Monday, May 30, 2016

Partnership broadens entrepreneurship spectrum

The University of Waterloo is partnering with a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm to provide a new entrepreneurship program for students that includes access to a $2 million venture capital fund and expertise from the world’s leading startup ecosystem.

Starting this June the Waterloo Engineering | Spectrum 28 Student Venture Program  will provide senior students with early-stage venture support through pop up classes and expert mentorship in addition to the opportunity to compete for funding.

“This new program fills a gap in the entrepreneurship ecosystem at University of Waterloo by giving student teams direct access to Silicon Valley industry expertise and faculty mentorship, as well as the chance to compete for part of the $2 million seed funding from Spectrum 28,” said Pearl Sullivan, Dean of Engineering. “This partnership will support our students at the earliest stages of entrepreneurship, which will make for stronger, more successful startups here in Canada.”

The year-long program includes a series of pop up classes with Waterloo faculty and Silicon Valley experts, a Fast Feedback Day where the successful teams go on to refine their ideas or products, and a Demo Day.  At Demo Day, Spectrum 28, together with faculty members will offer equity funding to those teams which meet the program’s rigorous criteria.

The idea for collaboration came from Lyon Wong, who graduated from the University of Waterloo’s Systems Design Engineering program in 2003 and went on to found Spectrum 28. Wong believes that entrepreneurial student teams at Waterloo will benefit from the twin advantages of having a closer connection with engineering faculty members as well as having graduate students or faculty members as co-founders.

“It’s not enough to just have bright, hard-working students who dream of entrepreneurial ventures. They need to understand that having a diverse team of co-founders that includes graduate students or faculty with deep technical knowledge is a distinct advantage when creating a startup - with any hope of long-term success,” said Wong.  “Too many teams struggle because they are strictly undergraduate focused and aren’t accessing the mentorship from the experts in Waterloo Engineering or Silicon Valley.”

To assist in selecting teams who will vie for the mentorship and seed funding opportunity, one pop up class focuses on how to select ideas that have the right market fit, while a second class will help selected students identify personal leadership traits, including choosing other co-founders to form diverse and long-lasting teams.

“The core value in this program is in the mentorship and the access, but the fund has enough capital in order to make a difference at the starting stages for any company,” said Wong, who is interested in companies that are solving the truly difficult problems in the world. “It would be exciting to know that we exposed a problem no one has solved and have Waterloo students solved it.” 

The program adds to Waterloo’s existing incubator and accelerator programs such as Velocity, the world’s largest free startup incubator, as well as the Accelerator Centre.

Conference tackles the future of education

Thought leaders, researchers, practitioners and senior administrators from post-secondary institutions across Canada will gather in Waterloo this week to discuss the ways technology, innovation and societal change are shaping education in Canada.

The Centre for Extended Learning, a leader in online learning in Canada, will host the joint conference of the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education.

The conference takes place from Tuesday, May 31 to Friday, June 3 at the Centre for International Governance Innovation and the Delta Waterloo.

Marc Rosenberg, a consultant who focuses on the future of education, will open the conference with a talk titled, “Reshaping the Future of Learning.” Ken Steele co-founder of Academica Group, a leading source of news in the education sector, and consultant to hundreds of institutions, will synthesize current trends and innovations, and provide a radical big-picture view of the future of education.

Nora Young, author and host of CBC Radio’s Spark, will moderate the panel, “Education 3.0: Possibilities Beyond the Nexus,” featuring John Baker of D2L, Jeremy Friedberg, of Toronto-based Spongelab, Professor Corinne Hoisington of Central Virginia Community College, and Ken Steele, Academica Group. Panelists will share their experiences with current innovations, as well as insights into the future of education and learning.

The closing gala takes place at Federation Hall. 

Media Relations offers coaching workshops

The University of Waterloo's Media Relations team is continuing its series of workshops for researchers who wish to build skills for working with the media.

These half-day interactive workshops are a beginner’s introduction to engaging with the media.

The upcoming round of workshops include:

Writing compelling commentary, Wednesday, June 22, 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

This highly interactive workshop builds researchers' leadership capacity and enhances their credibility and influence by providing participants with the confidence and tools to contribute their expertise to the public discourse through compelling, short-form written commentary for newspaper op ed pages and online sites.

Making the most of media interviews, Wednesday, June 22, 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

This interactive workshop is an introduction to engaging with the media for faculty members and researchers. This workshop provides attendees with practical tools to enhance their capacity to turn media interviews into education or advocacy opportunities. 

Making the most of media interviews – a workshop for women, Thursday, June 23, 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Continuing our support for gender equity and Waterloo's HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 initiative, the Media Relations team is again partnering with Shari Graydon of Informed Opinions to facilitate the dialogue between media and expert women at the University by offering this interactive workshop as an introduction to engaging with the media. This workshop provides attendees with practical tools to enhance their capacity to turn media interviews into education or advocacy opportunities.

So why should researchers and professors hone their media skills?

"Innovation, discoveries and scholarship from research-intensive universities touches every aspect of our lives, yet many Canadians feel unconnected to developments from the academy," says a statement from Media Relations. "As a publicly funded institution, it’s important that we demonstrate to the public, the government, donors and funding agencies the impact that their investment is making. One of the most effective ways to do this is through the media. We encourage all members of the University’s academic community to speak with the media concerning their areas of expertise."

Monday's notes

The University of Waterloo Finance Association will be hosting a finance co-op panel discussion on Thursday, June 2 in MC1085 at 7:00 p.m. At the event, students with co-op experience in finance, including areas such as investment banking, sales and trading, private equity, debt capital markets and equity research will offer a brief presentation of their experiences, and answer attendees' questions.

The co-op panel is free for all to attend and pizza will be provided. For more information check the UWFA's Facebook page or send an e-mail to uwfa@uwfinance.ca.

The Douglas Wright Engineering Building's C Wing will be without domestic cold water and fire alarm services on Saturday, June 11 from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. as maintenance is carried out.

Retail Services is holding its “Spring into Summer” Book Sale today and tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the South Campus Hall concourse outside the Book Store. This annual book sale gives you the chance to get new titles (fiction and nonfiction) at 25 percent off the regular price. 

Some of the more than 300 new titles include the acclaimed book of poetry Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur, Rosemary Sullivan's Writers’ Trust Nonfiction award-winning book Stalin's Daughter, and Governor General David Johnston’s The Idea of Canada – Letters to a Nation.