Timeline - 1990s


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1991

  • Frank Tompa is named a "leader in Canadian Science" by NSERC in their first publication of twelve Great Canadian Success Stories.

1992

  • Frank Tompa succeeds Paul Larson as Chair of the Department of Computer Science (1992 - 1997).
  • Consortium for Graduate Education in Software Engineering (ConGESE) is formed, involving nine departments from the Universities of Ottawa, Toronto, Waterloo, and Western Ontario, Carleton and Queen's University, plus IBM and Nortel.
  • Alan George is named Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
  • 25th Anniversary Research Day is held with talks by prominent UW alumni including Rick Beach, Tom Cargill, David Cheriton, Andy Conn, Faith Fich, Gaston Gonnet, and Carl Seger.

1994

  • UW takes first place in the World Finals of the ACM Programming Contest. UW is represented by the team of Seiji Ando, Ian Goldberg, Ka-Ping Yee, and coach Jo Ebergen.
  • Wes Graham and John Vellinga are the first faculty members to retire from CS.

1996

  • The Education Program for Software Professionals (EPSP), an outreach program for practicing IT workers, begins operation.

1997

  • Nick Cercone succeeds Frank Tompa as Chair of the Department of Computer Science (1997 - 2001).
  • Communications and Information Technology Ontario (CITO) is formed from ITRC, expanding ITRC to include other Ontario universities.
  • Centre for the New OED and Text Research wins the NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation.

1998

  • In 1998, Bell University Laboratories (BUL) at the University of Waterloo was awarded $22 million over three years. Funding for BUL was provided by Bell Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. BUL provided research funding and laboratory rennovations in the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In addition, a portion of the BUL funds (5 million) was used to establish an endowment for graduate student scholarships in the two departments.

1999

  • Wes Graham is named Officer of the Order of Canada.
  • UW takes first place in the World Finals of the ACM Programming Contest. UW is represented by the team of Ondrej Lhotak, Viet-Trung Luu, David Kennedy, reserve Donny Cheung, and coach Gordon Cormack.