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Nanotechnology engineering students Edward Hong and Micahel Ali were part of an interdisciplinary research group that has created a new tissue‑like hydrogel that can act as "muscles" for soft robotics.

The project was led by PhD candidate Negin Bouzari. Her supervisor, Hamed Shahsavan, a chemical engineering professor hired four undergraduate co-op students to assist Bouzari in her research. The team included Melanie Bouzanne, Nrushanth Suthaharan, Ali and Hong. Their collaboration embodies Waterloo’s mission to involve undergraduates directly in high‑impact, interdisciplinary research.

Shahsavan calls the work a powerful example of what students can accomplish when they’re trusted with ambitious challenges.

“Complex problems rarely fit inside one discipline. Interdisciplinary research brings complementary tools and viewpoints together, leading to creative, high-impact solutions,” says Hong. “Beyond innovation, working across disciplines improves communication skills and adaptability; abilities that are invaluable in both industry and academia.”

A nanotechnology engineering team won first place at the Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) in Ottawa for their Capstone Project called IISense. The team designed a prototype to monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD).

The competition was fierce at the OEC which was held in Ottawa this year. Teammates Flora Wu, San Basnet, and Divhleen Ruprai entered the innovative design category at the event.

“The best part of OEC was that for the innovative design competition, we had to do a public opening. We displayed our poster and prototype, and people approached us and asked questions about our project. It was really cool to hear people’s perspectives on our product.” says Ruprai.  “They provided feedback on things that we had not considered, which could improve our project to make it easier to use and accessible to different groups of people that we weren't aware of before.”

CKD is a silent disease that can have no obvious symptoms until a late stage and lead to the need for dialysis or, in some cases a kidney transplant. It can be more prevalent in people who have pre-existing health issues like diabetes or hypertension.

Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Group 22 placed second for their Capstone Design Project titled Detecting Mutations in Genes: A Microfluidic Lab-on-a-Chip Solution.

The group designed a benchtop microfluidic device which detects DNA mutations. DNA mutation detection can be used to tailor cancer treatments, identify genetic disorders like cystic fibrosis, prenatal testing and more.

 DNA mutation detection is a time-consuming process. It takes between four to six hours to get the results from the current process of testing. The device designed by group members Gabriel Ghrayeb, Declan Gunning, Cyrus Hatami, and Alek Kechichian takes a small DNA sample and can process and produce results quickly and with minimal manual intervention.

“Our device works with and can be tuned for any DNA segment of interest, whether you're working in genetic engineering and you want to check if you have successfully caused or edited a gene mutation, or in genetic screening where we want to check if a person's genetic code has a mutation that might make them at higher risk for breast cancer or some other condition down the line,” says Kechichian.

Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Group 7 took first place for their Capstone Design Project VitEx, that reimagines hospital emergency room triage through a new approach in wearable nanotechnology.

The group created a wristband for use in hospital emergency rooms embedded with sensors to enable continuous monitoring of the patients’ vitals.

The wrist band uses a sweat-based enzymatic sensor to continuously measure patients’ glucose levels and heart rate. When a voltage is applied to the glucose sensor, glucose is oxidized and then that produces a measurable current that can be measured using an electrode.

The heart rate sensor is a pressure-based sensor that uses piezoelectric PVDF as the sensing layer with the addition of zinc oxide nanorods underneath to increase the overall sensitivity. 

A research team led by Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) instructor Professor  Hamed Shahsavan has developed a new process to reinforce smart, rubber-like materials—paving the way for their use as artificial muscles in robots, potentially replacing traditional rigid motors and pumps.

The research group incorporated liquid crystals (LCs)—commonly used in electronic displays and sensors—into liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), which serve as promising materials for constructing soft robots.

The LCEs go through a huge shape-change when heated, in a programmable manner. When a small amount of LCs are mixed with LCEs, they become stiffer and up to nine times stronger than before.

Capstone group 4, Vivra sponsored by BDO Canada, won the second place award for the Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) Program.  

Their project, supervised by Professor John Saad, was directed at solving the problem of chronic dehydration. For their Capstone Project, the group was eager to showcase the diverse skills they had attained through both their coursework and co-op experiences. 

Team members Michael Hanley, Tina Hanna, Mathew Maradin and Wyatt Sullivan researched the problem of dehydration in North America and found a study that indicated 75% of people are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to a myriad of health problems, including electrolyte imbalances, migraines, urinary and kidney problems and more. 

Nanotechnology Engineering alumna CT Murphy’s start-up CELLECT Laboratories is a finalist in the Odlum Brown Forum Pitch, a Canadian program for women entrepreneurs.

Murphy’s partner and COO, Ibukun Elebute presented at the event and secured $44K in winnings for CELLECT.

The initial idea for the menstrual product was part of Murphy’s fourth-year Capstone Project. She aims to create a menstrual pad infused with nanomaterials that could collect cervical and bacterial cells. The pad could then be sent to a lab to test for cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV).

People say that tears can tell you about the emotions that people are feeling, but as Capstone Group 5 discovered, tears can also reveal a lot of other useful information.

Tears also contain rich biomarkers such as proteins and glucose, which are useful for diagnosing both ocular and systemic conditions like diabetic retinopathy.

Nanotechnology Engineering Capstone Group 5 explored the diagnostic potential of tears and embarked on a successful and exciting journey doing their Fourth-Year Design Project.

They won first place in the Nanotechnology Engineering Program, but they did not stop there. They also won the Engineer of the Future Award, the Bayliss Medical Award, and an award from the Sanford Fleming Foundation.

The group competed in the OEC Innovative Design Competition and won second place. They also took second place in the National Canadian Engineering Competition.

Drew Davidson (Class of 2011) is developing innovative materials for creating firefighting gear. These new materials will not degrade and cause occupational cancer as current materials do. The inspiration behind his research is his mother, who has been serving as a firefighter in the Cambridge Fire Department for over 32 years. She urged him to use his engineering background to address this crucial health issue for firefighters.

Davidson’s innovative research has earned him a Deep Tech Scholarship which is a new scholarship, the first of its kind, recently launched by Mary Wells, Dean of the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering. The scholarship is designed to help students launch deep tech start-ups.

As a high school student, Davidson had decided to pursue an undergraduate degree in Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) because seemed like a promising and exciting field.

Nanotechnology Engineering Team 18 won this year’s Esch Competition with their project GeneDetek. Team members Karla Castro, Andrea Parra, Sara Thompson, and Nube Torres developed an electrochemical biosensor for genetic mutation detection.

Depression is a complex mental health condition that affects millions worldwide. For many patients, finding an effective treatment can be a daunting challenge, often complicated by adverse side effects of prescription drugs.