Each year, colleagues from across the University of Waterloo come together for AI Discovery Day, sharing practical experiences, emerging ideas, and responsible approaches to artificial intelligence in teaching, research, and administrative work.
2026 wrap-up
More than 300 members of the campus community gathered at the Science Teaching Complex on October 14 for the second AI Discovery Day at the University of Waterloo. The event brought colleagues together to share practical experiences, emerging ideas, and responsible approaches to AI in teaching, research, and administrative work.
The morning opened with two keynotes. Mat Thijssen, Waterloo's Director of Sustainability, looked at the environmental cost of the AI buildout, including the water used to cool data centres, the demand for chips, copper, and other materials, and electricity use that is growing faster than grids can keep up with.
The morning opened with two keynotes. Mat Thijssen, Waterloo's Director of Sustainability, looked at the environmental cost of the AI buildout, including the water used to cool data centres, the demand for chips, copper, and other materials, and electricity use that is growing faster than grids can keep up with. He asked whether it has to be this way and laid out what the campus community can do about it, from using AI more intentionally as individuals to how Waterloo approaches procurement, research, entrepreneurship, and partnerships.
Rebecca Sherlock, a PhD candidate and researcher with Waterloo's Critical Media Lab, shared how the lab uses critical design to build responsible innovation into the way technology gets made, and why that responsibility belongs to everyone who builds or uses these tools.
Thijssen and Sherlock were then joined by Kate Mercer, Engineering & Research Services Librarian, Adjunct Assistant Professor Systems Design Engineering, for a panel discussion moderated by Pavol Chvala, Director, AI Innovation and Systems Development in Information Systems & Technology (IST).
"Striking the right balance between responsibility and innovation isn't easy, but every conversation I had during the day made it clear how much our campus cares about getting that balance right," said Chvala. "This isn't a solved problem, and it's through open community conversations like these that we'll make progress as an institution."
In the afternoon, the program split into two rooms. The Teaching and Learning stream featured an AI-based virtual standardized patient for pharmacy education, a workshop on rethinking first-year programming when every student has access to a coding agent, and sessions on what students and co-op students are saying about AI. The AI in Practice, Responsibility and Future stream included a simple framework for assessing AI use cases at Waterloo, Co-operative and Experiential Education's (CEE) grassroots approach to AI readiness, an introduction to the Waterloo Region AI Coalition, and practical guidance on choosing the right Copilot tool for the job.
The day was made possible by a team of volunteers from across campus, along with the many presenters who shared their work.
We want to hear from you
Whether you attended AI Discovery Day or weren't able to make it, the organizers would like to hear from you. Your feedback will help shape future events, and the short survey takes about three to five minutes.