Kitchener-Waterloo software startup IntelliCulture has certainly been putting the pedal to the metal over the last few years. They’ve been pushing their expansion to the United States after seeing much success in Canada.
Artemis Data, co-founded by William Shi (BASc ’23, mechatronics engineering), has raised 2 million in pre-seed funding to make data cleaning 50 times faster than traditional methods.
Professor Michael Worswick received the Market Development Industry Leadership Award from the American Iron and Steel Institute at their Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., for making significant contributions to the competitive use of advanced and ultra-high-strength steel in the automotive market.
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.
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