Dear Software Engineering Graduates of 2022, We first met when you came to Waterloo in September 2017. It was a privilege to teach you and to serve as your Director for exactly half of your degree; one of the best parts of my job is interacting with students. I'm also extremely thankful to Derek Rayside for running the program during the unprecedented pandemic circumstances of the second half of your degree, while I was working remotely in a far-away land. I said it in 2017 and I'll say it again. You came in as excellent students. You have certainly gained hard technical skills; we know how to teach those, and you know how to learn them. But there are even more important aspects to your personal development. I hope that you have also gained empathy and soft skills during the past 5 years, perhaps through your interactions with your peers, some of whom will be your friends for life. Now it is time for you to find your very own paths in the world. I hope that you will continue to grow and to become better human beings. I wish you success and happiness, and I trust that you will seek to leave the world a better place than you found it. Patrick Lam Director of Software Engineering, 2016 - 2019.

Dear 4B Software Engineering Students, 4B marks the end of a remarkable journey, a journey of learning and self-discovery. A fruitful journey is never easy. But through your efforts and dedication, you have managed to overcome every obstacle on your path to success. For that, we are proud. You must be eager for what is to come. As you imagine the future and plan your next steps, remember that you are stronger than you think. Do not be afraid to take risks and accept challenges. You already have all the power to make an impact in the world. An impactful life is full of obstacles and challenges, and those who overcome them will learn, improve, and become stronger than ever. Every one of you has the potential to achieve great things. Remember to be present and open to the opportunities that unfold before you. After this term, many of you will no longer be students. However, life never stops its lessons. Life will teach you more than you could imagine. You will advance in life by what you will learn in the future more than what you learned in the past. I wish you the greatest success in all your endeavours. Victoria Sakhnini Associate Director of Software Engineering

Dear SE Class of 2022; The traditional purpose of an engineering capstone project — and SE is no exception — is to encourage you, the student, to apply what you have learned in your classes from us profs to a real system of your choice — and not a prof-concocted one — in your chosen field. While each course is about one topic, in any project in which you participate now and in the future, you will need to apply an unpredictable subset of what you have learned in the courses, and you will have to chose what to apply on the fly, in real time, during the project. Further, you will need another subset, again determined on the fly, of what you have learned in order to make this choice of what to apply. The capstone is typically your first opportunity to make these choices for a real project. This is true even in a cooperative education program, which most, if not all of you were in, because typically your employers have made the choices for you, in the hopes of wringing the most productivity out of you in the short durations in which you work for them. I will let you in on a dirty little secret. The reality is that many students do not learn what the profs try to teach with lectures, homework, and exams. We profs know this secret because we were students at one time (hard to believe, eh?). Students need to actually use what is taught in a real project to really know what the prof is trying to teach. That is, the students really teach themselves what the profs are trying to teach by doing what the profs are trying to teach in their own projects in the capstone. In some cases, students discover the lessons all by themselves. So, the capstone project is where you really learned to be a software engineer. When I saw the enthusiasm with which you presented your capstone projects on Symposium Day, I knew that the capstone projects had done their magic. A warm congratulations on finishing your capstone projects and all your courses, particularly the SE core courses, including the one you took from me. Congratulations also on graduating with a BSE degree. Good luck in all your future endeavors. Live long and prosper! Don′t behave! If you′re ever in Waterloo, drop by and tell me how you′re doing. Dan Daniel M. Berry Class Professor Cheriton School of Computer Science University of Waterloo dberry@uwaterloo.ca http://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~dberry

Dear SE class of 2022 - Thank you for the privilege of teaching you SE212 in Fall 2018! We had a lot of fun with Harry Potter's puzzle and playing musical chairs. Although it is easy to see that those were the good old days now. You have overcome so many obstacles. You have become independent, resilient self-learners, who have supported each other through unprecedented times. Congratulations on your tremendous accomplishment of graduation! Remember when I asked you what you would remember from SE212 in 10 years? I hope that you at least remember that you have the skills to conquer complex problems. These skills will always be in demand. I hope that you can use your skills to make software engineering a profession that can offer guarantees about software behaviour. Best wishes in your personal and professional futures! Nancy Day SE 212 Professor

Dear SE Class of 2022, First and foremost, congratulations on your incredible accomplishment! It's always hard to put one's intellectual and emotional growth into proper perspective now because we are always thinking about the future and planning our next steps. Resist this temptation for a second, breathe deeply, and make sure to savour the outstanding accomplishments of the past 5+ years of you and your classmates. Your class will always have a special place in my heart. Together we experienced the turbulence of March 2020. Later that fall your class was the first I'd ever taught online. I still think about an example from MATH213 about "overly rapid growth" which I naively likened to the spread of a virus! I wish you nothing but success and happiness in the next phases of your life. I encourage you to remain intellectually curious and to keep an open mind to new ideas. You never know when an idea or concept might prove useful even when its utility isn't immediately obvious. You will face many problems in the future, but you have the skills and the tenacity to solve them. I look forward to hearing about your adventures. Stay in touch. Chris Nielsen MATH 213 & SE 380 Professor

Time to start. Look at you all! You are amazing! Did you ever think you would make it? Well you did make it. Be proud, be very very proud of what you accomplished. The software engineering program is the hardest CS program. You have learned SO much. Now you have to take that knowledge to the next level and apply it. Make us proud of your next accomplishments. While graduating is a very special moment, trust me, you won't remember it, because it's only the goal. What you will remember, for the rest of your life, is the journey. The work, the disappointments, the work, the triumphs, the work, your instructors, the work, your friends. Did I mention the work? So, graduation is a tough day. Saying good bye to the University and all your University friends is both sad and happy. But, even if you never see your University friends again, for some reason, they will always be your best friends. I'll end by saying: The Angles have the phone box. The Angles are coming Don't Blink! Good Luck. Peter Buhr CS 343 Professor