Thursday, May 19, 2016

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• Student team knocks competition for a Hyperloop
• Minor in entrepreneurship: What it really means to be in business
• Can high school students change the world in 2 weeks?

Student team knocks competition for a Hyperloop

A Waterloo student engineering team has advanced to the final round of competition in SpaceX Corporation’s Hyperloop design contest.

The Hyperloop is a conceptual, next generation high-speed transit system that will take commuters between cities at speeds over 1,000 km/h, thus putting the “rapid” in rapid transit. The technology differs from previous rail transit systems by having the passenger pods ride inside a tube on a cushion of air in near-vacuum conditions, in order to reach greater speeds with a smoother ride while using much less energy than conventional transportation systems.

The Hyperloop concept was promoted by SpaceX founder Elon Musk in 2013. The competition challenges student and non-student teams to independently design and build a prototype Hyperloop pod.

After a successful result at the second round of eliminations hosted at Texas A&M University in January, the Waterloop team is proceeding with plans to construct their prototype.

The final round of competition will involve testing Waterloop’s prototype pod in August at a mile-long test track built at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. This event will feature the 30 finalists who emerged from the starting field of 1,200 competitors.

“The Waterloop prototype is unique in the sense that it takes a very minimalist approach to the design,” says team member Natalia Zigante. “Working with the experiences and resources that they have available, the Waterloop team is aiming to make use of air caster levitation technology to hover over the track. This effectively creates a friction free system. Coupled with the simplicity of the design, Waterloop is hoping to show that more advanced and more efficient transportation is just around the corner!”

The team is focusing on raising as much money as it can through sponsors and other sources while working to successfully build its prototype pod.

Minor in entrepreneurship: What it really means to be in business

This is the latest in a series of #UWStratPlan stories that profile some of the initiatives that are part of the robust efforts to implement the Strategic Plan. 

A new generation of entrepreneurs is giving rise to a new kind of entrepreneurship education, as passionate, driven students seek out programs every bit as nimble, innovative and imaginative as they are.

A new minor at the University of Waterloo is changing the face of entrepreneurship education. Offered through the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre of the Faculty of Engineering, the minor is designed to foster the spirit of entrepreneurialism. Open to students in all Faculties, its focus is much broader than traditional for-profit startups.

Launched in fall 2015, the entrepreneurship minor reflects a change in what it means to be an entrepreneur. The new view is more inclusive, with distinct streams:

• Venture track — for students who want to build their own businesses, including Enterprise Co-op (E co-op) that pays students to build their own fledgling business as a co-op work term
• Corporate track — for students who wish to apply their ideas in established corporate settings and tackle major projects to gain experience in such areas as strategic thinking, team-building and patent issues

There is also the option of a Social track for students whose ventures will fill a social need that currently slows the progress of the local or global community, whether for-profit or non-profit

Much of this, not surprisingly, rests on Waterloo’s foundational strengths in co-operative education, where time spent in the workplace builds on lessons learned in the classroom and lab.

“It creates a package — a combination of academic courses and experiential education,’’ says Doug Sparkes, associate director of the undergraduate programs at the Conrad Centre. From that package of opportunity, study and experience, come Waterloo graduates who will make inspired contributions to the world of business.

Read the rest of the article on the Strategic Plan website.

Can high school students change the world in 2 weeks?

By Lisa Kiviaho and Sanaya Mistry

The IDEAS Summer Experience is an annual enrichment program for international high school students proudly organized by the University of Waterloo. This program reinforces Waterloo’s spirit of innovation through multidisciplinary and experiential workshops.

Taught by renowned professors from each of Waterloo’s faculties, participants undertake hands-on activities to set them up for success while at university. Through workshops like water collection and sampling in the ecology lab and debating the globe’s use of the internet, participants develop research and communication skills, problem-solving techniques, and more. At the end of the program, the participants will use the skills they’ve learned and apply them to their “big IDEAS” in an attempt to solve the world’s biggest problems such as poverty, obesity, or overpopulation.

“I think I’ve become more independent and confident in myself, which makes me feel more comfortable with my role in the world," says a participant in the 2015 IDEAS experience.

This year, the IDEAS program will run from July 17 to July 31, with 34 participants from 14 different countries. From living on campus to experiencing local and Canadian culture, participants get a taste of what it’s like to be a student in Canada.

Visit the IDEAS Summer Experience website for more information.