News

Dr. Katherine (Kate) Sellen, a leading design researcher working at the intersection of health innovation and human-centred systems, has been appointed the Faculty of Engineering’s inaugural George Soulis Chair in the Department of Systems Design Engineering (SYDE).

Beginning May 1, 2025, Sellen will bring her practice-based research and strong commitment to community impact into a role that builds on the department’s legacy of interdisciplinary, human-centred design education. 

The centennial of Canada’s iconic iron ring ceremony was marked with renewed spirit through the unveiling of a modernized and more inclusive Calling of the Engineer — exactly 100 years after the original event.

Dean Mary Wells represented the University of Waterloo at the first-ever presentation of the updated ceremony, held April 25 at McGill University. In Montreal for the annual spring meeting of Engineering Deans Canada, Wells attended the event alongside fellow engineering deans nationwide.

A chemical engineering professor has been recognized as an Emerging Investigator by a leading international journal for his innovative research in materials science.

Dr. Milad Kamkar received the honour from Materials Horizons for his contributions to soft matter engineering. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology developed at Waterloo Engineering gives baseball scouts a powerful new tool to accurately analyze pitcher performance and biomechanics using low-resolution video.

The system, known as PitcherNet, is the product of a three-year partnership between researchers at the Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Lab and the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB).

The home of robotics research at Waterloo Engineering is one of ten new technology development sites in Ontario created to help drive innovation in four key sectors – mining, construction, agri-food and advanced manufacturing.

Through a provincial program called Critical Industrial Technologies (CIT), facilities and expertise at RoboHub will be made available to small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) to develop, test and showcase technology products and services.

This year's Capstone Design Symposia at the University of Waterloo showcased over 350 innovative student-led projects built to solve real-world problems. Many of the projects showed impressive entrepreneurial acumen and the potential for commercialization.  

Thanks to invaluable support from donors and industry partners, 45 student teams won financial awards to help them develop their project designs, laying the groundwork for these students to take their business ideas even further. 

An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Waterloo is pioneering innovative methods to measure and mitigate harmful methane emissions.

Led by Dr. Kyle Daun, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, the team is using a hyperspectral camera, or “Hyper-Cam,” to measure methane emissions at a landfill site in the Waterloo Region. Landfills account for about 20% of Canada's methane emissions.

A research team of Waterloo Engineering graduate students is working on a range of health-tech applications from cancer diagnostics to wearable medical devices.  

Led by Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, the Waterloo Microfluidics Lab (WML) develops and supports commercialized research that aims to improve the delivery of health care, including compression therapy for medical and athletic use.

A Waterloo Engineering researcher is part of an international coalition revolutionizing health-care delivery by developing technology for fast, on-site vaccine production.

Dr. Valerie Ward, a chemical engineering professor, plays a critical role in the coalition —her research focuses on ensuring vaccine purity during the autonomous manufacturing process.  

Dr. Victor Cui, a professor of entrepreneurship, innovation and global strategy at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, weighed in with an analysis in the Globe and Mail this week on the U.S. tariffs roiling world economic markets.

Cui, the Conrad Research Excellence Research Chair, argued that, from a competitive dynamics perspective, the tariff war between the United States and China could work to the advantage of Canada.