
The Materials Interface Foundry (MIF) is a lab in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering department, at the University of Waterloo. MIF focuses on research, design, and sustainable manufacturing of novel materials interfaces for energy, climate, and electronics.
MIF is most well-known for its groundbreaking work creating the first 'artificial leaf' that turns carbon into fuel which converts harmful carbon dioxide into useful alternative fuel.
MIF is interested in partnering with companies for the following research:
- Sustainable manufacturing for energy, climate, and environment
- Machine intelligence for sensing and computing

Renowned researcher, award-winning, patent-holding, scientist, and professor, Yimin A. Wu is the Principal Investigator and leader of the lab. Professor Wu’s research focuses on the design of new energy materials for solar fuels and batteries, and novel electronic, photonic, responsive materials for flexible electronics and soft robotics, and energy-efficient neuromorphic computing through a deep understanding of energy transduction processes at interfaces. Wu has authored and co-authored more than 60 peer-reviewed journal papers, which include Nature, Nature Energy (x2), Nature communications. Wu is also listed as an inventor on one US/international patent. Wu has delivered over 20 invited lectures across the world in the last five years. Read more about Yimin A. Wu
Find out more About Materials Interface Foundry (MIF)
Read more about our research:
If you are interested in sponsoring research please contact us directly.
The Materials Interface Foundry currently partners with the following companies, government, and organizations:











These examples are only several of our projects. There are many more types of opportunities and research. If you'd like to discuss partnering or sponsoring a research project in Materials Interface or would like more details please navigate to the Contact Us page to contact us directly.
News
Congratulations to the team who published on Nature communications
Congratulations to the team who published on Nature communications. Our work are highlighted by the Waterloo news, CBC news, BNN bloomberg. Please check out the below links.
https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/greenhouse-gas-green-energy
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/this-uwaterloo-professor-is-converting-carbon-dioxide-into-clean-fuels~2800257
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/university-waterloo-carbon-capture-clean-fuel-technology-yimin-wu-1.7018064
Congratulations to Tao Guo, who is the finalist of Alumni Gold Medal!
Congratulations to Tao Guo, who is the finalist of Alumni Gold Medal. He is the one of the six doctoral students across all departments at the University of Waterloo, who will receive this honor at 2023 convocation. The Alumni gold metals recognize top graduate students for outstanding academic achievements.
Congratulations to Yixuan Jiao, who will become the PhD student in MIT this Fall.
Congratulations to Yixuan Jiao, who won the PhD offers from MIT, Cambridge, Caltech, Cornell, Northwestern, UIUC, et al. He will become the PhD student in MIT this Fall. Yixuan published 4 papers for his research in our group.