October 30rd, 2026 – 12:00-1:00 pm, EC4-2101A

A condensed version of Allen’s Catalyst Foundry program, which he developed to help researchers and technical founders transition from invention to building successful companies. He will start with a very short version of my Wattpad journey, sharing a few lessons from building the company from scratch to 100 million users and its eventual acquisition. I’ll then introduce my Ten Commandments for Founders, focusing on the mindset shifts and practical lessons involved in moving from researcher to entrepreneur.
 

October 23rd, 2026 – 12:00-1:00 pm, EC4-2101A

Ever wondered what it really takes to become a professor … and what the job actually involves? Whether you’re seriously considering an academic career, mildly curious, or just want a peek behind the curtain, this seminar will offer an insider’s perspective on the opportunities, challenges, and realities of faculty life.
 

October 2ed, 2026 – 12:00-1:00 pm, EC4-2101A

Modeling is a crucial component of research in glaciology for examining drivers of ice flow, ice mass loss into the ocean, and related sea level rise. The difficulty of accessing glaciers, particularly the bed, which lies under hundreds, if not thousands of meters of ice, means that models must fill a significant gap in our knowledge of glacial conditions. However, this also means that there are limited data available for model validation and, for model inputs, the datasets often contain large errors or omissions. In this seminar, I will introduce the current state of glacial modeling, including recent advances in coupling subglacial hydrology and ice dynamics. I will also discuss where the research gaps are, with focus on the data that will be required to fill those gaps.  
 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuhsi-li/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zirui-iris-chen/

September 4th, 2026 – 1:00-2:00 pm, EC4-2101A

Recent advancements in sensing and deep learning have unlocked exciting possibilities for the visual analysis of human and animal motions in the physical 3D space. These innovations hold great potential for applications across diverse domains, including for example natural user interfaces, AR/VR, robotics, and gaming. In this talk, I will present the latest research progress in this rapidly evolving field including especially 3D human motion generation, pose tracking and shape reconstruction, and related tasks – highlighting key developments from the past few years as well as contributions from our own work.
 

June 19th, 2026 – 12:00-1:00 pm, EC4-2101A

This presentation describes the current state of the interdisciplinary Living Lab being developed on campus. The goal is to connect researchers across disciplines and make it easier to bring real environmental data into classes, undergraduate design projects, and research.

We will give a quick overview of the existing sensor setups in E2, RCH, and CPH, which have been collecting data for about 1 to 2 years. We will also discuss the planned expansion of the network, including new sensors to measure salt concentration in Laurel Creek, which is scheduled for deployment this summer.

Finally, we will introduce our new platform, DataHub.uwaterloo.ca, which brings together all data collected from campus sensors and citizen science into a single easy-to-use resource for both research and teaching.