Future students

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space mission, which involves collaboration with researchers from the University of Waterloo, has released five new portraits of the universe. These never-before-seen images showcase Euclid’s ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos, enabling scientists to hunt for rogue planets, using lensed galaxies to study mysterious matter and explore the evolution of the universe.

With Canada in need of airplane pilots, University of Waterloo researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help more of them take flight.

Supported by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), experts at the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) are enlisting a host of new technologies to train more licensed pilots in less time, for less money and in a more environmentally friendly way.

Nfinite Nanotech has raised $6.5 million USD in seed funding to scale its nanomaterial product: a coating for sustainable and biodegradable food packaging that will help divert plastic waste from landfills. The University of Waterloo startup is developing an ultrathin and high-performance material for consumer-packaged goods, like granola bar wraps and potato chip bags, that keeps them fresh longer without the use of excessive non-biodegradable plastic packaging.

On May 11, University of Waterloo students were invited to participate in the GOODHack24 challenge held at Communitech in downtown Kitchener. The hackathon challenge offered a space for students to brainstorm, explore and develop innovative solutions at the intersection of open data, technology and local sustainable resources to support affected communities experiencing heat inequity.  

GOODHack24 was co-hosted by the City of Kitchener, Go Open Data (GOOD) and GreenHouse, a social incubator at United College. 

In collaboration with the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the University of Waterloo convened a dialogue on May 14, with academic and industry experts at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), addressing the misinformation and disinformation crisis facing liberal democracies worldwide. The event delved into the escalating threat of disinformation and its profound implications for the future of democratic governance.

The Inter-Institutional Forum Scarborough Charter 2024 took place May 9 and 10 — bringing together scholars, leaders and advocates from signatories of the Scarborough Charter on anti-Black racism and Black inclusion for a dialogue on Black experiences, challenges and achievements within higher education.

Hosted jointly by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, this two-day event was an amiable and energetic gathering of intellect, activism and community building.

The University of Waterloo is well represented in the most recent cohort of companies accepted into the Y Combinator (YC), one of the biggest and most prestigious startup accelerators in the world.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater surveillance became a powerful strategy for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 levels in the population and predicting the emergence of new variants. Now, as we move into the next levels of surveillance, University of Waterloo scientists Dr. Trevor Charles and Dr. Andrew Doxey have been granted $1.57M in research funds to fulfill their part of a larger multi-institute team looking to change the game in wastewater analysis.

“It won’t get any bigger than this,” says River Stanley, a fourth-year University of Waterloo student in the Computer Science program, as they reminisce about the story they uncovered with three fellow undergraduates that would go on to make national and international headlines. 

The mission of FIRST Robotics Canada is to promote robotics alongside science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects to Canadian youth. To do this FIRST organizes robotics competitions for students from elementary to high school. Students design, build and program robots to compete in a variety of fun challenges, from shooting balls into hoops to stacking boxes. FIRST provides resources, mentorship and support to participating teams, giving them the foundation to work together and use their ingenuity to solve problems.