Talent

Bertha Bridget Kankam (MBET ’22) recently completed her master’s degree in business, entrepreneurship and technology (MBET) at Waterloo Engineering’s Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business. 

That is a worthy success in and of itself, but Kankam is not your typical MBET student. Better known to many as Yaa Yaa, she is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Ghana.   

Since its release in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has caused a stir, with a stream of op-eds and news stories focused on the ways the program opens possibilities for academic misconduct by students.

But for professors at the University of Waterloo, interest in the new AI is more about how it can be used in the service of education and how it impacts sectors across the economy.

When Joseph Abdelnour (PharmD ’24, in progress) accepted his recent co-op work term at Avalon Compound Pharmacy (ACP), he never anticipated the new challenges he would face.

With no children’s cold medications available in Ottawa and the inability to order from distributors, pharmacists were advising patients to visit nearby emergency rooms, where they must wait for many hours. The other common advice is to visit compounding pharmacies.

AI tools like ChatGPT are disruptive technologies for many sectors, including for higher education. But while such new technologies seem to change all the rules, they are no cause for panic.

That’s the view of education and academic integrity experts at the University of Waterloo.

University of Waterloo biologists, in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the University of Toronto, are working on a North American pilot program that uses moths as a management tool to control an invasive plant threatening Canadian wetlands.

“We’re one of the first 13 sites in North America to trial insect-based biocontrol for invasive phragmites,” says Dr. Rebecca Rooney. “This offers hope for chemical-free invasive phragmites control.”

The entrepreneurship ecosystem at Waterloo Engineering nurtures promising ideas into thriving enterprises. In our weekly Founder Fuel series, we look at new ventures and how they have benefited from that crucial early support.

Spurrya Jaggi (BASc ’18, mechatronics engineering) always had entrepreneurial ambitions. Combining an engineering degree with courses from the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business at Waterloo Engineering was perfect preparation to start realizing them.

Dr. Alison Smith (PhD '09)
Alumni, Faculty of Health
> Co-founder and CSO, Roga

Whether you are a student managing multiple courses at a time or navigating a full-time career, feeling stressed and anxious are common symptoms of being burned out and you are not alone.

This fall, the University of Waterloo’s Health Initiatives team launched the Graham Seed Fund (GSF) and invited researchers to submit their proposals for innovative health-care solutions. The GSF strengthens the University’s health system partnerships by providing resources for collaborating directly with a full range of health providers and clinicians.

As of January 1, 2023, the pharmacists’ scope of practice has expanded across Ontario with the ability for pharmacists to assess and autonomously prescribe medications for 13 minor ailments.

While new to Ontario, this process is not a novelty, as pharmacists in other countries and Canadian provinces have been improving patient care through pharmacist-led prescribing for years.