So much to do, So much to see!

Hi Everyone. Welcome back to campus! I’m Pat Duong your EngSoc VP Academic for the Winter 2018 term! I deal with all things co-op and academic related. Over the co-op term, I’ve worked with Andrew McBurney (former VP Academic B) to reformat and update all of our transition documents so that future academic services and events can run much more smoothly.

Co-op Fee Deep Dive

https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/your-co-op-fee

Waterloo Co-op has released their first set of information about the long awaited co-op fee. And while the comprehensive breakdown of the current fee is not yet available, they do talk about the general categories into which they’ve broken down Co-op’s services. This is the first publicly available step towards understanding the co-op fee, and I will continue to push for and support having more information and transparency.

Add an External Job on WaterlooWorks

CECA has listened to feedback students have given over the years and has added a new feature to WaterlooWorks. In the past, some students have been in this situation with an external offer and then had to make the difficult decision between losing access to WaterlooWorks or giving up an external offer. This no longer needs to happen during main round!  Students are now able to add jobs found externally to WaterlooWorks as an offer during main round! This must be done before rankings come out in order to be added to the system as an offer.

AI Option (coming out Fall 2018)

The Faculty of Engineering is coming out with a new Option in Artificial Intelligence in Fall 2018. Upper year students with the right courses also will qualify for the Option as long as it is completed before graduation. It requires a specific (not yet publicly released) mixture of MSCI and ECE, as well as a choice of courses from most other departments. It’s centred around courses in algorithms, process control systems, and machine learning. If interested, ask your class EngSoc representative for more information, or email me.

Some of my other Goals:

• Collaborating to host an FYDP Poster workshop

• Updating the content of the Exam Bank website page

• Investigate cross-departmental collaboration/course taking

I want to hear your thoughts/opinions/concerns, so if you ever want to talk to me about anything academic/co-op related and otherwise, my office hours are Fridays 11:30 am – 1:20 pm in the Orifice or drop me an email at vpacademic.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca . Cheers!