News

Retired Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor John Shortreed passed away on April 15. Dr. Shortreed joined the University of Waterloo in 1965 as an assistant professor in the Civil Engineering department. He was named associate professor in 1969 and full professor in 1977.

His areas of research included transportation, freeway simulation, risk analysis and assessment, the movement of hazardous goods, and urban transit. He joined the University's transport research group and helped launch the UWaterloo-based Institute for Risk Research.

Waterloo Engineering is mourning the loss of Dr. Sinnathamby Thambithurai (S.T.) Ariaratnam, one of the earliest members of the Department of Civil Engineering. He passed away on April 2, 2026. He was 92.

Ariaratnam joined the University of Waterloo in September 1962, recruited as one of the institution's first engineering professors when it was only a few years old. He taught in the department for nearly four decades until his retirement in 2001, and was named Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2002.

Fourth-year civil engineering student Thomas Fulton completed his last co-op work term at Caivan, the Ontario-based real estate developer and founder of the Future Cities Institute (FCI) at Waterloo.

As part of Caivan’s land development team, Fulton applied his engineering and technology skills to support purpose-built housing solutions amid Canada’s ongoing affordability challenges.

Waterloo Engineering is mourning the loss of Professor Emeritus Bruce Hutchinson, a respected teacher and early builder of the Faculty’s civil engineering program. Hutchinson passed away on December 23, 2025, at the age of 91.

Born in Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia, Prof. Hutchinson grew up in a family that prized work ethic, ambition and adventure. He graduated from Canterbury Boys’ High School and earned his civil engineering degree from the University of Sydney in 1956. 

Two students have been recognized nationally for their leadership, service and character as recipients of one of Canada’s most prestigious undergraduate awards.

First-year students Edna Nortey and Aishwarya Tandon were named 2025 Loran Scholars, an honour granted annually to just 36 individuals from thousands of applicants across the country. 

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. 

A Waterloo Engineering research team is using augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) to better understand — and maintain — the condition of Canada's critical infrastructure. 

Dr. Chul Min Yeum, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his colleagues have developed a system called the Smart Infrastructure Metaverse that uses AR/VR to allow on-site and off-site inspectors to interact in real-time as they view the real structure and a 3D scanned replica model simultaneously.