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• Adel Sedra honoured with lifetime achievement award
• GreaseTech slides into first place at Velocity pitch competition

• A Q&A with Christine Eagles, the 2025 Certificate in University Teaching recipient

• What's open and closed over the long weekend and other notes

Adel Sedra honoured with lifetime achievement award

This article was originally published on the Faculty of Engineering website.

A former dean of ��ݮ��Ƶ Engineering and renowned Canadian engineering scholar has been recognized for his contributions to the field of microelectronics with a national lifetime achievement award.

Dr. Adel Sedra, professor emeritus and former dean of engineering at the University of ��ݮ��Ƶ, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Canada’s Semiconductor Council during its annual awards dinner in Ottawa last month. The event also honoured the late K.C. Smith, Sedra’s longtime collaborator and co-author of the seminal textbook��Microelectronic Circuits.

First published in 1982,��Microelectronic Circuits��has shaped how electrical and computer engineering is taught across the globe. The textbook has sold more than two million copies in ten languages and continues to serve as a core resource for students and instructors. A permanent exhibit celebrating the textbook’s legacy, unveiled in 2024 on the fifth floor of Engineering 7, highlights the enduring impact of Sedra and Smith’s work.

Sedra joined ��ݮ��Ƶ in 2003 as dean of engineering after a distinguished career at the University of Toronto, where he held several academic leadership positions, including vice-president academic and provost. His leadership at ��ݮ��Ƶ helped to expand the Faculty’s global profile and commitment to interdisciplinary innovation.

Read more about Sedra’s legacy at ��ݮ��Ƶ Engineering.

GreaseTech slides into first place at Velocity pitch competition

By Tori Coles.

Jesh Ramesh is a prime example of how the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program empowers entrepreneurs to turn innovative ideas into ventures.��In MBET, students are immersed in an experiential learning environment focused on the commercialization of their ideas to build viable businesses.

As the founder of GreaseTech, Jesh is transforming lubrication maintenance in manufacturing through cutting-edge IoT technology and a real-time software platform that ensures precise, error-free processes and prevents costly equipment failures. Jesh and co-founder Nathan Wong held in April.

Before joining MBET, Jesh had already made waves as an engineer at a Fortune 500 manufacturing company, where he developed a scanner system that outperformed existing solutions and was rolled out across 100 plants in the U.S. With a strong foundation in industrial problem-solving and system scaling, Jesh came to MBET with a raw idea—and through the program, he turned it into a venture-ready solution.

“MBET gave me the confidence, network, and team to bring GreaseTech to life,” says Jesh. “The program created space for entrepreneurial thinking and equipped us with the right tools to pursue our vision. Our wins at pitch competitions are a testament to the incredible support we received—especially from our advisors at the Conrad School, like David Rose, who believed in us every step of the way.”

“Jesh is a great example of what MBET can do for someone who has a great idea for a venture they want to pursue,” said David Rose, Associate Director of the MBET program. “He gained the business skills he needed to turn his idea into a validated business opportunity, along with mentoring and networking opportunities throughout the UW ecosystem. We are very proud of what he accomplished while in MBET and since graduating.”

From idea to impact, Jesh’s journey showcases the transformative power of MBET in launching technology-driven startups ready to make a difference.

For more information about the MBET program, visit the website.

A Q&A with Christine Eagles, the 2025 Certificate in University Teaching recipient

This article was originally published on the Centre for Teaching Excellence website.

We are excited to announce that the 2025 Certificate in University Teaching (CUT) Award has been awarded to Christine Eagles, a PhD student in Pure Mathematics studying model theory. We had an opportunity to interview Christine about her experience with the Certificate in University Teaching and her dedication to teaching.����

What motivated you to join the��Certificate in University Teaching��(CUT) program during your doctoral studies?

Teaching is a really important part of any academic career, and we don’t really learn how to do that in our PhD unless you seek it out. The CUT program was a great opportunity to learn those skills.  Especially in our math department, many of our TAs are purely marking-based, with little to no interaction with students. The CUT program really allowed me to gain that experience and knowledge about how to handle yourself in situations with students that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.����

When you started the CUT program, one of your goals was to learn how to effectively use active learning in math courses, in particular peer-to-peer learning that encourages students to reflect on their solutions method. Can you expand on this? To what extent were you able to accomplish this goal?��

In my undergraduate experience, I only had math courses that were all traditional lecture-style based. So, there was essentially no active learning, it was all passive. I had some active learning in non-math courses, but the techniques didn’t seem to transfer directly onto a math course. I wanted to see what that was like. Also, my greatest understanding came from talking through problems or concepts and trying to explain them to my peers. It didn’t come from sitting in the classroom or just doing questions, it came from speaking with other people at my level. It was also a good test to see if I was understanding or just regurgitating the material.����

There is a common misconception in math that there is only one answer but there’s usually many different correct answers. It’s just some of the ways to solve the problem are more elegant or concise than others. Many times, students will just write down the first solution that comes to mind and submit. While their solution is technically correct, it doesn’t demonstrate a mastery of the course material or a deeper understanding. In the same way you wouldn’t submit your first draft for an English essay, you shouldn’t be doing that for a math assignment. I really want to focus on how the tools that you learn in the course can give you a different way to answer a problem that you might already know the answer to.��

The way that I have been able to do that is really with using things I learned in the CUT program and the Fundamentals of University Teaching. I have been able to do a lot of Think-Pair-Shares in my class, where I’ll have students work on an example and work with their neighbor and then we’ll take it up on the board. That way, they can see how somebody else approaches the problem and how they think differently to answer the same thing. Then they see what we use in the course material to address the problem, so it walks them through the thinking process.����

Can you share a story of a time when you applied something that you learned from CUT program in your teaching?��

My favourite thing that I learned from CUT is the muddiest point activity. It’s when you ask students to choose a concept, a topic, or a problem type that they find the least clear so far. It really gets them to reflect on what they know and how well they’re doing in the course. I also like to pair this activity with a midterm or final review. I’ll ask them to submit a question or topic on Monday, and we’ll do the review on Friday. This gives me time to prepare but it also forces students to reflect on where they feel they are in the course before the day before the exam. It’s a way to get them to reflect on their learning and gives them time to address those gaps in knowledge.����

One of the reasons you were recognized with this award is how you are able to reflect on and refine your teaching strategies based on student needs. What does this approach involve, and why do you think it’s an important one for your students?��

The way I approach teaching is to gather feedback from the students to see how they’re doing. This doesn’t have to be formal feedback - it can be simple comprehension checks: every 10 minutes I’ll pause to see if there is anything I can clarify or even do a little activity. This is just to see if they’re getting the answer right or if there are any misconceptions before we move on. At the start of every week, I like to do a little warm-up question on the board which is a multiple-choice question that reviews a key concept. It really lets me see if they have any misconceptions that are not being addressed. The way math is usually taught is to build on each section, so if those misconceptions don’t get addressed, they get carried through the whole course and can impact your understanding later. It’s important to see how the students are doing and give them the chance to say if they understood that topic or not. It’s a way to really get the students to think about how they’re progressing and how they feel about the course material. I know that when I was a student, I wasn’t always the best at that.����

Is there an activity or technique that you would like to try in your future courses?��

There is one activity that I developed with the CUT program. I called it a “proof annotation activity.” Essentially, you provide students with a reverse assignment. You provide them with the questions and the solution which will have mistakes that students commonly make and you ask them to point those mistakes out, and correct them. This gets the students to focus on how things are being presented, which I find really important. You can have them do this in groups so they can talk to each other about it and it’s a nice way to make sure they are understanding and actually doing the work themselves.����

Anything else you would like to share about your experiences in the CUT program?��

The most valuable part of the CUT experience for me was getting feedback on my teaching, from both the experts and from my peers. Having the peer evaluation at the start of my teaching journey and then having another evaluation towards the end of my class was really beneficial. It was nice to get that feedback and see how I could improve. We can always improve, and no one is ever the best they’re ever going to be. I think that was super valuable and gave me a lot of different ways to think about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.����

Do you have any future plans that you can tell us about?��

I’m a graduate representative on the Women in Math Committee here at ��ݮ��Ƶ. Right now, we’re partnering with the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC). We are putting on a panel about teaching as an early instructor and gender minority in math. Hoping for June, so keep an eye out for that!��

What's open and closed over the long weekend and other notes

Think pink:��Anisha Kuppa of the Centre for Extended Learning snapped this photo of crab-apple blossoms blanketing the ground and picnic tables in the CEL's picnic bench area.

Monday, May 19 is��Victoria Day, a statutory holiday that is celebrated on the last Monday before May 25. The holiday��honours��Queen Victoria, who��was born on May 24, 1819, and in 1901, the year of her death, the day was made a federal holiday. More colloquially, it��serves as an unofficial kickoff to the summer season, with all the barbecues, gardening, and outdoor activities you could ask for.

With the holiday closure there will be a number of changes to operational hours at the University:

• Most 2025 ��ݮ��Ƶ locations will be shuttered on Monday, May 19, with the exception of The Market at UWP, which will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.;
• will be closed on Sunday, May 18 and Monday, May 19;
• All will be closed Monday, May 19;
• The will be closed Monday, May 19, though the Chat With Us feature will remain available (bots don't take holidays...yet);

The ��ݮ��Ƶ Centre, Turnkey Desk SLC and Flock Stop will all be open 24/7 throughout the long weekend, but Turnkey Desk DC will be closed until Tuesday, May 20.

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has published the latest in the Atlassian blog series entitled Effective Documentation with Confluence: Templates, Macros, and Structure.

��Have a great long weekend, everyone.