Electrical and computer engineers shape the future through innovation. They develop and improve systems that serve everyday needs of society spanning from high-voltage engineering and sustainable energy, to breakthroughs in wireless technology. Our faculty and students do everything from creating low-cost digital x-ray imagers to combat tuberculosis in developing countries, to building real-time embedded systems to advance the design and reliability of commercial products. ECE - the future is what we do.
Research
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is a dynamic and innovative hub of cutting-edge advancements in technology and engineering. Faculty members lead pioneering research in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, communications, embedded systems, and renewable energy, addressing real-world challenges and driving technological breakthroughs.
Resources
Events
PhD Seminar Notice: From Co-Design to Deployment: Human-in-the-Loop Social Robots in Real Clinical Settings
Candidate: Soomin Shin
Date: June 19, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: E5 4047
Supervisor: Dautenhahn, Kerstin
PhD Seminar Notice: High-Performance microLEDs on Flexible Substrates
Candidate: Pranav Gavirneni
Date: June 24, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM
Location: Online
Supervisor: William S. Wong
All are welcome!
PhD Seminar Notice: Secure and Efficient Computation Offloading in Mobile Edge Computing Networks
Candidate: Xue Qin
Date: June 29, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: Online
Supervisor: Xuemin (Sherman) Shen
All are welcome!
News
Electrical and computer engineering undergraduate student team named Top 3 Finalist in international IEEE hardware design competition
A team of undergraduate students from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) has been named a Top 3 Finalist in the prestigious IEEE EMC+SIPI Student Hardware Design Contest, earning international recognition for their innovative work in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) engineering.
Competing under the name Team Watt-erloo, students Jake Peters, Alanna Rudolph, Amirbahador Mansoori, and Dhyey Bhatt advanced to the final round of the competition and will present their project at the IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility, Signal & Power Integrity (EMC+SIPI) in Dallas, Texas.
Supervised by ECE adjunct professor, Dr. George Shaker, the team developed a project that characterizes the electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by an Arduino-based robotic vehicle and validates targeted mitigation techniques to improve system performance and reliability.
Electrical and computer engineering professor, Dr. Werner Dietl, receives Amazon Research Award
Dr. Werner Dietl, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Waterloo, has been selected as a Fall 2025 recipient of an Amazon Research Award for his proposal, Strata-Sphere: Expressive Type Systems and Language Formalizations.
The Amazon Research Awards program supports innovative academic research across a range of disciplines and recognizes researchers whose work is contributing to advances in science and technology. Dietl's award adds to a growing list of national and international recognitions earned by ECE faculty for research excellence.
Computer engineering student recognized with President's Award of Excellence and OPEFE Gold Medal
As graduation approaches this June, Computer Engineering student Aung Khant Min is being recognized with two distinguished honours: the University of Waterloo President's Award of Excellence and the Ontario Professional Engineers Foundation for Education (OPEFE) Gold Medal.
Min achieved the highest cumulative academic average (CAV) among Engineering students graduating this June. In recognition of this achievement, Min will receive the President's Award of Excellence, one of the University's highest student honours, as well as the OPEFE Gold Medal.
Four electrical and computer engineering PhD students earn Canada's flagship doctoral research scholarship
Four PhD students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have earned the NSERC Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS D), one of Canada's most prestigious and competitive awards for doctoral researchers.
The 2026 recipients are:
- Ahmed Metwally Hegazy
- Angeline Lafleur
- Andy (Andres) Schang
- Michael Ross Spinazze
Awarded through a national competition, the CGRS D recognizes exceptional PhD students whose academic excellence, research achievements and leadership potential position them among Canada's most promising emerging scholars.