2010 marked another successful year for the Canadian Undergraduate Conference, a gathering of technology-oriented students from British Columbia to Quebec. Originally founded 10 years ago by a (former) Waterloo undergraduate, Jonathan Kwan, Waterloo continued its strong presence in organizing the successful event. Much thanks to Keith Peiris, Ivan Law, Uzair Chutani and Steven Chen, and all of nanotechnology engineering for their efforts.
A keynote from Hadi Mahabi, Vice-President of Xerox Research Canada, kicked off the conference. His speech gave a poignant reminder of the importance of primary research, especially in the wake of Bell Labs, while reminding us that in today’s world, primary research must have the end goal of commercialization in mind.
Another keynote, Naweed Syed of the University of Calgary, introduced some truly novel technology that allowed researchers to control the movements of chickens, frogs and other animals through chips implanted in their nervous systems and connected wirelessly to researchers’ computers. The technology was truly marvellous, and Dr. Syed discussed the ethical implications of a world in which this technology could be used Terminator-style to merge the worlds or computation and biology.
A third keynote, Bill Buxton, of Microsoft Research, discussed the importance of multi-disciplinarian teams and individuals. He talked about “T-shaped” individuals, with a firm pillar of expertise, supporting a broad knowledge of a variety fields. With a bachelor’s degree in music himself, he was a great lesson that an engineering degree is meaningless without backing by creativity, hard work and a broad view of technical problems.
The conference also featured three competitions: the Google Case Challenge, Dayforce Coding Challenge and Rim Infratag. The Google Case Challenge was designed to solve Google’s perennial problem of failing to monetize its projects, and featured judges from Google itself.
The Dayforce coding challenge pitted students against one another in a timed solution of 30 coding problems. Congratulations to Jonathan Ng, Ali Ahmed, and Michael Kwan – Universit of Waterloo students who managed to finish third, despite pitting themselves against much larger teams (including the 6-man team of winners).
Finally, RIM infratag, a high technology scavenger hunt involving barcode scan technology was a neat application of technology which clearly left this Luddite reporter and his ordinary phone in the dust.
Overall, it was an excellent experience, and I would recommend Waterloo students consider attending next year’s CUTC and similar conferences, as they are truly an excellent opportunity to develop “real” skills, learn about technology and network with other students from across Canada. Check out the engsoc Calendar, or talk to Kevin Ling, VP External (bsoc_vpext@engmail.uwaterloo.ca) for more info about engineering conferences and events.
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