Three companies founded by Waterloo Engineering alumni have made a national list of artificial intelligence (AI) startups to watch over the next year.
Avidbots Corp., DarwinAI and Otto Motors are among 20 startups highlighted by the Vector Institute, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to research in the field of AI, on its inaugural Vector AI20 for 2023 list.
Waterloo Engineering alumnus Pablo Molina is a co-founder of Avidbots.
“Each honoree puts AI to work in interesting and potentially transformative ways,” Vector executive Cameron Schuler said in a media release.
Avidbots, which makes autonomous floor-cleaning robots, was founded by classmates Faizan Sheikh (BASc ’11, mechatronics engineering) and Pablo Molina (BASc ’11, mechatronics engineering).
DarwinAI, an innovator in printed circuit board defect detection, features founders Sheldon Fernandez (BASc ’01, computer engineering), Dr. Mohammad Shafiee (PhD ’17, systems design engineering), Arif Virani (BASc ’05, computer engineering) and Dr. Alexander Wong (BASc ’05, computer engineering, MASc ’07, electrical and computer engineering, PhD ’10, systems design engineering). Wong and Shafiee are also professors at Waterloo.
OTTO Motors, the industrial division of Clearpath Robotics, was founded by Matt Rendall (BASc ’08, mechatronics engineering, MBET ’09) and Ryan Gariepy (BASc ’09, mechatronics engineering, MASc ’12, mechanical engineering).
Several other Waterloo Engineering alumni appear on the list as executives and investors at AI startups.