News

The release of ChatGPT, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) created by OpenAI, has refreshed debates on the ethical creation and use of new technologies.

Dr. Alexander Wong, a systems design engineering professor and Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Medical Imaging at the University of Waterloo, describes the tech as a “very big engineering achievement that needs to mature.”

The next big breakthrough in Canadian technology could be among the engineering student projects on display at the annual Capstone Design symposia running until March 30 at the University of Waterloo.

Final-year engineering students will showcase their range of projects including a performance-enhanced lithium battery for colder climates (Nanotechnology Engineering – March 17) and a proposed design for a green long-haul freight corridor along Highway 401 (Environmental Engineering – March 23).

A contingent of University of Waterloo students representing three design teams had a strong showing at an artificial intelligence (AI) conference in Kingston this week.

Nineteen students from WAT.ai, Watonomous and WATOLink attended the Canadian Undergraduate Conference on AI at Queen’s University along with groups from across the country.

A third-year undergraduate student has been selected as the Co-op Student of the Year for the Faculty of Engineering in 2022.

Jennifer Tsai, who is studying biomedical engineering, has received this award in recognition of her work at the University of British Columbia's Cembrowski Lab, where she investigated the anterior thalamic nuclei (ATN), a region of the brain critical to short-term memory. 

Six University of Waterloo academics - all women - are helping The Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) address the challenges facing Canada's aviation sector. 

Part of this team is Dr. Mihaela Vlasea, an associate professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering. Her expertise in metal additive manufacturing — popularly known as 3D printing — could be key to building better plans for a better aviation sector. 

Waterloo Engineering's Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business will launch Canada’s first PhD program for emerging entrepreneurs this fall.

Conrad School's PhD program in entrepreneurship and organization will offer emerging entrepreneurship researchers the opportunity to rigorously study human behaviour and organization with a focus on entrepreneurial contexts. The program's core focus on management and organizations is unlike any other traditional business school doctoral programs offered by Canadian universities. 

The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio is at a historic low across Canada, partly because baby boomers who are close to retirement age have left the workforce and not enough younger people are coming in behind them.

Dr. Nada Basir, a professor at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, says there is an aspect to this conundrum that is rarely talked about: providing opportunities for women, particularly immigrant and racialized women, to get jobs or create new businesses amid this changing economy.

An environmental company launched by two recent Waterloo Engineering graduates has been awarded $500,000 in federal funding to help move Canada towards a zero plastic waste future.

A Friendlier Company, co-founded by Kayli Dale and Jacqueline Hutchings (both BASc ’20, chemical engineering) in 2019, is a sustainable food packaging provider that reduces plastic waste through reusable product design.

The provincial government’s Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) has renewed its partnership with Communitech and the University of Waterloo to accelerate the regional development and commercialization of next-generation electric, connected and autonomous vehicle and mobility technologies.

Renewal of the three-year partnership includes an updated mandate for regional technology development sites (RTDS). These sites will focus on aspects of the automotive and smart mobility sector, such as hardware, security and data analytics to build safer, cleaner and more efficient transportation.

Six Waterloo Engineering undergraduate students placed among the top three at this year’s Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC), held last month in Engineering 7 at the University of Waterloo.

Teams won first place in the Innovative Design category and third in the Re-Engineering challenge.