News

University of Waterloo alumni Frank Baylis (BASc ’86) and Valerie Baylis (BA ’86) visited campus to announce the Gloria Baylis Foundation’s philanthropic contribution of $20 million to the Faculty of Engineering. 

The gift honours former Waterloo Engineering dean, the late Dr. Pearl Sullivan, who prioritized students’ educational experiences with indomitable energy. Under Sullivan’s leadership, the Faculty’s flagship building, Engineering 7, was built to give students and researchers greater access to leading technologies, labs, experiential learning hubs, workspaces and more.  

Twelve senior student teams from the Faculty of Engineering competed in this year’s Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, pitching their startup ideas to a panel of judges who awarded over $100,000 across all 12 teams.    

Each team delivered a three-minute business pitch to showcase their entrepreneurial and innovative approach to solving a real-world problem. These solutions ranged from a device that improves sleep quality and cognitive functioning in children with epilepsy, to a highly porous material that can improve oil spill cleanups. 

Hana Karim, a first-year Biomedical Engineering student at the University of Waterloo, is passionate about improving maternal health for low-income communities and underprivileged women. She chose her program because of the opportunities for her to develop technology to solve social problems – integrating her love for history and social causes with her love of STEM.

The University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Engineering Outreach program STEMpowered provides Black youth with opportunities to engage in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities to inspire their interest in exploring further studies and careers in STEM. In just one year, the program has increased its reach by 680 per cent.  

The Waterloo Engineering community rallied for Giving Tuesday on Nov. 28 to support two funds that empower students with the means to pursue their academic ambitions and prepare for professional success.  

In total, 183 donors supported the Waterloo Engineering funds with $61,230 in donations. 

95 donors supported the Engineering Student Teams Fund with a total of $28,460 in donations. 

88 donors supported The Equity Fund with a total of $32,770 in donations. 

Keval Tripathi, a third-year electrical and computer engineering student at the University of Waterloo, has been soaking up the sun “Down Under” since February. He’s on a four-month study abroad experience at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia – the furthest from home he’s ever been – and loving it.

Six decades after travelling halfway around the world to take a chance on a new university in Canada, a proud alumnus is helping it grow in a way he would never have imagined possible.

Nityanand Varma was the proverbial immigrant with eight dollars in his pocket when he left his native India in the early 1960s to do a master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Now, as patriarch of a family that has maintained strong ties to Waterloo Engineering ever since, he is instrumental in a $1-million contribution to fund a new professorship in robotics.

Receiving financial support can make a big difference to students who are finding it hard to make ends meet.

Over the years, Husky Technologies^TM (formerly known as Husky Injection Molding Systems) has helped Waterloo Engineering undergraduates experiencing financial difficulty through its Student Opportunity Fund.

Decades after graduating from Waterloo Engineering, an alumnus is honouring the supportive relationship he had with his doctoral supervisor by funding a professorship in both their names.

Mohamed Azzam (MASc ’71 and PhD ’75, chemical engineering) has launched an endowment for the Azzam-Dullien Endowed Professorship in recognition of Francis Dullien’s commitment to him while he was a PhD student and post-doctoral researcher.

When turning 33 last November, the co-founder and COO of a company that specializes in developing advertising platforms wrote in his birthday blog about plans to establish a scholarship to ”one of Canada's top universities.”