News

WATOLINK, a student design team at Waterloo Engineering has won an international competition for developing a device that enables people with speech disabilities to communicate much faster than with existing technology.

Co-founded in 2021 by mechatronics engineering students Christopher Samra and Avery Chiu, WATOLINK focuses on developing the potential of non-invasive neurotechnology.

The entrepreneurship ecosystem at Waterloo Engineering nurtures promising ideas into thriving enterprises. In our weekly Founder Fuel series, we look at new ventures and how they have benefited from that crucial early support.

Nicole Howard, Rachel Blanchard, Steven Vilcacundo Molina and Kris Ma (all BASc ’22, chemical engineering) set out to develop a Capstone project that could improve the world. They targeted the mountain of PET water bottles discarded every day, developing a novel thermochemical process to break down that plastic waste and convert it into an important commodity: activated carbon.

Those spectacular shooting flames associated with oil and gas production aren’t doing a good enough job of protecting the environment.

Known as flares, they play an important role in the reduction of greenhouse gases fueling climate change by converting methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere into much less harmful carbon dioxide (CO2).

An innovative Industry 4.0 company, founded by four Waterloo Engineering alumni, has raised $8.1 million to enhance its capabilities in printed circuit board defect detection.

Based in Kitchener-Waterloo, DarwinAI was started in 2017 by Sheldon Fernandez (BASc ’01, computer engineering), Dr. Mohammad Shafiee (PhD ’17, systems design engineering), Arif Virani (BASc ’05, computer engineering) and Dr. Alexander Wong (BASc ’05, computer engineering, MASc ’07, electrical and computer engineering, PhD ’10, systems design engineering). Wong and Shafiee are also professors at Waterloo.

Each year, Building Design and Construction (BD+C) honours 40 individuals under the age of 40 in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) community as the next generation of rising stars. 

Waterloo Engineering alumnus Cheryl Saldanha (BASc ’09, civil engineering) has made the 40 Under 40 class list for 2022.

Three companies founded by Waterloo Engineering alumni have made a national list of artificial intelligence (AI) startups to watch over the next year.

Avidbots Corp., DarwinAI and Otto Motors are among 20 startups highlighted by the Vector Institute, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research in the field of AI, on its inaugural Vector AI20 for 2023 list.

A professor at Waterloo Engineering has been named a fellowship inductee by Canada’s longest-standing engineering society.

Dr. Alfred Yu is one of 22 new fellows selected by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for their “exceptional contributions to engineering.” His official fellowship induction will take place in April at the EIC’s annual gala.

A unique fellowship program for Black and Indigenous scholars was recently named first runner-up by a global group of engineering deans for a coveted diversity award.

The Indigenous and Black Engineering and Technology (IBET) PhD Project, led by Waterloo chemical engineering professor Dr. Tizazu Mekonnen, received first runner-up out of three shortlisted projects for the Global Engineering Deans Council’s (GEDC) Diversity Award.

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering are developing a new patch that would offer diabetics an affordable, accurate, pain-free, round-the-clock alternative to traditional tests that require pricking a finger for a blood sample every few hours.

And to make it even more user-friendly, potentially life-saving readings from the patch would be transmitted to people’s smartphones.

Dr. Jason Grove has been selected as the new associate dean, undergraduate studies for the University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering.

Grove, who will take over from outgoing associate dean, undergraduate studies Dr. Daniel Davison, will begin a four-year term on Jan. 1.