Electrical and computer engineers shape the future through innovation. They develop and improve systems that serve everyday needs of society spanning from high-voltage engineering and sustainable energy, to breakthroughs in wireless technology. Our faculty and students do everything from creating low-cost digital x-ray imagers to combat tuberculosis in developing countries, to building real-time embedded systems to advance the design and reliability of commercial products. ECE - the future is what we do.
Research
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering is a dynamic and innovative hub of cutting-edge advancements in technology and engineering. Faculty members lead pioneering research in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, communications, embedded systems, and renewable energy, addressing real-world challenges and driving technological breakthroughs.
Resources
Events
PhD Comprehensive Proposal Examination Notice: Design and Control of Symbiotic Heterogeneous Robotic Systems
Candidate: Andrew Nasif
Date: March 23, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM
Location: E5 4106-28
Supervisor: Notomista, Gennaro
Seminar: Built on Broken Ground: Why Secure Computing Must Start at the Hardware
Speaker: Jeonghyun Woo
Date: Monday, March 23, 2026
Time: 11:00 am to noon
Location: EIT 3142
All are welcome.
PhD Comprehensive Proposal Examination Notice: Density Control of Robotic Swarms using PDE-Constrained Optimization
Candidate: Longchen Niu
Date: March 23, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM
Location: E5 4106-28
Supervisor: Notomista, Gennaro
News
Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) PhD student Soomin Shin awarded Waterloo Data and AI Institute scholarship
ECE PhD student Soomin Shin has been awarded a $15,000 scholarship from the Waterloo Data and AI Institute, recognizing her innovative research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and real-world physical systems.
Supervised by Kerstin Dautenhahn, Shin is a member of the Social and Intelligent Robotics Research Lab (SIRRL), where researchers explore how robots can interact with people in meaningful, socially aware ways. Her work focuses on building scalable social robot systems that can operate sustainably in real-world environments by integrating advanced AI capabilities.
Electrical and computer engineering MASc student Alicia Pan wins first place at GRADflix
Electrical and Computer Engineering MASc student Alicia Pan has won first place at the University of Waterloo’s GRADflix Showcase on March 10, where graduate students present their research through short, engaging videos designed for a broad audience.
Pan’s winning video, “Meet Mirrly: A Social Robot for the Eye Doctor’s Office,” introduces Mirrly, a robot designed to help children with amblyopia (lazy eye) follow their eye-patching treatment.
Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD Student Ahmed Metwally Hegazy Awarded Prestigious IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship
Electrical and computer engineering PhD student Ahmed Metwally Hegazy, under the supervision of Dr. Raafat Mansour, has been named a recipient of the 2026 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S). This international fellowship recognizes outstanding PhD research contributions in RF and microwave engineering. Fellowship recipients are selected annually, with only 12–15 students chosen from around the world (≈20% success rate). Ahmed is the first University of Waterloo student to receive this fellowship since 2012.