News

Two startup companies with ties to Waterloo Engineering were among the recipients this week of $30,000 in seed funding and mentorship for their efforts related to COVID-19.

In all, eight companies won backing through the AC Jumpstart program at the Accelerator Centre and FedDev Ontario in a 10-month program to drive innovative business growth in southern Ontario to support outbreak recovery and enable expansion following the pandemic.

A fourth-year biomedical engineering student has been recognized as the top Waterloo Engineering co-op student for his work with an organization dedicated to improving health care in East Africa.

Eric Jihoon Song worked as a software developer during spring term last year at Maisha Meds on an application to allow customers in Kenya to buy needed pharmaceuticals.

Park Reilly, a long-time Waterloo chemical engineering professor, died earlier this month, just 12 days shy of turning 100.

Reilly, who joined the University in 1967, was a respected scholar engaged in research and teaching on the application of statistics in engineering.

As she prepares to take the helm as the new dean of Waterloo Engineering in July, Mary Wells paused to consider the importance of the profession while the world continues its battle with the coronavirus pandemic.

"What would our shelter-in-place COVID-19 experiences be like in Canada without engineering technology advancements such as smart phones, Zoom, Amazon or Netflix?" she asked in an opinion piece that has appeared in several publications.

Waterloo Engineering researchers are working on personalized 3D-printed mask components for front line health-care providers as well as patients who regularly visit medical facilities for treatments such as dialysis,  chemotherapy and radiation.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19, members of the Multi-Scale Additive Manufacturing (MSAM) Laboratory have produced several prototypes based on approved design guidelines from Health Canada and the National Institutes for Health.

A company that was co-founded by Waterloo Engineering alumnus Martin Basiri has achieved unicorn status after securing $100 million in new investment.

ApplyBoard, which was launched in 2015 and now has more than 400 employees in 20 countries, is an online platform that helps students apply for universities, colleges and high schools in Canada, the United and the United Kingdom.

A cross-appointed professor of chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo has been named a fellow of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest independent scientific academy.

Linda Nazar was recognized for her research on electrochemical energy storage with topics that span Li-ion batteries and ‘beyond Li-ion,’ and solid state ionics.

A medical device that four graduates of Waterloo Engineering helped develop made the spotlight when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that hundreds of units were on order to help in the fight against COVID-19.

“That was certainly a proud moment,” said Michael Vermeer, a member of the first mechatronics engineering class to graduate in 2008. “It was great to know all the hard work that went into that device was getting its time to shine helping Canadians.”

A professor at Waterloo Engineering is a member of a team that is advancing technology to turn organic waste into green fuels and fertilizer.

Research by Janusz Kozinski and several collaborators at the University of Saskatchewan includes a project with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to convert waste and wastewater into energy for possible use on the International Space Station and during long-term space missions.

A technician at Waterloo Engineering is earning high praise for quickly designing and building a booth to allow front-line health workers to test for COVID-19 without wearing scarce protective gear.

Robert Wagner, who has been at the University of Waterloo for 23 years and nows works in the RoboHub robotics research, testing and training facility, created the see-through enclosure at his home shop in New Hamburg.

“It was an exercise in Canadian innovation and can-do,” he said.