Societal Futures

Many engineering students choose the University of Waterloo for co-operative education and academic rigor. But as first-year students arrive on campus, they soon discover that it’s not all work and no play.   

Although academic success is important, a meaningful and memorable student experience is also built through friendship and fun. Over the years, many Faculty of Engineering traditions have bolstered camaraderie and built a valuable sense of community.  

One of the traditions that always brings a smile to the faces of students and alumni is Engineering Day.   

Growing up in a family where money was scarce, Floyd Marinescu (BMath ’02) saw firsthand the impacts of working class poverty. “Money was a source of a lot of conflict in my house,” he said. “I knew that if there was financial security, it would have been a lot better for my family.” 

A fan of Star Trek, Marinescu yearned for the egalitarian, poverty-less society depicted on the show, often wondering, “How do we get to that future?”  

Transforming community spaces 

Dr. Troy Glover (PhD ’00) has dedicated his career to exploring transformative placemaking, which he describes as the aspirational efforts to convert urban spaces into meaningful places. These initiatives aim to encourage positive social interactions and enhance the quality of community life. 

A lack of connectedness and loneliness can severely affect people’s health. “Research reveals the mortality impact on lonely and disconnected individuals is comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day,” Glover said. 

From transforming peacebuilding with technology to developing AI-powered tools for mental well-being and championing inclusivity in STEM, these innovators illuminate new paths to joy. 

When Zain Bandali (BES ’20) was growing up, he discovered a love for mehndi, the ancient living art form of henna tattoo. The tradition is popular in South Asia but was considered something only ​women and ​girls could do. 

Despite encountering discouragement early on, Bandali, an Ismaili Muslim Queer artist of Indo-Tanzanian heritage, became the only boy at his local Jamatkhana (the place of worship and community centre for Ismaili Muslims) doing mehndi for the elders and kids in his community.  

Velocity, the University of Waterloo's largest entrepreneurship program, has released its first edition of Momentum. The publication showcases strong engagement from entrepreneurially minded students and the achievements of those students and other startup founders.

In the midst of a rapidly changing world, how can we ensure a prosperous future for humanity and our planet? A new podcast hosted by University of Waterloo chancellor Dominic Barton, called Global Futures in Focus, explores this question and more.

Talking to a robot often feels stilted or delayed, thanks to computer software trying to keep up with the conversation. However, new research from the University of Waterloo has improved the ability for humans to communicate naturally with humanoid robots.

Waterloo researchers were able to solve how a humanoid robot can identify the direction where human speech was coming from, re-orient itself to track that voice to create a more realistic conversation and speed up its reaction time to communicate back with its human counterpart.

Thanks to a transformational $10 million donation from Caivan Group (Caivan), one of Canada’s leading real estate developers, co-founded by Waterloo alumni Frank Cairo (BES ’05) and Troy van Haastrecht (BASc ’93), the University has embarked on a bold new mission to create healthier, more prosperous cities with the launch of the Future Cities Institute founded by CAIVAN (FCI).