News

Waterloo Engineering's Critical Machine Learning (ML) Lab is developing AI systems that are safer, more efficient and more equitable — with active applications in health care, aviation and climate action.

Dr. Sirisha Rambhatla, a professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, leads the lab's research. Her team works at the level of ML theory to predict and engineer it — so users can make safer, fairer decisions at lower computing costs and with less waste.

A Waterloo Engineering student design team has been selected as one of 20 universities across North America to compete in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge, the next 4-year installment of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions series.

The University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT) is one of only two Canadian universities chosen and the only Canadian team in the Stellantis track, where they will work with a 2026 Jeep Cherokee hybrid.

The Department of Management Science and Engineering and the Faculty of Engineering are mourning the loss of a longtime colleague and scholar.

Dr. Paul Guild, professor emeritus in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, passed away on April 24, 2026, at the age of 80. An alum of the University of Waterloo, Guild spent more than three decades at the university he had once studied at, leaving a lasting mark on research, innovation and the careers of countless students.

A faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering has received an international honour for his work in materials fabrication.

Dr. Milad Kamkar has been named a recipient of the 2026 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineering Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME).

This opinion piece by the University of Waterloo’s Dr. Mary Wells, dean of engineering and Dr. Jochen Koenemann, dean of mathematics, appeared in the Hill Times.

If you are wondering whether a degree in software engineering is still worth pursuing, the answer is yes—not because the field is unchanged, but because it is changing profoundly. 

A study of wildfires by researchers at Waterloo Engineering reveals a risk of costly over-reaction by emergency responders who monitor social media posts.

While posts by the public have been shown to help firefighters spring into action faster, a detailed analysis of wildfires in California suggests social media signals can be a double-edged sword.

A new quantum computing startup co-founded by Waterloo Engineering professor Dr. Christopher Wilson is accelerating toward commercialization with $10.7 million in funding and a public listing just six months after launch.

QuantumCore — spun out of research at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) — is developing an amplifier that boosts read-out signals from superconducting quantum chips operating at near absolute zero temperatures. 

Retired Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor John Shortreed passed away on April 15. Dr. Shortreed joined the University of Waterloo in 1965 as an assistant professor in the Civil Engineering department. He was named associate professor in 1969 and full professor in 1977.

His areas of research included transportation, freeway simulation, risk analysis and assessment, the movement of hazardous goods, and urban transit. He joined the University's transport research group and helped launch the UWaterloo-based Institute for Risk Research.

A professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering has received the University of Waterloo's most prestigious academic honour.

Dr. John McPhee, the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Biomechatronic System Dynamics, was named a University Professor at this week's Board of Governors meeting — a designation recognizing exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence. Waterloo awards the designation to at most three faculty members each year.

In 2025, Waterloo Engineering’s Outreach programs reached more than 41,500 young people — a 30 per cent increase from 2024 and more than triple the 13,500 participants served in 2017.  

With support from donors, partners and sponsors, the programs are intentionally designed to engage young people who have historically been excluded from STEM — girls, 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, Black and Indigenous youth, youth living with disabilities and newcomers to Canada.