News

Electrical and computer engineering professor, Dr. Alfred Yu, has been named the 2026 recipient of the IEEE Canada Outstanding Engineer Award, one of the organization’s highest honours recognizing excellence and impact in electrical and electronics engineering.

The award citation recognizes Dr. Yu:

“For transformative innovations in next-generation ultrasound imaging technology that have advanced clinical scanners and enhanced cardiovascular diagnostics.”

Electrical and computer engineering PhD student Yu Cao, post-doctoral fellow Omid Bagheri, and MASc student Veronica Leong — all supervised by Dr. George Shaker, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo — are advancing the future of wireless sensing technology with a breakthrough approach that allows millimeter-wave radar to detect changes in soft, hydrated materials without direct electrical contact.

For their innovative work, the team has been named finalists in the inaugural IEEE AP-S Industry Application Pitch Competition. Their paper, Near-Field Millimeter-Wave Radar Sensing of a Slot-Loaded Dielectric Resonator, was selected among the top 10 submissions from 106 entries worldwide following an exceptionally rigorous review process. The researchers will now present their work live at the 2026 IEEE APS/URSI Symposium, where final winners will be chosen by an expert judging panel.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo is celebrating an exciting milestone as Dr. Weihua Zhuang has been named a double nominee for the 2026 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest Women of the Year Awards.

Recognized for both her lasting influence and continued innovation, Zhuang is nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) Award—a rare distinction that reflects the breadth of her impact, from mentoring generations of engineers to shaping the future of communication technologies.

A new startup spun out of research at the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo is accelerating its push toward commercialization with $10.7 million in dilutive and non-dilutive funding and a public listing after launching just more than six months ago.

QuantumCorewas co-founded by Dr. Christopher Wilson, IQC faculty and Chief Technology Officer, and Eugene Profis, CEO. The company is developing an amplifier that boosts read-out signals produced by a superconducting quantum chip at near absolute zero temperatures and gets the signal into room temperature. This could solve one of the many hard engineering challenges in quantum computing.

“It’s a necessary product for quantum computing companies that are just a few years away from launching computers with thousands of qubits,” says Wilson, who is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A team of researchers from the Wireless Sensors and Devices Lab (WSDL) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo has been named a Top 10 Finalist in the 2026 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Industry Paper Competition for their paper, “A Digital Twin Baseline for Hybrid Quantum Machine Learning (QML) in WiFi Sensing.”

Led by Dr. George Shaker, adjunct professor in ECE, and Director of the Wireless Sensors and Devices Lab (WSDL), the research team includes lead author and PhD student Sebastian Ratto Valderrama, postdoctoral researcher Ahmed Sayed, and ECE alum Abdelrahman Elbadrawy, working in collaboration with industry partners Synopsys and EigenQ. Sebastian is co-supervised by ECE professor, Dr. Omar Ramahi, who is also a co-author on the paper.

From improving access to healthcare diagnostics to advancing human–computer interaction and reducing administrative burden for clinicians, this year’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) capstone projects demonstrate how thoughtful engineering can address meaningful real-world challenges. Working in teams, ECE students applied technical expertise in artificial intelligence, embedded systems, sensing technologies and software design to develop practical solutions that improve quality of life, increase efficiency and expand access to critical services.

The capstone experience represents the culmination of students’ undergraduate education, integrating knowledge gained through coursework, research and Waterloo’s co-op program. The projects highlight ECE’s strengths in combining strong technical foundations with human-centred design, enabling students to develop innovative technologies that respond to evolving needs in healthcare, industry and everyday life.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo proudly congratulates graduating student Cait Aitchison on being named a recipient of the 2025 IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Scholarship Plus Initiative. Awarded to outstanding students pursuing careers in the power and energy sector, the scholarship recognizes academic excellence, leadership potential, and a demonstrated commitment to advancing the future of sustainable electricity systems.

Dr. Ladan Tahvildari, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, has once again been named an IBM Champion, earning the distinction for 2026. This recognition highlights her continued leadership and contributions to the global IBM technology community, building on her selection as an IBM Champion in 2025.

The IBM Champion designation is awarded annually to individuals who demonstrate exceptional advocacy, technical expertise, and meaningful engagement within IBM’s technology ecosystem. Recipients are recognized for their contributions to advancing innovation, sharing knowledge, and supporting the broader technology community through research, collaboration, and knowledge exchange.

ECE PhD student Soomin Shin has been awarded a $15,000 scholarship from the Waterloo Data and AI Institute, recognizing her innovative research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and real-world physical systems.

Supervised by Kerstin Dautenhahn, Shin is a member of the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL), where researchers explore how robots can interact with people in meaningful, socially aware ways. Her work focuses on building scalable social robot systems that can operate sustainably in real-world environments by integrating advanced AI capabilities.

Electrical and Computer Engineering MASc student Alicia Pan has won first place at the University of Waterloo’s GRADflix Showcase on March 10, where graduate students present their research through short, engaging videos designed for a broad audience.

Pan’s winning video, “Meet Mirrly: A Social Robot for the Eye Doctor’s Office,” introduces Mirrly, a robot designed to help children with amblyopia (lazy eye) follow their eye-patching treatment.