Students in a research-based master’s or doctoral program will work with a faculty supervisor through their degree. Visit our Engineering Research and Supervisors page to find resources to help you learn more about finding the right supervisor for your graduate program and how to contact them.
Research Areas and Themes
Several research initiatives in the Fluid Mechanics and Fire Behavior Group focus on experimental and analytical investigation into a broad class of fluid mechanics problems.
Current projects underway relate to measurements and modeling of complex turbulent shear flows, environmental flows and reacting turbulent flows. The detailed physics of these flows is studied using a combination of advanced experimental techniques and computational fluid dynamics.
Professor Elizabeth Weckman, and Professor C. Devaud study Fire Research and Safety in the state-of-the-art Fire Facility Labs at the University of Waterloo. Professors Li, Dongging and Carolyn Ren conduct advanced research in microfluidics and are actively involved with research in engineering. Professor F-S Lien’s research involves Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and turbulence models for 3D flows.
This research group focuses on developing techniques for the design, analysis and simulation of machines, mobile structures and pressure vessels. The group is active in the areas of pressure vessels for both low and high pressures, plastic gearing, nuclear components and piping, mechanisms and mechanics, dynamic machinery, and design using computer graphics. Fundamental work is carried out in plasticity theory and its application to bifurcation problems in manufacturing.
The group is also involved in basic research in kinematics, dynamics and control of flexible robot arms, and in Tribology - the study of friction, lubrication and wear. Extensive laboratory simulations, testing and non-destructive inspection are used to study failure modes and design improvements. These studies are supported by the development of analysis techniques in computer aided design, simulation techniques, finite element methods, failure analysis, plasticity, and continuum mechanics.
The Automation and Controls Group in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering of the University of Waterloo consists of 13 dedicated faculty members with a wide range of academic and industrial research experience.
The advanced research in fundamental and emerging areas of mechanical and mechatronics engineering has allowed our professors to secure tens of millions of dollars in Provincial and Federal funding due to their research impact and excellence.
The group conducts analytical, computational, and experimental research on a wide range of problems involving thermodynamics, heat and mass transfer and fluid flow that are of fundamental and practical importance.
Professor X Li is the Editor of the International Journal of Green Energy and his research focuses on design of Fuel Cells. Professors M. R. Collins and R. Fraser are actively involved in research activities in Solar Thermal Engineering, and Green Energy Sources, respectively. Visit the Waterloo Institute of Sustainable Energy for additional Information.
Materials Engineering and Processing Group in the department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering of the University of Waterloo consists of faculty members with a wide range of academic and industrial research experience.