Thursday, October 3, 2019

Waterloo Innovation Summit reimagines health with technology

by Stephanie Longeway. This is an excerpt of an article originally published on Waterloo Stories.

Leaders in HealthTech today called for policymakers and health providers to urgently adapt to emerging technologies and respond to the fast innovation cycles of industry, researchers and entrepreneurs.

As technology continues to disrupt the delivery of global and individual health, scientists, entrepreneurs, medical professionals and policy experts told the audience at the Waterloo Innovation Summit that policy innovation needs to keep pace with the development of new technologies and advancements in processes that will enable practitioners to improve life-saving care.

Here are five ways to foster new pathways to bring technological innovations to market.

Support a strong Canadian HealthTech ecosystem

The journey from building a startup into a mature business is a complicated road. Many startups will sell their innovations to larger foreign companies, but Armen Bakirtzian, CEO and co-founder of Intellijoint Surgical, told the Summit audience his plan to help startups gain the skill needed to scale-up and thrive in Canada’s economy.

Bakirtzian has founded the Medical Innovation Xchange in Waterloo region to assist small HealthTech companies to grow their business in an environment where they can collaborate on the unique challenges they face trying to break into the industry.

Hear why Bakirtzian is investing in the Canadian HealthTech ecosystem

The founder of VeraMito, Chris Wormald, agrees with Bakirtzian and sees the health industry playing an important role in building a sustainable HealthTech ecosystem. He noted that Health Canada has made it relatively easy to enter the marketplace, but more can be done in the procurement process to prioritize Canadian companies. For example, Intellijoint has performed over 10,000 hip surgeries to-date, but only 50 have been done in Canada.

Wormald and Bakirtzian agree that we need to value Canadian-made innovation.

“We can build something here that is sustaining,” said Wormald. “There is a time for med-tech, the time is now and the place is here in Canada.”

Read the rest of the article on Waterloo Stories.

Campus emergency communication system will be tested October 10

A message from Information Systems & Technology. 

A test of the University’s emergency communication system is scheduled for Thursday, October 10 at 2:00 p.m. Test activation and deactivation messages will be sent using the following channels: 

• Tweets to @UWaterloo and @WatSAFEapp 
• WatSAFE mobile app 
• The ‘UW Emerge’ on-screen pop-up for desktops and laptops 
• The ‘WatSAFE Desktop Notification’ on-screen pop-up for desktops and laptops (Windows) 
• Portal alerts and push notifications 

Your feedback on how these channels operated, specifically the newly added Portal alerts and push notifications option, is appreciated (helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or ext. 44357). 

In the event of a real emergency during this test, please contact Police Services at 519-888-4911, or ext. 22222. 

Be sure to install the WatSAFE app on your device to receive this test message, and more importantly, to stay informed of campus emergency situations. Visit the WatSAFE website for more details. 

Executive actions as the fall term accelerates

It’s Thursday, October 3. Do you know what your president is up to?

It was a busy start of the academic year for President Hamdullahpur with a number of events and meetings taking place on and off campus. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the President’s recent activities and a look ahead at what's on his calendar.

The President helped kick off Orientation at the end of August and beginning of September by taking part in several events including meeting thousands of our new students at the International Student Orientation, the Warrior Welcome for undergraduate students and stopping in at the Grad House to talk with some of our new graduate students.

Following an active week of Orientation, President Hamdullahpur traveled to Zurich, Switzerland at the invitation of Times Higher Education to take part in their World Academic Summit from September 10 to 12, participating in a number of panel events with other global academic leaders.

The HeForShe Get Free Tour visited the University on September 16 to kick-off their cross-Canada trip to raise awareness for the global movement for gender equity. As a HeForShe IMPACT 10x10x10 Champion, President Hamdullahpur addressed the rally that kicked off the day and a special President’s Lecture that followed with actor and HeForShe advocate Edgar Ramirez and UN Women Executive Director Elizabeth Nyamayaro.

The University campus got a little bigger on September 17 with the grand opening of the CIF Field House. The Field House began out of the vision to be a place our students could use and come together all year round. With hundreds of community members in attendance, including 150 local grade 3 students, the President welcomed and thanked the crowd, and took part in the ceremonial Frisbee toss to mark the building’s ribbon cutting.

President Hamdullahpur traveled to the Embassy of France in Canada on September 19 at the invitation of the Royal Society of Canada to take part in the roundtable discussion and reception on AI and accountability.

The New Faculty and Family Social took place on September 20 and the President was there to personally welcome our new faculty members and their families to the Waterloo community.

As the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) gathered in New York City, President Hamdullahpur was invited to take part in a unique program with the Rockefeller Foundation called 17 Rooms. The aim of 17 Rooms is to bring together thought leaders in NYC for the UNGA to take part in 17 small expert groups each dedicated to having action-oriented discussions around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals with President Hamdullahpur’s group focusing on SDG 17 for Partnerships and Universities.

Student-athletes who performed at a high level in the classroom were celebrated at the President’s Academic Honour Roll Breakfast on September 24. The President honoured the 252 Waterloo student-athletes who maintained an 80 per cent or higher average, which was the most in the University’s history and higher than any other Ontario university. The President later helped kick off the Annual United Way Luncheon thanking past donors and volunteers and urging them all to continue their dedication to giving back to our community.

It has been an annual tradition for President Hamdullahpur to drop into some first-year classes and this year the President spoke to more than 1500 students in classes PSYCH 101, EARTH 121, PHYSICS 111, ECON 101 and CHEM 120. The visits also offered students a chance to ask the President any questions on anything and everything.

Alumni Black and Gold Day this past Saturday brought Warriors back to campus for an active day. The President was part of the festivities meeting with alumni from around the world and also speaking at a panel discussion from alumni on “The Modern Athlete”.

The President was also recently in Taiwan from September 30 to October 2 with Associate Vice-President, International, Ian Rowlands, at the invitation of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office. The President had the opportunity to meet with exceptional university peers across Taiwan and local Ministry of Education representatives to strengthen Waterloo’s ties in the region.

What’s coming up?

The Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics is set to launch on Friday, October 4 and the President will be there to help celebrate the beginning of this highly anticipated addition to our research landscape.

President Hamdullahpur will be taking part in a research and development panel at the upcoming Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada conference in Toronto on October 10 with other research and industry leaders.

Fall Convocation is right around the corner on October 25 and 26, and the President will be there to help celebrate and recognize our new graduates.

On Library Day, yer a wizard, Waterloo!

A message from the Library.

Each year during Canadian Library Month, the Library takes a day to give back to the students, faculty and staff that we serve daily. 

All University of Waterloo community members are invited to visit their favourite Library location this Thursday, October 3 for Yer a wizard, Waterloo! - a day filled with Harry Potter-themed activities, including: the Escape (room) from Azkaban, our Fantastic Beast therapy dog, Harry Putter mini golf, a green screen photo booth, trivia, displays and more!

There will be free snacks and participation in each activity will earn you gold galleons you can trade in for a variety of items from our magical goods shoppe. 9^3/4/10 would recommend.