News archive - 2021

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Quantum Intelligence

Pooya Ronagh

The graphics processing unit (GPU) was a windfall for artificial intelligence, as the architecture turned out to be well-suited for deep learning. What if quantum computing enabled an even more advanced form of artificial intelligence (AI)?

Tuesday, December 14, 2021

Q and A with the experts: COVID-19 variants

Omicron is the latest COVID-19 variant of concern, and it is expected to change the course of the pandemic. But how are variants formed, and what’s the threat level for people who are fully vaccinated? Kelly Grindrod, a pharmacist and professor, and Trevor Charles, a professor in the University of Waterloo’s Department of Biology, provide answers to these questions.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Two Waterloo Physicists win awards from the Canadian Association of Physicists

Richard Epp and Roger Melko

Congratulations to Professor Richard Epp for being awarded the 2021 CAP Medal for Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Physics, and to Professor Roger Melko for being awarded the 2021 CAP/DCMMP Brockhouse Medal.

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Coffee time: Caffeine improves reaction to moving targets

Pouring a cup of coffee

That morning coffee might be even more helpful than you think.

In the first study of its kind to explore caffeine’s effects on dynamic visual skills, researchers concluded that caffeine increases alertness and detection accuracy for moving targets. Caffeine also improved participants’ reaction times.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Making molecules behave at the quantum level

Alan Jamison

Prof. Alan Jamison likes looking at what happens when individuals become groups. Do behaviours change? Or do the groups act as expected? He examines these questions in his lab where he sticks laser-cooled atoms together to create molecules. It’s a frigid temperature — around 100 nanoKelvin cold — one billion times colder than Antarctica in winter.