News

Two recent graduates of Waterloo Engineering finished first and second in an international contest sponsored for a non-profit organization dedicated to effective water management.

Kelsey Lee Kundert took the top prize of $3,000, while Nik Knezic won $1,500 in second place, for the best master’s theses as judged by the American Water Works Association, the world’s largest organization of water supply professionals.

A growing alumnus company has teamed up with the cutting-edge robotics facility at Waterloo Engineering to improve its flagship autonomous floor-scrubbing robot.

The collaboration between Avidbots and RoboHub took shape after graduate Pablo Molina (BASc ’11, mechatronics engineering) contacted William Melek, his former mentor and professor, for help.

Early research at Waterloo Engineering into the growing electronic sports (esports) industry highlights a need for better coaching to prevent burnout among professional players.

The study identified several areas, including player fatigue, mental stress and peak performance conditions, that require in-depth research to improve coaching and player performance.

Projects led by three professors at Waterloo Engineering were awarded a total of almost $750,000 in funding this week through a federal program designed to encourage high-risk, high-reward interdisciplinary research.

Giovanni Cascante, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, won $250,000 in backing for a project described as: optimized use of mechanical waves in a novel vibratory drainage stimulation device, from lungs to water filter applications.

Waterloo Engineering improved its standing in three subjects in world rankings released today by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) for 2022.

The faculty was rated 33^rd globally in electrical engineering, 49^th in mechanical engineering and 75^th in chemical engineering, all improvements on the 2021 results released by the influential United Kingdom company.

Teams featuring members from Waterloo Engineering swept all four $5,000 prizes at the recent Concept 5K pitch competition for aspiring student entrepreneurs.

Winners at the Winter 2022 event, whittled down from 22 competitors at the outset, were Cauchy Analytics, Moonlight Haptics, Retinex and Tulay.

Cauchy, which includes chemical engineering PhD student James Lowman, is developing a non-invasive, continuous monitoring system for cardiac hemodynamics in hospital intensive care units.

Frustrated by the high number of single-use water bottles ending up in landfill, a chemical engineering student team's proposed solution has earned $50,000 in financial backing from a venture capitalist.

Reduce, Carbonize, Adsorb, a Capstone Design project, is the winner of this year’s Palihapitiya Venture Creation Fund Award sponsored by Chamath Palihapitiya (BASc '99, electrical engineering), founder and CEO of Social Capital.

A company that was co-founded by a Waterloo Engineering architecture alumnus is in elite company – for the second time – on a worldwide list announced this week by TIME magazine.

Biobot Analytics, a startup launched by Newsha Ghaeli (BAS ’11) and Mariana Matus in 2017, cracked the second annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for 2022 along with global giants such as Amazon, Meta, Apple, Disney, Netflix, the National Football League and TikTok.

Impressing judges with projects ranging from a unique alternative to traditional cancer treatment to a high-performance e-bike that folds into the size of a backpack netted six senior-year engineering teams $10,000 each in the annual Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design contest. 

A mechanical engineering student at the University of Waterloo is the recipient of one of 10 scholarships awarded by Hydro One to help encourage gender diversity within the utility and the electricity industry in general.

In addition to $5,000, Winnie Lin will be given the opportunity to complete a paid work term at the company as a winner of its Women in Engineering Scholarship.