Thursday, April 7, 2022

John Hirdes, Robert Mann named University Professors

The University of Waterloo has announced that two faculty members have received the University Professor designation in 2022. Vice-President, Academic & Provost James Rush made the announced at this week's meeting of the University's Board of Governors.

Professor John Hirdes of Public Health Sciences and Professor Robert Mann of Physics and Astronomy are Waterloo's newest University Professors.

"The University of Waterloo owes much of its international reputation and stature to the quality of its eminent professors," Vice-President, Academic & Provost James Rush wrote in a report to the University of Waterloo's Board of Governors on April 5. "The University of Waterloo recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence through the designation “University Professor”. Once appointed, a faculty member retains the designation until retirement."

Professor John Hirdes is a member of the School of Public Health Sciences. His areas of interest include geriatric assessment, mental health, health care and service delivery, case mix systems, quality measurement, health information management, and quantitative research methods. Working as the senior Canadian Fellow and as a Board Member of interRAI, an international consortium of researchers from over 35 countries, Hirdes also chairs interRAI's International Network of Excellence in Mental Health and the interRAI Network of Canada. Professor Hirdes chaired the Committee on Student Mental Health (CoSMH).

Professor Robert Mann is a member of the Physics and Astronomy department and works on gravitation, quantum physics, and the overlap between these two subjects. He is interested in questions that provide us with information about the foundations of physics, particularly those that could be tested by experiment. 

Read the Physics and Astronomy department's announcement about Professor Mann.

Since 2004, Waterloo has awarded this distinction to 33 individuals. Such appointments are reported to Senate and the Board of Governors in March and April respectively, and are recognized at Convocation. The University Tenure & Promotion Committee acts as the selection committee and receives nominations annually from Faculty deans, directors of schools and department chairs, as well as from the University community.

A full list of University Professors is available on the Provost's website.

New interactive portal guides you through Waterloo's entrepreneurial ecosystem

By Michelle Benevides. This article was originally published on Waterloo News.

The University of Waterloo brings together bold ideas and brilliant minds, landing it as the top university in the country for founders. As the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Waterloo continues to  grow, creators and change-makers need a simple way to navigate the many resources and programs.

That’s why the University has updated its entrepreneurship website and launched a new microsite that hosts an interactive portal that allows users to easily explore more than 45 entrepreneurship programs, spaces and opportunities.

“Whether you’re a first-year student or graduate student, Waterloo’s innovation ecosystem has a program to suit anyone who wants to try entrepreneurship and learn to make an impact,” says John Dick, director of Velocity campus. “The new microsite is a dynamic map to help students navigate everything we have to offer.”

This robust ecosystem combines for-credit courses and programs for a wide range of builders and creators. There are hands-on experiences where students learn new skills to advance future careers as well as dedicated pathways to facilitate the commercialization of Waterloo’s world-class research.

Waterloo has programs for students and researchers, socially-minded problem solvers, environmentally-conscious builders, tech creators and underrepresented founders,” Dick says. The ecosystem also includes three incubators — Velocity, the Grebel Peace Incubator and GreenHouse social impact incubator. There is an entrepreneurship training program for Indigenous students and student-run programs like Zero, the Student Venture Fund and Hack the North, the largest hackathon in Canada.

Through its distinctive entrepreneurial framework, the University inspires industry leaders beyond the classroom to join Waterloo alumni who have founded more than 1,000 ventures and created more than 7,500 jobs.

“Entrepreneurial researchers and students are drawn to Waterloo because of our distinctive innovation ecosystem. As students, researchers and staff break new ground, the University will continue to evolve and find effective ways to support students during their time at Waterloo,” says Karim Sallaudin Karim, associate vice-president of commercialization and entrepreneurship at the University of Waterloo.

Visit the updated website and new microsite to see how the University is supporting leaders of the future who will grow a prosperous Canadian economy.

Keeping good company

By Brian Caldwell. This article was originally published in Waterloo News.

A company that was co-founded by a Waterloo Engineering architecture alumnus is in elite company – for the second time – on a worldwide list announced this week by TIME magazine.

Biobot Analytics, a startup launched by Newsha Ghaeli (BAS ’11) and Mariana Matus in 2017, cracked the second annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2022 along with global giants such as Amazon, Meta, Apple, Disney, Netflix, the National Football League and TikTok.

Newsha Ghaeli is president and co-founder of Biobot Analytics.

Companies on the list were selected by TIME editors for “making an extraordinary impact around the world.” Criteria for selection included relevance, impact, innovation, leadership and success.

“Biobot’s mission has always been to make a positive impact in the field of public health, and we’re incredibly proud to be listed alongside so many innovative companies from all over the world,” Matus said in a media release.

Ghaeli, an urban studies researcher and the company president, met Matus, a biologist who serves as CEO, while they were both at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Analyzing human waste

Biobot was the first company to analyze human waste on a commercial basis to provide data-driven insights for public health officials.

Its pioneering work, described by the company as “wastewater epidemiology,” has grown in both prominence and importance as a means to monitor COVID-19 levels and identify outbreaks in communities during the pandemic.

Biobots’ technology, which can also detect and track the presence of opioids and other substances, is now deployed at more than 700 sewage sites serving over 100 million people.

Student team reaches semi-finals in regenerative economic competition

This article was originally featured on the Faculty of Engineering website.

An award-winning student project to reduce plastic waste has advanced to the semi-finals of the Wege Prize, a global competition for redesigning the way economies work.  

Elijah Birley, a mechanical engineering student, Isabella Daneyko, a biomedical engineering student, and Carlton Darby, a chemical engineering student, are members of the Decomp team, which is developing an organic plastic waste disposal solution.

Their project uses proprietary plastic-degrading microbes to accelerate the degradation of plastics within weeks as compared to the hundreds of years it takes for plastics to naturally degrade.

It was selected as the Canadian winner of the  2021 Commission for Environmental Cooperation’s (CEC) Youth Innovation Challenge.

The Waterloo team, which also includes Isha Simon, a biology student, and Haya EL-Merheby, a student in the environment, resources and sustainability program, are among 15 shortlisted for the Wege Prize, an annual competition designed for post-secondary students to create regenerative solutions that have a widespread and lasting positive impact.

Other innovative student entries include mobile hydroelectric generators, agricultural waste captured to boost community health, and aquaponics systems that save water and boost biodiversity.