Faculty

The Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) is pleased to present a Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Shuk Han CHENG, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong

Please join us on Thursday, July 10 at 2:00 p.m. to hear Prof. CHENG's lecture titled "Curiosity-Driven Research on Nanomaterials Led to Unexpected Societal Impact."

Where: QNC 1501 When: Thursday, July 10, 2025 | 2:00 p.m. - 3 p.m.

In this online presentation, Courtney Wilson, MScFN RD (she/her) will dive into all things nutrition, menstruation, and hormones. We will look at how the phases of the menstrual cycle can impact physical symptoms, intake patterns, and nutrient needs and chat about strategies to support these needs. There will be time for a Q&A to ensure all your burning questions are answered.

Back by popular demand! Discover the connection between menstruation and mental health with host Thara Thakidiyil from Counselling Services. We will delve into the impact of gender, disability, and socio-economic status on one’s menstrual experience and the effect it can have on mental health. You will be introduced to eye-opening insights on this important aspect of menstrual equity, and there will be time for a Q&A.

In honour of Pride Month and our ongoing commitment to care, healing, and solidarity, you’re invited to a special two-part community experience on Wednesday, June 25, 2025:

New Beginnings: Pride Month Community Gathering

Hosted by: Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism (EDI-R)

Time: 12:30–1:00 PM (or while supplies last)

Location: Arts Quad (outside Dana Porter Library)

Start the afternoon with a gentle moment of reflection and hope. Pick up a free seedling — a living symbol of resilience and growth — and set an intention for a safer, more inclusive campus.

Pride Month Community Panel: Conditional Acceptance

Hosted by: University of Waterloo Library

Time: 1:00–2:30 PM

Location: Dana Porter Library, Learning Lab

Then, join us inside for an honest, meaningful panel discussion exploring the theme of Conditional Acceptance. Hear from students, staff, and faculty as they share real stories about navigating inclusion, and belonging on our campus.

All are welcome. Come for the Gathering, stay for the Panel — or join whichever feels right for you. Together, let’s honour the past, care for the present, and imagine an inclusive future.

Why do we avoid difficult conversations—and what happens when we don't? Many people avoid conversations about race, identity, harm, and systemic inequity—not because they don’t care, but because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing, causing discomfort, or facing backlash. Yet real progress can’t happen if we can’t talk honestly. Join the Office of EDI-R for our latest Table Talk Session designed to help individuals and teams move beyond silence and into meaningful dialogue.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Why difficult conversations feel risky and why we avoid them
• How power and positionality shape whose voices are heard
• The difference between intent and impact
• Tangible strategies to stay grounded, present, and equity-centered in real time

Whether you're leading a team or a staff member on a team, this session equips you with the language, posture, and courage to speak truth with care and to lead dialogue that transforms, not just informs

As we meet this moment of social and ecological systemic unraveling, artificial intelligence stands as both a mirror and a symptom of modernity’s habits: control, mastery, and separation. This talk invites a different question: what is AI revealing about us, and what is collapsing through that revelation?

Drawing on decades of work in educational, decolonial, and post-representational relational inquiry, Vanessa Andreotti explores how Large Language Models (LLMs), when engaged from within an ontological shift (from epistemic regression to relational inference), rather than the logic of optimization, can become something else: a co-witness to social, ecological, and psychological destabilization, and a speculative co-weaver of life-affirming and Earth-aligned relationalities.

Canada is at a crossroads facing simultaneous crises in climate resilience, economic productivity, housing affordability and institutional effectiveness. Join Rik Logtenberg, Dirdctor of CanAdapt for an inspiring talk and interactive workshop demonstrating how complexity science, AI, and community-led systems thinking can accelerate CAnada's transition.

The participants of the Shad Waterloo high school enrichment program are holding a public open house to share highlights of their experiences, including creative ideas they have come up with to tackle this year’s design project theme.

Shad is a STEAM summer enrichment experience for high school students from across Canada (and around the world!). During Shad, students develop skills such as understanding and solving problems, communicating effectively, thinking critically, and collaborating within teams through hands-on projects.

To learn more about the Shad program, please visit the Shad Canada website: https://www.shad.ca/

The CareNext Collective is hosting a virtual event that shines a spotlight on the PREVENT Clinic – a pioneering initiative that challenges traditional care pathways and demonstrates what happens when practitioners coordinate across silos and intervene earlier to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Learn from the visionary team at Waterloo Regional Health Network (WRHN) who brought the clinic to life, including practitioners, partners and the patients whose lives have been positively impacted by this preventative approach to care.

The CareNext Collective is virtual forum facilitated by the CareNext Coalition, a unique partnership between the University of Waterloo and the Waterloo Regional Health Network. The coalition is committed to bringing together clinicians, researchers and entrepreneurs to create more innovative and integrated heath care systems.

Join Velocity for an evening session to hear from a founder about their experience launching a company as a student from the University of Waterloo. There will be lots of time for questions so come prepared!

Tim Lichti, Co-Founder & CEO

Tim is a Co-Founder & CEO of Swap Robotics, a Kitchener-Waterloo based company that is the category creator of a solar robotics platform. The Economist magazine predicts that solar will become the world's #1 electricity source by the 2030's & #1 energy source overall by the 2040's. Meanwhile, VC's are saying the biggest bottleneck to AI & prosperity over the next 10 years is the ability to add new electricity to the grid quickly. Swap is speeding the transition to clean, domestic energy through its solar robotics platform, which enables utility-scale solar sites to be built & maintained faster, cheaper & more reliably. Use-cases include robotic materials staging on solar sites, robotic panel laying & robotic vegetation management. Swap Robotics has raised over $20 million CAD in venture capital to-date, mostly from several of the biggest players in the solar industry who understand Swap's technology lead in the space. Tim has built four businesses from $0 to at least six figures of revenue each & been named one of The Globe & Mail's Top 12 Innovators at Work.