News

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering are using artificial intelligence (AI), data science and advanced mathematics to help save lives by predicting how fires behave in modern homes.

The new system tackles a growing challenge for fire researchers: modern furniture materials and increasingly airtight, energy-efficient homes can cause fires to behave differently than they did in the past. 

The Tang Family Foundation, a charitable fund within the Philantra Foundation, has invested $500,000 in the University of Waterloo’s Data and Artificial Intelligence Institute (Waterloo.AI) to support graduate research in embodied artificial intelligence (AI) through student scholarships.

The inaugural recipients, eight students from the faculties of Engineering and Math, have received $15,000 each to help them focus on their work in embodied intelligence — AI that senses and acts in real environments.

New insights into how chemical additives can dramatically improve water mist fire suppression have earned a University of Waterloo researcher one of the highest honours in combustion science.

Dr. Vinny Gupta, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and director of Waterloo's Fire Research Laboratory, received the Silver Combustion Medal from The Combustion Institute for research that reveals how chemically enhanced water mist systems suppress large turbulent fires more effectively than water alone.

An autonomous aircraft company co-founded by an alumnus of Waterloo Engineering has grown from modest beginnings to the point where it has contracts and repeat sales with multiple agencies of the Canadian government.

Waterloo-based Ribbit, whose chief operating officer is alum Dr. Jeremy Wang (PhD ’23, mechanical and mechatronics engineering), is on a mission to bring efficient, reliable transportation to the world’s most remote locations.

Dr. Mary Wells, the dean of Waterloo Engineering, argued in a recent opinion piece published by The Hill Times that Canada should make its mark in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution by producing leaders who understand the importance of responsibly embedding trust in the technology.

“For the past decade, Canada has rightly celebrated its role in inventing modern artificial intelligence (AI),” she wrote. “Canadian researchers helped lay the scientific foundations for today’s AI revolution, and those investments continue to pay dividends.

Simantic, a hardware simulation startup founded by two Waterloo Engineering students, has raised roughly $600,000 USD and won spots in both the Velocity incubator and Y Combinator's Fall 2026 cohort.

Seungmin Hong (BASc '26) launched Simantic in 2025 with Ahnaf Shahriar (BASc in progress) joining as a co-founder in 2026. The company builds simulation technology that lets engineers and AI systems build, test and validate firmware in virtual environments before physical hardware exists.

Five companies co-founded by alumni of Waterloo Engineering have made a list of the top education technology companies in the world.

The list was published by Time Magazine based on a statistical analysis of thousands of companies in terms of their financial performance and industry impact.

A graduate student at Waterloo Engineering is helping property owners, municipalities, engineers, planners, insurers and developers better understand climate-related risks so they can make informed decisions early in the development process.

Hasti Shwan, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering as well as a fellow in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program, created a platform called GeoSafe after identifying a need to pull together and simplify available information.

A researcher at Waterloo Engineering is working to better understand how fires can start and spread when lithium-ion batteries fail, a critical problem as the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution drives the proliferation of power-hungry data centres.

Dr. Vinny Gupta, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, works in conjunction with fellow engineering professors including Dr. Michael Pope and Dr. Kyle Daun at the Fire Research Facility on campus.

Two professors from Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business have received federal funding to support new research into global business and innovation.  

Dr. Victor Cui and Dr. Felix Arndt are among 37 University of Waterloo researchers who received more than $8 million in new funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), announced in a media release earlier this week.