News

As wildfires continue to burn across the country this summer, a civil and environmental engineering professor, provides her expert opinion on what causes them and their long-term effects on air quality and the health of Canadians.

Rebecca Saari, who studies the consequences of climate change and climate policy on human health and environmental inequality, responds to common questions about Canadian wildfires and what needs to be done to prevent them from happening. 

Waterloo Engineering alumnus Andrew D’Souza (BASc ’08, systems design engineering) got an early start as an entrepreneur.

He delivered newspapers, mowed lawns and walked dogs for his neighbours as a boy, then moved up to part-time jobs to save for university so he wouldn’t rack up debt.

Flash forward 13 years since he earned his degree and D’Souza, whose family immigrated to Canada from India, is now the co-founder and CEO of Clearco, a Toronto-based company that has invested $2.2 billion in thousands of e-commerce companies.

Five professors at Waterloo Engineering will receive a total of almost $874,000 under a federal program designed to give exceptional researchers the tools and equipment needed to become leaders in their fields.

The recipients are among 21 researchers campus-wide at the University of Waterloo announced today for almost $2.66 million in backing through the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund.

Across the country, $77 million will go to support 332 research infrastructure projects at 50 universities.

Music artists can find new creative directions for their songwriting with a real-time system that uses artificial intelligence.

LyricJam was created by members of the University’s Natural Language Processing Lab led by Olga Vechtomova, a Waterloo Engineering professor cross-appointed in Computer Science.

The lab’s initial work led to the creation of a system that learns musical expressions of artists and generates lyrics in their style.

Local architect Roger Farwell (BArch 1977), known as a philanthropist, community builder and champion of the arts, died August 4 in Wellesley Township in a single-vehicle crash.

Just over $400,000 in federal funding was announced today for a cybersecurity project led by a Waterloo Engineering professor.

Sebastian Fischmeister, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, heads a six-member team developing an enhanced cybersecurity system to protect Canada’s energy infrastructure.

The project, which is backed by Natural Resources Canada, also involves Bruce Power and Palitronica Inc., a startup company with roots in Fischmeister’s lab, the Real-time Embedded Software Group.

Fourth-year students at the School of Architecture will showcase their ideas to keep the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo healthy, habitable, lively and attractive as they go through an unprecedented building boom.

Eight projects by 16 students make up an exhibit called Fuori le Mura/City at the Edge in the Crystal Ballroom at the Walper Hotel in downtown Kitchener from Aug. 10 to Aug. 13.

Two teams featuring Waterloo Engineering students took home $5,000 each at the recent Concept $5K pitch competition for spring 2021.

House AI and Maesos were among four winners at the virtual event, with one of the winners, MedAtlas, collecting an additional $5,000 for the top health-related idea.

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering who went on to a professional football career will be honoured with a mural in his Ontario hometown after a successful campaign by a determined group of kids.

Students in a grades 7 and 8 French immersion class at J. Douglas Hodgson Elementary School urged politicians in Haliburton to recognize the achievements of Taly Williams (BASc ’94, civil engineering) and his sister Lesley Tashlin alongside five local athletes already featured on an arena wall.

A research project co-led by Marc Aucoin, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo Engineering, is recruiting participants to help understand how our bodies build immunity to COVID-19.

Aucoin and co-lead Brian Dixon, a professor of biology, are working to understand the nature of immune responses in all members of the campus community, regardless of vaccination status.