Entrepreneurship

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Waterloo project wins top honours in Dyson competition

by Carol Truemner, Faculty of Engineering

Medella Health co-founders
(Left to Right) Medella Health co-founders Maarij Baig, Harry Gandhi and Huayi Gao

A smart contact lens that monitors glucose levels captured one of two international runner-up awards in this year’s James Dyson Award competition, the third University of Waterloo student project to win a top prize in three years.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Waterloo tech changes the way competitive swimmers train

by Brian Caldwell, Faculty of Engineering

TritonWear founder shows minister Bardish Chagger his tech at poolside

(Right to Left) TritonWear co-founder and CEO Tristan Lehari, Minister of Small Business and Tourism Bardish Chagger, and Warrior Head Coach Jeff Slater

High praise came with some practical advice Tuesday as the federal government formally announced recent financial support for developed-in-Waterloo technology that is changing the way competitive swimmers train.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Professor’s expertise a breath of fresh air for dust mask startup

by Kelly Pedro, Faculty of Engineering

Startup companies are cropping up all over Waterloo Region, but to grow they often need support.

That’s where University of Waterloo mechanical and mechatronics engineering professor Zhongchao Tan steps in, helping to sow the seeds for success.

Occupying space in the Lang Tannery building, Velocity has grown by more than 29,000 square feet to provide space for up to 120 startups to work and collaborate, and to benefit from co-location with Communitech’s network of industry partners and supports.

The expanded facilities will allow Velocity’s software, hardware, life-sciences and social entrepreneurship startups, currently housed in separate buildings, to grow as a community under one roof, and share insights through peer mentorship.

Date: Friday, October 28, 2016

Friday, October 21, 2016

Startup founder graduates with dreams of building more ventures

by Rachel Friesen, Faculty of Environment

waterloo grad rachel friesen

I’ve had the privilege of being surrounded by talented and hard-working individuals during my undergrad at Waterloo. Every single friend, mentor and influencer catalyzed my growth and should take partial credit for everything I accomplished in my undergrad: I’m graduating this fall as a result of their impact on my life.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Creating digital experiences in an Aladdin’s cave of technology

by Julie Stauffer, Faculty of Engineering

Pixel Tours has big ambitions for the creation of what it calls “mind-blowing digital experiences,” although you wouldn’t know it standing outside the company’s headquarters: an unremarkable three-storey building in an industrial park in north Toronto.

Descend into its basement digs, however, and you’ll discover an Aladdin’s cave of technology, including a $10,000 gaming machine, a virtual reality rig and massive 4K screens, not to mention a collection of high-end Lego.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

A simple solution relaunches stalled skate-blade startup

by Brian Caldwell, Faculty of Engineering

Bladetech founder Jeffrey Azzolin

There were many days Jeffrey Azzolin felt like giving up and moving on to something else.

Two years into his effort to build a better blade for hockey skates, the University of Waterloo graduate was right back to square one, wracking his brain for an entirely new design that would both work and be financially viable.

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Defying the odds in ‘down and dirty’ manufacturing

by Brian Caldwell, Faculty of Engineering

Jim Wei (BASc 2000, Mechanical) doesn’t mind admitting that he barely scraped through while earning his mechanical engineering degree 16 years ago.

Learning to persevere, to do what he had to do just to graduate from the challenging Waterloo Engineering program, has been invaluable to him in the business world ever since.

“It’s a very competitive school and you’ve got to compete to survive,” says Wei, who now runs a thriving manufacturing company in Buffalo. “Books are books, they don’t teach you everything, but the environment at UW taught me a lot.”