Talent

In a bid to support the improvement of health care in Canada, WatSPEED, the University of Waterloo’s professional and executive education division is launching a cutting-edge program — Leveraging AI to Improve Health Care in Canada.

Starting in May 2024, this program will equip senior leaders and executives with the knowledge and tools necessary to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) for enhancing patient outcomes and organizational success.

Ontario's agricultural sector plays a significant role in the province's economy. In 2021, agriculture contributed nearly $10 billion to Ontario's GDP, employing 67,000 people directly and over 740,000 in related agri-food industries. However, the environmental impact of modern farming practices cannot be overlooked. Especially, large-scale industrial farming practices can contribute to soil erosion, water and air pollution and biodiversity loss.

And as climate change impacts continue to escalate, the imperative for sustainable farming practices becomes ever more pressing.

Fahim Ahmed is a computer science and finance student at Waterloo, and the president and co-founder of Waterloo Blockchain. But what feels like a direct path to success now, took him a while to find.

Ahmed was only 12 years old when he started crypto-mining.

“I had seen people talking about it a lot online, so I set up my own hardware to do mining in my bedroom,” he recalls. “I just wanted money to buy video games!”

In elementary and high school, Ahmed switched schools frequently, and had trouble staying focused.

A research team led by Dr. Richard Kelly, a professor in Geography and Environmental Management at Waterloo, uses a novel radar-based technology to provide more insight into snowpacks and their implications for climate change, water resource management and hazard prediction.

Snowpacks form in cold regions and high elevations, accumulating due to layers upon layers of snow. As they melt, snowpacks serve as vital water resources — feeding streams, rivers and reservoirs.

Digital Health 2024 at Stanford University showcased successful collaborations among tech and life science companies, government organizations and academia in advancing digital health solutions. As health technologies evolve, they present unprecedented challenges and opportunities to improve patient care and individual health outcomes. From remote monitoring to artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostics, these technologies facilitate data collection, analysis and innovative life-changing therapies.

Rapid technological progress is reshaping health care on a global and personal level. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the future of health by enabling predictive analytics, personalized treatment plans and medical image analysis. By 2027, the global AI in health care market is expected to reach $51.3 billion USD, as AI-driven solutions become increasingly integrated into health practices globally.

Announced at Times Higher Education (THE) Digital Health 2024 summit in Stanford, California, the University of Waterloo will take up the banner as host of next year’s Digital Health summit. The event, slated for April 10 to 11, 2025, will mark an important occasion in the University's continued commitment to pushing the boundaries of health care delivery through technological innovation.

President and Vice-Chancellor Vivek Goel underscored Waterloo's commitment to sustainable and responsible innovation in a video message.

Velocity-linked software company Float has secured $50 million in financing from Silicon Valley Bank to expand its financial services offerings to customers.  

The startup, which specializes in full suite corporate expense management software and cards, simplifies finance teams’ management of expense accounting. It serves businesses of up to 500 people, and some of Float’s 3,000-plus corporate clients include Neo Financial, Knix, Clutch and Nerva Energy.  

With an interest in academia and activism, Aaron Francis, a PhD candidate in the Global Governance program at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, stands out as an example of flourishing in every chapter of his life.

As the planet faces the pressing challenge of reducing plastic waste in the environment, new strategies for managing plastic waste are urgently needed. One of the biggest roadblocks to addressing the plastic waste crisis is the use of thermosets and rubbers — a class of non-recyclable plastics widely used in infrastructure, automobiles, planes, adhesives, 3D printing and chemical industries.