Research

Jimmy Lin
Professor, Faculty of Mathematics
> David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science

The computer on the starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation is able to generate holograms so human-like, the characters on the show sometimes fall in love with them.

Farm manure could be a viable source of renewable energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing technology to produce renewable natural gas from manure so it can be added to the existing energy supply system for heating homes and powering industries. That would eliminate particularly harmful gases released by naturally decomposing manure when it is spread on farm fields as fertilizer and partially replace fossil natural gas, a significant contributor to global warming.

The Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, visited the University of Waterloo to announce $1.6 billion in federal funding towards basic science, the biggest investment for research in Canadian history. The new funding will help early career researchers, encourage more women to advance in science, and help further various projects. 

Scientists have developed a new therapy to combat deadly bacteria that is infecting hospital patients worldwide.

The new therapy—a biocide that is able to target antibiotic-defiant bacteria such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)—was developed by scientists at the University of Waterloo and University of Manitoba.

Health authorities will need to focus on more than eating habits if they are going to combat the obesity epidemic.

A study led by the University of Waterloo found it’s generally a combination of unhealthy behaviours among youth that could be the greatest predictors of whether or not young people will experience obesity issues in adulthood.

The study concluded that public health efforts focusing on obesity prevention must identify and correct poor behaviours that are often developed in early childhood.

The budget, which provided $1.4 billion dollars towards basic science, introduced a new program to help early career researchers and encourage more women to enter and advance in scientific and research careers. The University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing also received a commitment of $15 million in renewed funding for the next three years. The government also committed significant funding to Canada’s digital infrastructure and to maintain the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Anxiety can help people to remember things, a study from the University of Waterloo has found.

The study of 80 undergraduate students found that manageable levels of anxiety actually aided people in being able to recall the details of events. 

It also found that when anxiety levels got too high or descended into fear, it could lead to the colouring of memories where people begin to associate otherwise neutral elements of an experience to the negative context.

Jean-Paul Lam - Associate Professor of Economics

Jean-Paul Lam is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Waterloo and was formerly an assistant chief economist at the Bank of Canada. His research interests and expertise focus on central banking, monetary policy and cryptocurrencies.