Greetings from Dam Square: Second-year Knowledge Integration students are currently in Amsterdam, which was this year's destination for the annual ten-day international field trip. The field trip is the kick-off for the Museum Course, in which Knowledge Integration students practice interdisciplinary collaboration and design by creating original, functional museum exhibits. The courses finishes with an exhibition of the students' work in March 2015.

Photograph by Sally Lu.

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Armitage named top entrepreneurial educator

by Stacey Ash.

A professor of accounting at the University of Waterloo since 1981, Howard Armitage has long recognized the passion and potential waiting to be tapped in students inspired by innovation-focused education — and the powerful role budding entrepreneurs play in building the Canadian economy.

Armitage — now the Special Advisor to the President on Entrepreneurship — has been named Ontario’s top entrepreneurial educator by Startup Canada. The award recognizes Armitage’s leading role in shaping post-secondary entrepreneurship education in Canada.

“We are so proud of Howard's achievement," says Mark Weber, current director of the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre. "Like the entrepreneurs he is so passionate about teaching, Howard has always dreamed big and worked tirelessly to make new things happen in the marketplace and the world.  Fortunately, one of his biggest dreams was the transformation of how we train entrepreneurs to be significant contributors at the heart of Canada’s innovation economy."

In the early part of the century, “teaching entrepreneurship” was considered a near impossible task — beyond the realm of traditional academic programming. While there were more than 50 MBA programs across Canada, no graduate level-business program focused exclusively on entrepreneurship.

Armitage changed that in 2002, as founding director of Waterloo’s Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre, and its Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program. At the graduate level, Armitage designed an experience-based program to correspond with the stages of entrepreneurial venture and commercialization process.

The program was built on Waterloo’s existing strengths in experiential learning and as a leading startup generator — as evidenced by the success of companies that include Research in Motion, OpenText and DALSA.

In his role as special advisor and theme lead for the implementation of Waterloo’s entrepreneurship strategy, Armitage continues to work to grow opportunities to ignite entrepreneurial spirit in students at Waterloo and beyond.

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Bright Starts daycare holds grand opening

The Bright Starts Co-operative Early Learning Centre is celebrating its grand opening today.

“Waterloo aspires to be an employer of choice that enables top performance from staff members,” says Feridun Hamdullahpur. “This new facility extends the provision for daycare on campus to better meet the needs of parents who want the best care for their children, close to work.”

The childcare facility, which opened its doors in January, is an amalgamation and expansion of three long-standing daycare operations at the University, and is now the largest such centre in Waterloo Region, offering care for more than 160 children. The new centre cares for 20 infants aged up to 18 months, 60 toddlers aged 19 to 30 months, and 80 preschoolers aged two and a half to five years-of-age. The centre also cares for junior- and senior-kindergarten students in July, August and March as well as Christmas breaks, and PD days.

The grand opening event starts at 1:00 p.m. at the centre, located on the North Campus.

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Budget supports quantum research at Waterloo

The Province of Ontario renewed its investment in world leading quantum technology research yesterday, allotting $25 million to the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo over five years as part of the 2014 Budget.

 “We are extremely grateful that the Province of Ontario continues to create the conditions for Ontario, and Canada, to lead the world in quantum information research," said Feridun Hamdullahpur.

The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at Waterloo is among the top five quantum research institutes in the world. It brings together researchers from the Faculties of Science, Engineering and Mathematics at the University of Waterloo and has attracted investment from the private sector as well as the provincial and federal governments.

“Today’s support for IQC further positions Waterloo to take full advantage of the opportunities that quantum information science present,” said Professor Raymond Laflamme, executive director of IQC. “The discoveries in our labs and the technologies our researchers are creating will drive the growth of Canada’s Quantum Valley. Entirely new quantum industries will grow and thrive here.”  

The Province of Ontario made a $50M investment in IQC in 2006. IQC has also attracted more than $300 million in investments from the Government of Canada, Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis and the University of Waterloo. The Government of Canada announced in February a further $15 million for IQC over three years.

The provincial budget, revealed yesterday, committed an additional $500 million over 10 years to address critical maintenance repairs at universities and colleges. It reiterated the plan to build new campuses to ensure access for students closer to home, committed $250 million over three years to research infrastructure, which will help institutions leverage funds from the federal government and other sources, and announced new funding for the Trillium Advanced Manufacturing Network at Western University.

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Notes on the cusp of a new term

Spring Orientation will begin on Sunday, May 4. The week-long program is designed to introduce new students to all aspects of University life, and is an opportunity for the campus community to officially welcome those students while showcasing our faculties, residences, affiliated institutions, support services and people.

Residence Move-In will also begin on Sunday, May 4. Undergraduate and exchange students can begin moving in on Sunday after 8:30 a.m. Students have until the first day of lectures to move-in. Housing & Residences' move-in details for the new term can be found on their website.

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