Congratulations to Connor McBrine-Ellis (team captain) and Ethan Waldie for their excellent standing at the World Championships of Computer Networking. In preliminary events they ranked #2 in Ontario - qualifying Connor and Ethan for the World Class Championship broadcast live over the Internet and hosted by CISCO.
On Friday May 3rd at the U.S. and Canada Theater Finale, they were up against thousands of elite networking students from all over the globe. Our boys kicked it up a notch and competed with valor during the two hour exam (a combination of theory and practical assessment). Western Tech's final ranking was 1st in Ontario, 2nd in Canada and 34th in the World - North America Division. Congratulations Connor and Ethan! ... and congratulations to Jesse Noordegraaf and Bradley Tenbrinke from British Columbia who were the #1 ranked Canadian team. An historical footnote:
Two years ago we competed at the same competition. David Au and Henry Tieu ranked 24th in the World. David is at U of Waterloo doing a coop placement at Zynga and Henry is at U of Toronto in Life Sciences.
So you want to know what Connor and Ethan do in their elective classes - Computer Networking (TEN) and Engineering Robotics (TEJ)? Connor was an instrumental part of the in-house online course selection software development team and is now programming enhancements to our school website.
At Western we encourage students to innovate and develop skills as they apply science to solve real world problems . Connor is following in the footsteps of another Western Tech graduate who pioneered our first "in-house developed" course selection software. That student, Gregory Lever-Fraser was just hired by Google (our third alumni to be plucked across the border by the information technology powerhouse) and is on his way to San Francisco where he promises to spread the news regarding the hot-bed of innovation happening right here at 125 Evelyn Crescent Toronto Canada!
Not to be outdone, Ethan is working on a prototype for a 64 node supercomputer utilizing proper parallel processing algorithms. For this project we are looking to secure funding from a few sources, one of which is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Ethan is researching, programming and contributing to the grant proposal writing team. Fortunately, Connor has graciously offered to write an administrative console for the prototype taking one responsibility off Ethan's plate.
You’ll have the opportunity to read more on both of these projects in June as the masterful and innovative pieces of engineering unfold.
Well done Western Tech Computer Networking students.
