Monday, November 30, 2015

Waterloo sends delegation to COP21 climate talks

A message from the COP21 delegation.

The University of Waterloo is sending its first official delegation to the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris, France from November 30 to December 11, 2015.

The delegation is comprised of six Waterloo students and two faculty advisors, who will also be joined by an additional four students attending in support of the Kiribati country delegation.

The goal of this conference is widely considered for all 194 countries of the UN to commit to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets that would collectively keep global temperatures from rising no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Approximately 40,000 delegates from across the globe are expected to arrive in Paris over the next few weeks and over 80 heads of state will be in attendance, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Barack Obama.

While the event will take place in Paris, the COP21 delegation and Climate Students Group are bringing exciting events and opportunities to discuss and watch the negotiations from right here on campus.

Join the #UWCOP21 journey by following social media for more information and live updates! There will exciting content – from photos and videos, to blog posts, snapchat stories, live tweets and more!

Here's how to connect:

• Twitter: @envwaterloo and @climatestudents
• ​Instagram: @envwaterloo and @climatestudents
• ​Snapchat: @envwaterloo
• ​Facebook: Waterloo Faculty of Environment and Climate Students
• Climate Students blog
• IC3 landing page

Note: If you're sharing COP21 or climate change related content on your personal social media accounts, we encourage you to use our hashtag #UWCOP21 to help us spread the word. We'll also be able to re-share your content this way.

Velocity Fund winners named

HealthIM, a software company seeking to improve the emergency treatment of people with mental illness, was among the big winners at the Velocity Fund Finals held Thursday in the Student Life Centre’s Great Hall.

Founded by two Waterloo graduates from computer science and the psychology and business program, HealthIM synchronizes law enforcement and health care systems. Their software is based on the interRAI brief mental health screener.

"We're essentially translating the officers' observations into clinical language for the health practitioners, giving hospital staff a glimpse of what happened at the scene of an incident," said Daniel MacKenzie, co-founder of HealthIM after the judges announced the winners. "Today's win will help us to grow our team and bring this to as many police services as possible."

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.

The following three companies were also grand-prize winners of $25,000 and space at Velocity. They are all members of the Velocity Science community.

• Acorn Cryotech preserves the cells of youthful people today as a resource to draw from for personalized medical therapy in the future. This provides a bank of youthful cells, for use in genetic therapies that reverse damage that occurs with age.
• Sweat Free Apparel is a high-tech company for apparel, producing under-garments that prevent sweat stains from reaching and ruining your clothes.
• Thalo is building a new display technology to increase the battery life and daylight visibility of mobile devices. Today's win gives them an additional $10,000 awarded to hardware or life sciences companies to help cover additional startup costs.

“The exciting startups that won today are a small sample of tomorrow's innovative companies created on the Waterloo campus," said Mike Kirkup, director of Velocity. "We look forward to guiding them to success within the expanded Velocity Garage, which will soon grow to five times its size and support up to 120 companies."

During the VFF event, an additional 10 teams of University of Waterloo students competed for three prizes of $5,000 and access to Velocity workspaces. 

The winners of the Velocity $5K are:

• Most innovative: BioFlex Implant seeks to fix two major issues with current titanium intramedullary implants by using biodegradable polymers to create flexible intramedullary nails for pediatric orthopedic surgery.
• Best pitch: Finuvo is developing an automated painting station to enable hobbyists and designers to create visually stunning parts by applying a variety of colors and patterns to the surface.
• People's choice: Hash is an iPhone application that connects to your desktop device and web extensions in order to successfully authenticate several user accounts seamlessly using your fingerprint via touch ID.

The judges for the Velocity Fund $25K competition were Ameet Shah, partner, Golden Venture Partners; Dan Park, vice-president, Azure Capital Partners; Janet Bannister, general partner, Real Ventures; and Ted Livingston, founder and CEO, Kik.

The judges for the Velocity Fund $5K competition were Katherine Hague, vice-president community engagement & hackathons, PCH;  Andrew Jackson, vice-president, client services, Accelerator Centre; and Steve McCartney, startup services, Communitech.

For more information on the Velocity Fund Finals, please visit the Velocity Fund Finals website. 

Launch event for Ken McLaughlin's latest book

Students, faculty, staff and alumni are being invited to join Kenneth McLaughlin for an engaging dialogue and discussion of his newest book Innovation and Entrepreneurship are in the Waterloo Genome next week.

McLaughlin, a distinguished professor emeritus at Waterloo, explores pivotal moments that shaped Canada's innovation university and maps Waterloo's entrepreneurial genome.

Read an excerpt of the book that outlines one of the defining moments in the development of Waterloo's creator-owns Intellectual Property policy on the Waterloo Stories site.

The author event and book-signing takes place at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 9 in Room 0101 of the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase on-site and at the University of Waterloo Bookstore.

McLaughlin also published Waterloo: The Unconventional Founding of an Unconventional University in 1997 and Out of the Shadows of Orthodoxy: Waterloo@50 in 2007.

Brand refinement conversations continue; other notes

A reminder that you’re invited to share what University of Waterloo means to you, as part of the University’s brand refinement project. Join the discussion and help identify what defines Waterloo.

From November 30 – December 4, visit on-campus kiosks and the campaign website to provide your input. Your responses will help inform the guidelines, messaging, visuals and tools that will communicate Waterloo’s stories to the world.

Kiosks this week will be set up at the following locations:

November 30: South Campus Hall, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Environment 3, Williams Café, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

December 1: Needles Hall, 2^nd Floor, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Hagey Hall, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

December 2: South Campus Hall, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Student Life Centre, Great Hall, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

December 3: Velocity Garage, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; B.C. Matthews Hall, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

December 4: Needles Hall, 2^nd Floor, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.; Stratford Campus, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

And another reminder: the deadline for applying for a University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) Staff Enhancement Grant is Tuesday, December 1. Created in 2005, the grant is intended to support Waterloo staff in pursuing personal and professional development.