Global Futures

Global and individual health care is experiencing disruption through a variety of technologies. 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 2024, the University opened the doors of the Innovation Arena, a new collaboration space within the Health Sciences Campus in downtown Kitchener, to further streamline commercialization pathways for businesses, fast-track delivery of health technologies and drive Canada’s next wave of economic growth.

This past year, students, alumni, researchers and staff made significant strides in addressing global challenges and advancing technology. These top 12 stories of 2024 highlight some of Waterloo’s transformative work shaping the future.

Many entrepreneurs build companies to tackle problems they’ve experienced first-hand — and Kurtis McBride (BASc ’04, MASc ’07) is one of them.  

The Waterloo Engineering alum hit upon his startup idea when he was a student on a co-op work placement at a transportation consultancy. The job involved manually counting vehicles, which McBride saw as outdated and inefficient, hindering the urban planning process.  

University of Waterloo student Anson Yu loves a design challenge, particularly one that she can work on with friends. Looking for an extracurricular project that was exciting yet achievable, Yu hit upon the idea of recreating a fun vehicle from pop culture. But which one?  

The University of Waterloo is strengthening its leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) education with two initiatives: an open online AI literacy course for its community and a Waterloo.AI workshop on generative AI in K-12 education. Together, these initiatives highlight the University’s commitment to fostering responsible AI knowledge and shaping a future where AI is thoughtfully understood and applied across all levels of education and society.

A Velocity health-tech startup focused on improving health-care communication has announced an exciting new partnership with Grand River Hospital (GRH) to address communication challenges within the hospital’s Renal Program. This collaboration — a pre-commercialization project spanning three months — will leverage MedInclude’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform to enhance patient engagement and streamline interactions between health-care providers and patients. 

In an era of rapid technological advancement and interconnected global challenges, as outlined in Waterloo at 100, Canada faces a pivotal moment: how to secure its place as a leader in innovation — without sacrificing what makes it unique. 

An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Waterloo is building systems that mimic the human brain to improve the power efficiency and performance of artificial neural networks like those used in autonomous vehicle (AV) technology.  

Karim S. Karim (BASc '99, PhD '03) is the associate vice-president of Commercialization and Entrepreneurship at the University of Waterloo and a professor of electrical and computer engineering. With a distinguished career that includes co-founding the Waterloo medical imaging spin-off KA Imaging, Karim highlights the University’s impact and vision behind its Innovation Arena.