News

A startup company founded by a Waterloo Engineering alumnus is developing technology to manufacture red blood cells needed for everything from trauma response to cancer care.

Shane Kilpatrick (MASc ’17, MBET ’18) hit on the basic idea while working on unrelated research in an oil patch and came to Waterloo to help learn how to bring it to life.

He is now CEO of Membio, which is working to make enough blood to end reliance on donations for medical transfusions.

I have been greatly concerned over many months about the increasing levels of discrimination being shown to our Asian community during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was intensified last week after the tragic events unfolded in Atlanta. I want to clearly state that Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering has zero-tolerance for hate and racial intolerance of any kind.

Teams from Waterloo Engineering swept the four winning spots at the Winter 2021 Concept $5K pitch competition held live, but virtually, this week.

Each of the teams – AquaSensing, Arbitrium, Scribenote and UWTensil – took home $5,000 after rising to the top of a field of more than 120 ideas submitted for the thrice-yearly event.

Vitaly Pecherskiy, co-founder and COO of StackAdapt Inc., has launched a $20,000 entrance award for a Black or Indigenous student entering the first year of several Waterloo Engineering programs.

A technology startup company founded by two Waterloo Engineering professors has earned a spot in the finals of an international pitch competition for water innovations.

AquaSensing, which was launched by George Shaker and Norman Zhou in 2019, booked its spot in the global Water Dragons event by finishing second in an Ontario heat featuring eight companies.

Two graduate students at Waterloo Engineering have been selected for annual awards recognizing outstanding teaching.

Rollen D’Souza, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering, and Charbel Azzi, a PhD candidate in systems design engineering, join two graduate students from the Faculty of Science as the 2021 winners of the Amit and Meena Chakma Awards for Exceptional Teaching by a Student.

D’Souza was cited, in part, for his efforts to develop high-quality online labs during the COVID-19 pivot to remote learning.

A doctoral candidate at Waterloo Engineering received prestigious recognition during convocation at his former university in India this week.

Rishabh Bajaj, who began his PhD in civil and environmental engineering at Waterloo in the fall, formally graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela as the top undergraduate student across all programs.

He was presented with the award, the Institute Gold Medal for Best Graduate, by Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.

Igor Ivkovic will be recognized with one of four University of Waterloo Distinguished Teacher Awards at Spring Convocation 2021.

Ivkovic, a lecturer and the associate chair of undergraduate studies in systems design engineering, died last November.

Jothi (Suntharampillai) Bavan (BASc ‘03, chemical engineering) launched the $2,000 Kanagampikai Suntharampillai Entrance Bursary earlier this year to be awarded to a woman in first-year chemical engineering.

Named in memory of her mother, the bursary is intended to assist a woman starting Waterloo's chemical engineering program in much the same way Bavan was supported over 20 years ago after leaving war-ravaged Sri Lanka. 

Jen Parks, a University of Waterloo alumnus, has become the first woman to lead Waterloo’s geological engineering program since the program was launched almost 40 years ago.

Parks (BSc ’00 and PhD ‘10, geological and earth sciences) holds a limited engineering license as of 2016.