News

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Waterloo's Faculties of Engineering and Science have received $2.5 million in federal funding to develop new ways to convert waste materials into valuable commodities. 

Led by Dr. Christian Euler, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the team is reimagining how plastics, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and agricultural residues can be transformed into biodegradable bioplastics or useful chemical products.

Murray Zink was an Instructional Support Coordinator at the University of Waterloo for over 15 years. Now retired, he continues to be a driving force behind local repair culture and sustainability initiatives.

A Waterloo Engineering research team is using augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) to better understand — and maintain — the condition of Canada's critical infrastructure. 

Dr. Chul Min Yeum, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his colleagues have developed a system called the Smart Infrastructure Metaverse that uses AR/VR to allow on-site and off-site inspectors to interact in real-time as they view the real structure and a 3D scanned replica model simultaneously.

This opinion piece by the University of Waterloo’s Dr. Mary Wells, dean of Engineering; Dr. Lai-Tze Fan, Canada Research Chair in Technology and Social Change; and Dr. Ashley Mehlenbacher, Canada Research Chair in Science, Health, and Technology Communication, appeared today in the Toronto Star.

 It’s been more than a month since U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris launched her bid for the presidency and already AI-generated disinformation is working to smear her name. She’s not alone.

Waterloo Engineering master’s student Nicholas Levinski is developing a wearable device that can enhance patients' specialized treatment plans to reduce swelling caused by lymphedema.

Lymphedema is diagnosed when lymph, a clear fluid that contains nutrients and is also a type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, is unable to flow normally and builds up in the soft tissues of an affected limb, causing painful swelling in patients' arms and legs.

Scribenote, an AI-powered veterinary scribe co-founded by Faculty of Engineering alumni Alina Pavel (BASc ’21, nanotechnology engineering) and Ryan Gallagher (BASc ‘21, nanotechnology engineering), has raised $8.2 million in seed funding.

The investment round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from Inovia Capital, the Velocity Fund, and angel investors.

Hack the North, Canada’s largest hackathon, took place in E7 of the Faculty of Engineering, attracting over 1,000 young innovators for 36 hours of creativity and collaboration. Participants worked on a wide range of tech projects, from software applications to hardware gadgets, while also building connections and a strong sense of community.

Co-op students from Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering have been making important contributions to healthcare innovation at SickKids.

Dr. Eman Rezk, an NSERC Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a 2024 recipient of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) Alice Wilson Award. This award is presented annually to three women of outstanding academic qualifications in the fields of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, or Science, recognizing excellence at the postdoctoral level.

University of Waterloo researchers, led by Dr. Michael Tam and Dr. Yuning Li from the Department of Chemical Engineering, have developed an energy-efficient device that uses solar power to desalinate seawater, offering a sustainable solution to global water scarcity. The device mimics the natural water cycle, where water evaporates and condenses, preventing salt accumulation that typically hampers current desalination systems.