News

This May, four Waterloo Engineering professors were elected to the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) as Fellows.

New Fellows are selected for their outstanding contributions to engineering in Canada and around the world and for their service as role models in their fields and to their communities.

Two Waterloo Engineering alumni-founded companies have been awarded $1M in funding from Y Combinator (YC).  

Briar Smith (BASc ’20, mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering) co-founded Attunement, which is revolutionizing mental health through the power of AI. Mohammed Al-arnawoot (BASc '17, mechatronics engineering) co-founded DraftAid, which uses AI algorithms to automate the 3D model to 2D production fabrication drawing process. Each received $500,00 in funding.  

Getting a Waterloo Engineering degree involves a lot of hard study. But it’s not all work and no play.   

Dylan Ellingson, a second-year mechatronics engineering student, and alum Aarchit Gupta (MMSc ’19) discuss some of the many fun Faculty traditions that bolster camaraderie and build a valuable sense of community. One that always brings a smile to the faces of students and alumni is Engineering Day.   

This April, the Faculty of Engineering received the inaugural Educational Partner Award from FIRST Robotics Canada.

Waterloo is the first institution to receive this honour — testament to a long history of collaboration and support.

Velocity-based startup Setori has closed a $1M USD pre-seed funding round to further its building of an artificial intelligence (AI) companion named Tori that improves focus and guards against procrastination. 

Founded in 2022 by Waterloo Engineering alumni Logan Jeya and Marc Simard (both BASc ’14, systems design engineering), the startup is currently staffed solely by University of Waterloo co-ops and graduates.  

Three University of Waterloo students have been awarded $17,000 after winning ClimateHack.AI, an international machine learning competition focused on climate solutions.

ClimateHack.AI is a student-focused AI competition that aims to reduce carbon emissions by developing more accurate techniques for forecasting site-level solar power production.

Three interdisciplinary student teams from Waterloo Engineering won a total of $12,000 at the Quantum for Environment (Q4Environment) Design Challenge hosted by Transformative Quantum Technologies (TQT).  

The teams pitched design ideas for green-tech solutions that address global environmental issues.  

Toronto-based robotics sensing company Forcen has closed $8.35 million in a funding round to support the expansion of its prototype manufacturing operations.

Founded in 2015 by Waterloo Engineering alum Robert Brooks (BASc ’12, mechanical and mechatronics engineering), Forcen manufactures a digital sense of touch for high reliability robotics in medical, industrial and aerospace applications

The team at health care startup Cobionix met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to an Indigenous health initiative the company supports.

Co-founded in 2021 by Waterloo Engineering alumni Nima Zamani and Dr. Tim Lasswell (both BASc ‘14 and MASc ‘16, mechanical and mechatronics engineering) with John Van Leeuwen (BSc ‘81), Cobionix builds autonomous medical robots that can help make health care more accessible and is based out of Velocity in downtown Kitchener. 

A new 3D X-ray microscope at the University of Waterloo will support new orthopaedic research and development to improve surgical treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.

The inCiTe™ 3D X-ray Microscope will be used in projects led by Dr. Stewart McLachlin, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, who conducts biomedical research as part of the Orthopaedic Mechatronics Laboratory.