News

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.

A company launched in 2024 by three Waterloo Engineering graduates has secured US $50 million in backing to help drive a move away from residential gas furnaces to its all-electric, smart heat pumps.

Vancouver-based Jetson, which was started by experienced technology entrepreneurs Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant (all BASc ’12, mechatronics engineering), announced the funding infusion this week as it sets its sights on transforming the home heating and cooling industry in North America.

A health-technology company that grew out a fourth-year design project at Waterloo Engineering continues to gain traction after earning a key approval from Health Canada this fall.

Vena Medical was launched at Velocity, the flagship startup incubator at the University of Waterloo, after classmates Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper (both BASc ’18, mechanical engineering) won early commercialization funding through entrepreneurship programs.

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering aiming for a career in avionics and national defense has won a $50,000 scholarship to pursue graduate studies.

Megan Chang (BASc ’25, mechatronics engineering) was one of 14 female winners nation-wide through a program created to remember the 14 women murdered by a misogynist at École Polytechnique (now Polytechnique Montréal) on Dec. 6, 1989.

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering has been named to an international list of the 100 most influential people driving business climate action.

Stephen Lake (BASc ’12, mechatronics engineering) appears on an annual list published by TIME magazine with an eclectic mix of world decision-makers, executives, researchers, and innovators that includes California Governor Gavin Newsom, actor Samuel L. Jackson, King Charles III and Pope Leo XIV.

Three entrepreneurial graduates of Waterloo Engineering have launched a new product they hope will change the home heating industry, reducing carbon emissions and saving customers money by driving a move away from natural gas to greener electricity.

Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant (all BASc ’12, mechatronics engineering) built on their prior success in business to co-found Vancouver-based Jetson with a goal of making electric home heating much more common.  

An inexpensive device developed by Waterloo Engineering researchers can generate enough electricity to power a calculator using only walnut shells and drops of water.

“This technology could be a game-changer for powering small electronic devices, especially in remote or off-grid areas,” said Nazmul Hossain, a PhD student in mechanical and mechatronics engineering. “Imagine environmental sensors monitoring forests, IoT and wearable health devices, disaster-relief equipment – all running on tiny water droplets from the air.”

A few drops and a few minutes are all it takes to detect contaminated water with a palm-sized device developed by a research team led by Waterloo Engineering experts.

The researchers hope to save lives and reduce illness with technology to rapidly and inexpensively detect toxic E. coli bacteria right on site in homes and water treatment plants, and to regularly monitor bodies of water.

A company that began as a fourth-year design project by four students at Waterloo Engineering has gone on to become a significant player in the additive electronics industry.

Voltera was founded in 2013 after teammates Jesus Zozaya, Katarina Ilić, James Pickard and Alroy Almeida (all BASc '13, mechatronics engineering) spotted an opportunity to bring the rapid iteration of printed circuit boards to hardware development with a desktop device.

The much-anticipated REEM-C recently arrived on campus and has already started an extensive training program.

The humanoid robot is described as the slightly smaller and lighter brother of TALOS, the full-size black and purple robot that was welcomed with great fanfare at Engineering 7 almost two years ago.
 

Katja Mombaur greets REEM-C, the University's newest humanoid robot