Twelve senior student teams from the Faculty of Engineering competed in this year’s Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, pitching their startup ideas to a panel of judges who distributed more than $110,000 in investment funding for the projects.
With health-care systems under increasing strain, University of Waterloo engineers are developing ways to literally lighten the load for overburdened hospital workers.
Health-care is physically demanding work; caregivers push equipment-laden carts and transfer patients on heavy beds between wings through obstacle-filled hallways.
The Financial Post interviewed Waterloo Engineering professor Dr. William Melek to discuss the future of AI and robotics in manufacturing.
The article discusses how people have mixed feelings toward robots with some viewing them as workplace competition.
Melek frames it differently: “Automation is best for quality control or unsavoury tasks that are either too repetitive, dangerous, or just too boring for a human. I think humans utilizing automation and AI will take jobs away from humans who are not (utilizing automation).”
Go to Robots and AI are taking over factory floors, but manufacturing still needs the human touch for the full story.
Engineers from the University of Waterloo are harnessing artificial intelligence to help doctors better see and control a non-invasive cancer treatment and, in the process, save lives.
Their imaging system will allow for the safer and more effective use of high-intensity, focused ultrasound to destroy a wide range of cancerous, often deadly, tumours.
“We are addressing a huge challenge for focused ultrasound treatment,” explained project leader Moslem Sadeghi Goughari, a research associate in the university’s Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. “Our imaging system can tell doctors exactly how much of a cancerous tissue is destroyed. And it’s the first AI-powered ultrasound technique developed for focused ultrasound treatment.”
A team of University of Waterloo researchers has created smart, advanced materials that will be the building blocks for a future generation of soft medical microrobots.
These tiny robots have the potential to conduct medical procedures, such as biopsy, and cell and tissue transport, in a minimally invasive fashion. They can move through confined and flooded environments, like the human body, and deliver delicate and light cargo, such as cells or tissues, to a target position.
The tiny soft robots are a maximum of one centimetre long and are bio-compatible and non-toxic. The robots are made of advanced hydrogel composites that include sustainable cellulose nanoparticles derived from plants.
This research, led by Hamed Shahsavan, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, portrays a holistic approach to the design, synthesis, fabrication, and manipulation of microrobots. The hydrogel used in this work changes its shape when exposed to external chemical stimulation. The ability to orient cellulose nanoparticles at will enables researchers to program such shape-change, which is crucial for the fabrication of functional soft robots.
Millions of people and vehicles rely on bridge infrastructure to get from point A to point B every day. But the potential for catastrophic failure grows as bridges and other transportation infrastructure age.
According to the 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, there are over 617,000 bridges in the U.S., almost half being at least 50 years old. It is not only age that affects these bridges' reliability and structural integrity. Additional stresses from events such as hurricanes, earthquakes and heat waves are compromising structural durability and longevity too.
Dr. Chul Min Yeum, an assistant professor in the civil and engineering department at the University of Waterloo, leads a team of researchers using technologies like 5G and augmented reality to identify structural issues in bridges, buildings and other infrastructure before disaster strikes.
The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and its Members have elected this year’s new Fellows and named the incoming class of the RSC College.
One hundred and one new Fellows have been elected by their peers for their outstanding scholarly, scientific and artistic achievement. Recognition by the RSC for career achievement is the highest honour an individual can achieve in the Arts, Social Sciences and Sciences. One of those newly elected Fellows is electrical and computer engineering professor, Kerstin Dautenhahn.
North America has 10 million kilometres of overhead power lines, and when vegetation come into contact with one, it can be like tinder to a flame.
“Once they come in contact with trees, the risk of forest fires increases,” says Anson Maitland (PhD ’19), co-founder of Enerza, a company at Velocity, University of Waterloo’s startup incubator. “With our robot, utilities can spot vegetation risks, corrosion or birds' nests near the line and send out a team to handle it.”
He says that much of North America’s power infrastructure was built in the 1960’s or 70’s. Power lines are often found in rural, forested areas and only monitored on average once every five years. While aware of the problem and eager for a solution, utilities companies don’t know where to best spend their operating dollars.
And without better monitoring tools, it’s difficult to know where and when to do maintenance.
“How would they know which ones to maintain or replace?” says Maitland. “With the robot they can inspect infrastructure more frequently and know with confidence when and where to replace power lines or trim trees.”
Enerza co-founder James Aein says the company’s tech is not just a robot but also a grid analytics platform. Just like a health care provider uses medical imaging to investigate patients’ health before invasive procedures, it gives utilities a whole picture of risks and maintenance needs.
Manmeet Maggu remembers being a fourth-year University of Waterloo student when his nephew, Praneit, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. With an illness that affects muscle tone, movement and motor skills, Maggu’s family braced for the reality that Praneit would never take his first steps.
Studying to become an engineer at the time, Maggu and classmate Rahul Udasi (BASc ’14) began searching for solutions. After no suitable options appeared, the pair put their mechatronic skills to work, applying what they had learned at Waterloo to address a global problem.
Smart cities are moving towards the automation of many essential services. Quality of life for city residents relies on the safety of its buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructures. Manual inspection of these infrastructures, besides being costly, is a tedious task that requires special skills and intense labour — especially when access to some sites, like bridges, is not easy. Due to the sheer number of bridges and inspection timelines, there is a critical backlog for inspecting bridges in Canada that requires an immediate solution.