News

Groundbreaking two-way wireless technology resulting in vastly superior voice and data services has been developed by a Waterloo Engineering research team led by Amir K. Khandani, the Canada Research Chair in Wireless Systems.The new technology enables wireless signals to be sent and received at the same time on a single radio channel frequency. 

Twenty engineering faculty members are being recognized with others across campus through the outstanding performance fund established by the university in 2005 to reward faculty members for outstanding contribution in teaching and scholarship.

A team of fourth-year chemical engineering students took top prize in the 2012 Minerva Safety Engineering Design competition. Held annually by Minerva Safety Management Education, the competition is intended to encourage colleges and universities to incorporate safety management education into core curricula.

A University of Waterloo team, headed by Eihab Abdel-Rahman of systems design engineering, is receiving a $1.2 million boost in federal funding. Abdel-Rahman leads a team working on a system of sensors that will detect, through hand movement on a steering wheel, whether a driver has any alcohol in his or her system.

Devon Rizzo, a second-year management engineering student, captured the women's title at the Canadian University/College Championship on June 1 at the Cordova Bay Golf Course in Victoria, B.C. Garrett Rank, a uWaterloo economics student, won the men's title. 

Both Waterloo Warriors won in thrilling fashion with Rizzo taking the title on the third playoff hole while Rank birdied four of his last six holes to win the championship by three strokes.

Kurtis McBride (BASc '04, MASc '08, SD) Miovision Technologies' CEO and co-founder, recently received the Peter Brodje Award for Canada's Next Generation of Executive Leadership. This award was presented by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance. Miovision, a leading provider of intelligent solutions for improving global traffic networks, was founded in 2005 by McBride along with Kevin Madill and Tony Brijpaul while all three were Waterloo Engineering students. 

Manoj Sachdev has been reappointed as chair of electrical and computer engineering and will begin serving his additional four-year term beginning July 1, 2012. "It will be a great pleasure to follow the department's continued growth and success under Manoj's continued leadership," said dean Adel Sedra in a memo announcing Sachev's second term as ECE's chair.   

Philip Beesley of Waterloo's School of Architecture was awarded $199,720 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for his research into near-living experimental architectural constructions featuring interactive physical movement, artificial intelligence, and chemical exchanges with the environment. Beesley is one of six University of Waterloo researchers to receive SSHRC funding announced May 25 by Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology.

Kaan Inal of mechanical and mechatronics engineering and Sheshakamal Jayaram of electrical and computer engineering will be able to take their research further thanks to the 2012 NSERC funding announced in Toronto May 23. The engineering professors were among 123 researchers throughout Canada who will receive $120,000 over the next three years through the Discovery Accelerator Supplement program. 

Waterloo Engineering's outreach operations manager Martin Scherer is among three University of Waterloo winners who will receive funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) 2011 PromoScience Program Competition, the results of which were announced on May 17. Scherer will receive $38,100 over three years for Engineering Science Quest's satellite programming.

The PromoScience program offers financial support for organizations working with young Canadians to promote an understanding of science and engineering.