Canadian University Puts Tech Whiz Kids in 'Dormcubator'

jades writes "The University of Waterloo (Canada), sometimes billed as the 'MIT of the North' is establishing a residence 'incubator'. Meant to challenge 70 of their very top students in the tech and business fields, students will live together and work on 'the future of mobile communications, the web and digital media'. It's called 'VeloCity', and it launches in Fall 2008 after renovations are completed this summer."

I was going to say...

[zeromorph (1009305)]

I was going to say PIX PLZ but then, hey, why not start "Geek Big Brother" or "I'm a Geek... Get Me Out of Here!"

I'm not sure, that it is the best way to get serious things done, but it sounds fun.

nice

[wizardforce (1005805)]

We have a similar thing going at the University I go to. It's nice to be around other people that are as academically minded as yourself.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Isn't this similar to what happens in the Vatican? They have this kind of brainstorming thing too when they have to elect someone. Maybe they should call theirs a Mass-cubator.

Of course...

[ivan256 (17499)]

The school wants you to think of your profitable ideas while they still have some financial claim to them...

bs

[theheadlessrabbit (1022587)]

I have friends who go to The U of Waterloo, and not one has EVER called that school "the MIT of the North"

when asked, "how's your University", most of them just shrug and say "meh, it's alright, its a University."

MIT of the North? who said that? the Marketing department for Waterloo?

Re:bs

[by Anonymous Coward]

As a UW student it's true that UW isn't the most engaging atmosphere, it's full over no-fun over-achievers (the best party I can find on some Friday nights is the math homework party). But one thing is does have is great academics and international performance. It is definitely regarded as the best university in Canada for computer science, and possibly the best in north america. Many tech companies (Microsoft, Amazon, RIM, etc.) hire more UW students than any other university. It has the worlds highest cumulative score in the ACM competition. So although it's lacking in student engagement in many respects, calling in the MIT of the north probably isn't the worst title. At the very least it's as well respected in Canada as MIT is in the US.

Submitted anonymously because I'm gonna get modded down for bragging. Slashdot user taylortbb if you want to reach me.

Re:

[Potor (658520)]

I agree - (UW '92) - back then, I heard Microsoft indeed hired more grads from UW then anywhere else (could never verify that). At any rate, I did get hired at IBM (long since left), from an English programme!

Join the Imprint - that rocked way back when - we were always pissing of the engineers with obscure record and film reviews. It seemed all they cared about was Monty Python.

Re:

[eggnoglatte (1047660)]

Well, I have an MMath in CS from Waterloo. Let me tell you that UW is nothing like MIT or any other top notch university. UW's achievements are almost exclusively on the undergrad teaching level, and while that is great if you are an undergrad and want to be taught, it doesn't put UW anywhere in the same league as a true research university like MIT (or UofT, UBC, and McGill in Canada).

Re:bs

[wrook (134116)]

I'm going to have to agree. Waterloo isn't a bad school for engineering and comp sci. But it's not significantly better than any of the other accredited schools. As someone who has hired a lot of people in my career, I wouldn't even put Waterloo in the top 5 of the schools I aimed for. Mostly that's because the less well known schools have a lot of good people, but they are in less demand and thereby easier to hire. In fact the two best Canadian programmers (in terms of pure talent) I've met came from Calgary and Carleton.

In Canada, my opinion is that there isn't a good undergrad program for comp sci at all (I'm willing to be convinced, though). But all of the accredited schools are adequate. I'm not qualified to comment on engineering. However, my understanding is that Waterloo primarily achieved it's engineering reputation by being one of the first (if not the first) Canadian engineering department to really embrace a coop program. Now almost every school has one.

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

Only having experience with UofOttawa myself, I'd have to quite a agree at the quality of computer science programmes. However, you may want to take a look at the software engineering programmes. Personally I think that a software engineering degree can prepare you much better than a comp sci program for real world programming. Now I could be a little bias, because I have a degree in software engineering. However based on what I've seen from the two disciplines, and the people I've met in both programme

Re:bs

[p0tat03 (985078)]

Now almost every school has one.

As a UW student who's looked at many other Canadian co-op programs... I urge you to look more deeply into UW's co-op. I hate to be a braggart, but I do not exaggerate when I say that UW's co-op is leaps and bounds beyond ANYTHING any other Canadian university has, despite their best efforts. The level of support, organization, and opportunities you get with UW co-op far exceeds any other school.

With many other schools I feel as if the co-op is another thing to strike off their list "yep, we've got that too", whereas at UW you really feel that the school strives to make it part of its identity, and the results speak for themselves. We place a ridiculous number of students in jobs every term, incredible satisfaction and success rates from both employers and employees, and heck, companies come interview students on *our* campus...

Re:

[KillerCow (213458)]

MIT of the North? who said that?

American reporters.

Hmmm.

[WindBourne (631190)]

you code only in basic, and you rip a decent university. Let me guess. You were shot down for admission?

Re:

[theheadlessrabbit (1022587)]

If you pay close attention to my post, I am in no way ripping U of W.

I simply state that not one person I know calls it the 'MIT of the North', and I know quite a few people who go there.
This leads me to believe that its a BS line made up to sell an article.

I'm sure it's a very good school.

But why call it the "MIT of the North"? thats like announcing "hey, we play second fiddle to MIT", "we're not quite as good, but we're close."

Relax

[WindBourne (631190)]

I was just kidding. Every nation has what they regard as their own MIT. Some really do compete, and others do not. All nations are proud of what they have to offer, for in general, they have at least one person in each major fields who is competitive. After all, I noticed that North Korea was matching their child prodigies around the stage for the philharmonic. Says a lot.

Re:MIT of the North

[chronosan (1109639)]

Waterloo is only ONE degree north of Cambridge, and not too far west. On a global scale, they're in the same place.

Re:bs

[Francis (5885)]

I have friends who go to The U of Waterloo, and not one has EVER called that school "the MIT of the North"

when asked, "how's your University", most of them just shrug and say "meh, it's alright, its a University."

You're right on the first point, noone ever calls UW the "MIT of the North". As far as being just another university though, I'd have to disagree. I think UW is one of the strongest technical universities in the world. One of the things they like to brag about at UW is their results in the world ACM programming contest. (For reference, UW placed ahead of MIT 10 years in the last 15.) More anecdotally, having worked with graduates from all around the world, I'd really have to say that UW tends to produce more effective software engineers than other schools.

I can see how your friends might have mixed feelings about the place though - the administration can treat people quite poorly, and life as an undergrad can be stressful. As an alumni, I'm glad to have gone through it, and I'm glad not to be there :)

As for the original story, I'm glad to see UW doing something like this. Developing UW spinoff companies wasn't something that most of us considered, but this could really encourage that sort of thing. I think that's good for the school and the economy in the long term.

Re:bs

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

Speaking as someone in a Computer Science department in the UK, I'd put Waterloo near the top in terms of perceived reputation internationally (as would my head of department, who I discussed the university with a couple of weeks ago in reference to some historical parallels). That said, I'd put MIT in the same league as Cambridge for computer science - did some really great stuff a few decades ago, a few interesting things recently, but survives mostly on inherited reputation and marketing these days.

Funny summary

[kamapuaa (555446)]

That's funny, I never heard of MIT before, I've always heard of it as "The University of Waterloo (Canada) of the South."

Re:

[MightyYar (622222)]

I just want to know what chuckle-head thinks that University of Waterloo is significantly further north than MIT. Pretty sure that Boston and Toronto are roughly at the same latitude.

Re:

[Pope (17780)]

Well, he did move a few years ago and it's been a while since I talked to him. Tell him I said "Hello!"

Re:Funny summary

[elrous0 (869638)]

I wonder if the French Canadians secretly resent having to go to a school called Waterloo.

It's called 'VeloCity'...

[mykdavies (1369)]

but known as the "Dorkubator"

VeloCity? Seriously?

[IBBoard (1128019)]

They wanted an incubator for academically minded people and they called it VeloCity? Seriously? You'd have thought they'd have come up with a decent name rather than trying to combine a word for speed with a word for a large conurbation (which I doubt it is) in some jauntily capitalised construction.

The basic idea is quite good, even if it does just sound like a slightly more segregated version of "Halls of Residence" from the summary.

Waterloo vs U of T

[florescent_beige (608235)]

Waterloo has always fancied itself an industry supplier of productive bodies. My brother the EE went there and benefited from their work-term model. He got lots of practical experience which helped him land a job, although he took longer to get his degree than me.

I did an ME at the U of T. (Funny that the article calls Waterloo "MIT North", because U of T profs liked to call MIT "U of T South". Which is all very embarrassing, like stop with the MIT comparisons for heck's sake.)

The problem I have with this Velocity thing is: who pays and who benefits? Seems to me a chunk of everyone's tuition will go toward it, while only some will be in a position to get in. And those who can get in will be the ones who can deal with the extra work load.

In a perfect world, it would be the more clever who could handle the added work. In reality, it is the ones who have external support, like whose parents live not far away, or who come from richer families, that can focus on the work. The poor slobs who have 2 pair of pants for 4 years and who eat leftover mac & cheese for 5 days in a row wouldn't fit in.

I have no problem with elitism, it's a central component of hereditary capitalism, our beloved system. But not when the winners are being subsidized by the losers, that just strikes me as wrong.

I'm obviously biased, but I like the U of T approach: classical. Give everyone the same education and chuck them all into the market and let life sort them out. I hate the idea of university admins having the power to pick winners.

Re:

[Dulcise (840718)]

Mod perant up.
While this may benefit a select few, those that were already achieving well, those that aren't doing so well now have less places to look for good study practice, which I have found (at least on me) rubs off.

When you're working with people who party all the time, you tend to work less, when you are with people who study more, you study more. So now the struggling student has even less of a work atmosphere than before, and the students that don't need more of a work atmosphere and are doing fin

Re:

[p0tat03 (985078)]

Note: I'm one of the selected students for this VeloCity thing, so I may be biased. To answer some of your questions...

The problem I have with this Velocity thing is: who pays and who benefits?

The residence component is paid by the residents, barring a small (

Beneficiaries is everyone. In the worst case scenario nothing of real value comes from this, and nothing happens, money down the drain. In the best case scenario we're talking about massive new employment opportunities in the region, and potentially tens of thousands of high-tech jobs (the type the gov't likes) created

Campus news sources

[Valacosa (863657)]

If anybody is interested in further reading, the campus newspaper did a story on this [uwaterloo.ca] a couple of months ago, as well as the engineering newspaper [uwaterloo.ca].

What a waste

[Shohat (959481)]

It realy "grinds my gears" to see bright people waste their valuable time on Web/Social/Communication applications. If one thing in the world is currently going well, it's that field. That field has been developing well, there are plenty of bright minds working on it, no need to direct more geniuses that way.
Let them work on REAL challenges. Like better engines (we've been using the same combustion engine for 100 years now), better flight (which as not progressed much since WW2 jets), new energy sources (we never went beyond nuclear, which was 60 years ago). Why not let them work on wireless power, on indoor agriculture, desalinization technologies ? REAL challenges, not some hyper-popular niche that doesn't suffer from the lack of talented people.

Re:

[tinkerton (199273)]

I tend to agree with the anonymous coward (who in a cruel display of injustice got modded -1) that you got your priorities wrong. The real challenges are not so much technological, they're in areas like sociology, economy, politics. Technology is easy, that's why it can evolve so fast. Of course, technology is also an area where you can achieve a lot by just being intelligent.

But can they solve this?

[Smordnys s'regrepsA (1160895)]

What is the average air speed VeloCity of an unladen geek?

Re:But can they solve this?

[hool5400 (257022)]

African or European?

Re:But can they solve this?

[by Anonymous Coward]

As a current student at UW, I assure you, the correct option is "asian."

Re:But can they solve this?

[Carewolf (581105)]

What do you mean by unladen? A geek is always prepared. Maybe you meant unlaid?

Very smart

[WindBourne (631190)]

I have been trying to get the state of Colorado to offer various X prizes for needs of the state. For example, one of the suggestions was to come up with a means of stopping Pine beetles, which are devastating literally 100 of millions worth of lodge pole and other pines. I figured that ppl, roughly students, would go into the woods and look for lodge pole trees that appeared to survive the beetles. Once they do that, they could then look for what is different. What is amazing is that now a company in Mass (from MIT), has a way to stop them. They found it by following the method that I suggested. It appears that Colorado will spend somewhere between 10-100 millions to save just a fraction of the lodgepole pines. I suspect that other states will spend similar amounts or more.

All in all, Gov. CAN help fund ideas. The Canadian approach will help lead to companies with loads of ideas AND ppl to try and incubate them. My suggestion would only have costs iff an idea was worthy. Hopefully more universities will pick up the idea of integrating ppl, rather than separating them (and perhaps offer incentives).

"As Far Away As..."

[Taeolas (523275)]

Gotta love the article saying how they got applicants from "As far away as Wilfred Laurier" (a university that is literally a block away from UW) and UofT (90 minutes away by the 401). In any case, seems like UW's looking at ways to turn their new company budding into a formal process of sorts.

Actually, it's not *that* north..

[yebb (142883)]

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada - 43 28'
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - 42 36'

Most people forget that southern Ontario dips well south into the great-lakes basin.

Fact checking required

[Kinthelt (96845)]

The university has received applications from as far away as Wilfrid Laurier University

2 blocks is considered far away?

Oh god

[imgod2u (812837)]

As if CS/Engineering majors needed their college experience to be even more of a sausage-fest.

Re:

[Smordnys s'regrepsA (1160895)]

Fine - but will they use Linux?

That, or a Pirated copy of Windows. These are students, and therefore dirt poor :)

Re:

[AndGodSed (968378)]

Yep. Dirt poor and smart - therefore Linux.

Re:Oblig

[ResidntGeek (772730)]

These are "top students", not necessarily smart ones. There's usually a difference. There's little in this world in which the only way to succeed is true intelligence; hard work, organization, and time investment can almost always substitute (and are usually more important).

Re:

[cheater512 (783349)]

Cramming the night before (or even right before hand) also helps.

Re:

[Beardo the Bearded (321478)]

It's better to study the old exams (your professors will reuse the questions they developed over the years) and develop a rapport with the TAs / professors (they are people and like people who like them.)

Re:

[SolitaryMan (538416)]

There's little in this world in which the only way to succeed is true intelligence; hard work, organization, and time investment can almost always substitute (and are usually more important).

This is a sign of a good management, actually.

Re:Oblig

[p0tat03 (985078)]

Hi, I'm one of the students selected for this "dormcubator" thing, and I've had the chance to talk to many of the other students, as well as the organizers themselves. The focus of this initiative definitely wasn't to look for brainiacs with high grades - my marks suck. More focus was put on having an existing portfolio and history of pursuing extracurricular projects - building your own roomba on the side, for example. These are guys who have not only the smarts, but also proven their ability to work.

Re:Oblig

[pnewhook (788591)]

These are "top students", not necessarily smart ones. There's usually a difference.

I went thorough Computer Engineering at that university. Generally the top students in the first and second year that got by memorizing the textbook didn't do well in the upper years when you had to time manage and think for yourself. It was generally the creative types that could think on their feet that became the top students.

Given that the article says they are upper year students, I'd say that very likely they are also smart.

Re:

[CastrTroy (595695)]

I wouldn't really say that. I'm a Canadian, and most of our students aren't dirt poor. If these really are the best students, they probably have a scholarship covering their most of their tuition. Not only that, tution is probably only around $6000 a year. Not bad for the best tech school in the country. Also, being that they are the best students, they probably get the best co-op placements. If you have a reasonable sized scholarship, and get a good co-op placement, you could probably get through wit

Re:

[rs79 (71822)]

"I went to Waterloo and got through without taking out any loans[/quote]"

Me too.

Did yo notice this in TFA: "The university has received applications from as far away as Wilfrid Laurier University"

WLU is down the street about 4 blocks.

Re:

[russotto (537200)]

Unlikely. I can't remember where I read it originally, but a quick Google search brings up a report with details of a study of top universities. Turns out in the top 146 universities, 74% of the students are from the top economic quartile, 17% from the second, 6% from the third, and 3% from the last. I don't know how egalitarian Canada's top collages are, but if they're anything like the ones here in the States, it is unlikely that the average student is dirt poor.

You're conflating the students with the fam