News

The Waterloo Engineering community came together to mark Canada’s National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, commemorating the 14 women, mostly engineering students, who were killed at École Polytechnique de Montréal (now Polytechnique Montréal) in 1989 by a lone gunman — because they were women. 

For staff, students and faculty members, December 6 is an opportunity to remember, to reflect and to respond to the scourge of gender-based violence and society’s collective responsibility to eradicate it.  

The Faculty of Engineering is mourning the passing of a long-time leader whose work in electromagnetics helped shape modern antenna research and guided generations of students and colleagues.

Dr. Robert (Bob) H. MacPhie, a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, passed away on December 3, 2025, at the age of 92. 

A new Faculty award has been introduced to honour the resilience that carries many doctoral researchers through periods of profound personal or systemic challenge.

This year’s inaugural recipient, doctoral candidate Ahmed El Ashmawy, was recognized for completing major milestones in his electrical and computer engineering PhD while navigating extended family illness, caregiving responsibilities and significant personal loss.

An alumnus of Waterloo Engineering aiming for a career in avionics and national defense has won a $50,000 scholarship to pursue graduate studies.

Megan Chang (BASc ’25, mechatronics engineering) was one of 14 female winners nation-wide through a program created to remember the 14 women murdered by a misogynist at École Polytechnique (now Polytechnique Montréal) on Dec. 6, 1989.

This year, the Pearl Sullivan Engineering IDEAs Clinic at the University of Waterloo marks ten years of giving students from across campus access to hands-on, real-world learning experiences.  

Launched in 2015, the clinic has hosted more than 60,000 students and challenged them to tackle real-world problems drawn from industrial and societal needs.

Researchers with the Department of Chemical Engineering are demonstrating the power of collaborating across disciplines by teaming up to tackle the problem of plastics pollution from several different angles.

“When we talk about grand challenges in the world, each of us could say our work is a small piece of the solution,” said Dr. Christin Euler, who leads the Center for Innovative Recycling and Circular Economy (Circle).

University of Waterloo alumni David J. Cornfield (BASc ’85, LLD ’24) and Linda Archer Cornfield (LLD ’24) visited campus to announce their transformational investment of $10.5 million to the Faculty of Engineering’s Department of Systems Design Engineering. 

The gift advances the department's educational impact, equipping engineers to bridge systems thinking with design practice to create integrated, participatory and human-focused solutions to pressing global challenges.

University of Waterloo professor Larry Smith marks 45 years of teaching this year, celebrating a career defined by empowering students to think critically and pursue bold, entrepreneurial paths.

Smith, a professor in the Faculty of Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, specializes in forecasting and the economics of innovation. His wildly popular lectures are packed to the brim with generations of students and alumni from across campus.

Ten subjects at Waterloo Engineering made the top 50 worldwide in annual rankings recently released for 2025 by an influential organization based in China.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, included an evaluation of 57 subject areas at almost 2,000 universities in 100 countries based on research output, research influence, international collaboration, research quality and academic awards.

Waterloo Engineering celebrated three outstanding alumni at its annual Engineering Awards Dinner for their innovative and impactful contributions to improving how humanity engages with the built and natural environments.

Hosted by Dean Mary Wells, the event honoured Vikramaditya (Vikram) Yadav (BASc ’07, chemical engineering), Elisia Neves (BArch ’08, MArch ’12) and James Dean (BASc ’90, civil engineering) for their entrepreneurial and research-driven approach to developing sustainable technologies and building stronger communities.