Entrepreneurship

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.

A Velocity health-technology startup is designing a new kind of self-adjusting socket for prosthetics.

The company, Vessl Prosthetics, identified a common concern for many amputees who use prostheses – poor socket fit. As Vessl’s CEO and co-founder Sydney Robinson explains, the limb inside the prosthetic can shrink throughout the day. For many amputees, that can mean a poor fit and discomfort.

The Waterloo School of Pharmacy implemented a mass vaccination clinic for COVID-19 immunization in 2021.

With many multidisciplinary teams working together in an environment not built for such a complex clinical system, researchers at the University of Waterloo created an app to support front-line workers. The app streamlined information flow to help solve logistical challenges that arose.

SDG Week Canada is a country-wide collaboration from March 6 to 10, with more than 50 campuses across the country hosting events. The initiative encourages cross-disciplinary engagement with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Around the world it is estimated that 1.8 billion people menstruate every month according to UNICEF. Yet menstrual equality, period poverty and the stigma surrounding periods continues to create barriers for those who bleed.

Waterloo’s globally recognized startup program Velocity launched an initiative that aims to help new companies in the health-tech sector access funding and get products and services in the hands of those who need them.

The initiative – Velocity Health – was officially launched at a kickoff event at the University of Waterloo. The latest stream of the Velocity suite of platforms was created to address the key challenges health-tech startups face.

Able Innovation’s robotic patient transfer platform has found a home in Ottawa.

The company’s ALTA platform, which enables hands-free patient transfer, will be used at Saint-Vincent Hospital, a complex care unit of the Elisabeth Bruyère health network.