Since 2018, Waterloo.AI has served as the University of Waterloo’s hub for cutting-edge research and collaboration in artificial intelligence and data science. We bring together faculty, researchers, students, and industry partners to tackle real-world challenges in areas such as disease detection, language understanding, emotional intelligence, and autonomous navigation.
At Waterloo.AI, we are dedicated to advancing responsible innovation that fosters economic prosperity and improves quality of life globally. Together, we’re building the intelligent systems of tomorrow—and we’re just getting started
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the study of machines and software that exhibit intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, planning, problem-solving, predicting, and the use of language and vision. With the advent of big data, and driven by the explosion of computing capacity and speed, AI tools are being increasingly integrated into technological solutions that are central to our everyday life, business, society, and the environment.
Why Should You Care About Data?
Professor Jimmy Lin, explains the importance of data in this episode of the "Back to the Classroom" video series.
News
Donor powers graduate research in embodied AI research
The Tang Family Foundation donated $500,000 to Waterloo.AI to support graduate research in embodied AI, AI systems that perceive and act in the physical world through sensors and actuators (like robots), as opposed to purely text-based AI.
The inaugural cohort of eight graduate students from the faculties of Engineering and Math each received $15,000 scholarships to support their research. Their work spans robotics, exoskeletons, control systems, and the ethical questions around AI operating near people.
Waterloo.AI Director Dr. Stephen Smith explained the value of directing philanthropic funding toward students specifically: it gives them more time to focus on foundational research, which is where real long-term impact lies.
Roger Tang, founder of the Tang Family Foundation, sees embodied AI as the next major step in industrial development and views philanthropy as well-suited to backing high-risk foundational research that commercial markets later scale. He has had a growing relationship with Waterloo since establishing a Chair in New Energy Materials and Sustainability in 2023.
A second round of scholarships is expected to open in the fall.
Simantic scales from Waterloo startup to global AI hardware innovator
As artificial intelligence (AI) learns to write code, it still struggles to test firmware without access to physical hardware. For University of Waterloo founders Seungmin Hong (BASc ’26) and Ahnaf Shahriar (BASc in progress), that challenge represented an opportunity.
Hidden risks in AI data centres spark new battery safety research
As artificial intelligence (AI) drives a global surge in data centres in Canada and around the world, a less visible but increasingly urgent challenge is growing alongside it. Researchers are beginning to investigate ways to manage the risks posed by the lithium-ion batteries that keep those facilities running.