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• Velocity Fund Pitch Competition finalists named
• ��ݮ��Ƶ partners with new overseas travel safety provider
• Citizen Hacks: privacy power to the people
• Thursday's notes

Velocity Fund Pitch Competition finalists named

Velocity has announced the top 10 finalists for the September 2019 edition of the Velocity Fund Pitch Competition. Each��early-stage startup will have a chance to win a $50,000 investment from the Velocity Fund on Thursday, September 19. The event will be held in downtown Toronto and is now sold out.

The finalists are:

• , which has built a 5G-compatible ECU called “The Aetherbox” that reduces greenhouse gas and operating costs through limiting idling for bus fleets;
• , which helps people find their perfect online reading buddies and book clubs;
• , which provides key satellite imagery, data, and industry-first algorithms to help growers maximize yields and minimize inputs;
• , whose mission is to make farming more profitable through intelligent data analytics;
• , which is building an online mapping platform, similar to Google Earth, but with millions of geographic data sets that city builders rely on;
• , which is building a benchtop enzymatic DNA synthesis device��that allows researchers to eliminate current wait times associated with ordering synthesized DNA;
• , which is developing a rapidly scalable, modular battery platform that simplifies and expedites the design process for electric powertrains, allowing vehicles to be battery-powered in an instant;
• , which��is revolutionizing baseball batter training;
• ,��which uses a proprietary machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithm to design better drugs more efficiently; and
• , which provides urban air commuting.

Be sure to follow Velocity on����or bookmark����to live stream the Velocity Fund Pitch Competition on Thursday, September 19 at 6:00 p.m. and watch these high-potential startups pitch for their first investments.

��ݮ��Ƶ partners with new overseas travel safety provider

A message from ��ݮ��Ƶ International.

Beginning September 4, 2019, one of the resources available to University of ��ݮ��Ƶ members as they prepare for, and execute, international travel, will change.��

Every year, more than 4,000 international trips are taken by University of ��ݮ��Ƶ students, staff, and faculty.��To help to ensure the success of these trips, ��ݮ��Ƶ International’s Safety Abroad Team has in place a process of evaluation, training, monitoring, and support, which can be found at the��Safety Abroad website.��

As part of these resources, the University has had a contract with a third-party international travel safety and security provider in order to provide real-time safety and security information and, when necessary, support.

To select the University’s provider for the coming five years, a multi-stakeholder Request for Proposal process (RfP) was recently completed.�� Launched in January 2019, the RfP built upon the findings of the 2017-2018 Working Group on International Travel issues.�� As of September 4, 2019, the University’s third-party international travel safety and security provider will be the Anvil Group (Anvil). Our association with our previous provider – International SOS – ends on that day.

The Anvil system will continue to be rolled out during an eight-week implementation period, and full details will be made available on the��Safety Abroad website.

We are excited to partner with one of the world’s leading travel safety and security organizations as we work with University of ��ݮ��Ƶ travellers to help to ensure that their international trips are successful.�� If you have any questions, please reach out to the Safety Abroad Team at��safetyabroad@uwaterloo.ca.

Citizen Hacks: privacy power to the people

by Benn McGregor on behalf of the Citizen Hacks Team.

This weekend in Toronto, a group of Software Engineering students will be running��, a new hackathon about privacy and socially beneficial technology. The event encourages youth to tackle the challenge of privacy in technology and begin to develop a design orientation that considers technology’s broader social impacts.

��ݮ��Ƶ is part of many aspects of Citizen Hacks. Besides the significant ��ݮ��Ƶ student contingent registered as hackers, the event involves many experts from ��ݮ��Ƶ.����will be giving a talk on privacy-enhancing technologies, while��Scott Campbell�����Ի���Paul Heidebrecht��will both be participating in a panel discussion on education for ethical design thinking. Among the judges is��Derek Rayside.

Citizen Hacks has also attracted significant interest from the wider privacy community. The keynote speaker is��, the former privacy commissioner of Ontario. A representative from Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society,��, will be running a workshop. Corporate sponsors include encrypted messaging platform��, AI startup��, and��, a privacy-oriented email service.

As society becomes increasingly data-driven, how we use and collect data has profound impacts on people’s lives, both online and offline. It affects not only the rights and opportunities of individuals, but also the functioning of our democracies and the ordering of society at structural levels.��

Citizen Hacks comes at a time when citizens and leaders in the business community and broader society are increasingly calling for privacy protections to be embedded in the design of technology. For example, over 200 CEOs of leading companies that are part of Business Roundtable recently��. Also, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation calls for��.

In organizing and participating in Citizen Hacks, ��ݮ��Ƶ students are joining students at other leading schools such as Harvard and MIT who have the opportunity to��. Citizen Hacks is part of this emerging trend of educational opportunities that encourage innovation in privacy-protecting technology. As Canada’s most innovative university, let’s lead change in this new frontier.

Thursday's notes

�ճ����University of ��ݮ��Ƶ Department��of Music��at Conrad Grebel University College invites all students, staff, and faculty to����that it sponsors and organizes. Auditions for��instrumental�����Ի���choral��ensembles run from September 4 to September 20.

The University of ��ݮ��Ƶ Staff Association (UWSA) is making a last call for shoppers to��15^th��Annual UWSA Shopping Weekend in Erie, Pennsylvania.��The trip runs from Friday, November 8 to Sunday, November 10. "Make a shopping list and have fun with your friends or family members," says a note from UWSA. "Shopping south of the border offers incredible bargains as there is no sales tax on clothing, children’s products and many other items in Pennsylvania and only 4 percent on everything else." The trip includes round-trip bus transportation on a deluxe bus and two nights' accommodation at the Country Inn & Suites.

UWSA also reminds us that summer is��not over yet and is inviting members to��join your friends, family and peers for a��Family Picnic at Canada’s Wonderland��onSaturday, September 14. The price includes park admission and an all you can eat buffet.

Women in Mathematics is hosting a��Chocolate Fountain Welcome Event��for new��graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members. Build your connections over drinks, fruit, games, and the aforementioned��chocolate fountain. Grad students, postdocs, and faculty who identify as female or any under-represented gender in math/CS, are welcome, according to a note from WiM.