From
the beginning, Waterloo has forged strong links with the community it serves.
Now our one campus has
grown to three. In Cambridge, the new School of Architecture campus is helping
to revitalize the downtown, and in
Kitchener a health sciences campus is emerging. As the university grows and
the concept of community expands,
so do those links. This report chronicles a cross section of connections and
points the way to new ones.
Keen on transforming the world through the tiniest technology, the first
nanotechnology engineering students
arrived in September. Working with atoms and molecules, they’ll learn
to design new materials and devices to
revolutionize fields from bioengineering to communications to space exploration.
Nanotechnology researchers are looking forward to sharing a new $70-million
building with the Institute for
Quantum Computing on Waterloo’s main campus. Designed by Kuwabara Payne
McKenna Blumberg Architects
(KPMB), the 225,000-square-foot facility is made possible by a remarkable $50.6
million gift from Mike
Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of Research In Motion and UW’s chancellor,
and his wife, Ophelia. The gift pushed
Campaign Waterloo past its $260 million goal and on towards a new $350 million
target.
Other new initiatives will enhance seniors’ lives through the Research
Institute for Aging (RIA), housed in an
addition to the Lyle S. Hallman Institute for Health Promotion, and address
the shortage of pharmacists through
the new School of Pharmacy to be built in Kitchener in 2006, with a commitment
of $30 million from the City of
Kitchener. Connecting research to children’s everyday lives, psychology
professor Daniela O’Neill found that
encouraging storytelling in children may enhance mathematical ability later
on. This kind of applied research
brought $109.7 million in external funding to Waterloo in 2004-2005.
Our successes continue to be recognized nationally, with Maclean’s magazine
again ranking Waterloo as
Canada’s best overall university by reputation and the top comprehensive
university in 2005. Expanding our
global connections and becoming one of the world’s leading institutions
of higher learning is the next challenge.
Acknowledging Waterloo’s already significant role on the world stage,
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates visited the
campus in 2005 — the only Canadian stop on a six-university tour.
To enhance our international profile, Waterloo plans to boost the number of
international students on campus
and the number of students we send abroad for academic or co-op work terms.
If we put our minds to it — one
student at a time — we can change the world.
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