Entrepreneurship

“The climate crisis is our biggest existential threat,” said the University of Waterloo’s President, Vivek Goel, in his opening address at the Waterloo Innovation Summit on Friday, April 21. 

It’s no coincidence that the Summit, centred on sustainable transportation, took place on the eve of Earth Day.

The calls and commitments to reduce our carbon emissions have never been louder, but our global energy related CO2 emissions continued to climb in 2022.

Twenty years ago, a cross-campus collaboration in quantum science and technology was just a newly unfolding idea. Today, the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) has grown from this idea into a fully formed campus research community, and recently celebrated its 20^th anniversary. 

Today, on World Quantum Day, we proudly reflect on IQC’s impressive achievements made over the past 20 years, look forward to the future of quantum discoveries, and celebrate the new connections and collaborations that they have brought to the University of Waterloo community.

Students at Velocity Digital are bullish about artificial intelligence.

More than 35 per cent of the cross-disciplinary teams engaged in Velocity Digital, the South Campus Hall creator space, are using artificial intelligence in multiple ways, recognizing its power as a tool to solve problems at a capacity beyond the capabilities of human analysis of data.

The University of Waterloo and Velocity are officially expanding their presence in downtown Kitchener today with a groundbreaking event at the new Innovation Arena building on Waterloo's Health Sciences campus. 

Within a year since launching, Adaptis has raised $2 million from investors in Canada and the U.S. who specialize in cleantech, deeptech and renewable energy.

The company’s proprietary, artificial intelligence-driven software, born out of University of Waterloo research, enables circularity in construction, decarbonizing and material recycling for existing and new multi-family housing, commercial and institutional buildings.

Ten senior student teams from the Faculty of Engineering competed in this year’s Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design, pitching their startup ideas to a panel of judges tasked with awarding $60,000.   

All 10 pitches showcased innovative thinking and entrepreneurial skills. The teams presented creative solutions to challenges ranging from an affordable at-home robot that helps non-verbal autistic children learn how to communicate, to a smart intervention that prevents tennis elbow.

The University of Waterloo community came together to cheer on eight finalist teams as they pitched to a panel of judges and a chock-full room of attendees at the Velocity $5K finals on March 30th in the Black and Gold Room at the University’s Student Life Centre.

This flagship event is the culmination of students’ hard work — from ideation to laying the foundation of their startup.

The region’s tech startup roots have deepened further now that two companies, Halion and H2nanO, have launched out of Velocity and into their own lab spaces. Joining the Velocity alumni community of 150 companies, Halion and H2nanO will continue to grow their sustainable solutions and, ultimately, further commercialization of their deep tech products while remaining in the local area.

Modern society relies on the products of traditional manufacturing processes: plastics, fuels, solvents, etc. However, these industrial activities release significant volumes of atmosphere-warming CO2 into the air and there is an urgent need to address this problem.