The following was excerpted from an article published on the website of CS-Can/Info-Can, the nation’s professional society dedicated to representing all aspects of computer science and the interests of the discipline to Canadians.
Some jurisdictions in Canada and around the world are using cell phone data to track the spread of COVID-19. How would this work? What are the privacy concerns around using personal data for this purpose?
A team of Waterloo computer science students have helped create a web-based data-gathering platform that has been promoted by the City of Montreal’s public health authority to its citizens in an effort to flatten the curve of COVID-19 cases in that city.
Professor Shai Ben-David has been appointed a University Research Chair in recognition of his outstanding contributions to machine learning theory, logic, the theory of distributed computation and complexity theory. This prestigious title may be held for up to seven years and is conferred to recognize the exceptional achievements of Waterloo faculty members and to acknowledge their pre-eminence in a field of knowledge.
In 1967, Canadians celebrated the country’s 100th birthday and the future seemed full of hope and boundless potential. But at the University of Waterloo the future had already arrived in the newly built Math and Computer building’s Red Room. It was there that an IBM 360 Model 75 was housed — the most powerful computer in Canada at the time and the same model NASA used to do the critical calculations to send astronauts to the moon.
