Current students

Computer science doctoral candidate Johann Wentzel aims to make virtual reality more accessible for disabled people.

“Most of my work is in making VR more accessible for people with motor disabilities or impairments by using the input devices they already have rather than potentially inaccessible VR controllers,” Johann says. 

For example, he looks at how to define meaningful VR experiences for someone who only has access to a button switch and a joystick on their power chair.

Tiadora Ruza’s journey at the University of Waterloo began long before she started university. The inaugural winner of the Germain-Erdős Award spent many years as a teenager participating in the Math Circles program, a math outreach and enrichment program conducted on campus by the Centre for Education in Math and Computing. Math Circles, Ruza reflects, “allowed me to become familiar with the campus environment and made Waterloo feel like my mathematical home.”

Software engineering student Vikram Subramanian has received a 2023 Jessie W. H. Zou Memorial Award. Established by Computer Science Professor Ming Li in honour of his late wife Jessie Wenhui Zou, the $1,000 award is conferred annually to outstanding undergraduate students in the Faculty of Mathematics with the aim of recognizing and celebrating their research accomplishments.

Cheriton School of Computer Science Professor Robin Cohen has received the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award in Computer Science from CS-Can | Info-Can, the non-profit society dedicated to representing all aspects of computer science and the interests of the discipline across Canada.

Recent PhD graduate Michael Abebe has received the 2023 Cheriton Distinguished Dissertation Award. Now in its fifth year, the award was established to recognize excellence in computer science doctoral research. In addition to the recognition, recipients receive a cash prize of $1,000.