Research

The researchers have developed an app which smartphone users can use to reduce the energy consumption of their devices without any significant impact on performance.

“The built-in multi-window feature released with the new Android operating system allows users to have multiple windows and files open at the same time similar to a laptop, but this results in unnecessary energy drain,” said Kshirasagar Naik, co-author of the study and a professor in Waterloo’s faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Ten researchers from the University of Waterloo received more than $15.6 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to fund two networks and eight projects that will further research efforts through academic and industry collaborations.

Government surveillance of Canadians’ financial transactions are often based on activities that do not warrant suspicion, according to a study at the University of Waterloo.

The research, done in collaboration with the Université de Montréal, further uncovered that bank employees heavily police customers to not only guard against fraud but also to generate information the government wants to see about possible suspicious financial activities.

Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo have developed a smartphone app that helps people learn the art of taking great selfies.

Inside the app is an algorithm that directs the user where to position the camera allowing them to take the best shot possible.

More than two years after graduating, David Au-Yeung (BASc '04), Matthew Cheung (BASc '04), David Meyers (BASc '04) and Wehuns Tan (BASc '04) were all putting their engineering degrees to good use at good jobs in the working world.

But that wasn’t what they really wanted.

Close friends since their first year of Waterloo’s computer engineering program, the foursome from the Toronto area still had their sights set on becoming entrepreneurs.

Anyone who’s poured honey onto a stack of pancakes likely has been intrigued by the golden liquid’s motion as it oozes, buckles and coils like a rope. This behaviour is caused by the high viscosity of honey, a physical property of gooey liquids that makes them resistant to deformation.

A new AI software system developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo automatically analyzes photographs taken by vehicle-mounted cameras to flag potholes, cracks and other defects.

“If governments have that information, they can better plan when to repair a particular road and do it at a lower cost,” said John Zelek, an engineering professor at Waterloo. “Essentially, it could mean lower taxes for residents.”

Governments around the world currently take two basic approaches to monitoring the condition of roads, the initial focus of the research.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found a better way to identify atomic structures, an essential step in improving materials selection in the aviation, construction and automotive industries.

The findings of the study could result in greater confidence when determining the integrity of metals.

The financial costs of flooding in Canada’s maritime region could spike by 300 per cent by the end of the century if steps are not taken to address the impacts of climate change.

A study done by researchers at the University of Waterloo looked at the Halifax, Nova Scotia area, a region hard hit by recent riverine flooding. The team, made up economists, geographers and political scientists, merged data on flood probability, climate change and financial payout information from the insurance/re-insurance market and used the information to develop a forecast.  

Velocity, which will on September 28 officially celebrate its 10 year anniversary, is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo providing the resources and mentorship to help founders initiate and incubate high-growth startups.