A recent graduate who earned financial backing through entrepreneurial programs at Waterloo Engineering is one of three alumni to make a national list of emerging leaders in business and academia.
Hannah Sennik (BASc ’19, systems design engineering) is a co-founder and CEO of Rekammend, a startup with a word-retrieval application to give patients who’ve suffered strokes or traumatic brain injuries their voices back.
Hannah Sennik is a co-founder and CEO of Rekammend.
She cracked the 2022 list of 50 Changemakers published by the Globe and Mail along with Martin Basiri (MASc ’13, mechanical engineering), a co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard, and Miriam Tuerk (BASc ’85, electrical engineering), a co-founder and CEO of Clear Blue Technologies.
Sennik and three classmates – Laura Bingeman, Nisa Sial and Abiramy Kuganesan – began working on their app, which is called řeka, for their fourth-year Capstone Design project.
They got support through the GreenHouse social impact incubator at St. Paul’s University College and funding from programs including the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design to pursue commercialization.
Rekammend’s platform uses predictive text, artificial intelligence (AI) and GPS technologies to help people with neurological impairments find the words they’re looking for six times faster than existing tools.
Basiri, who came from Iran to Canada to study at Waterloo in 2010, heads a multi-billion-dollar startup with software that uses AI and machine-learning technology, plus 1,500 counsellors in 25 countries, to help students apply to overseas educational institutions.
Tuerk and her company are building technology to deliver smart, clean, renewable, efficient and cost-effective power to billions of people who still lack access to reliable power. Its projects now use the sun and wind for telephone systems, streetlights and agriculture in 37 countries.
To read more on Hannah Sennik, go to Celebrating Hannah Sennik's Top 50 National Changemaker Award.