News

From a young age, Yvonne Osagie knew she wanted to pursue a masters because of her passion and love for learning.

Alongside her full-time position, Yvonne is a part-time grad student in Waterloo’s Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) program. She originally planned on completing her MBA, but realized that the program wasn’t providing her with what she needed, which was something that could help her start her own business.

The Conrad School is excited to share our students’ successes over the Spring 2022 term.

TAKO was one of four winners of the Concept $5k pitch competition this term, founded by three Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) students: Tony Le, Sabrina Pehilj and Osama Siddiqui. TAKO is a B2B solution for the global seafood supply chain, taking care of the information processes which allow exporters and importers to focus on their expertise in delivering fish.

The Conrad School would like to extend our gratitude to the Overbeeke family as we introduce the newest award in support of undergraduate entrepreneurs.

Meet the inaugural winner of the Overbeeke Familly Entrepreneurship Excellence Award, as well as other E Co-op pitch winners from Spring 2022!

Rachel Bartholomew (she/her) saw a need in the market for women-centered pelvic floor health tools.

Enabled by Waterloo co-op students, Bartholomew brought her company, HyIvy Health, to life. She hired her first Waterloo co-op student just four weeks after founding the company. With the HyIvy smart pelvic rehab system currently in clinical trials, Bartholomew credits co-op students, who performed roles like mechanical engineer and UX designer with helping her design the portal and app, the user experience, updating the CAD model and writing test procedures for the prototype.

In keeping with its position as Canada’s top Innovation University, today, the University of Waterloo launches its Entrepreneurial PhD Fellowship pilot. These new fellowships will support outstanding, business-minded doctoral students who are interested in commercializing their research.

Up to ten successful fellowship applicants will be enrolled in the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business’ Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) part-time program. Fellowship recipients can complete the three-year part-time program alongside their regular doctoral studies, tuition-free.

About 13 years ago, Matt Rendall and three friends from Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo started building robots. It was an interest that grew from their involvement in UW Robotics Team and then carried on into their final-year engineering project, which became an idea for a company.

In 2009, Matt completed his Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology degree where he gained critical skills to develop his business model while leveraging the support of programs that make up Waterloo’s vibrant startup ecosystem.

Even as pandemic restrictions lift, a generation of young people continue to cope with social isolation and loneliness as they work and learn remotely. CityNews speaks to Spurrya Jaggi, Founder of Lichi, an app at aims to help address this.

Student ventures, and students themselves, have been recognized for their outstanding accomplishments this winter term. Everyone at the Conrad School is proud to share these highlights.

This winter term, Enterprise Co-op students submitted five-minute video pitches for prizes of $5,000 at the Ignition Week pitch competition. Each student's video pitch was evaluated by a panel of judges. Meet the winter 2022 pitch winners!

At the semi-finals, this March, 22 student venture teams pitched their early start-up ideas to a panel of judges. Eight of these teams have been selected as semi-finalists and will have the opportunity to pitch at the Concept $5K finals, for a chance to win one of four $5,000 grants. Four of these ventures are comprised of current and former undergraduate and graduate Conrad School students. Incredible!