Current students

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. 

In collaboration with the Balsillie School of International Affairs, the University of Waterloo convened a dialogue on May 14, with academic and industry experts at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), addressing the misinformation and disinformation crisis facing liberal democracies worldwide. The event delved into the escalating threat of disinformation and its profound implications for the future of democratic governance.

The Inter-Institutional Forum Scarborough Charter 2024 took place May 9 and 10 — bringing together scholars, leaders and advocates from signatories of the Scarborough Charter on anti-Black racism and Black inclusion for a dialogue on Black experiences, challenges and achievements within higher education.

Hosted jointly by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, this two-day event was an amiable and energetic gathering of intellect, activism and community building.

The University of Waterloo is well represented in the most recent cohort of companies accepted into the Y Combinator (YC), one of the biggest and most prestigious startup accelerators in the world.