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Engineering students placed third in two competitions at the 27th annual Canadian Engineering Competition held March 8-11, 2012 at UBC Robson Square in Vancouver. Fourth-year electrical engineering students Dhananja Jayalath, Neil Olij, Chris Wiebe and Ryan Mann won third place in the innovative design contest for their muscle activation detection suit. Third-year chemical engineering student Erin Matheson also came third in the engineering communications competition for her presentation entitled Developing techniques for surgical treatment of brain aneurysms.

Waterloo's Clean Snowmobile Team earned the International Engineering and Manufacturing Award for Best Acceleration in its four-stroke sled by achieving a speed of 72 mph in 500 feet at the 2012 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, which wrapped up March 10 at Michigan Technological University. The team also received the HB Performance Systems Award for having the best implementation of the HB Trail Trac system. Over 20 teams competed in the challenge that requires students to take a stock snowmobile and reduce its emissions and noise and increase fuel efficiency.

A March 9 Globe and Mail editorial features Karim Karim, a Waterloo electrical and computer engineering professor, who is developing a $1,000 X-ray machine using digital-imaging technology to test for tuberculosis in third world countries and elsewhere. Karim was one of 15 recipients of a recent $100,000 grant from the Grand Challenges Canada program. 

The top two prizes in this year's University of Waterloo Nicol Entrepreneurial Award Competition were won by Waterloo Engineering undergraduate students. First place and $5,000 went to Philip La, a chemical engineering student, for Kingpin, a time saving service for single men that provides pre-ordered grooming and personal care items through an online subscription-based store. Emily Peat, a civil engineering student, won second place and $2,000 for ItsMyEcoPlace, an online community connecting people to local businesses that provide products and services for sustainable gardening, landscap

John Yeow's research made headlines in both the March 2 special engineering supplement of the Toronto Star and the paper's front page. One of Yeow's main research interests is inventing and developing tools for locating, examining and targeting micro-organisms inside the body. Yeow, a systems design engineering professor and the first Canada chair in micro and nanodevices, and his team of researchers have developed a miniaturized catheter that can  provide medical practitioners with precise internal body imaging.The catheter will likely assist in the early detection of cancer and other dise

Three Waterloo chemical engineering students beat out teams from across the country to win the first  Walmart Green Student Challenge on February 29 at the TMX Broadcast Centre in Toronto.

Yelda Turkan, a civil engineering doctoral candidate, is a recipient of a 2012 FIATECH student scholarship. Turkan, who does research in the area of automation in construction using 3D sensing technologies, has received a number of other honours, including the Irene Marguerite McLeod scholarship last year.

Students from Waterloo Engineering's Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program led the competition in the 2012 RBC Next Great Innovator Challenge, taking home first prize and $20,000 in cash. The winning idea from Waterloo students focussed on mobile banking and the creation of a new platform that will allow young Canadians to set financial goals, seek advice and budget effectively in order to achieve long-term financial security. Waterloo surpassed four finalist teams from other Canadian schools.

This year’s Waterloo Region Record “Forty Under 40” honours included six with direct links to Waterloo Engineering -- four alumni, a professor and a staff member. On the list were engineering graduates David Kroetsch, president of spinoff company Aeryon Labs; Michael Peasgood, vice-president for engineering at Aeryon; Craig Haney, director of marketing for Emergent and a community volunteer; and Andrea Clegg, an engineer at McCormick Rankin Corp.

Waterloo Engineering graduates working for or starting small companies will benefit from $2.3 million in new federal funding announced February 22 at the University of Waterloo. The university's graduate enterprise program, which helps master's and PhD graduates find jobs with small or medium companies, received almost $1.4 million. In addition, FedDev Ontario and the university are jointly sponsoring up to 20 commercialization fellowships to help recent graduates and new alumni commercialize an innovation and start a business.