Student Design Centre renamed to Adel Sedra Student Design Centre

Only three years after it initially opened, the Student Design Centre in Engineering 5 will be renamed after Adel Sedra, the faculty’s previous dean. Sedra held the role of Dean of Engineering from 2003 to 2008, and again from 2009 to 2012, taking the year between to go on sabbatical.

Sedra earned his B.Sc. from Cairo University, before moving to Canada to earn his M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He then joined the University of Toronto as a faculty member, moving on to become the Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, followed by nine years as the provost and vice-president academic. He joined the University of Waterloo afterwards as Dean, where he contributed greatly to the Vision 2010 plan that brought us Engineering 5 and Engineering 6. He also oversaw the introduction and accreditation of three programs: Management Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and Nanotechnology Engineering.

In the student community, Sedra had a reputation for being supportive of student events and traditions.  Sedra is arguably best-known outside of the Waterloo community as the co-author of Microelectronic Circuits, which is often considered one of the definitive textbooks on the subject.