Research

The event starts with the Velocity Fund Finals $5K, where University of Waterloo students of any discipline who qualified at one of the $5K Qualifiers will present their ideas for a chance to win.

In the afternoon, 10 software, hardware and life sciences startups will compete for the chance to win one of four prizes of $25,000 plus workspace at either the Velocity Garage or Velocity Foundry. One hardware company could also win an extra $10,000.

The judges for the Winter 2015 Velocity Fund Finals are:

Photo credit: bert_phantana/iStock/Thinkstock

Hookah use is on the rise among Canadian youth, according to researchers with the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact. A new study reports that close to one in four high school seniors now try smoking hookah, an apparatus also known as a water pipe.

Waterloo researchers say microbeads and plastic debris of all sizes could be a bigger environmental problem for the Great Lakes than previously thought.

People tend to think of housing issues as affecting mostly young adults when it actually impacts seniors, those new to Canada, young families and others. Community members will have an opportunity to voice their concerns about housing and inform public policy at a discussion at the University of Waterloo next week.

Professor Markus Moos, from the Faculty of Environment at Waterloo, will lead a panel consisting of community members of all ages. This dialogue aims to build new common ground among different generations to push for positive change and solutions.

Most efforts to protect and restore wetlands mistakenly focus on preserving only total wetland area, with no consideration of ecosystem services provided by different wetland types, according to a new study from the University of Waterloo.

Prairie Pothole Region landscape showing high wetland density. Credit: Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Health Canada claims the beads are safe for use as an additive, but Leslie says they pose a danger to the aquatic environment.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo are warning that microbeads and plastic debris of all sizes could be a bigger environmental problem for the Great Lakes than previously thought.

Research from the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics shows that in quantum mechanics, certain kinds of observations will let you distinguish whether there is a common cause or a cause-effect relation between two variables. The same is not true in classical physics.

Tasked with caring for family members with special needs, young carers’ own needs are often overlooked by community agencies, according to researchers at Waterloo’s Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program (MAREP). 

A study of 58 adult and children’s community services in Waterloo region found that just 24 per cent of agencies routinely ask if there is a young person living in the household of a client they serve, and less than a quarter of those ask what responsibilities the young person is expected to shoulder.

A University of Waterloo physicist, along with two Canadian astronomers will be part of the science working group directing ASTRO-H, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) newest flagship x-ray astronomy observatory.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for Canada and Canadian astronomers,” says Brian McNamara, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy who also holds a University Research Chair in Astrophysics.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) announced yesterday that it has delivered its hardware contribution to the mission scheduled to launch in early 2016.