The Tang Family Foundation, a charitable fund within the Philantra Foundation, has invested $500,000 in the University of Waterloo’s Data and Artificial Intelligence Institute (Waterloo.AI) to support graduate research in embodied artificial intelligence (AI) through student scholarships.
The inaugural recipients, eight students from the faculties of Engineering and Math, have received $15,000 each to help them focus on their work in embodied intelligence — AI that senses and acts in real environments.
"Most AI today is virtual — you write a prompt and it gives back text," said Dr. Stephen Smith, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Canada Research Chair in Autonomous Systems and the Director of Waterloo.AI.
“Embodied, or physical, AI is different — systems perceive the world through sensors such as cameras, and act on it through motors and actuators,” Smith explained. “Large language models, or LLMs, now add the general knowledge that robotics long lacked.”
A robot clearing a kitchen, for example, can draw on an LLM to infer that a mug is fragile, best grasped by the handle and probably belongs in a cupboard — reasoning that once had to be hand-coded for every object and every room.
For Smith, directing the gift to students is the most effective use of philanthropic funding. "This allows graduate students to have more time," he said. "They can focus on the more foundational aspects of their research, which is where the real impact lies — building the knowledge and new theories for industrial innovation.”
The first cohort of scholarship recipients with Dr. Stephen Smith, Roger Tang and colleagues.
Atusa Ghorbani Siavashani, a PhD candidate co-supervised by Dr. John McPhee in systems design engineering and Dr. Arash Arami in mechanical and mechatronics engineering, is working on exoskeletons — wearable robotic devices — with the potential to help people living with mobility impairment.
"Receiving this scholarship is affirming — knowing that not just in academia, but also in industry, people care about what I am passionate about," Ghorbani Siavashani said. "That adds value to my research and gives me more confidence to focus on it."
As a group, the students’ work reflects the interdisciplinary nature of embodied AI, which spans foundational AI, control and optimization, mechatronics and the social and ethical questions of how such systems operate around people. They demonstrated their algorithms on real robots and physical systems at a demo day which Smith hopes to grow into a recurring, more public showcase.
Roger Tang, Founder and Chairman, oversaw the gift from the Tang Family Foundation and attended the demo day. For Tang, the gift extends an approach shaped over a career in the energy sector, where reliable decisions had to be made in complex and often hazardous settings. He sees embodied intelligence — pairing AI reasoning with safe physical action — as the next step in industrial development, and philanthropy as well suited to backing it early.
"The foundation’s investment is uniquely positioned and well timed," Tang said. “Now is the time to partner with innovators and fund the high-risk foundational research that commercial markets later scale."
Tang has built a growing relationship with Waterloo since establishing the Chair in New Energy Materials and Sustainability in 2023. He currently mentors deep-tech founders through the University’s Academy of Research Commercialization (ARC) program at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.
Another round of scholarships will open in the fall. Interested students can join the mailing list to stay informed.
Roger Tang (left) and Dr. Stephen Smith.