"Everyone is a leader"
Our Vision
The Waterloo Region will be an oasis of wonder and possibility for children of all ages and abilities
Our Mission
We want to create the best community in Canada for Children and Youth
Our Model of Change
We actively seek out and engage communities and individuals furthest from the opportunity
Welcome to Smart Waterloo Region Innovation Lab
As you navigate our website, I hope you learn more about the cool things we are doing to make Waterloo Region the best community for children and youth. During the last year we have launched numerous pilots that have directly impacted over 500 hundred children and youth. We are helping to foster innovation and problem solving to transform the Waterloo Region into the best community for Children & Youth.
In all my work, I can say that the only true sustainable competitive advantage is Compassion. Innovation - or complex problem solving - is one of the most efficient mediums I know of to unlock the Compassion-state in all of us. If we want a better world, we need to raise and empower more compassionate Children & Youth and unlock and enhance their natural ability to be innovative and compassionate.
Do you want to innovate with us?
Let’s build a new future together!
Leadership team
Team leads and visionaries steering the SWRIL ship.
Leading the lab and empowering the team to do amazing things — also watering plants and cleaning up 'disruption' messes.
Social media, website, graphic design, and everything else communications strategy.
Managing, planning, and helping with youth-led gardens.
Leading development on AI projects like the chat bot and translator.
Student team
Currently working in the Innovation Lab and making all this possible.
Zac Waite
Programming and managing the full stack development of Region projects
Hargun Mujral
Natural language, ML engineering, web infrastructure and project planning
Amara Johnston
Supporting Youth Engagement and the Nurture Youth-Led Gardens program.
Hamda Farah
Supporting GIMI Impact and Lab Youth Engagement.
Oyshe Alam
Developing AI tools and chat bots that can engage in natural conversations.
Karen Ye
Supporting GIMI Impact and all Lab Youth Engagement projects.
Vithuja Selvendran
Supporting Data and Communications with user-experience-focused design.
Milind Kumar
Supporting Lab innovation projects like GIMI Impact, Youth Impact Project, and more.
Guruprasanna
Suresh
Supporting Data projects and AI development.
John Broderick
Supporting GIMI Impact and Lab Youth Engagement.
Glennis Angell
Program planning and development for the Nurture Youth-Led Gardens Program.
Connie Kang
Designing visual assets, photographing lab events, and visual storytelling of lab activities.
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Latest Projects
