Entrepreneurship

With their abundance of sunlight, deserts are valuable locations to harness solar energy. But in addition to sun, deserts also have an abundance of dust which settles on solar panels and reduces their efficiency.

This is the problem that Miswar Syed’s new company, Swish, is trying to solve with the help of Velocity, the University of Waterloo’s startup incubator.

Mushrooms are used to make plant-based meat alternatives, as a base for sustainable bioplastics, styrofoam alternatives, vegan leather products and more - so efficient and cost-effective fungi farming is foundational to bringing sustainable products into the hands of consumers. But currently, mushroom production is bottlenecked.

Enter Mycro Harvest, a startup that has recently joined Velocity, the University of Waterloo's incubator, to develop an artificial intelligence-driven mushroom smart farm.

The road to building a company with advanced technology from the ground up can be winding. 

For those who choose to travel that road in good company, meeting a co-founder can be methodical: taking on extracurricular projects while in school, attending professional networking events, tapping into family and friendships, and networking. But whether that relationship formalizes into a solid foundation that works in the startup’s favour can depend on more nebulous components. 

Smart cities are moving towards the automation of many essential services. Quality of life for city residents relies on the safety of its buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructures. Manual inspection of these infrastructures, besides being costly, is a tedious task that requires special skills and intense labour — especially when access to some sites, like bridges, is not easy. Due to the sheer number of bridges and inspection timelines, there is a critical backlog for inspecting bridges in Canada that requires an immediate solution.

Artificial intelligence has made protein design lightning fast, creating digital blueprints for cures to some of the most life-limiting ailments. While this means we now have thousands of new potential therapeutics, for these cures to be realized the designs need to be synthesized and validated in a laboratory environment, which can take a considerable amount of time.

On July 19th, the University of Waterloo community came together to support seven finalist teams as they pitched their business ideas for a chance at one of four $5,000 grants, and one $500 grant for People’s Choice Award. 

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. 

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