News

Students from Waterloo Engineering made a mark again as the Concept 5k pitch event for aspiring entrepreneurs was staged in-person today after COVID-19 forced a move to a virtual format more than two years ago.

Spectators packed the Student Life Centre as teams featuring engineering members took three of the four $5,000 prizes up for grabs when nine finalists gave three-minute presentations to a panel of judges.

Brigette Lau (BASc ’99, computer engineering) is the co-founder of a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, a poker player and mother to three children. She’s also a self-described introvert with deep expertise investing in early-stage technology.

As a teenager in the mid-1990s, Lau was thrilled to get a job at a big-box store and doubted that she ever needed to go to university. Her parents, however, had other ideas: “I grew up as an immigrant in Canada” Lau says.

Waterloo Engineering alumnus Martin Basiri  (MASc ’13, mechanical engineering) – co-founder of Kitchener-based education powerhouse ApplyBoard – has been recognized by professional services firm EY Canada as one of the top entrepreneurs in the province.

Basiri, who came to study at Waterloo from his native Iran and later helped his brothers, Meti and Massi, come to Canada for school as well, is one of seven Ontario winners of EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards for 2022.

A company that was co-founded by an alumnus of Waterloo Engineering has secured $4 million in backing from the federal government to help commercialize new green energy technology.

Clear Blue Technologies, which is headed by CEO and co-founder Miriam Tuerk (BASc ’85, electrical engineering), was launched in 2011 to bring smart, clean, renewable, efficient and cost-effective power to billions of people who still lack access to reliable power.

A lecturer at Waterloo Engineering collaborated on development of an interactive computer game to help students learn the mechanisms of the cap-and-trade system.

Jason Grove, a lecturer in chemical engineering, partnered on the project with Neil Randall, executive director of the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo, and Alex Fleck, a doctoral candidate at the institute.

About 13 years ago, four friends and mechatronics engineering students at the University of Waterloo – Matt Rendall (BASc ’08, MBET ’09), Ryan Gariepy (BASc ’09, MASc ’12), Pat Martinson (BASc ’09) and Bryan Webb (BASc ’09) – started building robots.

It was an interest that grew from their involvement in the UW Robotics Team and then carried on into their final-year engineering project, which became an idea for a company.

Members of a student design team worked into the wee hours of the morning on repairs to help finish as the top Canadian entry at a recent event in Michigan for formula-style, internal combustion race cars.

UW Formula Motorsports, which is made up of 50 to 60 students at the University of Waterloo, competed in several challenges at Formula SAE Michigan along with 98 other teams from Canada, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Germany.

An interim director of the Waterloo School of Architecture is set to assume her new role on July 1.

Maya Przybyliski, a professor at the school since 2011, will take over from Anne Bordeleau, who is leaving to become director of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University in Ottawa, where she will be close to her family after years of commuting.

Carl Turkstra (PhD ’63, civil engineering) died May 22 after a distinguished career as an academic who transformed building codes followed by one as a successful business owner.  

When Turkstra joined the Faculty’s newly launched PhD program in the late 1950s, building codes aimed to achieve absolute safety.

Turkstra proposed a radical alternative in his doctoral research work: apply risk analysis instead.

Ralph Hempel’s beloved hobby as a child has turned into his dream career as an adult.

The 1986 electrical engineering alumnus who spent countless hours playing with LEGO growing up is now employed by the popular building toy company’s home office in Billund, Denmark. 

As the LEGO Group’s senior firmware architect, he puts to use his over 25 years of experience in designing, debugging and delivering complex embedded systems.