Entrepreneurship

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Bjorn Dawson (BASc '16, Mechanical) was just 20 years old when he bought his first home in 2012 – and got a great business idea in the bargain. 

The previous owners were avid gardeners, so he experimented by planting a few seeds himself and discovered how much better homegrown produce tastes.

Do you want to help facilitate the upcoming global transition to electric cars, but remain in Waterloo? If so, Matt Stevens (BASc 2004, Chemical; PhD 2009, Chemical) is someone to talk to.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree and his PhD from Waterloo Engineering, Stevens is currently the CEO of FleetCarma, a Waterloo-based firm that builds “the number one connected car platform for electric vehicles.”

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

A smart contact lens developed by University of Waterloo students for diabetics to monitor glucose levels is the only Canadian entry to make the shortlist in this year’s international James Dyson Award competition.

Thomson Reuters and the University of Waterloo are joining forces to fuel breakthroughs in data science and develop the next generation of global entrepreneurial leaders. The wide-ranging collaboration is valued at over CAD $20 million over the next five years and will include:

Applied Health Sciences Professor Laura Middleton 

With clinical drug trials failing to live up to expectations, researchers are looking at another way to fight dementia: exercise.

Studies show that people who are physically active have 40 per cent lower risk of dementia, possibly due to the growth of new neurons and blood vessels in the brain.

Chanakya Ramdev doesn’t mind being chief guinea pig as well as founder of Sweat Free Apparel, a startup company inspired by sticky personal experience during a Waterloo Engineering co-op work term overseas.

As he anticipates going into production and graduating with a degree in management engineering this fall, he credits his education with giving him the nimbleness needed to start from scratch and, hopefully, succeed in business.