News

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's 2023 and 2024 faculty awards for teaching, research, and service, selected by ECE’s Merit Committee. These exceptional individuals have demonstrated remarkable achievements and ongoing contributions to our vibrant academic community. Their work continues to inspire excellence across the department and beyond.

Electrical and computer engineering professor, Dr. Mahla Poudineh, has been awarded a prestigious Tier 2 NSERC Canada Research Chair in Health Monitoring BioNano Devices. This recognition comes with $500,000 in funding, along with an additional $100,000 from the Federal Research Fund, to support her groundbreaking work.

Congratulations to recent electrical and computer engineering PhD graduate, Lizhi Liao, whose research has earned him international recognition. Liao’s final thesis paper, Early Detection of Performance Regressions by Bridging Local Performance Data and Architectural Models, has been awarded the ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT) Distinguished Paper Award. He will receive this prestigious honor at the upcoming 2025 International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), the premier conference in the field.

In an exciting achievement for the research community, the paper titled "Radar Near-Field Sensing Using Metasurface for Biomedical Applications" has been recognized as one of the Top 25 most downloaded papers in Nature Communications Engineering for 2024.

Oleksandr Hrabar, a Master of Applied Science (MASc) student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo, has earned top honours in the 2024 International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC), securing a place among the top 1% of all 5280 participants. Hrabar’s outstanding performance has been recognized with the prestigious Gold Honour, along with the 2nd Prize Senior and the 1st National Award for Canada.

Electrical and computer engineering professor, Dr. Ladan Tahvildari has been named an IBM Champion for 2025. This prestigious recognition is awarded in acknowledgment of her exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the IBM technology community over the past year.

Dr. Tejinder Singh, an electrical and computer engineering alum from the University of Waterloo, has been awarded the prestigious title of Distinguished Engineer at Dell Technologies. This recognition highlights his ground-breaking contributions to the company’s AI roadmap and his transformative work within the tech industry. The Distinguished Engineer title, one of Dell’s highest honors, is typically reserved for individuals with over 12-15 years of experience at the company and an advanced degree. Dr. Singh’s rapid rise to this prestigious elected position, after joining Dell only three years ago, speaks volumes about his extraordinary talent and technical leadership.

Mohammad Abuyaghi, a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo, has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Sandford Fleming Foundation (SFF) Teaching Assistantship Excellence Award. This award, presented annually in each academic department, recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional dedication to their students and go beyond in their teaching responsibilities. Abuyaghi’s selection for this award highlights his ability to inspire and engage students, as well as his unwavering support for their academic success.

Gurshaant Singh Malik, an electrical and computer engineering (ECE) PhD student at the University of Waterloo, has been honoured with the prestigious Best-Paper Award at the 2024 International Conference on Field-Programmable Technology (FPT) held in Sydney, Australia.

Thirteen University of Waterloo researchers have received $16.2 million in funding for 16 projects aimed at advancing quantum science and technology. This funding is part of the Government of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy (NQS), which seeks to strengthen Canada's leadership in quantum research and accelerate the development of quantum technologies.

The announcement was made by Sherry Romanado, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and Professor Alejandro Adem, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), at the INRS Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre in Varennes, Québec.

Four professors from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) are among the recipients of these grants.