News

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.

Jonathan Zhou, mechatronics engineering student at Waterloo University, is a key organizer of an upcoming international robotics contest called Mecha Mayhem. 

More than 120 middle and high school teams will attend the Mecha Mayhem tournament from around the world to compete. Other participants include Canadian tech and robotics companies looking for new talent. 

Mechatronics professor and president emeritus Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur is being recognized as a member of the Order of Canada.

In a recent news release by the Governor General’s office, Hamdullahpur’s appointment is based on “his groundbreaking research in mechanical and mechatronics engineering and for his visionary leadership in academia”. He is among 99 new appointments to the Order of Canada.

WATOLINK, a student design team at Waterloo Engineering has won an international competition for developing a device that enables people with speech disabilities to communicate much faster than with existing technology.

Co-founded in 2021 by mechatronics engineering students Christopher Samra and Avery Chiu, WATOLINK focuses on developing the potential of non-invasive neurotechnology.

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.

Nicole Howard, Rachel Blanchard, Steven Vilcacundo Molina and Kris Ma (all BASc ’22, chemical engineering) set out to develop a Capstone project that could improve the world. They targeted the mountain of PET water bottles discarded every day, developing a novel thermochemical process to break down that plastic waste and convert it into an important commodity: activated carbon.

Those spectacular shooting flames associated with oil and gas production aren’t doing a good enough job of protecting the environment.

Known as flares, they play an important role in the reduction of greenhouse gases fueling climate change by converting methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere into much less harmful carbon dioxide (CO2).

An innovative Industry 4.0 company, founded by four Waterloo Engineering alumni, has raised $8.1 million to enhance its capabilities in printed circuit board defect detection.

Based in Kitchener-Waterloo, DarwinAI was started in 2017 by Sheldon Fernandez (BASc ’01, computer engineering), Dr. Mohammad Shafiee (PhD ’17, systems design engineering), Arif Virani (BASc ’05, computer engineering) and Dr. Alexander Wong (BASc ’05, computer engineering, MASc ’07, electrical and computer engineering, PhD ’10, systems design engineering). Wong and Shafiee are also professors at Waterloo.

Each year, Building Design and Construction (BD+C) honours 40 individuals under the age of 40 in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) community as the next generation of rising stars. 

Waterloo Engineering alumnus Cheryl Saldanha (BASc ’09, civil engineering) has made the 40 Under 40 class list for 2022.