Entrepreneurship

The solutions of tomorrow come from the strength of many in a diverse society, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told students attending Canada's biggest hackathon being held at the University of Waterloo this weekend.

Trudeau made a brief but inspirational and energy-packed pitch for the value of diversity during the opening ceremonies for Hack the North, an event which brings together 1,000 students from top universities in 22 countries to collaborate on technology ideas and solutions.

When delegates gathered in San Francisco for a big annual conference in his field earlier in 2016, Raafat Mansour was eager to find out how many of his former Waterloo Engineering graduate students were among them.

It has become his tradition to hold a dinner for former and current PhD students who attend the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS).

A biotechnology company that created a spray that helps farmers and growers protect crops from frost damage was among the big winners at the Velocity Fund Finals held today at the University of Waterloo. Velocity is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo.

It was awkward at first, but Rumman Rahman eventually got used to appreciative older women tousling his hair and wishing him long life during a student-led aid project in rural Bangladesh last fall.

Admitting he couldn’t help everybody in the desperately poor village of Khukshia was another matter.

Working on a shoestring $8,000 budget, just enough to construct eight wells and eight sanitary toilets, the University of Waterloo civil engineering student regularly had to turn down other area residents who came to him with the same pressing needs.

Nasser Abukhdeir will probably never get accused of going too easy on students who have hopes of turning their fourth-year design projects into commercial ventures.

By his own admission, the University of Waterloo chemical engineering professor is “brutally honest” when it comes to assessing the potential of ideas and the ability of Capstone Design student teams to develop them into viable businesses.

Elucid Labs, Knote and Acerta Systems Analytics will share $400,000 provided through the Spectrum 28 Mentor & Venture Program, a partnership between venture capitalist Lyon Wong and Waterloo Engineering.

Wong, who graduated from Waterloo with a degree in systems design engineering in 2003, is a co-founder and general partner of Spectrum 28, a US $170-million venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley.

The Air2O team (from left to right): Mohammad Ziauddin, Ryan Fahey, Ryan Jung and Suhail Lakhani

A scene from Star Wars and iced coffees from Tim Hortons provided inspiration for one of six winning projects pitched by University of Waterloo engineering students this week at the Norman Esch Capstone Design Awards competition.

A company that uses artificial intelligence to help make water utilities safer and more efficient was among the grand-prize winners at the Velocity Fund Finals held today at the University of Waterloo. Velocity is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo.

Teams have a chance to win a share of $125,000 in seed money and space at the Velocity Garage. Velocity is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo, and the Velocity Garage is the largest free startup incubator in the world.

With a deadline approaching to commit to their fourth-year Capstone Design project, friends Phil Cooper and Michael Phillips were torn between two ideas: one of them relatively straightforward and the other extremely ambitious.

They were still undecided when they went to listen to Chamath Palihapitiya, the celebrated Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Waterloo Engineering alumnus, as he urged students to set aside their fear of failure during an appearance on campus in September.

That was it, the inspiration they needed to go for it instead of playing it safe.