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Startups compete in Velocity Fund Finals today
The Velocity Fund Finals, where startups of Waterloo students and alumni pitch their innovative ideas for the chance to win cash to grow their businesses, take place today in the Student Life Centre Great Hall.
Ten companies will compete for four prizes of $25,000. Judges will present one winner with an additional $10,000 for the top hardware pitch. Another 10 startups will compete for one of three awards of $5,000.
Companies competing for the Winter 2016 Velocity Fund $25K are:
- AdGoco revolutionizes on-the-road advertising by offering targeted mobile ads that provide drivers with a source of on-demand revenue, and allows businesses to quickly create and launch ad campaigns.
- BioFlex replaces traditional orthopedic implants used to treat fractures, with biodegradable implants.
- Fiix is a platform to connect customers with affordable, skilled mechanics at their home or office.
- Guardio Health Technologies has developed imaging technology for seeing blood flow through the body, for use in a smart sensing video baby monitor, to provide parents with peace of mind about their baby’s safety.
- Itas is a drone company that helps combat bird damage in agriculture through a HawkDrone.
- Lace is a marketplace for government software that increases transparency and collaboration between cities.
- Landmine Boys built a specialized robot to defuse landmines without an explosion or human interaction, in order to eliminate damage to the environment and risk to operator safety.
- Numa Robotics is developing automation robots for farmers so that they can assign their labour force to higher value jobs and combat labour shortage in the agriculture industry.
- Okey is an app that logs you into your digital accounts when there is close proximity to your mobile device. With no user interaction, Okey is faster and more secure than typing a password.
- Pegasus Aeronautics extends the airtime range of drones using advanced hybrid powertrains, making UAVs a viable option for industrial operators.
Finalists pitching for the Winter 2016 Velocity Fund $5K are:
- AVRO Life Science is developing novel approaches to conventional transdermal drug patches, specifically for the delivery of antihistamines.
- CognitiVR is a virtual reality training tool that objectively measures concussion symptoms, particularly for athletes, and aids with their return to play.
- Gamelynx is a web gaming platform that provides users with the ability to play in-person games with their friends, without physical game boards or installing apps.
- Godel provides route optimization services to enable cost-saving opportunities for small and medium sized companies.
- Gymnatik partners with gyms to provide applicants with a one day pass anywhere in the world.
- Moocow Unicycles designs and sells unique, durable unicycle parts.
- PASS Kit develops mental health first-aid kits to reduce stress and anxiety symptoms in students, and to decrease mental health stigma.
- Scavengr is a B2B marketplace that facilitates the exchange of industrial by-products, and the logistics for their transportation.
- Tabnex streamlines the job application process to save time and increase productivity through automation.
- Tailor is a cross-platform static analysis and lint tool for source code written in Apple’s Swift programming language. It analyzes your code to ensure consistent styling and help avoid bugs.
Judges for the $25K competition include Ameet Shah, partner, Golden Venture Partners, Devon Galloway, co-founder, Vidyard, Sunil Sharma, managing partner, Extreme Venture Partners, and Ted Livingston, founder and CEO, Kik.
The judging panel for the $5K competition is made up of Adam Belsher, CEO, Magnet Forensics, Dan Silivestru, co-founder and CEO, bitHound, and Steve McCartney, startup services, Communitech.
Events get underway at 11:00 a.m. in the Student Life Centre.
Online registration for staff conference closes today
Registration closes today for Organizational & Human Development’s (OHD) annual Staff Conference. The 9th annual staff conference takes place on April 6 and 7 in the Science Teaching Complex and other venues on campus.
There are still spaces in many sessions as class rooms are larger this year, allowing for more attendees. As well, a large portion of workshops are offered both days for the convenience of attendees, and the keynotes will be video broadcast to overflow room to further enhance the overall conference experience.
Please remember to keep your registration e-mail notification for your records.
On-site Registration will be available on the days of the conference in the Don Craig Atrium of The School of Accounting and Finance.
The 2016 workshops cover a range of topics suited such as team building, career goals, managing meetings, international student retention, and more. Keynote speakers include Keynote speakers include Samantha and Marc Hurwitz, musician Steven Page, David C. Roberston of the Wharton School, and adventurers and authors Colin and Julie Angus.
#AskAPharmacist: being a pharmacist
This is the latest in a series of posts from the School of Pharmacy celebrating Pharmacist Awareness Month.
Now more than ever before, pharmacists in Ontario play an active role in patient healthcare. They provide flu vaccines, counsel on quitting smoking, review medications with you, and so much more – the role is changing, and the School of Pharmacy is embracing these changes.
For the last question of the month, our #AskAPharmacist team shares what they love most about being pharmacists:
Thanks for following along with us, and happy Pharmacist Awareness Month!
2016 Lee Kwan Yew Water Prize laureate delivers Adrian Smith Lecture
by Victoria Van Cappellen.
(From left): Mr Bernard Tan, Managing Director of Singapore International Water Week; Mr Peter Joo Hee Ng, PUB Chief Executive; Prof John Anthony Cherry; and Mr Harry Seah, PUB Chief Engineering and Technology Officer.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Cherry will be delivering this year’s Adrian Smith Lecture, hosted by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences tomorrow, Friday, April 1.
Professor Cherry was recently awarded the 2016 Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, a top international water prize worth more than $CDN 280,000.
Cherry is the seventh laureate and the first Canadian to receive the prize in honour of his contributions to groundwater management and lifelong dedication to the protection of groundwater resources.
A professor and world-renowned hydrologist in the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences for more than three decades, Cherry was best known for co-authoring groundwater hydrology’s standard textbook Groundwater with R.A. Freeze in 1979.
He joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo in 1971 as one of three pioneering hydrologists hired by former Earth Sciences Chair and Science Dean Robert Farvolden. At the time, field research on the migration and fate of contaminants in groundwater and their remediation was in its infancy.
Cherry actively participated in the development of technologies for improving groundwater monitoring and remediation for which he co-holds several patents. His targeted in-situ treatment and risk management approaches resulted in new groundwater remediation guidelines in the United States, replacing expensive, ineffective pump-and-treat remediation.
Although he retired from Waterloo in 2006, he remains active in research as Director of the University Consortium for Field-Focused Groundwater Contamination Research, Associate Director of G360 Centre for Applied Groundwater and Adjunct Professor at the University of Guelph.
In tomorrow’s lecture, “Chemical Hydrogeology: Importance for Aquitard Science and Implications,” Professor Cherry will trace the history of one of his most important scientific findings: demonstrating the forces controlling groundwater flow and contaminant transport within confined aquitard layers, knowledge policymakers use today to select safe sites for hazardous waste disposal.
The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences invites you to attend lecture at 2:00 p.m. in EIT 1015.
Nutrition Month draws to a close; other notes
Here's the final Nutrition Month "Myth vs. Fact" supplied by Health Services Nutritionist Sandra Ace. Thanks Sandra for sending the Daily Bulletin these tasty tidbits all month long!
Myth: Making healthy lifestyle changes is too hard.
Fact: A key to successful behaviour change is to set small, action-based goals. A big reason people have a hard time making changes is that they have broad goals without a specific plan – for example “I’m going to eat healthier.” Or they set a goal may be too challenging to maintain – “I’m going to the gym every day.” Setting a SMART goal will increase your chances of establishing a new and sustainable routine.
Use this check list to set a SMART goal:
Specific: What do you want to accomplish and when will you start?
Measurable: How often? How much?
Action-oriented: What behavior will you change?
Realistic: Can you see yourself achieving this goal?
Time-frame: How long will it take?
An example of a SMART goal is: I am going to eat a cup of vegetables with dinner 3 times this week. Small successes will help to keep you motivated and are stepping stones in a path to long term lifestyle changes. EaTracker is a free online tool created by Dietitians of Canada that makes it easy to track your eating and physical activity habits. It has a new My Goals tool to help you set and reach your goals with the free advice of a Registered Dietitian.
Here are more dietitian-designed strategies to help make your small changes stick. Thank you for your interest and valuable feedback during Nutrition Month 2016!
Join Retail Services as they welcome Gordon Harrison to the Bookstore today at 4:00 p.m. for a talk, photographic display and signing of his latest book My Cousin & Me: And Other Animals.
Harrison is a Waterloo alumnus and the author of several books on nature, science, religion, and art. My Cousin & Me: And Other Animals, is a powerful natural history memoir of animals and natural selection in the hinterlands of Haliburton.
"Predators and prey do a dance together in their struggle for existence. Each hones the other to perfection. It’s not a good day to die — it rarely is! So this eternal chase continues," says the talk's announcement. "In the course of this chase, as Darwin writes, “There is no fundamental dierence between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery” — and as I have discovered little distance in morality as well."