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On a crowded urban street corner, a crush of people waits for a pedestrian crossing signal. Above them 20, 30, 60-story concrete and glass skyscrapers block out the sun. Cars made of steel, powered by gasoline, hurtle past. It’s enough to make anyone feel a little uneasy.

As a mental health occupational therapist, Waterloo PhD candidate in cognitive neuroscience Robin Mazumder saw first-hand how some of his clients seemed happier in certain built environments — and stressed out in others.

“The line that separates me now, an assistant professor at a university living an incredibly comfortable life, from a body on the beach is the thinnest line imaginable.”

VINH NGUYEN, professor of English, University of Waterloo

There’s a childhood family photo of Vinh Nguyen on his seventh birthday. The party table is loaded for a celebration with spring rolls, fried noodles, jelly and raisins — but Nguyen is not smiling.

For almost 170 years, searchers have been finding poignant remnants of Sir John Franklin’s lost crew strewn across Canada’s Arctic. Robert Park, a professor of anthropology in Waterloo’s Faculty of Arts, has spent years trekking the tundra, helping to find hundreds of Franklin objects, including buttons, buckshot and bones.

For engineers across Canada, the Iron Ring is more than a piece of jewelry — it’s a symbol of responsibility, integrity and pride. Now in its 100th year, the Iron Ring ceremony is an important rite of passage for University of Waterloo Engineering graduates, reminding them of their duty to do good work that serves society. 

The University of Waterloo is teaming up with Windmill Microlending, a national charity dedicated to supporting skilled immigrants and refugees, to help newcomers successfully integrate into Canada’s workforce.  

This partnership is designed to close the gap between skilled newcomers and the Canadian job market. Through financial support and tailored educational opportunities, it provides the resources needed to unlock the potential of this diverse population.  

Over the past decade, sustainable investing has exponentially grown in its global impact and popularity. This emerging trend led University of Waterloo researchers to investigate how green labels influence investment decisions.

Waterloo researchers, students and alumni tackle challenges through cross-disciplinary collaboration, developing creative solutions with global impact.

You’re familiar with Waterloo’s iconic inventions like BlackBerry and OpenText, and those mentioned in our 10 inventions you didn’t know came from Waterloo — but you spoke, and we listened. Our readers helped us uncover even more groundbreaking innovations from this vibrant community that continue to shape industries worldwide.

Home to the largest  Faculty of Environment in Canada, Waterloo has catalyzed environmental innovation, solutions and talent for 50 years.  

For many years, our researchers have been responding to the climate crisis with purpose-driven research and sustainable technologies to help design policies that will protect our environment and support a sustainable future.  

Interop Labs, the initial developer of the Axelar Web3 interoperability network, announced today a $1 million USD donation to grow the Computer Research Endowment at the University of Waterloo. This generous contribution will support the creation of an AI and blockchain research laboratory at the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, the largest and top-ranked academic computer science research centre in Canada. The laboratory will be named the GENESIS Lab, standing for Generative AI for Secure, Interconnected Systems.