Current students

This spring marks a significant milestone for WatSPEED, the University of Waterloo’s professional, executive and corporate education arm, as the team celebrates 1,000 days in operation.  

WatSPEED's journey over the past 1,000 days includes the launch of flagship courses in generative AI, data science and machine learning, as well as enhanced partnerships and impactful events that support the unit's commitment to equipping Canadians with essential skills to navigate the evolving workforce.  

The University of Waterloo is continuing its tradition of raising the Intersex-Inclusive Progress flag and the Two-Spirit Pride flag to acknowledge the University’s commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment, where all individuals feel seen, valued and respected. The flag raising ceremony marks the beginning of Pride Month and National Indigenous History Month, and offers an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of both Indigenous and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities on campus and beyond.

There is no recipe or instruction manual for building inclusive spaces because they can never be constructed — they are cultivated. But if you ever speak to a member of the Games Institute (GI) at the University of Waterloo, they’ll share how they get to work and learn in an inclusive, judgment-free ecosystem. 

To build artificial intelligence you need droves of data. But if your data isn’t clean, the intelligence it produces won’t be either. AI systems learn from the data they are trained on, so any errors or inconsistencies in the data can lead to incorrect or unreliable outcomes. According to IBM, data scientists spend around 80 per cent of their time cleaning and organizing data, highlighting the importance of clean data in AI development.  

Aspiring entrepreneurs have long benefited from the innovation ecosystem at the University of Waterloo, an environment where entrepreneurship and innovation excel amidst a unique blend of co-op, work-integrated learning opportunities and customized wrap-around supports. 

This traditional innovation ecosystem, however, wasn’t reaching the needs of aspiring Indigenous entrepreneurs.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space mission, which involves collaboration with researchers from the University of Waterloo, has released five new portraits of the universe. These never-before-seen images showcase Euclid’s ability to unravel the secrets of the cosmos, enabling scientists to hunt for rogue planets, using lensed galaxies to study mysterious matter and explore the evolution of the universe.

With Canada in need of airplane pilots, University of Waterloo researchers are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help more of them take flight.

Supported by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), experts at the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) are enlisting a host of new technologies to train more licensed pilots in less time, for less money and in a more environmentally friendly way.

Keith Cleland (MASc ‘22)
Student, Faculty of Engineering
> Founder, Aqua-Cell Energy
> Velocity

As someone born and raised in Calgary, Keith Cleland initially thought he would end up working in the oil industry. “Being from Alberta, that seemed like the natural thing to do,” he says.

Nfinite Nanotech has raised $6.5 million USD in seed funding to scale its nanomaterial product: a coating for sustainable and biodegradable food packaging that will help divert plastic waste from landfills. The University of Waterloo startup is developing an ultrathin and high-performance material for consumer-packaged goods, like granola bar wraps and potato chip bags, that keeps them fresh longer without the use of excessive non-biodegradable plastic packaging.

On May 11, University of Waterloo students were invited to participate in the GOODHack24 challenge held at Communitech in downtown Kitchener. The hackathon challenge offered a space for students to brainstorm, explore and develop innovative solutions at the intersection of open data, technology and local sustainable resources to support affected communities experiencing heat inequity.  

GOODHack24 was co-hosted by the City of Kitchener, Go Open Data (GOOD) and GreenHouse, a social incubator at United College.