News

Canada's ninth annual National Biotechnology Week, from September 14 to 21, celebrates national biotechnology excellence. Canada's bio-economy is estimated to be worth more than $87 billion and involves a wide variety of sectors including pharmaceutical manufacturing, health, and medicine, agriculture and food bioprocessing, and organic chemical manufacturing.

Claudio Cañizares has received one of Canada's highest academic honours by being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

The electrical and computer engineering professor is among the recipients of 11 medals and awards, which recognize outstanding achievements in several fields of research and scholarship.

As students return to school, Waterloo Collegiate Institute's Janelle Tam was featured in the September 4 edition of Premier Dalton McGuinty's blog. Janelle is the daughter of Dr. Michael Tam, a faculty member in Waterloo's Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology.

A paper written by engineers from Waterloo and South China University of Technology recently won the Best Student Paper Award at the 3M-NANO international conference held in Xi’an China.

Waterloo Engineering has been ranked number 43 in the world (number two in Canada) in the “Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences” Field of the Academic Ranking of World Universities for 2012! Along with the University of Toronto in 13th spot, we are the only two Canadian schools in the top 50 of what's also known as the Shanghai Ranking. Seven other Canadian schools appear in the top 200.

Naveen Chandrashekar is developing a method of simulating career-ending injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) located in the knee. The mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor has designed a  simulator that is capable of accurately replicating high-speed knee movements, such as those resulting from intense athletic activity.

According to Chandrashekar, around 100,000 athletes in North America tear their ACL every year, resulting in more than $2 billion in treatment costs annually.

An electrical and computer engineering professor is creating a novel terahertz frequency laser that can operate closer to room temperature than any other previously developed.

Three Waterloo Engineering graduates are the first recipients of the new Scientists and Engineers in Business Fellowship, created to help turn innovations into businesses. Armen Bakirtzian, JS Rancourt, and Ryan Denomme each received $60,000 in the first round of fellowships. Two more rounds of fellowships will be awarded in the next eight months.
 

Thanks to groundbreaking research being undertaken by civil engineering master's student Andrew Northmore we could one day be driving on glass  instead of asphalt or concrete. With solar panels embedded below the glass much-needed electricity would be generated.

Reinhold Schuster, a Waterloo civil engineering professor emeritus, has been awarded the 2012 CAN-AM Civil Engineering Amity award by the Technical Council on Cold Regions Engineering. Schuster was recognized for his research in cold-formed steel structures in both Canada and the U.S. His award will be presented to him during the International Cold Regions Engineering Conference taking place August 19-22 in Quebec City.