Innovation summit delivers lessons in success

by Bill Bean.

Reach for opportunities and don’t be afraid to take risks: It was a message that clearly resonated with the 200 audience members, speakers and panelists taking part in the first day of the 2014 Waterloo Innovation Summit.

The ability to combine technological creativity with business prowess was fundamental to messages delivered by presenters at the second annual gathering of entrepreneurs, investors, government officials, students and academics, taking place at the University of Waterloo on April 14 and 15.

Matt Rendall, CEO of Clearpath Robotics, which just shipped its 1,000^th robot, said that Canada is “globally competitive. We punch well above our weight class.

“We’re doing quite well, but we could be doing more.”

There were many suggestions about where else Canada could be punching above its weight. Venture capitalist Wal van Lierop pushed hard for the University’s students to consider careers in innovative clean technology. “Clean tech is becoming ready for prime time,” he said. He said the early market for clean tech was about $500 million, but suggested the future market could be up to $4 trillion. “We’ve have to kiss a lot of frogs, but now we are starting to find princes.”

Rendall told the audience he came to get them “jazzed about robotics,” saying advanced robotics is among the top dozen disruptive technologies of the next decade, with a $6 trillion potential. The audience laughed as he told of his company’s early robots (“Fail fast, fail cheap, fail often”), some of which are now a coffee table and a lamp at the corporate office. He also told them of early support from the University of Waterloo, and how the university’s purchase of a robot, his company’s first sale, was parlayed into a successful business.

The first day of the summit featured a wide-ranging discussion of the future potential for additive manufacturing, advanced robotics, telecommunications, clean-tech innovation and internet-enabled consumer devices.

Whitney Rockley, co-founder of McRock Capital — a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the industrial internet — discussed the huge opportunity presented by the internet of things — a revolution she predicts will see objects linked online at an even greater rate than people.

In a world rich with opportunities, presenter after presenter reminded the audience that Canadians could play a major role in all of it. Business leaders of companies both large and small said that Canada has both an international reputation and an edge.

Tom Jenkins, chair of Open Text Corp., Canada’s largest software company, conceded that Canada is a small country — “Canada’s GDP is two per cent of the world’s GDP” — but told the audience that “Canada as a brand has done very well on a global stage.”

Speaking to the success of additive manufacturing was Ehsan Toyserkani, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering and director of the Multi-scale Additive Manufacturing Laboratory at the University of Waterloo. He noted that the United States and China have committed up to $400 million each to additive manufacturing innovations, and pointed to developments as diverse as 3D-printed candy and superstrong aircraft parts as evidence of the ubiquity of the technology.

Venture capitalist Helge Seetzen said urged the students to consider careers in innovation technology: “Ideas are the currency of the 21^st century, and innovation is the one way companies can differentiate themselves from everyone else.” He noted that Canada’s well-educated population of university students was a valuable resource: “Canada has a higher per capita percentage of this resource. Canada could be a leader in the innovation economy.”

Day two of the summit will play out as follows:

Howard Armitage and Jim de Wilde will deliver opening remarks at 9:00 a.m., followed by a keynote presentation by Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble Inc.. At 9:40 a.m., a panel discussion entitled "The Role of Innovation Ecosystem in Building Dynamic Startups," with discussants Stephen Lake, Michael Litt, Mike Kirkup, Eric Migicovsky and Carol Leaman, will take place, followed by commentary from Iain Klugman.

The day's second keynote presentation will take place at 10:45 a.m. Susan Fonseca will deliver remarks entitled "@TheFrontier: Where Are The Women?"

The second panel discussion, "The Role of Government in the Innovation Economy" will feature John Knubley, Michael Horgan, Steve Orsini, and Kevin Lynch at 11:10 a.m.

At 12:30 p.m., a Twitter chat, "How Venture Capital fuels innovation," will take place. A spotlight session, "The Evolution of the Waterloo Startup" featuring Howard Armitage, will follow at 1:30 p.m. The third keynote presentation, "The Global Startup Revolution," by Torsten Kolind, will take place at 1:40 p.m.

The final panel discussion, "Managing Global Connectedness: The New Innovation Economy" will feature Abdallah Al-Hakim, Prashant Pathak, Ricardo Sodre, and Peter Harder, who will also deliver commentary following the panel event. Jim de Wilde will present a spotlight session entitled "The Waterloo Moment."

Feridun Hamdullahpur will deliver closing remarks at 3:05 p.m.

The detailed agenda and speaker bios are available on the summit website.

Photograph by Jonathan Bielaski.

 

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Youth to learn about careers in health sciences

Approximately 270 high school students and teachers from Waterloo and the surrounding area will explore careers in medicine and other health sciences at the University of Waterloo TD Discovery Days taking place today.

Dr. Patrick Brill-Edwards, a Waterloo alumnus, will deliver the keynote address for this interactive event. Dr. Brill-Edwards helped develop Gardasil, the world’s first cancer vaccine. Gardasil is almost 100 per cent effective in preventing disease caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), including the second-most-common cancer among women worldwide, cervical cancer.  His talk will take place at 9:00 a.m. today in Hagey Hall.

There will be a panel discussion on related careers, as well as workshops for students, including Athletic Taping, Health Informatics, Recreation Therapy, and Viewing and Imaging the Human Eye.

The annual event is organized by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame and hosted by the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences and the Faculty of Science. For more information, please visit the event website.

 

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Profs lauded for teaching with new Feds award

by Jacqueline Martinz, Federation of Students

Three professors were recognized for their outstanding work in the classroom with the Federation of Students' newly established Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Awards. Dr. Josh Neufeld, Dr. Richard Ennis, and Dr. Chad Wriglesworth received their awards at the Feds Leadership Awards Banquet on April 2. As the professor with the most votes, Feds nominated Dr. Josh Neufeld to also receive the Teaching Excellence Award at the prestigious Partners in Higher Education event hosted by the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) on April 8.

A part of Vice-President Education Adam Garcia's action plan, the Feds Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Awards honour professors at the University of Waterloo that have inspired and motivated undergraduates. The winners were chosen by the Feds Teaching Awards Committee, which consists of five at-large students from different faculties. The committee conducted in-class visits, and considered comments by students in the nomination forms before making their decisions. This year, a total of 21 professors were nominated by students. The nomination period was from October 2013 to February 2014.

“The professors that we decided on were noted by students for really going above and beyond ,” said Feds Academic Affairs Commissioner Maaz Yasin, who ran the awards program. “Dr. Neufeld engaged his classes with interesting videos, and always showed enthusiasm. Dr. Ennis made his classes laugh, and some students said they never wanted to miss a lecture. Dr. Wriglesworth went off on tangents that entertained his classes, but eventually he managed to connect everything to the course material.”

Along with acknowledging the professors, the awards are a way for students to celebrate excellent teaching. Congratulations to the winners!

Photograph courtesy of the Federation of Students.

 

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Duever to serve as Ryerson's engineering dean

Thomas Duever, professor in Chemical Engineering, has been named Dean of Ryerson University's Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science (FEAS). The five-year appointment begins August 1, 2014. He will also become a tenured professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Duever's academic career at the University of Waterloo stretches back almost a quarter century. He obtained his bachelor, master and PhD degrees at this institution and spent 15 years in administrative positions, including associate chair of graduate studies, associate chair of undergraduate studies, and served as chair of the department for nine years. He is a member of the Institute for Polymer Research. His work as a professor earned him a Faculty of Engineering teaching excellence award.

Under his leadership, the department’s faculty complement increased by over 50 percent and the number of graduate students more than doubled. He also oversaw the creation and realization of Engineering 6—the dedicated, 5,400 square metre state-of-the art chemical engineering research building—and the move of faculty members into the quantum-nano centre.

He has previously served as chair of the Association of Canadian Chairs of Chemical Engineering, and he is a fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada.

 

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Exam de-stress sessions and other notes

Counselling Services has scheduled a number of "De-stress for exams" sessions for students. These sessions are billed as "35-minute focused breathing and movement sequence to re-set your mind and body so you can think, remember and problem-solve." No registration is required for these free drop-in sessions, which are being held Wednesday, April 16 at 11:30 a.m. in Counselling Services (NH 2080) and Thursday, April 17, 1:00 p.m. in SLC 2143.

Imprint, the university's student-run newspaper, collected several awards and honours at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association's 2013 Better Newspapers Competition. Imprint took first place in "General Excellence for College/University," first place in "Student News Writing," second place for "Student Feature Writing," and third place in "Best College/University Newspaper Website." The first, second and third place winners were announced during the Better Newspaper Awards Gala on Friday, April 4 at the Hilton Garden Inn. The Ontario Community Newspapers Association is a non-profit industry association comprising more than 300 member newspapers located throughout the province of Ontario.

 

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