Research

For many students, a term project can evoke a lot of emotions, such as excitement, worry, and enthusiasm; but for one class it provided an opportunity to reconnect with their own cultures. Last Friday, more than 80 students taking SYDE 361 staged a memorable concert featuring electronic instruments that they designed and built.

A newly published study from the University of Waterloo shows that when activity in a specific part of the brain is suppressed, our desire for high-calorie foods increases.

The investigators found that when they temporarily decreased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex – the brain network responsible for self-control – participants evaluated high-calorie snacks more positively, paid more attention to appealing images of such foods, and reported stronger urges to eat them than usual. 

The findings suggest that efforts to close a gender gap in the field should stress key reasons for women to pursue engineering along with the current approach of instilling confidence in their technical and academic abilities to succeed.

“The message to women isn’t just that they can do it,” said Lukasz Golab, an engineering professor who led the research. “The message is also that women should want to do it because engineering is an excellent fit for their values, priorities and approaches.”

A robot glides across a warehouse floor, picks up an object from a top shelf, boxes it and then carefully loads the wrapped package on a delivery truck – all in record time and without bumping into anything.

The study established that younger children seem to make slightly better decisions than older children. The older children get, the more they tend to ignore some of the information available to them when making judgements, which though efficient can also lead to mistakes.

Progress on new artificial intelligence (AI) technology could make monitoring at water treatment plants cheaper and easier and help safeguard public health.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed AI software capable of identifying and quantifying different kinds of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, a threat to shut down water systems when it suddenly proliferates.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that sentiments in the nursing notes of health care providers are good indicators of whether intensive care unit (ICU) patients will survive.

Hospitals typically use severity of illness scores to predict the 30-day survival of ICU patients. These scores include lab results, vital signs, and physiological and demographic characteristics gathered within 24 hours of admission.

People with social anxiety disorder benefit greatly from group therapy that targets the negative mental images they have of themselves and others, according to a study at the University of Waterloo. 

Called “imagery-enhanced” cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the new group treatment helps relieve symptoms including social performance and interaction anxiety, depression and stress. 

New research found that being in a bad mood can help some people’s executive functioning, such as their ability to focus attention, manage time and prioritize tasks. The same study found that a good mood has a negative effect on it in some cases.