News

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo joins the global scientific community in celebrating the recipients of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics — John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis. Their pioneering experiments demonstrated that quantum mechanical properties can be realized in macroscopic electrical circuits, laying the foundation for modern quantum computing and sensing technologies.

This recognition holds special significance for Dr. Christopher Wilson, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and faculty member at theInstitute for Quantum Computing (IQC), who completed his postdoctoral fellowship underMichel H. Devoret.

Dr. Raafat Mansour, a professor and University Research Chair in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, has been selected to receive the 2026 Distinguished Educator Award from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S).

This prestigious international honour recognizes educators who have made exceptional and lasting contributions to the field of microwave engineering and science, while exemplifying the spirit of the late Fred J. Rosenbaum — a visionary who viewed teaching as a calling and dedicated his career to advancing the MTT-S community through mentorship and service.

Dr. Mansour’s award citation reads:

“For Outstanding Achievements as an Educator, Mentor, and Role Model of Microwave Engineers and Engineering Students.”

A Waterloo Engineering professor was recognized internationally for advancing ultrasound technology used in medical imaging and therapeutic applications.

Dr. Alfred Yu, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and the University of Waterloo’s associate vice-president of partnerships, entrepreneurship and commercialization, recently received the 2025 Carl Hellmuth Hertz Award, presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), for his extensive contributions to ultrasound imaging technology and therapeutic ultrasound.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is deeply saddened by the loss of Professor Kostadinka Bizheva, fondly known as Dida, whose pioneering work in biomedical optics advanced both science and clinical practice.

Dr. Patrick Lam, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been recognized with the Distinguished Reviewer Award at the IEEE International Conference on Source Code Analysis & Manipulation (SCAM) 2025, held last week in Auckland.

Dr. Andrew Boutros, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo, was recognized with two major awards at the International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), held last week in Leiden, the Netherlands.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo is proud to welcome three of this year’s ten Schulich Leader Scholars, exceptional high school graduates recognized for their academic excellence in STEM fields.

A professor in electrical and computer engineering has been appointed to an updated Val O’Donovan Chair position that reflects the Faculty’s strategic focus on advancing artificial intelligence through ethical research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and student engagement.

Starting September 1, Dr. Amir-Hossein Karimi will hold an O’Donovan Chair in Trustworthy AI. The five-year appointment comes with $100,000 in annual research support.

Electrical and computer engineering PhD student, Trevor Blaikie, has been selected as the winner of the NAMBE 2024 Best Journal Paper Award. Trevor’s research, supervised by Dr. Zbig Wasilewski, earned top recognition for the paper titled “Optimizing GaAs/AlGaAs growth on GaAs (111)B for enhanced nonlinear efficiency in quantum optical metasurfaces.”

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is proud to celebrate the outstanding achievement of Dr. Ahmed Sayed, a former PhD student in our department, who has been awarded the Best PhD Thesis Award from Drones. Drones is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by MDPI—a pioneer in scholarly, open-access publishing, supporting academic communities since 1996.