News

Teams from Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering had great success at this year's 2024 Norman Esch Competition for Entrepreneurship Award for Capstone Design, presented by the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. Twelve of this year's Capstone Design teams pitched their innovative ideas to a team of industry leaders for their share of investment funding.   

After much deliberation and encouragement from the audience, keep reading to find out how MME teams fared in the pitch competition. 

On March 25th, we held our annual Mechatronics Engineering Fourth-Year Design Symposium Capstone event, and wow, there was a lot to see! Keep reading to check out some of this year’s projects. 

From cookie dough to accessibility innovations, there was certainly a lot to see at this year’s Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Symposium. On March 20th, students showed off their fourth-year design projects, and there was no shortage of the “wow factor.”

We had the chance to chat with some of the students to learn more about their inspiration for their projects and how certain classes in their Mechanical Engineering degrees helped them devise innovative solutions to problems around the world.

On Thursday, March 7th, the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering held a special event to honour the academic excellence of its students who were named to the prestigious Term Dean’s Honours List for spring and fall 2023.

Stefanie Burinsma, a Mechanical Engineering alumna (BASc' 15), has introduced a platform designed to empower women when it comes to car maintenance. The platform connects women needing vehicle repairs or advice with a network of trusted experts and educators to help reduce instances of fraud and discrimination.

While finishing up their undergraduate degrees, two Waterloo Engineering students, Michael Phillips and Phillip Cooper (BASc ’17, mechanical engineering), developed a tiny camera – just one-third of a millimetre in diameter, to diagnose stroke patients as part of their fourth-year design project. This invention also marked the founding of Vena Medical.

In a dazzling display of innovation at this year's Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, senior engineering teams from the Faculty of Engineering brought forth groundbreaking projects to compete for substantial funding to fuel their entrepreneurial dreams. Out of the ten formidable teams, two remarkable groups from the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (MME) stream notably clinched victory.

Dr. Jacqueline Noder recently completed a PhD in mechanical and mechatronics engineering. She previously did a master’s in engineering at Waterloo.

Noder’s research focuses on formability characterization and prediction with through-thickness strain and stress gradients. Her research interests extend to the practical application of sheet metal forming and machining.

A professor at Waterloo Engineering was recently honoured by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Germany in front of an audience of almost 2,000 people

Kaan Erkorkmaz, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering, was one of 11 top international researchers recognized as TUM Ambassadors on stage during an annual summer concert.

What some say could be the future of public transportation in Whitby has a top speed of 20 kilometres per hour. For safety reasons, that’s as fast as the new eight-seater driverless vehicle will be travelling when they start transporting their first passengers. The six-kilometer route, which the vehicle will follow, is said to be the longest AV circuit in Canada to date and will be in use within the next few weeks.