SYDE 113Elementary Engineering Mathematics
- Units
- 0.25
- Faculty
- Engineering
- Subject
- Systems Design Engineering
Not in the current Undergraduate Calendar. Shown as it appeared in 2025–26.
When it runs
- F24
- W25
- S25
- F25
- W26
- S26
- F26
- W27
- S27
Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.
Functions: trigonometric, exponential, log, inverse functions. Mathematical notation and proof techniques. Metric spaces. Geometry and algebra: root-finding, vectors, coordinate systems, lines and planes, conic sections, complex numbers. Introduction to numerical computation: binary and floating point numbers and arithmetic, accuracy and sources of error.
Prerequisites
- Complete all of the following
- Students must be in level 1A
- Enrolled in H-Biomedical Engineering, or H-Systems Design Engineering
Antirequisites
None listed.
Leads to
No course lists it as a requisite.
Reviewed on UW Flow
44% liked it51% easy83% useful
From 146 ratings and 30 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.
Just a wack-ton of various topics thrown at you with very few connections between the topics.
Mar 2023 · didn’t like it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Nehaniv was VERY hard to follow at times.
Course content is cool, but it takes a lot of digging and practice before it becomes interesting.
You may not understand why you are learning the course content, but it will be applied in upper years.Dec 2019 · liked it · 2 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Prof Kerr made a major typo on the midterm and told us halfway through to just "try our best". You'd think she would learn from her mistakes and look over the final before giving it us. Nope, another one! :)
Dec 2025 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
The content is really boring and switches between extremely easy and impossible. The midterm was not like the homework or problem sets. It teaches you stuff that is useful tho and it’s not much work throughout the term.
Nov 2025 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
This course will be the biggest pain in the ass if you procrastinate and learn everything by yourself the night before quizzes and your exam. Interactive tutorials were stressful and unfair since people would leech off of those who had their stuff together. Nehaniv's lectures seem daunting at first but as long as you go to each one you will be ahead of 80% of people because there aren't as many good online resources for this course.
Aug 2024 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this
Discussed on r/uwaterloo
7 posts and comments in 7 threads mention SYDE 113, August 2017 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.
Winter 2024
For SYDE: What should I do to prepare? 1 point, 0 comments
u/Ghostu22: “Hi, Trying to find math resources I’ll need for first year math courses: SYDE 111/113/112/114 I’d ideally like some resources that will cover the topics in those courses before hand. Let me know.”
Winter 2022
Undergrad courses I've taken tier list (details in comments) 161 points, 13 comments
u/MindTheGap9: “… - SYDE113 - Conic Sections. That is all. - SYDE121 - Like grade 10 computer science. Meh. - SYDE161 - Grading by throwing percentile dice down the stairs would have been more consistent than this course. It's really an excuse to meet your classmates. …”
Winter 2021
Management engineering question 1 point, 23 comments
“I was recently admitted into management engineering and was wondering how the workload was. How different is it to high school or other universities’ engineering programs like western ryerson and …”
u/original-random: “All of the engineering programs are a lot of work, and, in general, all university programs are a lot more work than high school. …”
u/steven_0: “… (For example mgte takes the standard math 115 and math 116 which most engineering programs take whereas syde takes SYDE 113, 114). Your second point is moot bc I was primarily addressing the transition from first to second year which would not have been online. …”
Spring 2019
What’s the first class you did bad in or failed? Why? What should you have done differently? 26 points, 60 comments
u/angelazsz: “SYDE 113 I just don’t think I’m ever going to be good at proofs, integrals, and calculus in general in life and I hope I barely have to see it ever again (past SYDE 211)”
Fall 2017
Syllabus for BME 121/182/184, SYDE 113/114 0 points, 1 comment
u/chromaco: “Does anyone have course syllabus for BME 121, BME 182, BME 184, SYDE 113, and SYDE 114? for any one of the courses and for any years? If anyone has it, could someone upload it for me? …”
Any way to disable UWCourseLinker from posting? 16 points, 26 comments
“posting a reply to my comment I find the bot annoying.”
u/Jackhofmann: “… 442B SWREN 442R SWREN 443A SWREN 443B SWREN 443R SWREN 470R SYDE 101 SYDE 101L SYDE 111 SYDE 113 SYDE 121 SYDE 161 SYDE 181 SYDE 182 SYDE 202 SYDE 212 SYDE 252 SYDE 262 SYDE 283 SYDE 286 SYDE 292 SYDE 292L SYDE 401 SYDE 411 SYDE 461 SYDE 533 SYDE 543 SYDE 553 SYDE 575 SYDE 631 …”
Spring 2017
Incoming Students Megathread 67 points, 909 comments
“Hi all, If you are an incoming student, feel free to utilise this thread to ask for advice or information regarding classes and university life. …”
u/vicky_il_re: “Can someone give me a detailed list of all math chapters covered in the first term of Systems Design Engineering? …”
u/watson-and-crick: “The calendar descriptions for SYDE 111 and 113 are fairly comprehensive and accurate. Just go through them and use that as a stepping off point if you really want to use these next couple weeks”
Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026
- Undergraduate Calendar, 2025–26The archived entry
- Requirements for Fall 2026Waterloo’s requisite checker
- Schedule of Classes, Fall 2026Instructors, rooms, live seats
- Quest Class SearchWhere you enrol
- Course outlinesSyllabi from past terms (UW login)
- UW FlowStudent ratings and reviews
- WClassesPast sections back to 2004, and who taught them
Calendar versions
Undergraduate Calendar
- 2020–21
- 2021–22
- 2024–25
- 2025–26 (shown here)
- 2019–20 and earlier on ucalendar