Entrepreneurship

The way humans interact with machines has fascinated Calvin Chu for years.

“Interface is essential, yet it’s often overlooked,” he says.

He took courses on the subject as an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Engineering, looking at a wide range of interfaces to see what made them successful. The best ones, he says, were made for very specific tasks like music production and nuclear power plant operation. However, there were many other jobs that relied on imperfect hardware — most often the standard mouse and keyboard.

It was the fairy-tale ending that came true.

After securing a top place finish at this year’s Hult Prize Startup Accelerator located in an English castle, a Waterloo team will compete this week at the United Nations in New York City for $1 million.

The University of Waterloo’s flagship startup entrepreneurship program, Velocity, is bringing its pitch competition to Toronto.

Morteza Ahmadi PhD'13
PhD Alumnus, Faculty of Engineering
> Co-Founder, Qidni Labs 
> Velocity Garage

When Morteza Ahmadi visited a dialysis clinic he saw what kidney dialysis patients endure.

A video library developed by three University of Waterloo graduates could transform Africa’s education sector. The graduate entrepreneurs just received $60,000 from the AC JumpStart initiative to support their business.

HITCH is an educational platform that uses machine-learning software to curate videos based on African curricula while operating independently of Internet and power constraints. 

Waterloo alumnus Michael Litt (BASc ’11) has been named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40. Created by Caldwell executive search firm, the annual awards recognize business leaders who transform their industries while giving back to their communities and the country.

Meet the alumnus who’s changing the landscape of business in Canada.

Michael Litt (BASc ’11)

Age: 32

Education: Faculty of Engineering — Systems Design Engineering

Drawing on the insights of others can be a valuable step towards creating positive change. See what four Waterloo alumni have learned as they’ve worked to make a difference in the world.

One of the core principles underpinning the University of Waterloo’s entrepreneurship ecosystem is the ‘creator-owned’ intellectual property (IP) rights policy, which grants ownership to the inventor. This is grounded in the philosophy that providing incentive through IP ownership is the best motivator to ensure that commercialization of research provides broad societal and economic benefit.

Almost every entrepreneurial story includes a chapter on struggle, with business founders facing self-doubt, financial hardship and personal sacrifice. Waterloo alumni Nirbhay Singh (BASc ’17), who goes by the nickname Harry Sahi, and his business partner Zaham Mustaq (BMath ’17) are passionate about rewriting that chapter to make it a little more serene.