Research

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is making it possible to discover new drugs faster, cheaper, and more efficiently.

Chemists at the University of Waterloo have introduced AI to interpret the results acquired by the differential mobility spectrometry (DMS) technique to predict drug properties. This could reduce in principle the time between concept and coming to market of new drugs by years and decrease production costs by $100s of millions.

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Waterloo found patients who had not been able to maintain or learn skills such as taking medication, preparing meals, or arranging transportation experienced discharge delays of more than 30 days.

“We found that impairment in functional, social or cognitive abilities often means that patients experience a delay in being discharged, suggesting their needs are not being served in the mental health care setting,” said Jerrica Little, lead author of the study and PhD candidate at Waterloo’s School of Public Health.

From manufacturing and industry, consumer technology, healthcare and more, at least 11 of Waterloo’s alumni and former students have earned spots on the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. These 20-somethings are shaking things up in the areas of robotics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI), app creation and life-saving technology. The list, which represents innovative minds from Canada and the United States, stretches across 20 categories for a total of 600 people.

Meet the 11 alumni and former Waterloo students taking home top honours in seven different industries.

Alumni Council member and alumnus Vikas Gupta (BSc ’91) is the co-founder and CEO of AVARA, a company creating innovative technology to enable compelling and immersive virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences that transport people to unique places, moments, and interactions around the world that are far beyond their imagination.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo found that even if people weren’t good at it, drawing, as a method to help retain new information, was better than re-writing notes, visualization exercises or passively looking at images. 
 

The study, which examined 63 cities across Canada, confirms there are significant differences between municipal plans to protect citizens from climate change.  
 
 “We tend to think of climate change as something that happens at the federal and provincial levels,” says Daniel Henstra, a policy specialist in Waterloo’s Department of Political Science. “In fact, most climate policy happens because of local governments.” 
 

An early morning phone call on October 2, 2018 altered any plans that Donna Strickland had that day and for most of her days since.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences’ announcement that Strickland would share the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 made her a household name and guaranteed her place in history.

Watch Donna Strickland explain that early morning call

Join us in Needles Hall on Monday, December 10 to celebrate Donna Strickland’s remarkable accomplishment and watch her accept the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018. The award ceremony will be livestreamed from Sweden.

Viewing party details

When: Monday, December 10 | 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: Needles Hall | Board and Senate Chambers, room 3407 | University of Waterloo

Please RSVP

We anticipate the ceremony to begin promptly at 10:30 a.m.

Membio, which is developing the first truly scalable biological manufacturing platform, followed up on their Velocity $5K win in the Spring by pocketing one of the four $25,000 prizes.

The other three companies that emerged victorious in the VFF $25K competition were:

Brink Bionics - is developing bionic arms with machine learning that integrate with the human body and provides amputees with a more intuitive experience.

Mixing antidepressants with common drugs found in your medicine cabinet could lead to Serotonin Syndrome, a condition caused by excessive levels of the chemical in the brain.