prof. Mohamed I. Elmasry
10.
More about the Microsoft alliance
11.
Johnston acknowledges 'mistakes' in announcement of Microsoft deal
12.
0M Engineering Expansion to Begin Next Year
13.
Completion of Quantum-Nano Centre Set for September 2010
14.
University of Waterloo Math Faculty Facts at a Glance
15.
Regional Economic Benefits Study
16.
Longest Journey by Solar Electric Vehicle
★
About UW
External links
★
University of Waterloo
★
University of Waterloo Alumni Website
★
Imprint, Student Newspaper of the University of Waterloo
★
University of Waterloo Weather Station
★
The Iron Warrior, Newspaper of the University of Waterloo Engineering Society
★
Salary Disclosure for 2006 (in excess of $100,000)
★
iknow - The UW student wiki
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