News

Congratulations to NE alumnus Moin Ahmed (NE Class of ’16) whose team, Membio, won $25,000 in equity-free financing at the Velocity Fund Finals in November. Moin Ahmed, who went on to earn his Master’s of Chemical Engineering at UWaterloo, and Shane Kilpatrick, who recently earned his Master’s of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology at UWaterloo, formed Membio to develop their scalable biological manufacturing platform.

Farnaz Niroui, (NE Class of 2010) has accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Working from her office in the new MIT.nano facilities, she will focus part of her research on developing new nanotechnology-related tools and techniques. Farnaz begins her new job in January 2019.

When Bogdan Constantinescu, now a fourth-year Nanotechnology Engineering student, scored a co-op job at a local laboratory equipment manufacturer, he was thrilled to have an opportunity to put his nanotechnology skills to work. The work term was especially interesting because Angstrom Engineering creates machinery and applications that nanotechnology researchers around the world use to innovate new technologies.

Congratulations to second-year Nanotechnology Engineering student Ryan Gallagher for his win at the Norman Esch Enterprise Co-op Awards in September. He is one of two engineering students to win a coveted $5,000 scholarship at the fall 2018 term’s Ignition Week pitch competition. 

On Saturday, November 10, 2018, the Mike and Opelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre will host the fourth annual Waterloo Nanotechnology Conference (WNC).

Some diligent students have been recognized for their outstanding achievement in recent terms by their inclusion on the Term Dean’s Honours List for the Nanotechnology Engineering program.

Congratulations to Nanotechnology Engineering’s Aurora Torrijos and Environmental Engineering’s Dana Shahry whose team, Nebula, won $5,000 in seed money at the 22nd Velocity Fund Finals in July. Their prize includes an offer to live in Velocity Residence, an innovative and entrepreneurial environment where students have access to the latest technologies and the opportunity to learn from a network of mentors and entrepreneurs.

With Nebula, third-year students Torrijos and Shahry are developing systems to provide clean drinking water through fog harvesting.

The Waterloo Engineering Endowment Foundation (WEEF) has been a long-time, strong supporter of the Nanotechnology Engineering program. It continued that support in the Spring 2018 term with a very generous and appreciated contribution towards hardware that will provide NE students with more state-of-the-art equipment and opportunities to develop their knowledge of the nanoscale world.

WEEF contributed $37,828 towards the purchase of the following equipment for the Nanotechnology Engineering undergraduate student labs:

At the Nanotechnology Engineering Capstone Design Symposium on March 16, 2018, a panel of judges bestowed awards on three teams of NE students for their demonstration of excellence in innovation, prototype development and potential for successful implementation, as well as their ability to communicate the technical aspects of their project. This year’s award winners are on their way towards improving the way marijuana impairment is measured, disease is detected, and pipeline leaks are identified.

Nanotechnology Engineering alumna Nicole Weckman (BASc ’11) is making her mark in England, where she conducted her PhD research to develop innovative new biosensors based on micro fabricated silicon MEMS at the University of Cambridge. She was recently honoured by the BrightSparks 2018, Design Engineers of Tomorrow program, which is run in partnership by Electronics Weekly and RS Components, with support from Harting and the Institute of Engineering and Technology.