Research

Waterloo Engineering students who wowed judges with their presentation at the recent online Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC) received an award in a new category created during the event to recognize their project work.

Fourth-year mechanical engineering students Jag Dhillon, Saad Haq, Tony Lee and Lucas Tang’s entry into this year’s CEC innovative design category was so impressive that the competition’s organizing committee and judges presented them with the inaugural research and entrepreneurship award.

People who frequently try to impress or persuade others with misleading exaggerations and distortions are themselves more likely to be fooled by impressive-sounding misinformation, new research from the University of Waterloo shows. 

A self-driving shuttle bus - the first at any academic institution in Canada - could be operating on the Ring Road at the University of Waterloo by the time students return to campus for in-person classes as COVID-19 restrictions ease.

A team of Canadian researchers led by University of Waterloo professor Michel Fich have been awarded $4.9 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation to build a next generation telescope.

With an innovative wide-field design optimized to measure light from the earliest moments after the Big Bang, the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST), located in Chile, will give astronomers insight into how the stars and galaxies in our universe formed. 

What is a viral vector vaccine?

Viral vector vaccines use a safe virus to deliver information about the virus you want to vaccinate against. The AstraZeneca vaccine uses a chimpanzee cold virus that contains genetic information about the COVID-19 spike protein. The chimpanzee cold virus is used because it can’t make people sick, but also because people haven’t been exposed to it before and wouldn’t have antibodies against it. 

Researchers at the University of Waterloo examined 81 published articles examining social media during the pandemic, with more than half assessing Twitter posts.

Canadian cities received an uninspiring grade on flood preparedness, the costliest type of natural disaster, a 

“I think moving through this world is an expression of freedom because Black people are insistent on being here, on taking up space,” says Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae. “Our very being, the conversations we have, the ways in which we try to use our talents and time to care for one another — those are all expressions of Black freedom.”

Mental health declined for the general population during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but younger Canadians were most affected, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo.  

We spoke to Professor Christine Purdon, a registered psychologist, about why it is that some people are not following Public Health guidelines and COVID-19 precautions.

Why do people not follow public health rules even though they know they should?