The Problem Lab will be spearheaded by Waterloo economics professor Larry Smith, and is made possible by $300,000 in seed funding from Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, principals of Quantum Valley Investments® and founders of Blackberry.
Friday, January 26 marked the third annual Waterloo Women: Ideas, Makers, Innovators (WIMIn) ideathon event. Students, staff, faculty and alumni joined forces to inspire women to collaborate on developing world-changing ideas leading to potential products, businesses and a shift in mindset on pressing social issues. The event hopes to leave a direct and sustainable impact in supporting and connecting women and non-binary attendees to become trailblazers in traditionally male-dominated spaces.
Engineering projects that could be the next big thing will be on display at the annual Capstone Design Symposia taking place in March.
Formerly known as fourth-year design projects, Capstone Design is the culmination of the Waterloo Engineering student experience. During their senior year, students, generally working in teams of four, conceptualize and design a project related to their chosen discipline.
Ted Livingston saw the future on a smartphone while he was a Waterloo Engineering student doing a string of co-op work terms at BlackBerry.
Now, more than a decade later, he is determined to both shape that future and make it pay as founder and CEO of Kik Interactive, a mobile chat platform that achieved unicorn startup status - one of six unicorns with roots at Waterloo Engineering - with a US $1-billion valuation in 2015.
Accomplished alumni, outstanding current students and generous supporters were all celebrated when more than 400 people got together last November for the 2017 Waterloo Engineering Awards Dinner.
The annual event honoured graduates in three categories and a foundation dedicated to helping produce engineers, plus hundreds of top students for their academic and extracurricular achievements.
Pearl Sullivan, dean of Waterloo Engineering, wrapped up the evening at the University’s Federation Hall by urging everyone to wear their connections to the Faculty on their sleeves.
With a degree in systems design engineering in his back pocket, Sisun Lee was more than happy pursuing a career as a product manager at Tesla in sunny California.
But when an unlikely side project born of personal experience picked up steam, the 2014 Waterloo systems design engineering graduate took a deep breath and switched gears from electric cars to hangover prevention.
Neo is making a clean sweep inside hundreds of buildings throughout the world.
Launched by Kitchener-based Avidbots in early 2017, the robot is gaining a reputation for effectively cleaning and scrubbing large spaces in over 100 locations such as commercial and industrial buildings, shopping malls, airports, education facilities and healthcare centres.
Neo is the creation of Avidbots co-founders Pablo Molina and Faizan Sheikh, both alumni of Waterloo’s mechatronics engineering program.
The Waterloop team is on its way to building a faster, lighter and more sophisticated pod. So fast, they estimate passengers could one day travel from Waterloo to Toronto in a mere six minutes.
Having formerly used a levitation system that would allow the pod to travel completely frictionless, the student design team has moved to a different method to enhance speed.
20 teams, 3 minutes and one chance to wow a panel of judges. Velocity Fund Finals saw innovators take the stage and walk away with big prizes totalling over $125,000 in seed money. A full list of winners is available here.