Students’ green-tech wins at quantum tech challenge

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Three interdisciplinary student teams from Waterloo Engineering won a total of $12,000 at the Quantum for Environment (Q4Environment) Design Challenge hosted by Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT).  

The teams pitched design ideas for green-tech solutions that address global environmental issues.  

“There's a lot of applications when it comes to quantum. In general, I think there’s a very good opportunity for interdisciplinary research between quantum and energy research,” says Miswar Syed, a master’s student in the electrical and computer engineering department, who participated in the challenge with his research partner, Amirhossein Boreiri.  

The prize money is awarded to encourage the teams to develop their ideas further.  

The winning Waterloo Engineering teams are:   

Development of a novel dual function self-cleaning device for dust debris and snow removal from solar panels for improved efficiency, Gold Award — $10,000  

  • Miswar Syed, graduate student   

  • Amirhossein Boreiri, graduate student 

Towards the next generation of photoconductive antennas for resin overuse control, Silver Award — $1,500  

  • Milad Entezami, PhD student 

  • Seyed Ali Hosseini Farahabadi, PhD student 

Quantum AI assistant for improving material synthesis for CO2 absorption and conversion, Honourable Mention — $500  

  • Hossein Mashhadimoslem, postdoctoral fellow 

  • Shayan Ghasem, master’s student 

Go to Designing for a sustainable future using quantum technologies for the full story.