Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Entrepreneurial solutions to environmental challenges

Turtle Island Institute Wayfinders retreat in Montreal, 2017.

This is the latest post on President Feridun Hamdullahpur's blog.

At Waterloo, we pride ourselves on our determination to take on the world’s biggest problems, and no challenge is more urgent than climate resiliency. As one of the world’s top innovation universities, we can have a positive impact on the planet’s survival.

In fact, our Faculty of Environment was selected to take on a challenging new role as host of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) National Network for Canada, with its launch scheduled for summer 2018. Waterloo will share knowledge, activate research and help solve the interconnected economic, social, and environmental challenges confronting the world.

The SDSN works closely with United Nations agencies, multilateral financing institutions, the private sector, and civil society. In turn, this will open exciting new collaboration opportunities for Waterloo.

With Canada’s largest Faculty of Environment, we are a natural host for the SDSN. Encouraged by a distinctly entrepreneurial culture, Waterloo students, alumni and researchers are widely known for coming up with big ideas, creating products that solve problems and making the world a better place.

We have created an opportunity for Environment students that want to transform their sustainable business and social venture ideas into reality. The Faculty of Environment recently hired an Entrepreneur in Residence, former MDB Insight CEO Brock Dickenson, to guide and mentor students with transformative environmental ideas.

Our Faculty of Environment has joined forces with the entrepreneurial expertise of Velocity, the largest free incubator in the world, to create Velocity Start@Environment, which has its kick-off event tonight (Oct. 25). Environment is also supporting opportunities for students that want to bring green ideas to life by working with partners at St. Paul’s GreenHouse, Accelerator Centre, Communitech and EvolvGREEN.

Of course, no one aspect of climate change has dominated recent news like the catastrophic damage caused by wind and rain from hurricanes. Waterloo’s Blair Feltmate, head of our Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, is working to protect Canadians and their homes from floods. His efforts led to the Home Flood Protection Program and he is working on national standards for designing new flood-resilient communities. 

In another great initiative, graduate student Melanie Goodchild created an Indigenous-led social innovation through the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. The Turtle Island Institute aims to solve our most wicked social-ecological problems – challenges like food security and climate change – using Indigenous ways of knowing.

Waterloo’s commitment to the environment is interdisciplinary, with two of our Engineering professors receiving 2017 Royal Society of Canada medals for outstanding research achievements.

Keith Hipel is the recipient of the 2017 Miroslaw Romanowski Medal. He is renowned for his pioneering contributions to environmental systems engineering.

Zhongwei Chen is the recipient of the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry. He is also the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Clean Energy.

In addition to impacting the outside world, Waterloo’s commitment to environmentalism drives our day-to-day work to make our campuses more sustainable. Tomorrow (Oct. 26) our annual Sustainability Report will be released. It documents our successes in making Waterloo more green.

As well, in the coming weeks, look for our Sustainability Strategy from the President’s Advisory Committee on Environmental Sustainability with its plan to improve our environmental performance in the years ahead.

At Waterloo, our innovative spirit constantly drives us to answer the global challenges facing our planet.

Velocity Start @Environment kicks off today

Have you ever had an exciting idea for a startup but didn’t know where to begin? Velocity and Environment are here to help!

Velocity has partnered with the Faculty of Environment to offer startup coaching and entrepreneurship workshops to students through Velocity Start @Environment.

Students can access free 1-on-1 coaching with experienced business advisors out of room 2004 in Environment 2 (located in the student centre of EV2), as an alternative to resources offered at Velocity Start in SCH. Students from any faculty can book a startup coach to mentor you as you explore entrepreneurship and seek guidance on how to build a business.

Join Velocity and the Faculty of Environment today for the Velocity Start @Environment Kickoff with an opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to socialize over refreshments, featuring remarks from Dean of Environment Jean Andrey and Director of Velocity Jay Shah. Following the reception, Velocity will host a panel discussion with several startup founders, entrepreneurs, and Environment alumni who will share their experiences and insights about the path to entrepreneurship and where it might lead. Please register. 

The event takes place at 5:30 p.m. in EV2-2002.

Determining the market price of water; other notes

Space is still available to attend the second of the Fall 2017 Research Talks series, “Global Assessment of Payments for Watershed Services” with Economics Professor Roy Brouwer. Please register to attend.

Learn why the assessment of payment schemes for watershed services is important to determining the appropriate market price and how it will impact the conservation of water resources.

The series, hosted by the Office of Research, celebrates research and provides an opportunity for staff, faculty, and students to learn more about some of the life-changing research underway at Waterloo.

Light refreshments will be provided but feel free to bring your lunch. Research Talks is supported by the Research Support Fund.

The Writing Centre is extending the deadline for the 2017 HeForshe Writing Contest to Monday, October 30.

The theme for the 2017-2018 contest is Intersections. Participants are asked to consider how gender equity fits into the larger equity story. Where are the overlaps and connections between gender and race, ethnicity, age, ability, class, faith, and/or sexuality? How do the perspectives of gender equity connect to the goal of equality for all people? Can working towards gender equity help to advance equity conversations more broadly?

The contest is open to all Waterloo students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Submissions must not have been previously published. Pieces submitted as part of course work will be accepted.

Submissions are due by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, October 30.

On Wednesday, November 1, Transformative Quantum Technologies will host a Quantum Quest Seed Fund (QQSF) information session between noon and 1:00 p.m. in QNC 1201.

The purpose of this session is to familiarize prospective applicants with the QQSF prior to the upcoming call for applications, which is set to open November 6, 2017. The QQSF promotes the development of new ideas and applications for quantum devices. It provides funding up to $50,000 per year for two years and is intended to uncover opportunities from diverse fields, outside the scope of researchers working day-to-day with quantum devices. Researchers with an existing tenure-track appointment within the Faculty of Math, Science and/or Engineering are eligible to apply.

The information session will include a brief presentation followed by Q&A. A light lunch will be provided. Registration is optional (to support event and refreshment planning). All prospective applicants are welcome to join the session.

The University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) Annual General Meeting is being held this week on Thursday, October 26 from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., with doors opening at 8:45 a.m. for light refreshments in DC 1302.

If you can't join in person and haven't already submitted a Proxy Form you can join remotely using Adobe Connect. Virtual attendance does not count towards quorum or the prize draws.

The newly-elected board members will be introduced, including two directors and a president-elect. All staff are welcome to attend.

For more information about the AGM agenda, visit the UWSA website.

Employers on campus next week hosting employer information sessions include Deloitte LLP, Qualcomm Canada and KPMG. Visit the employer information sessions calendar for more details.