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uWaterloo Alum Digest / September 2026
Across health, research, enterprise and public life, Waterloo alumni and students turn knowledge into work that changes what comes next.
Waterloo / campus memory
Buildings change. Questions travel. Warriors carry them forward.
Warrior spirit, carried forward
A walk with friends. The long way back. An afternoon with nowhere else to be.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Inside the issue
An independent University of Waterloo alumni digest. Expanded source window: January 2024–September 19, 2026. Current reporting and historical context are labelled. 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: 10 source-linked data features, 7 essays, independent concept pages and a Sudoku break.
Waterloo / architecture and memory
A building can be a time machine, a study room and a promise about what the university wants to make possible next.
Then / Davis Centre, 1988
The Davis Centre then-and-now image holds two Waterloo moments in one frame: an early computer-research landmark and the building as students know it today. The motherboard-shaped design is part of the campus memory, but the people moving through it are the continuity.
Waterloo 60 / Waterloo, then and now ↗Now / the rooms we use
The current campus is also a set of rooms: libraries, labs, commons, shops and quiet corners that make a large university feel navigable. We will keep pairing a place with the question it helps students ask.
Notice the room around the story: study, shop, meet, test, return.
Next / Campus Plan, 2026
Waterloo’s 2026 Campus Plan gives that habit a future-facing frame. Its architectural drawing points to a campus plan that treats buildings, open space, mobility, sustainability and accessibility as one connected experience.
Daily Bulletin / Campus Plan endorsed ↗Places to notice this year
Retail / South Campus Hall
A gift store is also a memory room: alumni gear, course materials and the small objects that make a return visit feel current. The September 2026 Homecoming page lists the South Campus Hall store and a Warrior Field pop-up.
See the Homecoming details ↗Planning / 2026
For every new building, room or campus service, the issue will show what changed, who uses it and what the space makes easier. That turns architecture into a practical alumni story rather than a render alone.
Read the current projects ↗
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.
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.
Close the laptop. Meet your friends. Make room for a game between campus and the rest of your day.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
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.
Industry / Aviation
Waterloo and Airbus formalize a framework for research and talent development.
A new agreement connects Waterloo and Airbus across sustainable aviation, advanced materials, digital systems and emerging aerospace technologies. The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics coordinates the partnership, alongside the Future in Motion Network.
The framework builds on a relationship begun in 2021 with Airbus’s local digital aviation team, now operating as Skywise. It also points toward student projects and experiential learning. These are planned avenues for collaboration, rather than a tally of completed projects or new jobs.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
Selected briefs by publication year in the expanded September 2026 issue
Forty-one of the 54 selected briefs are dated 2026; the remaining stories supply labelled historical and alumni context.
The year bars describe this issue’s source window, not the University of Waterloo’s news volume or a trend in activity.
Source: Waterloo News RSS · selected issue inventory. Counts are derived from the 54 selected records and their source dates; this is not a census of Waterloo news.
Editor’s essay / interpretation
A network becomes useful when someone has a problem worth working on.
An introduction to a supplier. A first work term in public service. A city trying to schedule its crews. The stories in this issue describe education through the situations where people have to use it.
For alumni, that suggests a concrete way to stay involved: share a problem, offer specific feedback, or help someone understand how a field works. The value of the connection lies in what another person can do with it.
A partnership announcement begins a process; it does not finish it. A promising tool still needs users, and a good research finding needs appropriate conditions.
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.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
PitchBook figures reported by Waterloo for its 2026 entrepreneurship ranking
Waterloo reports a seventh-place global rank for undergraduate founders, 54th for graduate founders and a fastest-riser position for female founders. The figures describe a ranking methodology, not a count of companies or dollars created.
Read the university account alongside the original PitchBook methodology. A ranking is a useful signal for where to look; it is not proof of individual outcomes.
Source: Waterloo News · PitchBook ranking. University-reported ranking context; the source does not establish revenue, employment or future performance.
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.
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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
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
A Waterloo partnership treats adoption as a people and process problem.
Cohere and the University of Waterloo partner to prepare students to lead AI transformation work
The official Waterloo report places this work in ai / work. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Engineering / Aviation
Autonomous aircraft research asks where access matters most.
Waterloo-founded startup Ribbit scaling autonomous fixed-wing aircraft to expand transportation access in remote, infrastructure-limited environments across Canada and beyond.
The official Waterloo report places this work in engineering / aviation. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
A source-linked pathway from co-op question to workplace test
The AI@WORK and Cohere stories describe students and researchers working with organizations on practical adoption. The useful unit is a loop: observe a workflow, build a small intervention, test it with people, then revise.
This is a process diagram, not a measured conversion funnel. The source pages describe projects and partnerships, not a university-wide adoption rate.
Source: Waterloo News · AI@WORK. Qualitative synthesis from official reporting; no funnel denominator supplied.
Field note / AI and university culture
The interesting question is where people keep their judgment.
The AI stories here do not describe a single campus policy. They show students, researchers and organizations negotiating a tool while the work is still underway.
That makes culture visible in small choices: what gets checked, who is invited into the workflow, and whether a prototype can survive contact with a person who did not build it.
AI / Culture
The hard part of an AI system can be the relationship around it.
Canada can lead the revolution by educating leaders who bake core principles right in.
The official Waterloo report places this work in ai / culture. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
A stretch after the library. A class before work. A moment in the day that belongs to you.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Climate / Civic
GeoSafe gives communities a way to test changing climate scenarios.
Waterloo PhD candidate Hasti Shwan develops a platform that turns complex climate and natural hazard data into actionable insights for informed decision-making
The official Waterloo report places this work in climate / civic. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
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.
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.
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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Computer Science / Teaching
A failure story can become a better engineering lesson.
From being named an MLH top 50 honoree to scaling up hackathons, Jeffrey Zang learned to build by embracing failure.
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / teaching. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
The expanded issue’s CS and AI desks
The CS section moves from privacy and search to teaching, security, aerospace and workplace AI. The spread is editorial metadata from this issue, not a survey of the school.
Each brief links to the official source page so a reader can follow the technical work in its original context.
Source: Cheriton School of Computer Science news. Issue-level grouping; categories are editorial labels.
Work term / product lens
A useful placement leaves behind a question another person can pick up.
A work term can be a line on a résumé, but the strongest examples in this issue behave more like a small product team: observe a constraint, make a first version, test it with the people who own the problem, and leave a clearer next step.
That is why municipal scheduling and workplace AI sit beside founder stories. The setting changes; the discipline of learning from use does not.
Computer Science / Community
Negar Arabzadeh is recognized for community engagement in information access.
Negar was recognized for her contributions in community engagement in the information retrieval community
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / community. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Computer Science / Builders
A Waterloo team takes an aerospace idea into an international competition.
All-female team was recognized for their solution to combating GPS spoofing
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / builders. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Computer Science / Pitch
Bella Chen's pitch shows how technical work becomes legible to a room.
PhD student wins seed funding for her technology that supports children with ADHD
The official Waterloo report places this work in computer science / pitch. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
AI / Work
Cohere and Waterloo connect research with how organizations actually change.
Cohere and UWaterloo will launch a new certificate on AI Transformation and Change Management
The official Waterloo report places this work in ai / work. 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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Entrepreneurship / PitchBook
The university's PitchBook account is useful context, with clear limits.
Summary of UWaterloo news story re: PitchBook rankings
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.
Entrepreneurship / Alumni
Home appraisal becomes an AI product after a Waterloo co-op path.
Feature on E Co-op alum Humza Ahmed, founder of Automax.ai, who raised more than $5 million in funding after completing Y Combinator.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / alumni. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Entrepreneurship / Students
Student founders start with real constraints and a nearby user.
Recap of the Spring 2026 QVI Problem Pitch Competition Finals.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / students. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
Historical context from Hack the North and the wildfire hackathon
Hack the North is reported as a 36-hour event with more than 1,000 participants. The wildfire hackathon brought 27 teams and more than 130 students to a public-risk brief.
Those are historical event figures. They show the scale and pressure of a format; they do not predict the quality of any individual project.
Source: Waterloo News · Hack the North. Historical event context; figures are as reported by the university.
Builders / Canada to San Francisco
A founder path is usually a set of reachable rooms, not a straight line.
PitchBook ranks, Velocity judges, Y Combinator cohorts and San Francisco offices can make entrepreneurship look like a single escalator. The source pages tell a more useful story: founders move through introductions, experiments, feedback and timing.
The alumni role is concrete. A judge asks a better question. A friend makes an introduction. A co-op term reveals a problem worth solving. The geography changes after the work has already begun.
Entrepreneurship / Climate
Climate resilience begins with information someone can act on.
Summary of Waterloo News feature on part-time MBET student Hasti Shwan's startup Geosafe Climate.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / climate. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Entrepreneurship / Brand
Founders learn how a clear promise travels beyond a prototype.
MBET Alumni Impact Series feature Emma Tonallato-Keller, MBET '21.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / brand. 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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Entrepreneurship / Showcase
The MBET showcase makes an early venture visible to a community.
The MBET showcase makes an early venture visible to a community.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / showcase. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
Selected briefs by editorial desk in the expanded September 2026 issue
Alumni, entrepreneurship and computer science are the three largest doors in this selection; engineering, AI and math widen the frame.
The desks are editorial groupings from the section labels, not a ranking of faculties or research output.
Source: Waterloo News RSS · selected issue inventory. Counts reflect this issue’s selected records and editorial section labels; they do not measure institutional activity.
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.
Math / Education
CEMC works on access before a student reaches a university classroom.
Here are three of the CEMC’s many programs that are specifically helping to address the gender equity gap.
The official Waterloo report places this work in math / education. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
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.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
A working map across health, climate and aviation
The issue’s research briefs move through a repeated sequence: a measured problem, a tool or finding, a partner or setting, and a question about use. The sequence helps readers distinguish an early result from a finished service.
No single article supplies every step. The map is an editorial reading aid assembled from the linked official reports.
Source: Waterloo News · research desk. Editorial synthesis; it is not a university programme model.
Hackathons / participation
The demo is the visible part; the room is the infrastructure.
Hackathon stories often end with a winning project. The more durable detail is the group shape: strangers finding a role, a mentor turning a vague brief into a test, a late-night decision about what to leave out.
That culture can make technical work social without making it soft. The public-risk briefs in Waterloo’s historical reporting show how a time-boxed format can point attention toward climate and community questions.
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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
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.
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.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
From pitch judges to volunteers and lifelong friends
The alumni pieces in this issue describe a network through concrete acts: a feedback session, an introduction, a volunteer shift, a friendship that keeps its shape. The common element is participation, not a mailing list.
The expanded issue keeps these stories beside founder and co-op reporting because connection is useful when it changes what someone can try next.
Source: Waterloo Alumni · volunteer community. Qualitative synthesis from official alumni and news pages.
Alumni / community
Connection becomes real when it changes what someone can do next.
The alumni stories in this expanded issue describe a network through acts: feedback, volunteering, friendship, and the decision to return a call. They belong alongside research and founder reporting because an institution is partly the set of handoffs it can make possible.
A digest can only point to those actions. The next move belongs to people: offer a specific introduction, answer a practical question, or make room for a new person to try something difficult.
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
Conrad School researchers connect business questions to public funding.
News item featuring Professors Victor Cui and Felix Arndt sharing federal funding announcement for research.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / research. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
Entrepreneurship / Education
The Conrad School asks what founders need before they have a pitch.
Alumni impact feature on Divya Lala, MBET '25 sharing her experience in the program.
The official Waterloo report places this work in entrepreneurship / education. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
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.
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.
Math / Graduate life
Math graduate students build a peer network around difficult questions.
The EDGE for Women program is a one-month intensive that provides mentorship and training to women and gender-minority students at the beginning of their PhDs.
The official Waterloo report places this work in math / graduate life. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
2026 records in the expanded September 2026 issue, by publication month
The current desk is concentrated in July through September, with September carrying 20 of the 41 records dated 2026.
The bars show selected records by month; they do not measure University of Waterloo activity or the full news calendar.
Source: Waterloo News RSS · selected issue inventory. Only records dated 2026 are included; month buckets reflect this issue’s selection and do not imply a complete archive.
Math / Teaching
A teaching award points to the people who make technical confidence possible.
1-2 awards are granted each year to teachers who “consistently demonstrated outstanding pedagogical skills and a deep commitment to our students’ education.”
The official Waterloo report places this work in math / teaching. It is a source-linked brief for alumni readers; the source page remains the authority for names, dates and outcomes.
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.
uWaterloo Alum Digest / data feature
Selected dates from official Waterloo history and then-and-now pages
Waterloo’s official history places the university’s beginning in 1957, its first building in 1958, and later campus memories in 1976, 1988, 1996 and 2017.
These are selected waypoints, not a complete construction history. The point is to read buildings as evidence of a university that keeps making room for new questions.
Source: Waterloo history · then and now. Selected milestones from official history and alumni archive pages; not a construction inventory.
Waterloo / architecture and memory
A building can be a time machine, a study room and a promise about what the university wants to make possible next.
Then / Davis Centre, 1988
The Davis Centre then-and-now image holds two Waterloo moments in one frame: an early computer-research landmark and the building as students know it today. The motherboard-shaped design is part of the campus memory, but the people moving through it are the continuity.
Waterloo 60 / Waterloo, then and now ↗Now / the rooms we use
The current campus is also a set of rooms: libraries, labs, commons, shops and quiet corners that make a large university feel navigable. We will keep pairing a place with the question it helps students ask.
Notice the room around the story: study, shop, meet, test, return.
Next / Campus Plan, 2026
Waterloo’s 2026 Campus Plan gives that habit a future-facing frame. Its architectural drawing points to a campus plan that treats buildings, open space, mobility, sustainability and accessibility as one connected experience.
Daily Bulletin / Campus Plan endorsed ↗Places to notice this year
Retail / South Campus Hall
A gift store is also a memory room: alumni gear, course materials and the small objects that make a return visit feel current. The September 2026 Homecoming page lists the South Campus Hall store and a Warrior Field pop-up.
See the Homecoming details ↗Planning / 2026
For every new building, room or campus service, the issue will show what changed, who uses it and what the space makes easier. That turns architecture into a practical alumni story rather than a render alone.
Read the current projects ↗Closing pages / independent concepts
The club has an idea. Give it something people can try, question and improve.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
The sketch, the model, the revision. Build a portfolio that gives your decisions room to speak.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
Who has the keys? What needs doing? Turn the next club project into a small app worth testing.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.
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.
Conceptual placement. No sponsor is confirmed. No affiliation with the brand or the University of Waterloo.