2020 was a year we will never forget. It was not the year we expected, but in true Warrior spirit, our students and the team at Stratford showed their resiliency, ambition, courage, creativity, and ability to shape the future and overcome many challenges. Here are a few of the highlights we are celebrating from this past year.
Lennart Nacke has partnered with Alpha Labs, Wiggles 3D, and MLD Solutions to help these companies tackle challenging problems they are facing. Mitacs Accelerate grants support collaborative research between faculty at academic institutions, non-academic partners, and research interns.
73 students created innovative solutions to a privacy design challenge at uXperience | Think Privacy – the annual fall design camp hosted by the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business – competing for more than $7,400 in prizes. Students were challenged to design a solution inspired by the increased need for virtual connection brought on by COVID-19.
Convocation is a time to celebrate a significant milestone. This year’s convocation celebrations may look a little different, but the role of the valedictorian remains the same — to represent the graduating class and address the students, families and supporters who will come together to recognize this important day.
Valedictorians have been selected by their peers in recognition of their social and academic contributions to the Waterloo community. We are excited that Sim Purba, BGBDA '20 was selected for the Faculty of Arts.
Students have a unique opportunity to spend a week in November, hacking hockey and innovating with 5G technology.
When investors logged in to Y Combinator’s virtual summer 2020 Demo Day, they saw Waterloo entrepreneurship in action. OpenUnit, a company founded by Stratford School alumni, took part in the event, among three other Waterloo/Velocity startups. Y Combinator brought together a class of 198 founders from 26 different countries.
The University of Waterloo has become one of the first 5G smart campuses in Canada as part of a partnership with Rogers Communications that leverages the University’s global leadership in computing, engineering, creativity, and industry relationships.
This past year, GBDA introduced the third-year course GBDA 302, in which the final deliverable was a submission to a competition. “Map the System” has been available to Waterloo students for the past few years, but this is the first time where Waterloo has heavily pushed students to take part in it. Throughout the course, students were taught to use systems thinking as a guiding approach to understand complex global challenges. Map the System is a global competition that aims to challenge entrants to think differently about social and environmental dilemmas. Ever since its inception in 2016, Map the System has been using its platform to encourage a learning-first approach to social change – an approach where people take the time to understand existing beliefs and efforts before proposing new ones.
The internship is undoubtedly an exciting and important part of the Global Business and Digital Arts degree. After their third year of studies, GBDA students have the opportunity to work for a relevant industry company and to make valuable professional connections. Greg McIntyre, Digital Media Instructor at the Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, recently sat down with Calvin Zheng, a fourth-year GBDA student, to talk about his internship experience – which is somewhat unique from the internship experience of most GBDA students.
Kiera McMaster, a recent graduate of the Global Business and Digital Arts program, is a recipient of this year's Arts Award for Excellence in Service. She’s been highly acknowledged and rewarded for her innovative, dedication and execution to the Resource Bins at University of Waterloo’s satellite campus in Stratford.