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Darren Harry Baine is a University of Waterloo undergrad and entrepreneur passionate about inspiring youth to think beyond themselves and create initiatives that advance society. Baine founded The Young Eye, a foundation that supports social growth and development of youth-based institutions in Uganda. Along with a group of friends, Baine also co-founded and hosts a youth motivational talk show also called The Young Eye.

In 2022, Baine was recognized for his outreach and was named to Uganda’s top 40 under 40 list. He says he is humbled by the honour that confirms he is on the right track.

“I used to think that I’d have to wait until I had a degree, be older and richer, before I could start my own business,” says [Osose] Itua. “I took a Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (BET) course and sitting next to me were people my age and younger who had a couple of startups going already. I was like ok, time to launch.”

Itua got to do six co-operative work experiences during her studies. The first was at a large company, the following four were at startups and the final one had her working on her own business, Foodage.

Kelly Zheng has a lot on her plate. She’s a doctoral student building a startup while also working towards a graduate business degree. The Entrepreneurial PhD Fellowship has allowed Kelly to gain the business knowledge, skills and experience to commercialize her research. Using her PhD research in artificial intelligence, Kelly's venture, Coastal Carbon uses AI and machine learning technology to help create a sustainable future for our oceans.

As temperatures rise, we're looking back on a busy (and successful!) winter 2023 term with our students.

Graduate students in the Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) programs and undergraduate students in BET 300 or Enterprise Co-op (E Co-op) performed admirably in both on- and off-campus competitions.

Velocity Innovation Challenge: 

With a week to collaborate and devise solutions to global food, health and energy problems, nine student teams from presented their ideas at Velocity’s Innovation Challenge in February.

Andrew Martinko (BASc ’15, MBET ’16) is the co-founder of Suncayr and its hero product, SpotMyUV, a UV detection sticker that tells you when to reapply sunscreen. It works by placing a small, round sticker on your skin that’s purple when it goes on and turns clear when you apply sunscreen, absorbing the product just as your skin does. When the sticker turns purple again, it’s time to reapply.

Tapping into the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Waterloo, Martinko and his engineering Capstone team leveraged the entrepreneurial opportunities available to them at UWaterloo to turn an idea into a viable product.

Sushan Shetty (MBET ' 22) works for Mastercard as an Associate Managing Consultant. He takes customer data and creates personalized, real-time communications for his clients. These new tactics reshape marketing techniques that have been used by credit card companies for decades. Read on to learn about how entrepreneurship becomes intrepreneurship. This different take on innovation within a company is exactly what Shetty is doing in his current role. Learn about how his experience in the MBET program has allowed him to stand out.

The work world has been permanently transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Zoom meetings are the new norm, even now that pandemic restrictions have been lifted. Employers are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence programs for many work tasks that humans once did.

But against this backdrop there are also labour shortages in many sectors. The unemployment-to-job vacancy ratio is at a historic low across Canada, partly because baby boomers who are close to retirement age have left the workforce, but not enough younger people are coming in behind them.

In another Waterloo first, the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business (Conrad) will launch Canada’s first PhD program in Entrepreneurship and Organization this fall. Conrad has long been a programmatic innovator in entrepreneurship education, having launched the country’s first immersive entrepreneurship graduate program 20 years ago, and a suite of undergraduate entrepreneurship courses and programs.

Unlike traditional business school doctoral programs that focus on management and organizations, Conrad’s new PhD takes a different approach. Instead, it offers students the opportunity to rigorously study human behaviour and organization with a focus on entrepreneurial contexts.

This winter term, Enterprise Co-op students carried on the tradition of the Ignition Week pitch competition. Meet the winter 2023 pitch winners!

Bertha Bridget Kankam (MBET ’22) recently completed her master’s degree in business, entrepreneurship and technology (MBET) at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business.

That is a worthy success in and of itself, but Kankam is not your typical MBET student. Better known to many as Yaa Yaa, she is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Ghana.

The 33-year-old crossed the stage to receive her degree at the University’s fall convocation ceremony last year. No stranger to stages and spotlights, Yaa Yaa radiated success as she stepped out in full academic dress robes — a new look for many of her fans.