Entrepreneurship

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.

The University of Waterloo is appointing Jay Shah, a former startup co-founder and Waterloo alumnus, as director of its flagship entrepreneurship program, Velocity – the largest free startup incubator in the World.

Shah joins Velocity from Google where the entrepreneur has worked since the tech-giant acquired the company he co-founded in 2012.

The Social Impact Showcase will be celebrating the achievements of the 2016 GreenHouse Fellows, a talented group of innovators who are members of an accelerated social entrepreneurship program. The Showcase is hosted by St. Paul’s GreenHouse, a social impact incubator at the University of Waterloo.

The Fellows have made tremendous strides on their startups and will be sharing their progress. Select Fellows also will be awarded Social Impact Fund grants for their next steps.

Salient Energy, a company developing new high-tech batteries that will enable the shift towards renewable energy, was among the top winners at the Velocity Fund Finals, held today at the University of Waterloo.

The University of Waterloo will host the Velocity Fund Finals next week, where Waterloo students and alumni will pitch their innovative startups for the chance to win funding to grow their businesses, and entry into the Velocity Garage, the largest free startup incubator in the world. Velocity is a comprehensive entrepreneurship program at Waterloo.

Making photocopies wasn’t part of Jordan Grant’s job description. Neither were taking minutes, writing reports or any of the run-of-the-mill duties you’d expect to encounter in your first-year work term.

Feridun Hamdullahpur, president of the University of Waterloo, and Jordan Grant, recipient of Waterloo Engineering’s co-op student of the year 2015 award for his Deloitte Tech Exchange competition.