News

A professor at Waterloo Engineering has a lot more material for his classes after winning one of the world’s wackiest academic prizes last week.

Dr. Zhao Pan and one of his students, Kaveeshan Thurairajah, were thrilled to accept the 2026 Ig Nobel Physics Prize in bright yellow raincoats in a sold-out, 1,500-seat theatre in Zurich, Switzerland with collaborators from two other universities.

Work by a Waterloo Engineering researcher that could make batteries safer, better and longer lasting was recently published in a leading academic journal.

Dr.Teng Cui, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, was lead author of a paper in Nature on research he conducted while he was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California.

A team led by two Waterloo Engineering professors has developed a battery-free sensor with promising potential applications to expand the reach of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.

“The legacy approach to sensors relies on local gateways and batteries, limiting scalability, adding environmental burden and increasing maintenance overhead,” said Dr. George Shaker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

A former student at Waterloo Engineering is now getting traction in Silicon Valley as the founder and chief executive officer of a technology startup that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to do home appraisals via a mobile app.

Humza Ahmed was studying mechanical engineering when he was bitten by the business bug and inspired by the entrepreneurship ecosystem at Waterloo to put a new twist on an occupation with deep roots in his family.

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering are using artificial intelligence (AI), data science and advanced mathematics to help save lives by predicting how fires behave in modern homes.

The new system tackles a growing challenge for fire researchers: modern furniture materials and increasingly airtight, energy-efficient homes can cause fires to behave differently than they did in the past. 

An autonomous aircraft company co-founded by an alumnus of Waterloo Engineering has grown from modest beginnings to the point where it has contracts and repeat sales with multiple agencies of the Canadian government.

Waterloo-based Ribbit, whose chief operating officer is alum Dr. Jeremy Wang (PhD ’23, mechanical and mechatronics engineering), is on a mission to bring efficient, reliable transportation to the world’s most remote locations.

A researcher at Waterloo Engineering is working to better understand how fires can start and spread when lithium-ion batteries fail, a critical problem as the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution drives the proliferation of power-hungry data centres.

Dr. Vinny Gupta, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, works in conjunction with fellow engineering professors including Dr. Michael Pope and Dr. Kyle Daun at the Fire Research Facility on campus.

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering cites the wealth and variety of expertise on campus as a significant factor in the success of a robotics company he co-founded with three classmates from the mechatronics engineering program.

Ryan Gariepy (BASc ’09, MASc ’12) launched Clearpath Robotics in Kitchener in 2009 with fellow graduates Patrick Martinson, Matt Rendall and Bryan Webb. It was acquired by Rockwell Automation, a U.S.-based industrial automation company, in 2023.

Computer modelling at Waterloo Engineering shows professional baseball pitchers could make mechanical changes to avoid a common, career-threatening elbow injury without necessarily sacrificing competitive velocity.

"Our simulation found solutions that suggest there's untapped efficiency out there,” said Cedric Attias, who led the study while earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “Our goal isn't to tell pitchers to throw softer. It's to help them throw smarter."

A graduate student at Waterloo Engineering is in the running in a national photography contest meant to showcase and generate interest in scientific research.

Matthew Krmpotic, who is studying the aerodynamics of vehicles as he pursues his doctorate in mechanical and mechatronics engineering, was named one of 20 finalists in the 2026 Science Exposed competition sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).