News

The University of Waterloo’s all-weather, self-driving bus, the WATonoBus, has hit the road with official go-ahead from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation.

Students, staff, faculty and visitors can enjoy the ride with a complimentary WATonobus shuttle service operating every Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Students at the University of Waterloo continue to push the limits of autonomous vehicles as members of a multi-school racing team.

Eight engineering, computer science and mathematics students from Waterloo teamed up with peers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pittsburgh and the Rochester Institute of Technology for a high-profile event earlier this month at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Waterloo Engineering students performed well at this year’s recent Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) at Western University, with three first-place teams moving on to next month's national contest.

Thirteen undergraduate engineering students placed within the top three in nine competitive categories. The first and second-place teams in each category will compete in the Canadian Engineering Competition, to be held at the University of Waterloo in February.

Artificial intelligence (AI) med-tech startup Signal 1 deployed its predictive software at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener this month to improve operational efficiencies.

Co-founded by Waterloo Engineering alumnus Tomi Poutanen (BASc ’96, computer engineering), Signal 1’s ‘Patient Discharge Solution’ aims to help nurses, doctors and other clinicians make more efficient use of beds by predicting which patients will be ready for discharge within 48 hours.

A national publication has recognized Waterloo Engineering alumnus Briar Beers (BASc ’07, civil engineering) for her achievements in the construction industry.

Beers was recently named as a rising leader in her field by On-Site Magazine in its annual 40 Under 40 winners edition. The publication recognizes her professional accomplishments that have helped to shape the future of the construction sector in Canada.

Dr. Zhongwei Chen and his research team at Waterloo Engineering continue to advance work on new technology to affordably convert harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuels and other valuable chemicals on an industrial scale.

In the fall, the team published a study outlining development of cells that can be stacked to form reactors of any size, enabling a customizable, economically viable solution for installation right on site at factories and other sources of CO2 emissions.

The entrepreneurship ecosystem at Waterloo Engineering nurtures promising ideas into thriving enterprises. In our weekly Founder Fuel series, we look at new ventures and how they have benefited from that crucial early support.

Accrording to Matt McRoberts (BASc ’15, mechanical engineering), drones have huge potential. What holds them back is limited battery power. McRoberts and his teammates tackled this problem with their Capstone project, creating a hybrid power train that gives drones more endurance. 

For most of us, social interactions are taxing, tedious or time well spent. For the 1.5% of Canadian children and youth (five to 17 years of age) who have been diagnosed with autism, they can be inscrutable.  

There is no one defining characteristic of autism. Some of the more typical manifestations of autism relate to emotional awareness. Autistic people can have difficulty recognizing emotional cues in social interactions, affecting how they read body language, tone of voice or facial expressions. This can lead to awkwardness, misunderstandings and even loneliness. It can also affect how some autistic people engage with their own emotions and interests, often causing confusion and withdrawal.

It is with great sadness that the Faculty of Engineering and the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) share that Michael Herz, laboratory director, mechanical and mechatronics engineering and past UWSA president, passed away on Saturday, January 14.

Michael had a long and impactful career at the University of Waterloo, spanning over 28 years. He was a diligent and dedicated lab director who was kind and welcoming to everyone he met. He forged many friendships on campus with his smile, warmth and caring heart.

The entrepreneurship ecosystem at Waterloo Engineering nurtures promising ideas into thriving enterprises. In our weekly Founder Fuel series, we look at new ventures and how they have benefited from that crucial early support.

In 2010, Tommy Chan and Jason Yeung (both BASc ’12, systems design engineering) saw a worker taking notes of the inventory in the vending machines and then returning with dolly-loads to restock. They immediately saw the opportunity to disrupt the vending machines industry using emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology for their fourth-year design project.