News

A Waterloo Engineering research team is helping cancer survivors manage lymphedema with a smartphone-sized, portable compression sleeve that lets patients move freely during therapy.

Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Technologies, leads the Waterloo Microfluidics Laboratory (WML). Her team has engineered a soft-robotic compression sleeve to replace bulky, expensive clinical devices that hinder movement.

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering are leading an international team in the development of new technology to treat painful kidney stones in the urinary tract.

The technique features thin, flexible strips fitted with magnets, allowing them to be moved into position near uric acid kidney stones using a rotating magnet on the end of a robotic arm.

An interdisciplinary research team at the University of Waterloo is pioneering innovative methods to measure and mitigate harmful methane emissions.

Led by Dr. Kyle Daun, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, the team is using a hyperspectral camera, or “Hyper-Cam,” to measure methane emissions at a landfill site in the Waterloo Region. Landfills account for about 20% of Canada's methane emissions.

A research team of Waterloo Engineering graduate students is working on a range of health-tech applications from cancer diagnostics to wearable medical devices.  

Led by Dr. Carolyn Ren, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, the Waterloo Microfluidics Lab (WML) develops and supports commercialized research that aims to improve the delivery of health care, including compression therapy for medical and athletic use.

A Waterloo Engineering researcher is part of an international coalition revolutionizing health-care delivery by developing technology for fast, on-site vaccine production.

Dr. Valerie Ward, a chemical engineering professor, plays a critical role in the coalition —her research focuses on ensuring vaccine purity during the autonomous manufacturing process.  

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering led the discovery of an efficient new way to turn common bacteria into tiny factories pumping out powerful nanoparticles for a variety of biomedical uses.

Dr. Yilan Liu and her team engineered bacteria found in the human gut, or gastrointestinal tract, to dramatically increase the number of bubble-shaped nanoparticles they secrete.

University of Waterloo spin-off company CELLECT. is revolutionizing women’s health with a non-invasive disease screening method. This user-friendly alternative to Pap smears integrates nanotechnology with menstrual products to detect HPV and cervical cancer.

Founded in 2023 by CT Murphy (BASc '23, nanotechnology engineering & MASc in progress, chemical engineering), the company aims to empower women by making health care more inclusive and less intimidating.

 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.