October 22, 2013
University of Waterloo: “Canada’s Silicon Valley”
Annual Globe and Mail Canadian University Report says University of Waterloo is the place to be for students with big ideas and entrepreneurial drive
The University of Waterloo is “Canada’s Silicon Valley” and the place to be “if you’ve got a big technology idea to turn into a billion-dollar company,” according to the annual Globe and Mail Canadian University Report released this week.
The report highlights Waterloo’s “massive co-op program,” the largest in the world, as well as its prestigious research institute, the Balsillie School of International Affairs. It also points to the fact Waterloo offers Canada’s only undergraduate degree in nanotechnology engineering.
The Globe and Mail report is released in October every year. Information is gathered from professors, alumni and the universities themselves. “Most importantly, we spoke to real-life students about the good and bad of their university experience,” the report states.
Ryan Denomme, Waterloo alumnus and founder of Nicoya Life Sciences. Denomme's company came out of a fourth-year nanotechnology engineering project which he further developed during his master’s thesis at Waterloo.
Social entrepreneurship hub
A feature story that is part of the Globe and Mail report makes note of University of Waterloo’s leadership in social entrepreneurship, highlighting a startup, Cango Consulting Inc., founded by a grad of the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre. The story also notes the GreenHouse program, a social incubator at St. Paul’s University College on the Waterloo campus. Another feature story explores the innovative teaching and experiential learning happening on Waterloo’s Stratford campus which boasts undergraduate and graduate programs with a focus on the arts, digital media, business and entrepreneurship.
Waterloo’s “hotshot prof”
A “hot shot prof” is listed for each school in Canada. Larry Smith, adjunct professor of economics, is identified as Waterloo’s hotshot prof with his wildly popular TedTalk "Why you will fail to have a great career." The lecture currently stands at more than 1.8 million hits.
Smith delivers another sold-out talk this week as part of his lecture series about entrepreneurship. “So, you want to be a star?” will give students the strategies to take their careers to the next level.
The Globe and Mail Report identifies Mike Lazaridis as a notable Waterloo alumnus. Lazaridis founded RIM, now BlackBerry, while still a student of engineering at Waterloo. Lazaridis has supported the University of Waterloo through many generous philanthropic gifts including more than $100 million for the Institute for Quantum Computing.
