News

Carolyn Ren, a Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology member and professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, has been named among the top 100 most powerful women by the Women’s Executive Network. Professor Ren is honoured in the annual ranking's Manulife Science and Technology category, which recognizes women in STEM roles who are challenging the status quo for knowledge and female empowerment. 

Despite breakthrough diabetes research over the past century, people with diabetes still need to rely on obtaining blood samples to monitor their sugar levels. Daily glucose monitoring by tracking blood sugar levels is essential for managing both types 1 and 2 diabetes, however the current method – finger pricking – is invasive and can become burdensome with how often it needs to be done.

A startup company with deep roots at the University of Waterloo won the top prize in a pitch contest focused on the use of nanomaterials to create or improve commercial products.

AquaSensing, which designs battery-free water leak detection systems for healthcare and industrial applications, took home $10,000, plus a spot in a virtual incubator, in the Nanomaterials Virtual Pitch Contest staged by not-for-profit NanoOntario and CMC Microsystems, a not-for-profit managing Canada’s National Design Network®.

SLE Enterprises B. V., a new Dutch start-up, has been created based on the breakthrough technology of scalable liquid encapsulation (SLE). This start-up was created with assistance from Brainport Eindhoven's innovative ecosystem. Located in Southeast Brabant in the Netherlands, Brainport Eindhoven consists of high-tech manufacturing industry, an extraordinary design sector, and a unique cooperative model.

A researcher at Waterloo Engineering has been awarded $800,000 in federal funding to develop compostable personal protective equipment (PPE) and antimicrobial coatings to help fight COVID-19.

Three WIN members have been named fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and members of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

They are among 93 new fellows elected by their peers for outstanding scholarly, scientific, and artistic achievement and 46 new members of the College across Canada announced today.

Waterloo’s new RSC fellows and members are:

Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering have created a new material that can go from a soft gel to a hard solid and back again at the same temperature.

The switchability of the material - a combination of supercooled melted salt and polymers that the researchers call sal-gel - means it has two stable and reversible solid states for potential use in a range of technologies including soft robotics, adhesion and adhesives, and aeronautics.

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering have dramatically improved the durability of fuel cells, paving the way for the clean technology to replace gasoline engines in vehicles.

Making fuel cells last at least 10 times longer means they could be simplified and produced at a far lower cost. If mass-produced, that would make them economically practical to power cars and trucks.

Department of Chemistry Professor and WIN member Pavle Radovanovic is one of six University of Waterloo researchers who are receiving a total of $3.8 million to collaborate with Canadian-based companies and government organizations on strategic research projects.

Three professors at Waterloo Engineering have been awarded a total of almost $1.9 million in funding to collaborate with Canadian-based companies and government organizations on strategic research projects.