Latest news with #UniversityOfWaterloo
CTV News
14 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
How University of Waterloo researchers are attacking kidney stones with a tiny robot army
Anyone who has had kidney stones knows the pain can be intense, and the treatment is neither quick nor painless. But University of Waterloo (UW) researchers are developing a new minimally invasive procedure that could change all that. 'A lot of the therapies involve oral medication. So people go on oral medication, have to take pills and maybe a couple of times a day for several months,' said Veronika Magdanz, an assistant engineering professor from UW overlooking the work. That's not always effective or efficient. Surgery is another route. 'When it gets really acute and these stones are, for example, blocking the ureter, the surgeons will have to go in and remove those stones,' said Magdanz, who is also the director of the Medical Microrobotics Lab at UW. A lot of times once people get kidney stones, they're more susceptible to getting them again. So the UW researchers were approached by a urologist in Barcelona, who was looking to get patients relief in a less invasive way. 'He said, 'hey, you guys are doing these wireless microbots. Is there maybe a way that you could locally trigger the dissolution of stones by bringing medication or a reaction close to the stones in the urinary tract, causing the dissolution and then thereby avoiding longtime medication or even surgery,'' said Magdanz, recalling the question from the urologist. It may seem like an obscure request but it wasn't for the UW researchers. The answer from them was: 'Yes, there is a way.' Afarin Khabbazian, who was a master's students when she worked on the project, showed CTV News their method. 'We set up a rotating magnetic field using a permanent magnet, which is attached to a motor. We control the position of the magnets using a robot arm,' said Khabbazian. 'When I move [the arm], the [microbot] will move with it.' The microbots are made up of thin spaghetti-like strips fitted with magnets, which are moved into place near uric acid kidney stones with the robotic arm. The soft strips contain an enzyme called urease, and once in place, it reduces the acidity of the surrounding urine, which then dissolves the stones until they are small enough to pass naturally in a few days. 'This is definitely the first of its kind for kidney stones,' said Magdanz. The medical breakthrough is extra special for Khabbazian because she has suffered from kidney stones. 'The first time I saw the robots move was one of the best days of my life,' Khabbazian said. The technology is still in the testing phase and needs more work before moving on to human clinical trials. Still, it's not a small feat for a very small robot.
CBC
07-08-2025
- Automotive
- CBC
Little action on Hwy 69 expansion as new bridges sit unused
Two brand-new highway bridges in the northeast remain unused, eight years after they were built for the future twinning of Highway 69. The highway runs from Sudbury to Nobel, Ont., where it turns into Highway 400. Some 68 kilometres of the route remain an undivided, two-lane highway. During a previous expansion, construction crews built two bridges south of Grundy Lake Provincial park. Those will carry the future highway over a re-alignment of the CN Railway mainline. But since their completion in 2017, the bridges have yet to carry car traffic, and the railway has not been re-routed. In the meantime, plants have started growing on the gravel highway right-of-way and on the bridges themselves. The unfinished railbed also has plants growing out of it, and there are places where erosion has worn away parts of the surface. Bridges in 'excellent condition' In a statement, Ontario's Ministry of Transportation said the bridges do not require maintenance because they are not open to the public. However, a spokesperson for the ministry said the bridges were in excellent condition when inspected last year. Plant growth can eventually harm the integrity of structures like bridges, said Scott Walbridge, the chair of University of Waterloo's civil and environmental engineering department. Walbridge said he couldn't speak to these bridges specifically, because he hadn't seen them in person. However, he said damages due to environmental exposure, like rusting and plant growth, tend to be a gradual processes that makes impacts over a long period of time. "It would be something a bridge owner would ideally want to stay on top of, if the intention is to eventually use these structures, in order to avoid potentially larger long-term costs," he said. Associate professor Rania Al-Hammoud, also from University of Waterloo, agreed that the plant growth has likely had a minimal impact so far, but it's hard to tell without inspecting the structures firsthand. She said if plant roots reach the steel reinforcements, the steel can rust and grow up to 10 times in size. That puts pressure and strain on the concrete. However, without any traffic on the bridges, Al-Hammoud said they are also subject to less fatigue stress, which could improve their lifespan. The MTO spokesperson said the bridges would be waterproofed and paved before they open, and the roadbeds would have their gravel replaced as necessary. The bridges are expected to have a lifespan of 75 years. CBC News asked CN about the erosion and plant growth on its future railbed, and why it hadn't yet shifted the mainline to the new alignment. A spokesperson declined to comment, saying all questions should be directed to the MTO. Lack of clear timelines 'frustrating' The New Democrat MPP for Sudbury, Jamie West, recently co-wrote a letter to the transport minister, alongside Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas. The letter expressed frustration over a lack of new action on Highway 69. West said they penned the letter after the premier's recent comment at a Thunder Bay press conference, that he was "all in" on highways in the north. MTO continues to say that expanding Highway 69 is a priority project. However, West said the province continues to be vague on its timelines for twinning the highway. "We need improvements across the north. But pretending [the premier] is talking about Highway 69 when he's 12, 13 hours away from Highway 69, you know, it's not really fair to get people's hopes up," said West. Last year, the province announced it had struck a tentative agreement with Shawanaga First Nation on expanding the highway through its territory. Earlier this year, the Chief of Henvey Inlet said he hoped to ratify a deal for his community by this summer. According to 2021 statistics, Highway 69 carried more than 11,000 vehicles per day at its busiest section, near Estaire. Those numbers trend higher in the summer.
CBC
22-07-2025
- CBC
Inert grenade found after alleged bike thief stopped on University of Waterloo campus
Police have recovered an inert grenade after a man allegedly riding a stolen bicycle was stopped on the University of Waterloo (UW) campus on Tuesday morning. Police were called to the school around 6 a.m. after members of UW's Special Constable Service saw a man riding a bike on campus that had been reported stolen. The inert grenade was found when the constables were arresting the man, police said. According to Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS), an inert grenade is empty and doesn't contain explosive material. It can mimic a live grenade by producing a popping sound and it is used during training and demonstration purposes. When WRPS arrived on scene, the university sent a notice via texts and on their website to staff and students informing them that police were on campus for an active investigation. "The campus remains open," the notice had read in part. "If you're on campus, follow instructions from the authorities." Once police completed their investigation, they determined there were no public safety concerns. Staff and students were updated through UW's notification system letting them know that "the campus remains open for normal activities following the investigation." Police have charged a 36-year-old man from Cambridge with: Possession of stolen goods under $5,000 (two counts). Possession of identity documents. Possession of break and enter tools. Anyone with information is being asked to call police.
CTV News
22-07-2025
- CTV News
Bike theft leads police to inert grenade at the University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo on July 22, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News) Waterloo Regional Police say an inert grenade was found on an alleged bike thief at the University of Waterloo. Early Tuesday morning, University of Waterloo Special Constables spotted a man riding a bicycle on campus. That same bike had been reported stolen. The Special Constables arrested the man. During a subsequent search, they realized the man was carrying an inert grenade. Waterloo Regional Police said their officers were called to the campus around 6 a.m. and determined there were no public safety concerns. The 36-year-old Cambridge man was charged with two counts of possessing stolen goods under $5,000, possession of identity documents and possession of break and enter tools.
CBC
19-07-2025
- CBC
CyberTitan camp aims to teach P.E.I. students digital literacy and cybersecurity
The P.E.I. IT Alliance is running a youth cybersecurity program for students from Grade 6 right up to Grade 12. The weeklong CyberTitan camp lets students build a computer to understand the inner workings of it, as well as learn safer online habits. Camp organizer Tim King said students he has taught in the past have gone pretty far with the skills they learned. "I've had students who got into CyberTitan with me when it first started in 2018 who have since gone to university," he told CBC's Mio Adilman during an interview on Mainstreet. "One of them is doing IOT [internet of things] research at the University of Waterloo in their post-graduate program in cybersecurity." King said other students have gone into engineering, and one who went into biology said the program had helped him in an unexpected way. "I said, 'Was it ever helpful?' and he said, 'All through university I never had to pay for anything, because I was like the campus IT guy, and I would just help people get their computers running.'" 'Myth' about digital natives King said the CyberTitan camp helps students more deeply understand the digital world in a way that just using a device can't. "There was a myth that came out a few years ago about digital natives, and how students of a certain age just magically know how computers work, and it's not true," he said. "The kids are really familiar with digital, are really comfortable in the media and maybe they're really quick on TikTok or whatever they're into, but if you moved them away from that familiarity, they're immediately as lost as any senior or anybody else." King said familiarity is what makes people think they're naturally good with tech. "When you get back to the fundamentals, like what we're doing this week in Charlottetown, it really sheds a light on what we need to do to build up that digital literacy." He said doing physical computations and going off the screen can be rewarding. "If you take it off the screen and you make it tangible for students, it really makes all the difference." King said that many people don't know where to begin when it comes to computers. "In a lot of cases, people will break into a system by interrupting the startup sequence of a computer, so if you don't understand the startup sequence, you don't even know where to begin," he said. "If you understand how a computer boots, and how it goes through BIOS [Basic Input/Output System] and into the operating system — once you understand that, it's like you understand the landscape that you're dealing with." It also allows them to take control of the machine, so instead of just approaching it as a consumer, the students are approaching it more like a technician. King said this can make people look at computers from another perspective. "It also allows them to take control of the machine, so instead of just approaching it as a consumer, the students are approaching it more like a technician and they see the machine as something that they understand how it operates, and they understand how to tune it to get the best out of it." A digital divide King said there is a sort of "digital divide," referring to people who use tech but don't actually own a bona fide computer. "There are a lot of students here telling me they don't actually have a computer at home. So maybe they have a smart phone and maybe they have two PlayStations, but they don't have a computer," he said. "For me, a big part of this is if we can get people thinking about technology as a productivity tool instead of just a toy. In Canada, almost everybody has a digital something, but when my students come into class, they'll tell me, 'I've had a string of PlayStations, or Xboxes, or whatever and maybe a string of iPhones but that's it.'" King said that parents have been part of the curriculum development, and those of new students are made aware of what is being taught. "What they'll get at the end of the week is a student coming home with some genuine digital literacy, instead of familiarity with a game system." Cybersecurity landscape is evolving As for the cybersecurity aspect of the program, King said the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years is changing the parameters of online safety. "The people doing cyberattacks are not hackers; they're criminals who have purchased a system and they are basically running it without any knowledge of what it's doing," he said. "It used to be that you would have a hacker and they would go after a specific target, but these systems don't do that. They blitz the Internet looking for openings, which is why you hear terrible stories about children's hospitals being hacked. That's not with intention, that's just an AI finding any opening it can get." King said we're facing a "deluge of cyberattacks that are all automated." In return, the defence is catching up and also trying to automate. That means that the best human brains will be needed to tackle the problem in the years to come — and maybe some of those brains will have come through a program like CyberTitan. In the meantime, he said parents should not leave it to someone else to tell their kids how to stay safe online. He remembers a friend telling him, "You don't step away, you double down," when it comes to children and computers.
