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Drug development is an arduous process that costs billions of dollars and can last for years or even decades. Whether scientists are trying to understand the potential interactions of two drugs or develop new applications for an existing medication, pharmaceutical research features frequent wrong turns and dead ends.

“Often, when we use machine learning to train neural networks, we’re starting from scratch,” says Bing Hu, a PhD student at the Cheriton School of Computer Science. “But by drawing on the enormous amount of domain specific knowledge coming from biology and medicine, we’re able to build more efficient, more accurate models whose predictions consistently match-up with existing data from the real world.”

Throughout 2025, researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science had a productive year of breakthroughs, entrepreneurship, and community building. From discovering cybersecurity risks to creating novel accessibility technology, Cheriton faculty, students and alumni advanced the boundaries of curiosity and discovery.

Mastering Japanese, art history and linear algebra can be easy, thanks to the latest AI collaboration between Google and the University of Waterloo.

At the heart of this collaboration is reimagining education and career development in an AI-driven world, spearheaded by Waterloo’s new Future of Work Institute.

Recent master’s graduate Yelizaveta Brus, former postdoctoral researcher Rungroj Maipradit, Professor Earl T. Barr of University College London, and Professor Shane McIntosh of the Cheriton School of Computer Science have won an ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at ASE 2025, the 40^th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.

Their paper, Rechecking Recheck Requests in Continuous Integration: An Empirical Study of OpenStack, examined a common and costly issue in modern software development, namely, how developers should respond when a continuous integration system reports a failure that may not be caused by the code.

A research team led by Cheriton Professor Pascal Poupart and Carleton University’s Professor Sriram Ganapathi has received a $412,500 USD grant over two years from Coefficient Giving to make AI systems safer and stronger.

Coefficient Giving, formerly known as Open Philanthropy, is a philanthropic funder and advisor whose mission is to help others as much as possible.

Professor Florian Kerschbaum has been named a 2026 Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his contributions to data security and privacy.

IEEE Fellowships are an elite distinction, and the grade of Fellow is the highest degree of IEEE membership. It is reserved for individuals with outstanding records of accomplishment whose work has advanced engineering, science and technology and delivered significant benefits to society.

Waterloo Blockchain flew 18 students from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University to South America to compete at ETHGlobal Buenos Aires.

ETHGlobal is one of the largest developer-focused communities in Ethereum. It supports blockchain enthusiasts, regardless of their background, by providing guides, job opportunities, and hackathons. Since 2017, it has hosted more than 40 hackathons across the globe, from Tokyo to Paris to Waterloo.

PhD candidate Muhammad Sulaiman, former postdoctoral researcher Mahdieh Ahmadi, Assistant Research Professor Mohammad Salahuddin, Cheriton School of Computer Science Director Raouf Boutaba, and Aladdin Saleh from Rogers Communications Canada have received the 2025 CNOM Best Paper Award for their research presented at NOMS 2023.

Their paper, Generalizable Resource Scaling of 5G Slices Using Constrained Reinforcement Learning, was published in the proceedings of the 36^th IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Symposium.

The Association for Computing Machinery has named Professor Craig S. Kaplan a 2025 Distinguished Member in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the design and modelling of computational geometric patterns and non-photorealistic rendering.

He is among 61 individuals worldwide honoured this year for outstanding scientific achievements in computing.

Aquanty Inc., a Waterloo-based water-modelling company co-founded by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Peter Forsyth, has been acquired by Rocscience, a Toronto company specializing in 2- and 3-D modelling software for civil, mining and geotechnical engineers.