Real-world experience working on a Waterloo vehicle team helped an undergraduate student land a plum co-op job at Tesla.
Members of the company’s hiring committee were so impressed with Devon Copeland’s work with Waterloo’s Midnight Sun Solar Car that they asked him to make a presentation about his involvement with the team.
The common misconception when it comes to automation is that it just happens. Like the Terminator stepping from a crackling energy bubble transported from the future, it just arrives fully intact, ready to go.
Roboticists are quick to point out that reality occurs much more slowly. Automation, instead, happens one small step at a time over the course of many years.
Such is the case with cars, which are on their way to becoming self-driving. But, as per the truism of robotic reality, it’s happening more gradually than some proponents may suggest. Also, the process has been under way for decades.
WATERLOO, ONT. — A research project aimed at developing three-dimensional, high-definition mapping (3D HD) could give Ontario an edge in the race to develop autonomous vehicles.
The new technology would give self-driving cars functional capabilities to handle any type of weather, and would be marketed commercially without any proprietary rights.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo reached an important milestone this summer by logging their 100th kilometre on public roads in a self-driving car.
Recorded in an industrial area of Waterloo, it was the culmination of almost two years of work since the research team won approval from the Ontario government to do on-road testing in an autonomous vehicle pilot program.
Ontario is becoming a hub of self-driving car development and that’s potentially good news for anyone who’s been stuck in gridlock, or frustrated by the forlorn search for a parking spot downtown in winter. Autonomous and semi-autonomous cars developed in our backyard mean cars that are going to work in our climate – not to mention getting a slice of this trillion-dollar industry.
“We have many of the pieces needed to become a leading player in autonomous vehicle technology, and ultimately – speaking kind of selfishly – for our area to really benefit from it in terms of a better quality of life,” said Oshoma Momoh, chief technical advisor at Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District.
Imagine the day when manufacturing facilities can fix themselves and require no human workers at all. With industry 4.0, that day is a lot closer than you think
Your car has yet to reach its first birthday when the transmission seizes up unexpectedly. A mechanic informs you the culprit is a hairline crack on a gear deep inside the engine block. You haven’t been in any collisions, so how did a faulty part end up in your new vehicle?
The University of Waterloo will partner with leading institutes in China to advance research in the areas of connected and autonomous vehicle technology.
The partnership between Waterloo and the Qingdao Academy of Intelligent Industries (QAII) and the State Key Laboratory for Management and Control of Complex Systems (SKL-MCCS) was solidified in an agreement recently signed by all parties.
By Lauren Ward
Being a female in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) field is one of the most difficult undertakings, with many barriers that women have to overcome to succeed. The Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research’s (WatCAR) own Stefanie Bruinsma had an amazing opportunity to share her experiences within the engineering industry on panel at The Everyday Wonder Woman: Panel Discussion and Movie Screening event hosted by University of Waterloo’s Women in Engineering on March 8th, 2018 at the Princess Twin Cinemas in Uptown Waterloo.
When the University’s senior leaders were looking for a service-related department to consider alternative energy vehicles, Central Stores answered the call and has added a hybrid service vehicle to its fleet.
This hybrid van will be used to transport Central Stores staff around both on and off campus, primarily using electric power. The van will support Central Stores’ services, including freight and mail pickup and delivery, bulk mailing, shipping, receiving, office/departmental moves, event setup, and other initiatives.
Batteries with triple the range of those that currently power electric vehicles could be on the horizon after researchers at the University of Waterloo in central Ontario made a significant breakthrough in the technology.
A new process discovered there uses negative electrodes made of lithium metal, a material with the potential to dramatically increase battery storage capacity.