COVID-19 has shaken the world, challenging societies and altering life as we know it. But from this crisis, opportunities have emerged calling us to action as we prepare to reboot from the COVID-19 lockdown. How we work and behave, how society and the economy will function, and how we innovate and educate will change. Plotting the future—for Canada, your enterprise, and yourself—is complicated and challenging.
In this series of six panel-style webinars, experts from the University of Waterloo and representatives from some of Canada's leading companies shared their research, real-world expertise, and experience to help identify the risks and plot the future of adapting to this new normal.
The first three webinars covered broadly applicable reboot topics: Economic Recovery & Managing Risk, Supply Chain Considerations, and Security and Data Privacy Considerations. Three additional webinars covered how the University is rebooting with research: Tackling Real-World Problems with Research, Viral Detection & Mitigation, and Our Virtual Future.
Recordings of each panel session are available below.
Rebooting: Economic recovery and managing risk
May 21, 2020
The series kicks off with a discussion of economic recovery in a post-COVID-19 world. What does rebuilding look like? What are the roles of businesses of all sizes in the new economy, and how do we ensure their survival? Experts discuss the role of innovation, working differently, workforce preparedness, and skills development.
Moderator: Bessma Momani - Professor, Political Science; Interim Assistant Vice President, International Relations
Panelists:
- Joël Blit - Associate Professor, Economics; Senior Fellow Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Nada Basir - Assistant Professor, Conrad School of Entrepreneurship & Business
- Sanjeev Gill - Associate Vice President, Innovation and Lifelong Learning
- Craig Alexander - Chief Economist, Deloitte Canada
- Alex Goryachev - Managing Director, Cisco Global Co-Innovation Centres
Read a summary on Waterloo Stories
Rebooting: Supply chain considerations
May 27, 2020
The second panel looks at restarting, rebuilding, and reimagining both local and global supply chains. Through a lens of environmental and social sustainability, experts discuss changes in governance, the rise of populism, and cost vs. other drivers in building, or re-building, supply chains.
Moderator: Larry Smith - Adjunct Associate Professor, Economics; Director, Problem Lab
Panelists:
- Jatin Nathwani - Executive Director Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy (WISE); Professor, Department of Management Science and Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Fatma Gzara - Associate Professor, Department of Management Sciences; Co-director Waterloo Analytics & Optimization Lab
- Olaf Weber - Professor, School of Environment, Enterprise and Development (SEED)
- Rohan Gupte - Senior Program Manager, Supply Chain Execution, Amazon
Read a summary on Waterloo Stories
Rebooting: Security and data privacy considerations
June 2, 2020
The third session dives into data privacy and security in Canada in the time of COVID-19. Experts discuss emerging threats both domestic and abroad, the interplay between privacy and public health, and workforce education through a lens of data and privacy considerations.
Moderator: Michele Mosca - Professor, Combinatorics & Optimization; Co-founder, Institute for Quantum Computing
Panelists:
- Maura Grossman - Research Professor; Director, Women in Computer Science; Adjunct Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School
- Douglas Stebila - Associate Professor, Cryptography
- Plinio Morita - Assistant Professor, School of Public Health & Health Systems
- Deborah Evans - Chief Privacy Officer, Rogers Communications
- Michael Parker - Principal Corporate Security Analyst in Governance, Risk and Compliance, BlackBerry
Read a summary on Waterloo Stories
Rebooting with research: Tackling real-world problems
June 11, 2020
This webinar is the first of three "Rebooting with Research" sessions highlighting the University of Waterloo research centres and institutes, which take an interdisciplinary approach to addressing significant research themes. This webinar focuses on the economics of public health and health policy, the environment, clean water, and COVID-19 transmission in waste water.
Moderator: Roy Brouwer - Executive Director, Water Institute; Professor, Economics
Panelists:
- Daniel Scott - Executive Director, Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change; Professor, Geography and Environmental Management
- Susan Horton - Professor, Economics; CIGI Chair in Global Health Economics
- Shannon Majowicz - Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Health Systems
- Lauren Smith - Founder, PolyGone Technologies; PhD candidate, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability
- Jason Deglint - CEO, Blue Lion Labs
Read a summary on Waterloo Stories
Rebooting with research: Viral detection and mitigation
June 18, 2020
The research-focused webinar looks at recently developed biotechnology to address COVID-19 and other health challenges. This includes vaccine development, improving screening with artificial intelligence (AI) as applied to imaging, using nanoscience to build better biosensors and imagers, and the world-wide COVID-19 collaborations in which the University is participating.
Moderators: Sushanta Mitra - Executive Director, Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN); Professor, Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering
Panelists:
- Karim Karim - Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Executive Director, Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology (CBB); Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, KA Imaging
- Shirley Tang - Professor, Chemistry; Associate Dean of Science, Research
- Roderick Slavcev - Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry; Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research
- Ryan Denomme - Founder and CEO, Nicoya Lifesciences
- Alex Wong - Co-founder, Chief Scientist, DarwinAI; Associate Professor, Systems Design Engineering; Canada Research Chair in AI and Medical Imaging
Read a summary on Waterloo Stories
Rebooting with research: Our virtual future
June 25, 2020
The final research-focused webinar looks at what we have seen so far about our attempt to capitalize on virtual technology to manage through the crisis, the pros and cons of virtual connectivity, what weaknesses of virtual reality have been exposed, and how to reinvent the future.
Moderator: Neil Randall - Executive Director, The Games Institute; Chair, Council for Responsible Innovation and Technology
Panelists:
- Jennifer Boger - Assistant Professor, Systems Design Engineering; Schlegel Chair in Technology for Independent Living at the Research Institute for Aging
- Aynur Kadir - Assistant Professor, Digital Media, Department of Communication Arts; Member, Games Institute
- Michael Barnett-Cowan - Associate Professor, Kinesiology
- Jim Wallace - Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Health Systems
- Andrea Kerswill - Director, Innovation & Scotiabank FactoryU, Scotiabank
- Ray Simonson - Co-founder and CEO, Glove Systems