Co-op and Experiential Education

A quick pivot and a string of long days allowed Waterloo Engineering to connect with prospective students even as the coronavirus crisis picked up steam last month.

Instead of welcoming applicants and their families to the usual campus-wide open house during the March break - one of countless events cancelled as strict social distancing measures took effect - staff were able to send out more than 12,000 personalized emails with links to online videos.

In our rapidly  changing  economy,  corporate leaders  must respond to  the  opportunities  and challenges of  the  shifting  nature of work.  Canada and the world need creative minds who can  expertly  navigate  disruption  and leverage new  technologies  to ensure a prosperous economic future.

Executives from the private and public sector explored how to future-proof the Canadian workforce by attracting and retaining top talent at the Waterloo Innovation Summit in Ottawa.

The University of Waterloo's startup incubator Velocity has launched a second venture capital fund targeted specifically at early-stage startups involved in health technology.

The announcement came Thursday evening in Kitchener during Velocity's tri-annual pitch competition.

Martin Basiri
Alumnus, Faculty of Engineering (MASc ’13)
> CEO and co-founder, Applyboard

Martin Basiri was an ambitious undergrad at a top university in Iran when he decided to study abroad for graduate school. He had already built a startup, won a national innovation competition, and excelled in school.

In the world of startups, the University of Waterloo’s incubator Velocity is a giant. Velocity has helped launch over 300 companies with a remarkably vast array of business models and technologies that have received more than $1 billion in investment. It supported the creation of some of 2019s fastest growing startups and most recently launched Concept, a campus-focused pre-incubator to further encourage students to learn about scaling their ideas into a business.

It didn’t take long for Calvin Veenkamp to get his feet wet on a 2019 co-op term in the Netherlands.

The second-year environmental engineering student spent four months wading in and out of the inter-tidal zone of the Oosterschelde near the Yerseke, a small town where the main industry is shellfish cultivation.

From chip-resistant windshields to streamlining access to education, the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list highlights five entrepreneurs with University of Waterloo connections. Take a look at the innovators who are shaking up some of the world’s most competitive industries, one product at a time.

Chong Shen