News

Alumni startups represented the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering well in the most recent round of companies that received seed funding from being part of Y Combinator (YC), one of the most prestigious startup accelerators in the world. Every year, YC hosts a program that is split into two cohorts in the winter and spring. The successful candidates receive $500,000 in seed funding along with other resources to help startups on their journey. The program is highly competitive, with only 260 companies selected out of 27,000 in the latest cohort. 

Nfinite, a nanotechnology startup led by MME alums Chee Hau Teoh (MASc '20), Jhi Yong Loke (MASc '21), and MME professor Dr. Kevin Musselman, have developed an ultra-thin, flexible, clear, and sustainable alternative for food packaging that can be recycled. Current food packaging is not very recyclable. Nfinite Nanotech is using its funding round to commercialize a new coating for cardboard and paper to help provide a sustainable alternative to current food packaging that can’t be recycled or composted. 

Team Collaborative Deliciousness, led by Dr. Yue Hu and composed of team members Jeffery Lee (MASc in progress, mechatronics) and Cheng Tang, an undergraduate student in computer engineering, was selected as one of three finalists in the prestigious international competition for the KUKA Innovation Award at Hannover Messe, one of the world's largest industrial trade fairs. This year's theme was "Robots for the People."   

Three students, including a master’s student from mechatronics engineering, have been awarded $17,000 after winning ClimateHack.AI, an international competition that focuses on machine learning in climate solutions.   

Forcen, a robotics sensing company, has received Pre-A $8.5-million funding round as it scales operations for its prototype production facility to support more customers and to continue developing its research and development for its force sensing technology for robots. 

An inCiTe™ 3D X-ray microscope at the University of Waterloo will support one in eight Canadians who experience bone and joint dysfunction with the disease, and this research is being led by Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering professors Dr. Stewart McLachlin and Dr. Naveen Chandrashekar in the Orthopaedic Mechatronics Laboratory to improve surgical treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.    

Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering grads Nima Zamani (BASc '14, MASc' 16) and Dr. Tim Lasswell (BASc '14, MASc '17) introduced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Honourable Marci Ien and the Honourable Dan Vandal to Codi™️, an AI-powered robotics system can perform ultrasounds. The team met the officials at Saskatoon's Virtual Health Hub, and the hub will receive $21 million to develop, adopt, and deliver health care services to remote communities, of which the startup that invented the robot, Cobionix, will have its share.  

The startup builds autonomous medical robots that can make health care more accessible, and is based out of Velocity in downtown Kitchener.  

The company aims to offer fully autonomous ultrasounds, where the robot will undertake all parts of the ultrasound procedure without the need for technician supervision across the prairies and eventually across North America.  

Get the full story in Velocity News.  

Congratulations to Dr. Carol Hulls, Associate Chair, Teaching and Continuing Lecturer in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department, on receiving the Distinguished Teacher Award for 2024! 

Any student who has taken a class with Carol knows that she cultivates a joyful learning environment. 

Thank you, Carol, for inspiring our students! The Centre for Teaching Excellence has the full story.

Congratulations to alum Martin Basiri (MASc ‘13, mechanical and mechatronics engineering), who has been named on Maclean’s 2024 Power List in Tech as CEO and founder of Passage and Co-Founder and former CEO of ApplyBoard. 

We're pleased to announce that one of our very own PhD candidates, Shadab Sarmast has been awarded the prestigious CWB Welding Foundation Graduate Scholarship for Women. This scholarship is awarded to women who have demonstrated interest and research in pursuing a career in materials joining and the applied technology services industry. She is supervised by Dr. Norman Zhou and Dr. Michael Benoit in the Centre for Advanced Materials Joining (CAMJ). We caught up with Shadab to learn more about her journey, research interests, and what this award means to her.