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Two professors at Waterloo Engineering were awarded funding today to advance quantum communications, sensing and detection.

Dr. Eihab Abdel-Rahman, from systems design engineering, and Dr. Mustafa Yavuz, from mechanical and mechatronics engineering, were among three projects campus-wide to receive more than $1.3 million from a collaboration with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI) programs.

Five professors at Waterloo Engineering were awarded a combined total of just over $7 million in funding today through a federal initiative to advance quantum science and technology. 

Dr. Bradley Hauer. Dr. Michael Reimer, Dr. Lan Wei and Dr. Christopher Wilson, all from electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Sushanta Mitra, of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, were among 13 researchers campus-wide to receive $16.2 million from the National Quantum Strategy for 16 projects. 

Two research projects led by Waterloo Engineering professors were approved for almost $475,000 in federal funding this week under a program designed to reduce collisions, injuries and fatalities on roadways.

Led by Dr. Krzysztof Czarnecki and Dr. Bruce Hellinga, the projects are among 35 initiatives across the country to receive a total of $14.6 million through the Enhanced Road Safety Transfer Payment Program of Transport Canada.

Three professors from Waterloo Engineering have received $6 million in provincial funding to support made-in-Ontario cutting-edge research projects.

The funding, delivered through the Ontario Research Fund, supports ground-breaking research that will advance knowledge, drive innovation and create a better future for the people of Ontario.

 University of Waterloo researchers have developed an AI-powered app that tracks our caloric and nutrient intake while we eat.

Dr. Yuhao Chen, a research assistant professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering’s Vision and Image Processing (VIP) Lab, said the new tech is aimed at tackling malnutrition in aging populations to ensure that older people get the food they need to support a healthy and active lifestyle.

An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Waterloo has developed a method to convert food waste into biodegradable plastics using bacteria. The plastics are soft and flexible, making them suitable for applications like food wrap, drug delivery systems and tissue engineering.

Led by Dr. Tizazu Mekonnen, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Dr. Trevor Charles, a professor in the Department of Biology, the team produced polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a type of plastic that decomposes into harmless byproducts.

Dr. Norman Zhou, Professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Waterloo, has been awarded the American Welding Society's (AWS) Comfort A. Adams Lecture Award. Named in honor of AWS founder and first President Dr. Comfort A. Adams, this award recognizes distinguished scientists or engineers for a lecture highlighting innovative advancements in welding.

Dr. Zhou delivered a lecture on “Nanojoining - A New Frontier in Welding and Joining of Materials” at the 2024 AWS Annual Meeting.

A Waterloo Engineering research team has developed an innovative design that allows modular timber structures to be easily relocated, reassembled and reconfigured in either urban or remote areas.

Dr. Daniel Lacroix, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Daniela Roscetti, a recent master's student, led the design development of a novel connector plate that, unlike traditional fasteners, connects cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels in a way that enables disassembly for easier reassembly and reuse. 

Waterloo Engineering researchers have developed an innovative double-skin building façade that contains microalgae and uses machine learning to generate energy.

Led by Dr. Mohamad Araji, director of Architectural Engineering, the team optimized the cavity between a building's double-skin glass façade to expand the use of microalgae with the aim of making buildings net producers of energy, self-sustainable and independent of the power grid.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Waterloo's Faculties of Engineering and Science have received $2.5 million in federal funding to develop new ways to convert waste materials into valuable commodities. 

Led by Dr. Christian Euler, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the team is reimagining how plastics, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and agricultural residues can be transformed into biodegradable bioplastics or useful chemical products.