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."

nice

[wizardforce]

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:Oblig

[Smordnys s'regrepsA]

Fine - but will they use Linux?

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

What a waste

[Shohat]

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.

You're so wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny I see this thing the opposite way. We have great technology all around, nothing is impossible. We just lack the reason to do anything and prosperity is distributed very unevenly. Some people are literally bathing in milk when other people are dying of thirst.

Unfortunately I don't think those people were intended to ponder the really important questions of humanity but instead the petty little issues you want them to think about.

Re:Oblig

[ResidntGeek]

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:Oblig

[CastrTroy]

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 without having any loans.

Re:What a waste

[tinkerton]

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.

Re:Burning what I got

[piemcfly]

Not entirely disagreeing here, but last time I checked, Colombia, Papua, Iraq, Mexico, Birma and Kashmir were all in a state of war...

I think your high opinion of the chinese system is also a bit... silly. Unless you agree with a confucian ethic (nepotism, corruption, yay?), mixed with dictatorial suppression (that is what the chinese model is after all... capitalist economics with political dictatorship). Unless you're talking about the old china, which was just as bad as Russia.

Re:bs

[CastrTroy]

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 programmes, I'd have to say that software engineering is by far the better programme.

Re:Oblig

[russotto]

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 families they come from. Students don't have a lot of spending money just because their parents have decent incomes.

Re:Oblig

[rs79]

"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.

Oh god

[imgod2u]

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

Re:Oblig

[Beardo the Bearded]

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.)

Of course...

[ivan256]

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