Current students

On Tuesday, July 7, the Office of Indigenous Relations invited Waterloo President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel and other campus community members for an event to celebrate the official launch of the Indigenous Strategic Plan 2023-2028. The purpose of this plan is “to assist in guiding the University of Waterloo towards its goal of indigenizing and decolonizing the institution,” according to Jean Becker, associate vice-president of the Office of Indigenous Relations.  

It’s said that an engineering degree can take you places. For Waterloo University alumnus Stephanie Holko (BASc ’04, chemical engineering) her studies led her somewhere extraordinary - swimming with orcas off the coast of Norway on an all-women research expedition.

Dr. Sharon Kirkpatrick, a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences, was recently named University of Waterloo Research Chair, along with six other professors across campus. The seven-year appointment began July 1, 2023.

Dozens of Velocity founders showcased their innovative businesses and technologies to a global audience at the recent Collision conference in Toronto. 

The tech conference brings together investors, government and major brands, while giving startups global networking and business-building opportunities. 

From Gen Z to baby boomers, workspaces in Canada now span across four generations. Students engaging in work-integrated learning (WIL) and their employers need to learn from each other and how to effectively work together. As part of the World Association of Co-operative Education (WACE) 2023 World Conference hosted at the University of Waterloo, international leaders in industry, government and academia to share their collective wisdom on cultivating two-way learning opportunities. 

Autonomous airline Ribbit has signed a $1.3 million contract with Transport Canada to start testing its commercial cargo aircraft to deliver goods to northern Canada, starting in 2024. 

“Ribbit ultimately exists to help improve access to transportation,” said Jeremy Wang (PhD ’23), co-founder and COO. "Our dream would be a future where anybody can receive goods quickly and reliably no matter where they are located.” 

Wang said the company’s initial goal is to serve northern Canada, where about 120 million pounds of food gets delivered annually. 

Laura Middleton, associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, has been appointed Schlegel Research Chair in Dementia and Active Living for a five-year term starting July 1, 2023.

How would the treatment experience and outcomes change for cancer patients if we could actively deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to their tumours?

What if large and complex kidney stones could be dissolved without the need for invasive procedures?

Would the success rate of fertility treatments increase if specialists could guide live sperm directly to the most advantageous location for fertilization?

Navigating the startup landscape takes confidence, speed and little help from friends. Those were a few of the key takeaways during a panel discussion with experts from Velocity, Waterloo’s startup incubator, on June 28 at the Collision tech conference in Toronto.

Here are four key takeaways:

1) Take advice, but remember you know your company best

I spent a large part of my childhood in a bomb shelter. I got married at 15 years old in a bomb shelter. I gave birth to a baby girl when I was 16 – in a bomb shelter. We escaped that bomb shelter in war-torn Lebanon in 1989 with a stamp in my passport for Canada. The stamp of freedom and opportunity.