Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Waterloo startup performs first ever robotic intramuscular injection

A company founded at the University of Waterloo’s flagship incubator has performed the first autonomous robotic intramuscular injection, paving the way to improved patient care in an industry faced with labour shortages.

Cobionix, an autonomous robotics company located in Kitchener-Waterloo, performed the injection—without needles—using their Cobi platform. 

“Cobi is a versatile robotics platform that can be rapidly deployed to complete tasks with 100 per cent autonomy,” said Tim Lasswell, co-founder and CEO of Cobionix. “We outfitted Cobi to use a needle-free injection technology and to demonstrate that patients could receive intramuscular injections, such as vaccines, without needles and no involvement from a healthcare professional.”

Nima Zamani, co-founder and CTO of Cobionix, said there are many benefits to the new technology.

“Autonomous solutions such as Cobi could protect healthcare workers, reduce healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes,” Zamani said. “The autonomous nature of Cobi also dramatically reduces the infrastructure requirements of vaccine clinics which could help reach populations in remote areas with limited access to medical care.”

Lasswell and Zamani met in their first year of mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo over a decade ago. Since then, they have both completed their engineering master’s degrees and remained close colleagues. When asked about the idea to start Cobionix in 2019, Nima said it was a “common vision that we shared for the future, followed by a decision to be a part of creating that future rather than watching it unfold in front of us.” The team is currently working out of Velocity, the university’s incubator.

The vision for Cobionix and the Cobi platform extends beyond vaccinations to include a variety of tasks that can be completed with 100 per cent robotic autonomy.

“Initially, we are targeting applications in healthcare, cleantech and hospitality for two reasons,” Lasswell said. “Firstly, all of these industries suffer from labour shortages and low efficiency and secondly, because our founding team has a significant amount of experience in these industries.”

Adrien Côté, executive director at Velocity, expressed delight at the opportunity to work with another company poised to make a significant impact.

“We were incredibly excited that Tim chose Velocity once again to invest in and support his newest venture,” Côté said. “Cobionix’s mission to improve efficiency and reduce labour shortages in healthcare, cleantech, and hospitality is well aligned with Velocity’s focus to support founders building for positive, global impact.”

Lasswell’s previous venture, A-Line Orthopaedics, also incubated at Velocity, was acquired in June 2020.

“Velocity has significantly invested in building an environment in which early-stage technology companies can achieve rapid growth and success,” Lasswell said. “As we continue to accelerate growth at Cobionix, we look forward to further establishing our roots in this community and building out Cobi.

Canadian Association on Gerontology recognizes work of Paul Stolee

Paul Stolee, a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences, has received the 2021 Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) Distinguished Member Award. As the CAG’s highest honour, the distinction recognizes members who have contributed significantly to the field of gerontology and the Association itself.

Stolee’s experience in research and planning in geriatrics includes work in academic, government and community settings. As the director of the Geriatrics Health Systems Research Group, his research involves improving the integration and effectiveness of geriatric health services and systems. These areas of research include challenges experienced by older patients as they transition across care settings, strategies that promote greater care coordination and health system integration and meaningful engagement of older adults in health-care decision-making. Stolee is also the current director of Waterloo’s Network for Aging Research.

“This award has a special meaning for me because its first recipient, 40 years ago, was Professor William Forbes,” Stolee said. “Forbes, a former Dean of Mathematics and the founder of the gerontology program at Waterloo, became one of my most important mentors, and was a big reason that I came to the University of Waterloo for my PhD.”

Founded in 1971, the CAG is a national multidisciplinary scientific and educational association established to provide leadership in matters related to the aging population. Only one Distinguished Member Award is offered each year, and the 2021 award was presented to Stolee at the 50^th Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in late October. 

W Store is hosting a Pop Up Shop

A message from Print + Retail Solutions.

For two days only, W Store will be hosting a pop up shop in South Campus Hall, upstairs in the South Side Marketplace space. We will be featuring a brand new collaboration with the iconic Canadian brand Roots®, as well as offering great deals on some exclusive UWaterloo gear. This event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on November 3 and 4.

Some of these products have limited quantities and will only be available during this event. Don’t miss your chance to start your holiday shopping early or refresh your closet with the latest UWaterloo gear. These items will be available at the pop up shop only.

Virtual Open House a real success

A message from Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment.

On October 30, professors, students, and staff from across the University connected with future students during Waterloo Virtual Open House.

Hosted by Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment, Waterloo Virtual Open House was the virtual replacement for the annual Fall Open House. The virtual event featured live chats, digital downloads, and live and pre-recorded presentations.

There were over 5300 unique registrants from over 90 countries around the world with 2894 people checking in during the event.

Marketing and Undergraduate Recruitment continues to offer a range of virtual offerings for prospective students and is continuing to ramp up in-opportunities. If you know a student interested in applying, encourage them to visit our tours and events website to learn more and to register for an upcoming offering.

Special thanks to our campus recruitment colleagues and partners who have supported our ongoing undergraduate recruitment initiatives.

Wednesday's notes

The latest entry in Conrad Grebel University College's Noon Hour Concert online series is Rhetorical Repetition, featuring Dr. Peter Nikiforuk playing the pipe organ at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Kitchener.

"The recipient of numerous prizes and scholarships, in 1993 Peter received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale University," says the event's website. "Peter studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, graduating with an Advanced Course Diploma. In 1996, Peter won the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize in Choral Conducting. Peter has been Director of Music at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church since 1989, and an instructor at the Beckett School since 2000. Prior to his work at the Beckett School, Peter was Executive Director of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) for 11 years. He is also an examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music and the RCCO. An active recitalist and clinician, Peter is co-owner of Kelman Hall Publishing, which specializes in sacred music." 

The video performance will go live today at 12:30 p.m. and the video will remain on the Grebel Youtube Channel until the end of the term.

Since 2016, Bridge: Honouring the Lives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People has become an annual installation at the University of Waterloo.

"Everyone is welcome to participate in the Bridge installation Opening Ceremony and Fire on Wednesday, November 3 at 1:00 p.m. at the bridge between Environment 3 and St. Paul's University College," says a note from the Office of Indigenous Relations. "Working with Shatitsirótha’: the Waterloo Indigenous Student Centre (WISC) Dr. Sorouja Moll initiated Bridge in 2016 to create a space for all University community members to learn about the crisis as they reflect upon their responsibilities, write a name on red fabric, and tie it to the bridge between Environment 3 and St. Paul's University College. This year we are including orange fabric with the red in remembrance of the lives of the children and youth who perished at the hands of institutional violence at residential schools."

The closing ceremony will be held on Friday, November 19 at 1:00 p.m.

The Cheriton School of Computer Science will welcome Professor Karl J. Friston, the Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Scientific Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at the Institute of Neurology, University College London, for a Distinguished Lecture on Thursday, November 4 at 11:00 a.m. Professor Friston's lecture, "Active Inference," will examine how "in the cognitive neurosciences and machine learning, we have formal ways of understanding and characterising perception and decision-making; however, the approaches appear very different: current formulations of perceptual synthesis call on theories like predictive coding and Bayesian brain hypothesis. Conversely, formulations of decision-making and choice behaviour often appeal to reinforcement learning and the Bellman optimality principle. On the one hand, the brain seems to be in the game of optimising beliefs about how its sensations are caused; while, on the other hand, our choices and decisions appear to be governed by value functions and reward. Are these formulations irreconcilable, or is there some underlying imperative that renders perceptual inference and decision-making two sides of the same coin."

Professor Friston is a theoretical neuroscientist and authority on brain imaging. He invented statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and dynamic causal modelling (DCM). These contributions were motivated by schizophrenia research and theoretical studies of value-learning, formulated as the dysconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia. 

Check out the event link for the Zoom registration information.

The School of Architecture's Arriscraft Speaker Series continues this week with "Building a Domestic Revolution," the third of five conversations on the theme of attention, with speakers Jennifer Chan of the Department of Imaginary Affairs, Sakiko Sugawa of the Centre for Reproductive Labor, and Melanie Escaño of FILMIS, FNV Migrant Domestic Workers Union. Their short presentations will be followed by a discussion moderated by the University of Waterloo's Tara Bissett.

The virtual event takes place on Thursday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom. A link will be sent to registered attendees.