News

Every year staff and faculty of the Faculty of Engineering here at the University of Waterloo gather for the engineering award lunch. The Faculty of Engineering hosts this lunch as an opportunity for celebrating staff and faculty for their amazing work in research, teaching, and service, building the faculty into the wonderful place to work and learn it is.

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.     

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.

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.

An MME alumnus of mechatronics engineering who is building a career in national defence and avionics has won a $50,000 scholarship to further pursue her graduate studies.  

The Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering recently unveiled its first welding lab, making it a first for the University of Waterloo.