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Alumni Digest · UWaterloo / August 2026
A 50-story summer issue about the routes Waterloo takes when the timetable loosens: fieldwork, co-op, community, research, weather and the rooms that make room for a return.
Waterloo / the summer issue
Buildings change. Questions travel. Warriors carry them forward.
A season for trying, returning and finding the next question.
A walk with friends. The long way back. An afternoon with nowhere else to be.
Inside the issue
An independent University of Waterloo alumni digest. August 2026 summer expanded issue with 50 source-linked briefs from official Waterloo reporting and labelled historical context. Not an official university publication. Each brief links to its original reporting. Scroll, search or open the contents rail.
The expanded edit
How do ideas become useful? Move from CS and AI to co-op, research, founders, hackathons and the alumni actions that keep a university connected.
Plus: 4 source-linked data features, 3 essays, partner pages and a Sudoku break.
Waterloo / architecture, weather and memory
A campus is felt in light, heat, rain and the rooms built to hold a day.
Then / Davis Centre, 1988
The School of Architecture gallery makes the building legible as a place rather than a logo: river edge, red wall, studios, stairs and windows that turn changing light into part of the work.
Waterloo 60 / Davis Centre comparison ↗Now / Architecture by the river
The Eric D. Soulis Memorial Weather Station gives that feeling an evidence layer. Current readings and long-run comparisons make weather a campus condition to notice, not just background scenery.
Notice the conditions around the story: light, rain, shade, movement and a place to stay.
Next / New Residence Building
The New Residence Building is planned to open in 2027 with 510 residents, shared lounges and multiple room types. The render is a promise; the room plans are where the promise becomes practical.
Campus Housing / New Residence Building ↗Places to notice this year
Weather / Waterloo
The official weather station publishes current readings and long-run comparisons from the Soulis Memorial Weather Station. It is a useful campus pulse for an issue about summer light and changing conditions.
Open the weather station ↗Rooms / floor plans
Waterloo’s floor-plan index shows how studios, lecture halls, libraries and shared spaces are organized. Residence plans are restricted, while many academic building plans remain visible to the campus community.
See the floor-plan index ↗
Alumni / Leadership
Brigitte Nolet brings a Waterloo education to the question of who can access medicines.
Brigitte Nolet (BA ’98) has become Head of Global Access for Roche’s Pharmaceuticals Division. The role expands a career that began with co-op placements at Health Canada and later included leading Roche Canada.
Her account makes a practical case for an Arts education: interpreting complex information, understanding government and communicating decisions. Those skills developed across work terms as well as the classroom. For alumni considering a change of field, her path shows how experience can travel across sectors.
Enterprise
At Velocity, alumni help the next generation reach people they could not reach alone.
More than 100 judges volunteered at a recent Velocity Pitch Competition, offering feedback and introductions. Founder Connor Kapahi (PhD ’26) describes one unexpected presentation that led to supplier contacts his company had struggled to reach.
The university’s report follows founders working on diagnostics and assistive technologies. Their examples show why an alumni network matters at a practical level: someone can challenge a pitch, explain a market or make an introduction. The story is about work that follows the stage time.
Alumni / Sport
For Kristin O’Neill, graduate study created room for another kind of ambition.
Kristin O’Neill (MASc ’24) combined elite hockey with graduate study in psychology at Waterloo. Her work on child development and language helped shape an interest in speech pathology, a field she plans to pursue after hockey.
The university profile traces the support that made this possible, including flexibility as her professional career moved to Montreal. She later made Canada’s 2026 Olympic team and recently signed with San Jose. Her academic life provided a separate source of purpose during an uncertain sporting career.
Ideas / Tools
JOLIVE grew from a research bottleneck into a software venture.
Psychology PhD student Jacob Oliveira built JOLIVE to reduce the programming work involved in behavioural studies. Its visual interface supports surveys, experiments and optional AI chat components, with study ordering handled by the platform.
Waterloo reports that Oliveira used the tool for eight studies involving 840 participants in one semester. He is developing the incorporated business with a team and a computer science co-op student. The result is a useful example of a product emerging from direct experience of a problem.
Close the laptop. Meet your friends. Make room for a game between campus and the rest of your day.
Campus / Pathways
David Carciente tested the fit of a lab before choosing graduate school.
David Carciente joined Waterloo’s first Rising Stars Fellowship cohort in 2024 while studying software engineering at Concordia. In the Vision and Image Processing Lab, he helped make computer vision tools more accessible to marine researchers.
He returned for a master’s in Systems Design Engineering after getting to know the supervisors and research environment. His current work pairs satellite imagery with sea ice charts. The fellowship offered something a prospectus cannot: time to discover what working in a particular lab feels like.
Alumni Digest · UWaterloo / data feature
Selected briefs by source year · 50 stories in the August packet
The expanded August edit contains 37 briefs dated 2026, with 13 labelled historical-context briefs from 2021–2025 and the Waterloo archive.
The chart describes this frozen selection, not the university’s total news volume.
Source: University of Waterloo official reporting / June–August 2026. Counts are derived from the 50 selected records and their source dates; historical context is labelled on each story.
Cities / Work
A co-op project in Edmonton takes on the complications of scheduling real crews.
The Future Cities Institute’s CIVIC program connects Waterloo students with municipal problems. In Edmonton, Preethi Raghuraman developed SmartShift to help with staffing in Parks and Roads Services, accounting for collective agreements, preferences and certification requirements.
The program treats a work term as a project that can continue beyond one student. Raghuraman later worked with a Planning student on a report intended to help other municipalities learn from the experience. The next challenge is making useful work transferable without losing its local constraints.
Research / Climate
A black spruce study asks which combinations of traits help trees cope.
Biologist Julie Messier, MSc student Sabina Henry and collaborators examined black spruce growth in warmer, drier conditions. Better growth was associated with three traits together: fewer needles, conservative water use and conservative carbon use.
The combination matters. A single apparently helpful trait did not explain the pattern on its own. The research gives forest practitioners a more specific question to investigate when selecting trees for changing conditions; it does not establish that one planting strategy works everywhere.
Editor’s essay / summer field notes
In summer, Waterloo becomes easier to read as a sequence of places where people try, pause, test and return.
The June and July reports in this issue do not describe one kind of Waterloo. They move from graduate community to climate planning, from student showcases to the patient work of teaching. The common thread is motion: an idea leaves the classroom and meets a person, a place or a problem.
That is why a summer issue can feel different from a September one. The campus is still working, but its edges are softer. A lab question can travel to a field site. A pitch can turn into a walk across campus. A co-op term can become the first draft of a career.
The useful invitation for alumni is simple: follow one route back. Read the source, send a specific introduction, visit the room where the work happens or make time for the next question.
Industry / Aviation
Waterloo and Airbus formalized a framework for research and talent development.
The partnership joins Waterloo research and Airbus expertise around a future of aviation that will need both technical skill and new ways to learn.
It is a fitting August story: the runway is a place of departure, but the work that makes a new route possible happens long before takeoff.
Entrepreneurship / PitchBook
PitchBook rankings put Waterloo's founder culture in a global frame.
PitchBook's 2026 rankings place Waterloo seventh globally, the first time a Canadian school has broken into the top 10
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / pitchbook. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
AI / Co-op / Historical context
Students help local businesses move from AI curiosity to a tested workflow.
A new Communitech initiative is putting University of Waterloo's students at the centre of efforts to transform how local businesses adopt AI
The official Waterloo report places this work in ai / co-op. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni Digest · UWaterloo / data feature
Broad editorial desks across the August issue · tags are mutually assigned for this view
The summer packet moves from alumni and computing to enterprise, engineering, campus and research. The broad desks make the mix legible before the reader enters each brief.
These are editorial groupings, not faculty counts or institutional activity measures.
Source: University of Waterloo official reporting / selected issue packet. Broad desk counts from the 50 selected records; category assignment is an editorial reading aid.
Pull the decisions from a long email thread, turn a seminar question into a study plan, or rehearse a difficult reply. The next move is still yours.
Research / Health
Waterloo researchers examine why stroke treatment can still lose time.
A new study has identified workflow barriers that contribute to delays, helping health providers improve outcomes for patients across the stroke care pathway.
The official Waterloo report places this work in research / health. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Research / Health
A new monitoring approach could help clinicians assess donor lungs.
Press release about a new device that continuously monitors key indicators of donor lung health, potentially helping to identify more viable donor lungs.
The official Waterloo report places this work in research / health. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
AI / Work
Waterloo and Cohere are working together on AI transformation across organizations.
The collaboration connects Waterloo talent with organizations learning how AI changes everyday work.
A co-op term is often described as a first job. It can also be a guided summer experiment in how to ask better questions inside a real team.
Engineering / Aviation
Waterloo researchers are exploring pilotless aircraft for places that are difficult to reach.
Research on pilotless planes looks toward missions where distance, weather and access make ordinary travel hard.
The summer image is simple: a machine carrying a question beyond the road, while people on the ground decide what useful reach should look like.
AI / Culture
A Waterloo study asks what makes people comfortable enough to use AI.
Researchers examined the conditions that help people trust AI systems rather than simply tolerate them.
Trust is not a switch. It is built through clear choices, honest limits and the feeling that someone has thought about the person on the other side of the interface.
Alumni Digest · UWaterloo / data feature
Recurring movements coded across 50 selected stories
The issue repeatedly moves from a question to a place where another person can test it, then to a return or revision. Tags may overlap across a story.
This is an editorial map of the packet, not a measured conversion funnel.
Source: University of Waterloo official reporting / selected issue packet. Qualitative coding of the selected stories; a story can carry more than one movement.
Climate / Civic
A climate tool turns changing weather into a question communities can work with.
GeoSAFE, a Waterloo-linked project, helps communities plan for climate risks by making local information easier to use.
Its summer relevance is practical: before the next hot day or heavy storm, people need a shared picture of what could change and which decisions are still open.
Field note / a place to return to
The best campus memories are often practical: a person who answered, a room that stayed open, a question that got better.
The stories here are full of thresholds. A plane leaves a hangar. A team steps up to pitch. A researcher turns an uncomfortable failure into a lesson. A student finds a community that makes the next term possible.
Those moments are small enough to miss when the calendar is crowded. Summer gives them a little more light. It lets us notice the infrastructure of a university: the mentors, studios, labs, clubs and public conversations that turn a name into a place.
A return visit does not have to be nostalgic. It can be a practical act: see what the campus is making now, ask who needs a hand and leave with a route into the next season.
A stretch after the library. A class before work. A moment in the day that belongs to you.
Computer Science / AI
Maura Grossman's work sits where law, data governance and AI meet.
A news article announcing that Research Professor Maura R. Grossman has received two awards for her work at the intersection of law, data governance, and AI
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / ai. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Computer Science
Jimmy Lin's recognition reflects a career in search and language systems.
An article detailing the achievements that led to Professor Jimmy Lin being named a 2026 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Computer Science / Privacy
Ian Goldberg's recognition follows work on secure communication.
An article detailing the achievements that led to Professor Ian Goldberg being named a 2026 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / privacy. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni Digest · UWaterloo / data feature
Recurring role tags across the 50-story packet · overlap allowed
Students, researchers, founders and community builders recur across the official reports. A story can carry more than one role tag, so the bars are not meant to sum to 50.
The point is a change in emphasis: who is acting, who is testing, and who is carrying a connection forward.
Source: University of Waterloo official reporting / selected issue packet. Editorial role coding from the selected stories; roles may overlap.
Computer Science / Students
Schulich Leaders arrive with a mandate to build and question.
A news article announcing the four incoming 2026 Schulich Leaders at the Cheriton School of Computer Science
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / students. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Computer Science / Teaching
A computer science course turns a frightening failure into a chance to learn how systems behave.
A Waterloo computer science story follows how a failure became part of the teaching, making room for students to see the gap between a clean example and a real system.
That is a good summer lesson for any builder: the bug is information, the reset is part of the work and the next attempt should make the evidence easier to read.
Computer Science / Community
A Waterloo computer scientist is being recognized for building a more generous research community.
Negar Arabzadeh received an ACM SIGIR community engagement award for work that connects information retrieval with the people who make the field possible.
Summer conferences and community gatherings often reveal the hidden infrastructure of a discipline: generous reviews, open questions and someone willing to bring another person into the room.
Set up a study notebook, find the gaps in your understanding and work through the next difficult concept one step at a time. Availability and eligibility vary by region and account.
Computer Science / Pitch
Bella Chen won the big ARC Pitch Day 2026 after presenting a new idea to a room of questions.
The pitch day put student work in front of people who could test the story, challenge the assumptions and point toward a next conversation.
That exchange is the summer vibe at its best: less ceremony, more movement, and a useful question arriving at the right moment.
Entrepreneurship / Alumni
A Waterloo e Co-op alum raised $5 million to transform home appraisals with AI.
The company is applying AI to a process that affects how homes are understood and valued.
The story connects a Waterloo path to a summer question about place: how can a new tool make a familiar civic process clearer without making it feel remote?
Entrepreneurship / Students
Student entrepreneurs used a spring term to work on problems that do not wait for a September timetable.
Conrad School student entrepreneurs tackled real-world challenges during the spring term, carrying prototypes from a classroom into conversations with users.
That kind of work has a distinctly summer tempo: fewer fixed rituals, more time to walk a problem, test an assumption and come back with a better version.
Entrepreneurship / Brand
A summer showcase asks how a good idea earns attention without losing its purpose.
Waterloo students explored the relationship between brand, audience and the work a business is trying to do.
For alumni back in the market, the lesson is direct: a memorable story helps people understand a useful product, but the product still has to earn the return visit.
Entrepreneurship / Showcase
Student founders took their work out of the classroom and into a public conversation.
The MBET student showcase brought entrepreneurial projects together for an annual moment of feedback and exchange.
A showcase is a useful summer ritual. It gives an unfinished idea a room, a set of questions and a chance to meet someone who sees the next step.
Math / Belonging
Robyn Bhola found a way into Waterloo through orientation and peers.
After arriving at the University of Waterloo as an international student, Robyn Varda Bhola found friendship, community and lasting connections through Math Orientation.
The official Waterloo report places this work in math / belonging. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Turn a rough idea into a working tool for your study group, society or next project. Start small, test it, then share it.
Math / Education
A summer education story follows the people widening the path into mathematics.
The CEMC is helping increase gender equity in mathematics through programs that invite more students into the subject.
The work matters beyond a single camp or classroom. It changes who gets to imagine mathematics as a place where they can stay, contribute and lead.
Engineering / Students
Waterloo students take a practical design problem to a national competition.
Waterloo Engineering students sweep the podium at a national steel design competition.
The official Waterloo report places this work in engineering / students. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Hackathons / Community / Historical context
Hack the North turns a large group into small teams and working demos.
Over the past eleven years, Hack the North has grown to become a major force in the world of hackathons.
The official Waterloo report places this work in hackathons / community. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Builders / YC / Historical context
A Y Combinator cohort shows one route from campus to San Francisco.
The University of Waterloo is well represented in the most recent cohort of companies accepted into the Y Combinator (YC), one of the biggest and most presti
The official Waterloo report places this work in builders / yc. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni / YC / Historical context
Kristy Gao's path from Waterloo to San Francisco runs through a small community.
Kristy Gao's path from Waterloo to San Francisco runs through a small community.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / yc. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Builders / SF / Historical context
Waterloo alumni Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak took autonomous trucking to San Francisco.
Alex Rodrigues and Brandon Moak, the 20-something founders of an autonomous trucking company now valued at approximately US $5 billion, don’t have
The official Waterloo report places this work in builders / sf. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
A date to compare. A place to meet. A plan to bring everyone back together. A concept for alumni organizers exploring a personal AI agent.
Alumni / Community / Historical context
An alumni friendship shows what lasts after the timetable ends.
Three alumni from the Faculty of Health share their memories and reminisce about Waterloo while reuniting on vacation in Florida.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / community. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni / Volunteers / Historical context
Volunteers turn an alumni list into actual contact.
Celebrating National Volunteer Week
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / volunteers. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni / Community / Historical context
A shared student life becomes a long memory and a practical network.
Karri Melvaer Wallsten (BA ’93) shares memories of being a student in the 1990s and meeting friends who remain close and recently travelled to Mexico together.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / community. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Entrepreneurship / Research
New federal support gives Waterloo researchers more room to move from question to experiment.
Conrad School professors received federal funding to advance research connected to entrepreneurship and innovation.
Funding is the bridge between an intriguing question and the patient summer work of testing it: interviews, prototypes, field notes and the next careful revision.
Entrepreneurship / Education
A new entrepreneurship education model asks what students can learn when the classroom opens onto the season.
Waterloo’s Conrad School reported a new approach to entrepreneurship education that puts experimentation and reflection beside the usual business toolkit.
For an alumni reader, the useful detail is the invitation to keep learning in public: try a small idea, listen to the people around it and return with a sharper question.
Alumni / Events / Historical context
An alumni event creates a low-pressure way back to campus community.
An alumni event creates a low-pressure way back to campus community.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / events. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Bring the rough version: a personal statement, a project outline or a piece of code. Ask better questions of it. Make the final decisions your own.
Alumni / Reflection / Historical context
A short alumni reflection asks what support is meant to make possible.
University of Waterloo Alumni Council members share why they will give on the University’s first-ever Giving Day, Thursday, May 15.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / reflection. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni / Recognition / Historical context
An alumni recognition story links community to the work of widening access.
International Women's Day 2025
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / recognition. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Campus field note / weather and rooms
A summer campus is architecture plus conditions: light, rain, heat, shade and the spaces that let people stay.
The official weather station gives Waterloo a public pulse. Its current readings and long-run comparisons make the day visible, while the architecture gallery shows how light, water and material shape the rooms where people learn.
That combination is a useful vibe check for alumni. A building is not only its façade; it is the route from a hot sidewalk into a cool studio, the place where rain changes a plan, the lounge that makes a long day possible.
The next version of this campus story is already legible in the New Residence Building plans: more than 500 residents, shared lounges and room types that turn a future render into a lived routine.
Math / Graduate life
A graduate student community grows through the ordinary routes between research, conversation and a place to belong.
Waterloo mathematics graduate students describe how community changes the texture of graduate life, especially in the long stretch between terms.
The story is a reminder that a summer on campus is not only a pause before the next deadline. It can be a season for finding collaborators, mentors and a daily rhythm that makes difficult work possible.
Math / Teaching
A faculty award puts care, clarity and the work of teaching in the foreground.
Blake Madill received the 2026 Faculty of Mathematics award, recognition that follows the quiet work of helping students see a problem differently.
Summer is a good time to notice the people whose explanations stay with us after a course ends. The award makes that invisible labour visible.
Engineering / Recognition
A national recognition places an engineering career in public view.
Michael Benoit has been recognized as one of Canada's Top 40 Under 40® for 2026, one of the country’s most recognized honours for young leaders.
The official Waterloo report places this work in engineering / recognition. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Engineering / Graduate study
A former Rising Stars fellow returns to Waterloo for graduate study.
David Carciente, a former Rising Stars Fellow, re-joins Waterloo Engineering for his graduate studies.
The official Waterloo report places this work in engineering / graduate study. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Engineering / Mentorship
A mentorship award recognises the work that helps graduate researchers persist.
Dr. Catherine Burns has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Dr. Suning Wang Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship, presented by CAGS.
The official Waterloo report places this work in engineering / mentorship. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Campus / Then and now / Historical context
A then-and-now campus story puts Waterloo’s buildings beside the people who keep using them.
For 60 years, the University of Waterloo has inspired new generations of students and new waves of innovation and discovery.
The official Waterloo report places this work in campus / then and now. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Alumni / Campus history / Historical context
A class anniversary page turns old buildings into a way of remembering student life.
A class anniversary page turns old buildings into a way of remembering student life.
The official Waterloo report places this work in alumni / campus history. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Campus / Mascots / Historical context
King Warrior and Waterloo’s other mascots make belonging visible across generations.
Since 1957, the University of Waterloo has been recognized for its rigorous research, entrepreneurial thinking and cross-disciplinary work.
The official Waterloo report places this work in campus / mascots. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Closing pages / Brand Partners
The club has an idea. Give it something people can try, question and improve.
The sketch, the model, the revision. Build a portfolio that gives your decisions room to speak.
Who has the keys? What needs doing? Turn the next club project into a small app worth testing.
The last page / a thinking break
Fill each row, column and 3 × 3 box with the digits 1–9, once each. Given numbers are fixed. Use Tab or arrow keys to move between cells. Check marks incorrect entries; reset clears your entries; reveal shows the solution.
Ready when you are.
A research visit. A reunion. The journey home. Start with a plan, then check the details before you go.