A research team of Waterloo Engineering graduate students is working on a range of health-tech applications from cancer diagnostics to wearable medical devices.
Led by Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, the Waterloo Microfluidics Lab (WML) develops and supports commercialized research that aims to improve the delivery of health care, including compression therapy for medical and athletic use.
Ren has co-founded four startups in the Waterloo region and holds nine active patents, capitalizing on the University’s unique intellectual property policy. Her latest company is Air Microfluidics, co-founded in 2020 with her then student Run Ze Gao who completed his PhD in 2023. Its technology powers much lighter and smaller pneumatic pumps than those currently used to treat swollen tissue caused by fluid buildup.
“I’ve always been interested in figuring out how things work and then making them work better—there’s always room for improvement,” Ren said. “Whatever the system—mechanical, electrical or medical—it needs to help people live well. All our lab’s research has an end-user in mind because what’s important for us is seeing something we’ve developed being useful in the real world.”
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