Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

velocity.uwaterloo.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 121 posts

Re: University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

#41

Post by xspectre »

grannyg00se wrote: post #32
10dpd wrote: post #13

For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered: 1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP. 2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, e…

That co-op program is responsible for me being in software development. I started in CivEng, but every co-op term I had was a programming position. So I happily dropped CivEng and started doing what I had been doing on my own from a young age. The co-op program is also the primary reason I chose Waterloo. You can't beat paying for school as you progress through your terms. Back then you could earn enough during a wor…

I agree the co-op system is one of UWaterloo's greatest advantages. Not only do students earn money to pay tuition, they get work experience at global tech companies (Microsoft, RIM, Amazon, Qualcomm, Nvidia). Many undergrads graduate with an offer from one of the companies where they interned.

Re: University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

#43

Post by otoburb »

grannyg00se wrote: post #32
10dpd wrote: post #13

For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered: 1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP. 2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, e…

That co-op program is responsible for me being in software development. I started in CivEng, but every co-op term I had was a programming position. So I happily dropped CivEng and started doing what I had been doing on my own from a young age. The co-op program is also the primary reason I chose Waterloo. You can't beat paying for school as you progress through your terms. Back then you could earn enough during a wor…

For folks who don't quite understand the difference, the 4-month alternating co-op program at Waterloo is distinctly different from the long-term 12-16month co-op employment program at University of Toronto (aka Professional Experience Year).

Both have obvious strengths and weaknesses when looking at the employment time horizon vs. employment variety. When I applied to both schools in the mid-90s I viewed the longer employment term at UofT as higher value and ended up there.

In retrospect, I underestimated the value of Waterloo's 4-month co-op programs. At the time, I feared I wouldn't be able to work on projects requiring longer-time horizons having heard second and third-hand anecdotes of some students getting crappy 4-month co-op assignments.

In terms of defraying tuition costs, I figured earned salary was about equal between the two options (4-5 Waterloo co-op terms == 1 UofT PEY term).

Re: University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

#45

Post by supersaiyan »

throwaway1979 wrote: post #21
10dpd wrote: post #13

For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered: 1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP. 2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, e…

I think those are two very strong reasons. However, at the end of the day, Waterloo puts its students through the meat grinder. My nephew studies there and I am blown away by the stuff he is getting taught in first and second year. The thing that surprised me was when he tried to apply to Silicon Valley start-ups, he got very limited response. I think part of it is that people don't realize how awesome Waterloo is.

I agree on the second part, I can get interviews with google/microsoft/facebook, etc, basically the big tech companies. But its far more difficult getting interviews from start ups in SV

Re: University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

#46

Post by azundo »

10dpd wrote: post #13

For the last year I've been aware of the impact of Waterloo in tech and have conducted some research into why this might be so. Two things I've discovered: 1. Academic staff own any IP resulting from their research, making it very attractive and easy to recruit top academics. Almost all other universities assume ownership of IP. 2. An intern program that requires students to take an internship every other semester, e…

Culture is also a big reason. People at Waterloo talk about engineering/CS/whatever non-stop. A colleague of mine went back to do his PhD at Western and his biggest observation was that the kids in the hall weren't talking about what project they were working on, they were talking about parties and clothes and whatever. While selection certainly helps with this, the culture of a school also has a huge impact in this regard.

Re: University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon

#49

Post by mcrider »

supersaiyan wrote: post #45
throwaway1979 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think those are two very strong reasons. However, at the end of the day, Waterloo puts its students through the meat grinder. My nephew studies there and I am blown away by the stuff he is getting taught in first and second year. The thing that surprised me was when he tried to apply to Silicon Valley start-ups, he got very limited response. I think part of it is that people don't realize how awesome Waterloo is.

I agree on the second part, I can get interviews with google/microsoft/facebook, etc, basically the big tech companies. But its far more difficult getting interviews from start ups in SV

Americans tend to be ignorant about Canadian or otherwise foreign universities (I am an American who went to college in Canada).
Post reply on HN