News

Six Faculty of Engineering graduate students were named finalists in the 2026 GRADflix competition, with two taking top honours for creative videos explaining their research to a general audience.

Chemical engineering student Chen and electrical and computer engineering student Pan earned first- and second-place recognition in the University of Waterloo contest, hosted by Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs. 

Waterloo Engineering students will present more than 300 projects during the 2026 Capstone Design symposia, a series of events that mark the culmination of their undergraduate studies.

Running from March 11 to April 2 in the Pearl Sullivan Engineering (PSE) building, students from 12 programs will present more than 300 projects spanning disciplines from nanotechnology to civil and architectural engineering.

Dr. Bill Rosehart, a triple Waterloo Engineering alum (BASc ’96, MASc ’97 and PhD ’01, electrical and computer engineering) has been appointed the University of Waterloo’s eighth President and Vice-Chancellor.

Dr. Rosehart is the first Waterloo alum to serve as the University’s President. His five-year term begins July 1, 2026, succeeding Dr. Vivek Goel.

A pandemic-era Netflix binge launched a Waterloo Engineering alum's career in Formula 1.

Christina Sullivan (BASc '23, mechatronics engineering) discovered an unexpected passion for the technical and engineering dimensions of motorsport from watching Drive to Survive during COVID-19. She secured an internship with Williams Racing in the U.K. and has been on the F1 team full-time since graduation.

Two local health-tech companies have received a combined $1.9 million from the Government of Ontario to expand manufacturing, accelerate commercialization and bring advanced medical technologies to global markets.

Intellijoint Surgical Inc. and Vena Medical were both founded by Waterloo Engineering alumni and grew out of their fourth-year Capstone Design projects.

Fourth-year civil engineering student Thomas Fulton completed his last co-op work term at Caivan, the Ontario-based real estate developer and founder of the Future Cities Institute (FCI) at Waterloo.

As part of Caivan’s land development team, Fulton applied his engineering and technology skills to support purpose-built housing solutions amid Canada’s ongoing affordability challenges.

Bacteria engineered to eat cancerous tumours from the inside out have been developed by Waterloo Engineering researchers in a promising new approach to treatment.

The interdisciplinary research team found two key solutions to use a bacterium called Clostridium sporogenes, which is commonly found in soil and can only grow in environments with absolutely no oxygen, to effectively consume cancer.

An international research team led by Waterloo Engineering has found a way to turn plastic waste into the main ingredient in vinegar using sunlight.

Their discovery could help reduce plastic pollution, especially in water, while also producing acetic acid, a chemical widely used in food production, chemical manufacturing and energy applications.

Tech startup Rotostitch, an automated textile manufacturing company, raised USD $1 million in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate development of its next-generation textile production platform.

Co-founded in 2025 by Waterloo Engineering alum Leah McClure (BASc ’24, mechanical engineering) and Anson Tsang, Rotostitch is on a mission to reinvent garment construction with greater efficiency, starting with the stitch.

Waterloo Engineering alum Doug Kavanagh (BSE ’06, software engineering) is the medical director of OceanMD, a health-tech company he co-founded in 2012 to improve clinical workflows. Today, more than 50,000 health-care professionals across Canada use the company’s platform.

Kavanagh was part of the Faculty’s inaugural software engineering cohort. He then went on to complete his medical training with the goal of developing tools to better connect health-care patients and practitioners.