Entrepreneurship

Parents looking for educational resources for their kids have turned to Prodigy, a company created by Waterloo alumni Rohan Mahimker (BASc ’11) and Alexander Peters (BASc ’11).

Their role-playing game by the same name serves over 50 million students in grades 1 through 8, or about 25 per cent of kids in North America. Players create avatars that battle monsters in a magical world, defeating their adversaries by solving math problems.

Innovative solutions to serious medical problems took four of six $10,000 prizes up for grabs when student teams competed via video this month in an annual pitch competition for startup companies.

The new format, which replaced in-person presentations at the Norman Esch Entrepreneurship Awards for Capstone Design due to the coronavirus crisis, gave graduating students five minutes to explain their projects instead of the usual three minutes, followed by questions.

Synaptive Medical’s office is buzzing on a bright afternoon in February. Health Canada just approved the company’s latest product, Evry™, an MRI system for emergency rooms. Co-founder and president Cam Piron (BASc ’98) has just arrived on a redeye flight from Calgary, and he’s on his way to the office to give interviews and begin next steps with his team. 

“We have one system installed in Nova Scotia, and a few sites ready to go in Toronto,” he says. “It’s going to be very exciting for us to see physicians use Evry to treat patients.”

In our rapidly  changing  economy,  corporate leaders  must respond to  the  opportunities  and challenges of  the  shifting  nature of work.  Canada and the world need creative minds who can  expertly  navigate  disruption  and leverage new  technologies  to ensure a prosperous economic future.

Executives from the private and public sector explored how to future-proof the Canadian workforce by attracting and retaining top talent at the Waterloo Innovation Summit in Ottawa.

The University of Waterloo's startup incubator Velocity has launched a second venture capital fund targeted specifically at early-stage startups involved in health technology.

The announcement came Thursday evening in Kitchener during Velocity's tri-annual pitch competition.

I graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2013 with an MFA in Studio Art, and for the past seven years I’ve been teaching sessionally in the Fine Arts Department for various courses including Contemporary Art, Digital Imaging, and Digital Photography. Many of my students who take the introductory online Digital Imaging course come from a diverse range of educational faculties, and also social, cultural and economic backgrounds in life.

Martin Basiri
Alumnus, Faculty of Engineering (MASc ’13)
> CEO and co-founder, Applyboard

Martin Basiri was an ambitious undergrad at a top university in Iran when he decided to study abroad for graduate school. He had already built a startup, won a national innovation competition, and excelled in school.

If I’m being honest, I’m not really sure what I intended my career path to be.

When I was in high school, I was an avid reader and writer, and really enjoyed language and literature classes. My decision to study mathematics was a hasty one, and a surprise to everyone – including me.