A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

On behalf of the graduating Systems Design Engineering students, as well as our SYDE faculty and staff team, I am delighted to welcome you to the 2021 Capstone Design Symposium.

I wish my sincerest congratulations to all of the Capstone Design student teams, for perseverance in this most challenging year, the conclusion of nearly five years of hard work and study with us at UWaterloo and in the broader world during their co-op terms. The Capstone Design Symposium serves as the culmination of the program within which we deliberately and explicitly embed design experiences. We firmly believe that designing solutions to improve human experience and society, the environment, and economies is the core of our profession. The formal approaches for iterative design, prototyping, and engineering analysis allow our SYDE graduates to excel in, and contribute to, the world.

As I return to my native Ontario to serve as department chair, I could not be more pleased to have learned in my first year that the SYDE community exudes a genuine passion for design that complements the skillset we offer students in our core curriculum. SYDE students care about each other and community. Their faculty care about continuous improvement and adaptation of the program to address the timely challenges we face – challenges we see more clearly in many ways because of the reality of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

I recognize, in addition to the usual feelings of relief, apprehension and pride, that students feel some disappointment that their 4th year was “online” and “remote”. We all appreciate the connection technology can provide, but also recognize the critical importance of face-to-face interactions for education and especially capstone design experiences. This year, we have learned different things, unplanned things, in addition to the real-world design practice. The faculty and staff of SYDE have missed spending this last year with our 4th year students. We wish our graduates every success in their lifelong learning and journey. As students look back on their SYDE experiences, the ups and the downs, I invite them to remain a part of our SYDE community, keep in touch, and be part of designing the future program for the students that will follow.

Lisa Aultman-Hall Professor and Chair

Department of Systems Design Engineering