University of Waterloo Alternative Fuels Team (UWAFT), a mechanical and mechatronics-focused team, has been selected from among 20 universities across North America and is one of two Canadian universities to compete in the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge on the Stellantis track.
Capstone team Project Sisyphus designed and built an engine that uses regenerative cooling, circulating fuel through built-in channels to prevent the chamber from melting. The 3D-printed copper parts made through additive manufacturing also help with this.
For over three decades, co-op students like Smita Basak have helped drive innovation at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada.
Every year, students across engineering, including those in MME, culminate their program with a Capstone Design project to develop innovative ideas to advance an area of interest. Students also have the opportunity to take part in the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, open to a broad audience, with the chance to win their share of $100,000 in prize money.
Cristiano Da Silva, a current mechanical engineering undergraduate, was part of the group Dreaming Objects, which won $50,000 at HARD MODE, an invite-only hardware and artificial intelligence hackathon hosted by the MIT Media Lab.
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.
Co-founded by mechatronics alum, Sam Dugan (BASc ‘22), Upside Robotics is transforming agriculture through sustainable automation. The company has invented robots that apply fertilizers precisely where crops need them and allow farmers to monitor fields and track crop health, remotely and efficiently.
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.