News

The latest round of funding for Canada Research Chairs awarded $7.5 to six CRCs campus-wide, including $1.4 million each to two in engineering. The new funding puts Waterloo in the top five research universities across the country. Carl Haas, a civil and environmental engineering professor and the CRC in Construction and Management of Sustainable Infrastructure, will use his funding for research his team is undertaking on finding the most sustainable ways to make and manage everything from roads and sewers to suspension bridges through technology including 3D scanning of things like road su

Chemical engineering professors Leonardo Simon and Raymond Legge are part of a new cross-university team of scientists formed to help Canadian companies bring their innovative bioproducts to market faster. The Ontario Biomaterials A-Team, led by Guelph-based Ontario Agri-Food Technologies, is made up of 10 members with complementary skills from seven Ontario universities. Known as the A-Team, its mandate is to bring together the skilled people, sophisticated equipment, speed of service and confidentiality companies require to fine-rune and test new products before they're brought to market.

Solar Novus Today features the work of electrical and computer engineering professor Omar Ramahi who received a $25,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for researching the harvest of non-visible light and is collaborating with chemists from Next Alternative Inc. on the project. “Over significant parts of the earth, the sun shines for a fraction of the day.

A Waterloo Engineering project, headed by mechanical and mechatronics professor Michael Worswick to develop energy-efficient cars through the use of new lightweight materials, will receive $3.7 million in federal funding.

Sasanka Nagavalli of mechatronics engineering has been chosen by the University of Waterloo as Waterloo Engineering's top co-op student of the year. The university will honour Nagavalli and students representing the five other faculties during a ceremony to be held at the William M. Tatham Centre on March 22 as part of National Co-op Week.  Nagavalli's passion for space robotics fuelled a successful work term with Neptec Design Group, a company that develops advanced spaceflight sensors and rovers for space agencies around the world.

Systems design engineering professor Keith Hipel has received the 2012 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Eminent Scientist Award. The award is Japan's highest research prize for international scientists and is granted to researchers "who possess a record of excellent research achievements and who are mentors and leaders in their respective fields." This is the first time this prize has been awarded to a Canadian academic. [DB article]

Two recent civil engineering master's students have won the top 2012 American Water Works Association Academic Achievement Awards for their master's theses.  Ryan Snider placed first for his thesis entitled "Impact of Design and Operational Parameters on Rapid, Deep Bed Biological Filtration of Drinking Water." El-Hadidy, now a civil engineering doctoral candidate, took second place for his work entitled “Removal of Enteric Viruses by Ultrafiltration.” The prestigious awards that recognize academic excellence in the field of public water supply will be presented at the AWWA’s annual confere

Mark Spanjers, a civil engineering doctoral candidate, was the recipient of the 2012 Philip Jones Award for his presentation entitled “Comparison of 4 media types for traditional and biofiltration treatment goals: Assessment of rough engineered media and implications for filter media choice.” His work was presented February 21 at the 47th Central Canadian Symposium on Water Quality Research. A major goal of the Canadian Association on Water Quality is to showcase the talents of students who conduct water quality research. The Philip Jones Award was created as a memorial to Philip H.

Engineering students placed third in two competitions at the 27th annual Canadian Engineering Competition held March 8-11, 2012 at UBC Robson Square in Vancouver. Fourth-year electrical engineering students Dhananja Jayalath, Neil Olij, Chris Wiebe and Ryan Mann won third place in the innovative design contest for their muscle activation detection suit. Third-year chemical engineering student Erin Matheson also came third in the engineering communications competition for her presentation entitled Developing techniques for surgical treatment of brain aneurysms.

Waterloo's Clean Snowmobile Team earned the International Engineering and Manufacturing Award for Best Acceleration in its four-stroke sled by achieving a speed of 72 mph in 500 feet at the 2012 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which wrapped up March 10 at Michigan Technological University. The team also received the HB Performance Systems Award for having the best implementation of the HB Trail Trac system. Over 20 teams competed in the challenge that requires students to take a stock snowmobile and reduce its emissions and noise and increase fuel efficiency.