WatIAM Credentials

Your University of Waterloo Identity and Access Management (WatIAM) credentials provide you with login access to various University of Waterloo systems. The credentials are comprised of an 8-character username and password.

How is a username generated?

WatIAM usernames are generated using the following algorithm: take the first letter of the first and middle name(s) followed by the complete last name. Truncate the result (if necessary) to eight characters. If the truncated result is not unique, insert the digit between the two initials and the last name, truncate if necessary to eight characters, and again test for uniqueness. If uniqueness fails, repeat the process by replacing the digit 2 by 3, then 4, ... 999 until uniqueness is achieved, skipping numbers that contain 0 or 1 to avoid confusion with the letters O and l. The untruncated result, after ensuring uniqueness in the first eight characters, is the WatIAM username.

There are three reasons why a WatIAM username can be changed. Please refer to Changing your WatIAM username

• A legal name change (e.g. marital status)

• A username was generated that has questionable meaning

• At the discretion of the Associate Dean of Computing for a faculty. There are many implications when changing a WatIAM username.

Visit the WatIAM home page for useful information including account activation, passwords, and more.

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