News

Waterloo Engineering students claimed podium finishes across all four categories at Canada's most prestigious engineering student competition.

The 2026 Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC), hosted at the Université de Sherbrooke, saw every qualifying Waterloo team finish on the podium. Yaxin Wang and Matthew Ko (biomedical engineering) took first place in the Consulting category, while Alanna Rudolph (mechatronics engineering) and Eva Siao (computer engineering) secured second place in the Debate category.

ThinkLabs AI, a specialized AI development and deployment company, has secured $39-million to scale its physics-informed artificial intelligence platform for electric utility companies.

Founded in 2024 by Waterloo Engineering alum Joshua Wong (MASc '10, electrical and computer engineering), the investment will power the company’s capabilities to help utility providers modernize power grid infrastructure for electricity-hungry AI data centres.

Dr. Catherine Burns, a professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Human Factors in Healthcare Systems, has received the University of Waterloo’s Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision.

As director of the Advanced Interface Design Lab, Burns has built an internationally recognized research program in human-centred design and artificial intelligence in healthcare, attracting more than $27 million in funding and producing more than 330 publications.

Breathing unhealthy air could be routine for almost one in three Americans by 2100 due to climate change, modelling led by researchers at Waterloo Engineering shows.

The new study found that about 100 million people in the United States will live in areas where average air quality during smog season – which runs from the beginning of May to the end of September – is poor enough to trigger alerts advising vulnerable people to stay indoors. 

Twelve fourth-year Waterloo Engineering teams competed in the 2026 Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design. A panel of industry judges awarded more than $100,000 across all 12 teams. 

The teams pitched a wide array of solutions — from a wearable cooling device for menopausal hot flashes to an AI tool that automates body camera redaction for law enforcement.

A second-year student in the biomedical engineering program has been recognized as the co-op student of the year for Waterloo Engineering.

Aiden Sarrafzadeh was cited for his contributions during a co-op term as a research assistant at Women's College Hospital.

Waterloo Engineering made a significant jump in the 2026 world subject rankings announced today by global education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

In the broad category of engineering and technology, one of five used by QS to group 55 more specific subject areas, Waterloo climbed to 38^th place – up from 47^th last year - in a field of more than 1,900 universities.

An engineering undergraduate student claimed the $50,000 grand prize at HARD MODE, an invite-only hardware and artificial intelligence hackathon hosted by MIT Media Lab.

Cristiano Da Silva, a mechanical engineering student, competed as part of Dreaming Objects, the winning team at the March 2026 event. The competition drew 200 participants — roughly 40 teams — from engineering, computer science and design programs across North America. 

A Waterloo Engineering research team is helping cancer survivors manage lymphedema with a smartphone-sized, portable compression sleeve that lets patients move freely during therapy.

Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies, leads the Waterloo Microfluidics Laboratory (WML). Her team has engineered a soft-robotic compression sleeve to replace bulky, expensive clinical devices that hinder movement.

The Department of Chemical Engineering's undergraduate teaching labs have been awarded the Green Lab Gold Certificate for the second consecutive year.

Led by John Zhang, lab director, the department’s technical support team has embedded sustainability into how students learn, experiment and work, improving the education experience and reducing waste.