Thursday, July 26, 2018

Velocity Fund winners named

This article originally appeared as a news release from the Media Relations team.

SheLeads, a software company that enables female-focused organizations to better assess their programs, was one of the big winners at yesterday’s 22nd staging of the Velocity Fund Finals (VFF) held at the University of Waterloo.

Velocity, which will on September 28 officially celebrate its 10 year anniversary, is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo providing the resources and mentorship to help founders initiate and incubate high-growth startups.

SheLeads helps non-for-profit organizations geared towards assisting females 18 and under to assess their programs to fund initiatives, evaluate efforts, and influence policy changes. The all-female company was founded by Cassandra Myers, who last year graduated from the University of Waterloo with an undergraduate degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and is an alumna of the Greenhouse entrepreneurship program. 

“Organizations that work with young females and all non-for profits, in general, are just like real businesses; they do have the same problems,” Myers said. “They have a lot of money flowing through them, but they don’t have a lot of solutions that apply to some of the unique problems that they’re facing. So, our overall mission is to provide new and innovative solutions for the not-for profit space.”

During the competition, 10 companies pitched their businesses to a panel of judges representing the investment, startup and business communities. Judges considered innovation, market potential, market viability and overall pitch.

Micromensio, which is developing a platform technology for low-cost, disposable, wireless biosensor microchips for bacterial identification, was among the other three grand-prize winners of $25,000. Micromensio also copped the top hardware company prize, worth $10,000.

All four winning VFF$25K startups took home an extra $5K in intellectual property services from local firm, PCK | Perry + Currier. They will also be admitted to the Velocity Garage startup incubator.

The other two grand-prize winners of $25,000 were:

Hodlbot - puts your cryptocurrency investing on autopilot. Users can create, share, discover and execute any portfolio strategy on its platform.

HITCH - is a locally relevant education platform designed for African schools.

For more information on the Velocity Fund Finals, please visit www.velocityfundfinals.com.

Executive Actions on campus and in South Africa

It’s Thursday, July 26. Do you know what your president is up to?

As the summer continues, so does the active schedule of our University President. Here is a non-exhaustive list of President Hamdullahpur's recent activities on and off campus and a look ahead at what's on his calendar.

The President took part in the Beyond Entrepreneurship panel on Wednesday, July 11 with the Co-Founder of Maluuba and philanthropist Sam Pasupalak, Director of Velocity Jay Shah, and Co-Founder, Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of Kiite Donna Litt. The engaging discussion ranged from the challenges of being a student startup founder to the University’s entrepreneurial culture and the importance of philanthropy.

The following week saw President Hamdullahpur travel to South Africa where he met with leaders of local universities, government dignitaries and entrepreneurs. His time in South Africa began with delivering the Dr. Richard Maponya Annual Lecture on Entrepreneurship on Tuesday, July 17 to a capacity crowd of students, educators, business leaders and government representatives. The lecture was hosted at the Durban University of Technology in partnership with the Dr. Richard Maponya Institute for Skills and Entrepreneurship Development, and is named in honour of South Africa’s first black millionaire.

On Wednesday, July 18 the President delivered the opening keynote address at the Work Integrated Learning Africa Conference. The WIL AFRICA Conference is a premier event that showcases various models of co-operative education and work-based learning. The President shared his insights on how work integrated learning through co-operative education is developing the talent we need to create an innovative and thriving future.

While in South Africa the President took time to meet with university colleagues including the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng on Friday, June 20 and the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Stellenbosch, Dr. Wim de Villiers, on Monday, July 23.

The meetings were an excellent opportunity for the University of Waterloo to connect with two of the most well-regarded and established universities in all of Africa.

Tool shows Canada ranks 20th in United Nations’ SDG index

This article was originally featured on the Faculty of Environment news site.

A new indicator shows Canada ranks 20^th among countries participating in the UN’s ambitious global effort to address the world’s 17 toughest social and environmental problems, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A new online tool accessible to the public shows Canada is below its peers on Climate Action and Reduced Inequalities, in particular. 

Try the SDG Index and Dashboards Report 2018
Global Responsibilities: Implementing the goals

The University of Waterloo has experts available to discuss the SDG Index and what Canada needs to improve in order to realize the United Nations’ goals. The Faculty of Environment at Waterloo is host of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Canada (SDSN).

Check the full story for three Environment researchers' response to the results.