What’s in the Water at Waterloo March 28, 2007

What’s in the water at Waterloo? Beer & Whisky - Seagram’s chose to locate here in 1857 because the water was so good Now we have moved from “grain to brain.”

Mennonite Barn Building efforts, an example of community and collaboration. Edgar - Chatterbox Farm insurance story Edgar - has donated 257 units of blood, drives his buggy every 57th day to give to the community.

What’s in the water in Waterloo? The spirit of Barn Building!

The Record paid us a compliment at the start of our 50th Anniversary celebrations

Drawing from the water… Purpose/Need - 150,000 Engineers Practicality - Co-op Pragmatism - IP Policy Progression - Ideas to Application Philanthropy - Giving Back Projection - External Drawing from the water This is the Waterloo Pump, a product of our mechanical engineering department now used around the world to bring fresh water to those who need it. What’s in the water that is being drawn? Community Strengths (Churchill Quote) Purpose/Need - “wanted: 150,000 engineers) Practicality - co-operative education Pragmatism - Creator Owns IP Policy Progression - From ideas to applications Philanthropy - alumni giving back Projection - “Berlin: The Button Capital of the World”

13 of 16 years - Best Overall By Reputation 16 of 16 years - Most Innovative

Our Research and Technology Park 1000 acres $40 million investment plus land Local Start-ups: WatCom Open Text Home to our Accelerator Centre, which I’ll discuss later.

Our Cambridge School of Architecture revitalizes another downtown, this time in Galt.

This wider view shows the surrounding downtown area that we are revitalizing.

Our downtown Health Sciences Campus takes place in the shadow of old Kitchener warehouses. $30 million plus land

Satellite medical school $15 million plus health care!

Stratford Ontario and its Festival Theatre share a link to the water of Waterloo Region. We hope to build a liberal arts campus in Stratford.

The Accelerator Centre is in our Research & Technology Park OCE - related startup companies - $200,000 a year from OCE Examples of fruits of that partnership: Slipstream. UW Professor and Researcher En-Hui Yang completed an OCE research project and using the results of his research into data compression techniques founded an OCE spin-off called Slipstream, which received OCE Accelerator funding. The company was sold last summer to another local Waterloo success story that you may have heard of, Research in Motion. EnviroMetal Technologies (ETI) has very strong ties to UW and would not have come about without the OCE. Its President, John Vogan, was an OCE student through one of the original seven Centres, the Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research. His supervisor, Bob Gilham, made discoveries that allowed for ETI to spin-out from UW. Dr. Gilham would later be awarded the Order of Canada in 2002 for his research in groundwater issues as the first Scientific Director of the Canadian Water Network, in which the OCE was also involved in developing. It is a company that turns toxic waste into tap water, a vital skill in an age where our water supplies are at risk, and it came about through industry-academic partnership. The OCE was also instrumental in securing the support of Nortel for a UW researcher, Amir Khandani in Electrical and Computer Engineering - $10.3 million over ten years starting in 1999. That’s quite a partnership.

An alliance of the greater Toronto area, Waterloo Region, Guelph, Hamilton An alliance of business, academic and political leaders Its goal is to make the Toronto region a world leader in research intensity It accomplishes this by attracting new research-intensive companies to the region and supporting those already here Building private and public research capacity and working to enhance commercialization of that research Has focused on three areas identified as competitive advantage areas: biotech and the life sciences, ICT, and advanced manufacturing and materials science.

6th Decade Plan - Seizing Opportunities and Pursuing Global Excellence Think globally, act locally Waterloo’s plan to 2017

CTT (3) Canada’s Technology Triangle is turning into Canada’s Talent Triangle