Current graduate students

A team led by the faculties of Engineering and Environment successfully launched a space balloon on a recent trip to Sweden as part of the REXUS/BEXUS Programme, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA). The programme that allows institutions to conduct scientific and technological research using balloons and rockets.    

Jeswin Joeseph, a PhD candidate, won the Finalists’ Choice Award at the annual GRADflix competition, where students create a 60-second video to showcase their research to a general audience.   

Rotostitch, founded in 2025, is striving to make a sustainable impact on the apparel industry with garment construction. The company was co-founded by Waterloo Engineering alum Leah McClure (BASc ’24, mechanical engineering) and Anson Tsang.

Vena Medical, a company born out of a fourth-year Capstone Design project and now a Velocity Health company, just became one of the first recipients of Ontario’s new Life Sciences Scale-Up Fund (LSSUF). The LSSUF is part of the Government of Ontario’s larger efforts to support medical-based companies within the province. The fund’s goal is to help advance innovation and attract more interest and investment into the field.

Dr. Yimin Wu and PhD student Wei Wei, in mechanical and mechatronics engineering, are turning plastic waste into acetic acid, a main ingredient of vinegar, using sunlight as a natural resource.     

Kitchener-based health-technology company Vena Medical started as a fourth-year design project by Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper (both BASc ‘18, mechanical engineering) in Waterloo Engineering and has only continued to grow since then.

Toronto-based construction company, Brickeye, was founded in 2014 by Waterloo MME alumni Richard Liang (BASc ’12, MASc ’14), Hamid Alemohammad (PhD ’10), Amir Azhari (PhD ’17), and Alex Fuentes (BASc ’00).

Three mechatronics engineering graduates have been aiming big since graduation. Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, and Aaron Grant, who all graduated from mechatronics engineering at Waterloo in 2012, founded Thalmic Labs, a startup that was rooted in their Capstone Design project.

Two MME students have received the annual Paul-Niessen Teck Award, established in memory of distinguished professor Paul Niessen from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. The distinction is awarded to students who demonstrate leadership and skill in materials science and manufacturing within the department.  

The Art of Engineering and Architecture research photo contest 2025 had a wide range of beautiful entries all of which truly represented the heart of the contest, showcasing the beauty of their fields. Second-place, with a prize of $500, was taken by Mikhail Malmyguine, a graduate student in mechanical and mechatronics engineering.