Welcome to Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo

Established over 40 years ago, the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo was the first-of-its-kind in Canada, and still is, hosting the most flexible programs and interdisciplinary areas of research. Systems design covers technical, environmental, socioeconomic and political aspects of the engineering process using systems design methodology.

Our community is home to more than 700 students, 35+ dedicated faculty and supportive staff, with thousands of alumni worldwide – including some of the most successful entrepreneurs to graduate from Waterloo.

News

June 22, 2018Author to be published in Optica
A new discovery for a biomedical microscopy that can image into tissues to visualize absorbing structures is pioneered by a Systems Design Engineering professor. Dr. Parsin Haji Reza and his colleagues recently reported their work in Optica. By taking advantage of photoacoustic initial pressures, a functional all-optical non-contact optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy is reported at depths beyond the optical transport mean-free-path of the excitation wavelength. The proposed method is capable of providing optical resolution images to depths of 2.5mm.
June 14, 2018A meeting of the minds--Robotics and AI experts from Ontario and China discuss opportunities for collaboration
"There are many unsolved problems in robotics, and many opportunities for collaborations between like-minded researchers in Ontario and China," says Dr. John McPhee, Professor and Canada Research Chair in System Dynamics at the University of Waterloo, and one of the workshop presenters. [Read more]
May 18, 2018Systems Design Professor and Waterloo Researchers Combine AI and "Smart Shirts" to Track Aerobic Health
When most people think of wearables, they typically think of wristband monitors and smartwatches. But there’s also things like “smart shirts,” actual garments that contain sensors for heart rate, breathing, and motion.