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While much of the world is talking big data, the story in Canada seems to be our shortage of it.

Recent media reports about our country’s data deficit may be true to an extent, says Anindya Sen, professor of Economics, but there are actually good datasets available through open government portals. The challenge is fully utilizing them to make informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives.

Hong Kong-based alumnus, Calvin Choi (BA ’01), has always felt a close connection to the University of Waterloo, despite the distance. After many years as a global business leader, Choi developed a passion for the social impact disruptive technologies can provide. This week, he brought his passion to life through a multi-million dollar fund to support current Waterloo programs and create a unique post-doctoral program. Choi and the AMTD Foundation designed the fund to develop global talent in Hong Kong and Canada, and extending to the world stage.

“Let’s get lost to rediscover ourselves.”

Such a seemingly backwards sounding logic to self-discovery, isn’t it? That’s what we wanted though. We dreamt and planned for three years so that we could travel the globe and purposefully make ourselves feel as uncomfortable as possible.

Thinking about the challenges we face as a society can be overwhelming — almost paralyzing. When so much needs to be done, where do you start?

The United Nations (UN) believes you’ll start here on campus and where you live. They’ve identified our most urgent challenges and laid them out in a roadmap of 17 goals we can all work to achieve by 2030. The Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, cover everything from No Poverty (SDG 1) to Quality Education (SDG 4) and Life Below Water (SDG 14).
 

As a child, Anita Layton wanted nothing to do with mathematics.

She refused to follow in the footsteps of her father, a high school math teacher. So, despite her interest in the subject, she did not pursue a math degree.

Today, Anita Layton is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematical Biology and Medicine.

For the first time in 55 years, a woman has won the Nobel Prize in physics — Prof. Donna Strickland. This win has publicly highlighted that women are still under-represented in science, particularly in physics.

Cities could ease congestion and improve safety during snowstorms by tweaking the timing of traffic lights to take road conditions into account.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo collected data and ran computer simulations to determine that adjusting the signals at intersections in bad weather could reduce delays by up to 20 per cent.

#MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, #IdleNoMore, Occupy, personal pronouns, dis/ability rights — the last decade has seen a wave of social justice movements bring issues of identity to the fore.

Waterloo students don’t just want to learn about social issues, they want to take action; enter the 2019 launch of a new interdisciplinary program for our time.

I was almost an accountant.

Well, but for a few minor details. My complete incompetence with figures and the fact that I couldn’t stand my marketing course might have had a thing or two to do with my change of heart.

I started at the University of Waterloo with marketing and business in mind. Someone close to me had convinced me that a love of writing would never be enough to carve out a career. Business was reliable. Choose money, they said. Money leads to jobs, they said.

Megan Tong (MAcc ’09) is co-founder of Kanga, Toronto’s first Australian-style meat pie shop offering ready-to-go, hand-made flakey all-butter pastries with gravy fillings that Chatelaine magazine calls “comfort to go.”

Megan came up with the idea for Kanga during a KPMG work secondment to Australia, where she fell in love with the savoury delights. What started as an idea for a pop-up quickly grew into a successful chain of restaurants.