Community

Some of the leading solutions that tackle pressing challenges in our society started with an idea. 

At the core of addressing gaps and challenges in Waterloo Region are University of Waterloo students, alumni and researchers, who are known for thinking unconventionally and working collaboratively for the betterment of humanity and our planet.

Building disruptive technologies is at the core of what we do, and since our inception, the University of Waterloo has also been disrupting the boundaries of health.

In a landmark development for health-care innovation and regional transformation, the University of Waterloo has been selected as the site of Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital’s new joint hospital, serving Waterloo-Wellington and beyond.

Rehnuma Tasneem (BASc ‘24) did not always want to become an engineer. Growing up she pictured herself as a nurse or a doctor, pursuing a career that held prominence in her Bangladeshi family and community — no one she knew was an engineer. 

Tasneem moved to Canada with her parents when she was in high school. Her interest in the sciences grew with a particular enjoyment for subjects like physics and math. Shifting her focus to these fields, Tasneem researched other areas of impactful work outside of health care and discovered engineering.  

A University of Waterloo partnership with the Accelerator Centre (AC) will further advance our commitment to creating social change through innovation with the launch of the Global Impact Creator Program.  

Waterloo researchers are renowned for challenging perspectives in their pursuit of truth and to produce knowledge that leads to transformative solutions for humanity to thrive in a complex future.   

Although universities are environments where new ideas and discoveries are cultivated, and a space for curiosity to flourish, researchers in many fields also experience hostile responses to their work.  

In Northern Canada, where temperatures drop to -50 degrees Celsius during the winter with four hours of sunshine per day, healthcare looks a lot different.

Jenna Jenkins (PharmD ’19) and Christopher Voss (PharmD ’19) began their pharmacy careers in the Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island) Region in Nunavut. All of Qikiqtaaluk’s 13 communities are located on tidal water and around half live in Nunavut’s capital and only city, Iqaluit, a three-hour flight from Ottawa.

The University of Waterloo marked the one-year anniversary of the Hagey Hall attack, a moment of hate-motivated violence that deeply impacted our community.   

More than 150 campus members gathered inside the Hagey Hall Hub on June 28, in solidarity and support of everyone who had to confront violence and experience trauma that day.  While standing together, the community was standing up against gender-based violence and all forms of hatred and bigotry. 

Canada’s population could double in the next 50 years, and the population of people aged 85 and older could triple, according to the Statistics Canada data released earlier this week.   

A group of Indigenous students from the University of Waterloo were among a delegation who visited Cape Town, South Africa this spring to gain international perspectives on environmental issues.