
University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook's Hackathon - meangeme
http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/news/facebook-hackathon
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10dpd
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, enabling students to gain valuable experience within top-tier tech
companies.

It would be great to hear of any other reasons for their success.

~~~
throwaway1979
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.

~~~
supersaiyan
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

~~~
OmarIsmail
Not sure what term you're in but startups - particularly the smaller 2/3 team
ones, can't absorb more junior developers. But if you're in 3A and above you
should be strong enough to hit the ground running.

There's also immigration issues. To get a J-1 visa the host company needs to
meet certain requirements.

In any event as a Waterloo alum currently doing a YC-backed startup in SF,
we'll be posting jobs in the next co-op round.

~~~
vowelless
I thought Canadians could work on a TN visa in the US with minimal
complications.

~~~
justjimmy
To get a TN Visa you need 3 years work experience in the relavent field
(there's a list) and it's on the whim of the agent you face.

1.5 years for me to go~ (currently in TO).

~~~
jarek
> To get a TN Visa you need 3 years work experience in the relavent field
> (there's a list)

This is completely inaccurate unless you mean without a post-secondary degree.
Tons of new grads head south on a TN straight after graduating, even if they
didn't do co-op.

~~~
cbhl
True, but if you're looking at those co-op/internship terms, the best you'll
get is a J1 because you don't have your post-secondary degree yet.

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otoburb
My understanding is that Waterloo has been a Microsoft and RIM software talent
poaching ground for over a decade. The Waterloo Engineering and CS programs
are known for their extremely high quality and rigour.

The recent string of higher profile alumni successes reinforces this
reputation and serves as a beacon for Canadian high-school graduate intake.
Now if only they would do something about the concrete jungle they call their
campus :)

~~~
guyzero
Waterloo was a MSFT poaching ground when I was an undergrad in 1992... well
before RIM was even on the scene. Macleans magazine has consistently ranked it
the best engineering school in Canada. They've been winning ACM programming
contests since the math building had the dinosaur pit
(<http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/cs/redroom/>).

As for campus being ugly... hey, you can't have everything.

~~~
acchow
It has now become a Google/FB/MSFT/Amazon poaching ground.

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x711li_yc
Waterloo seems to be killing it this week (BufferBox acquisition, virtual
brain, Facebook Hackathon)

~~~
shuw
Maybe I'm getting old (closing on 30) and nostalgic but the new generation of
Waterloo students are making me proud and seem to be going further than my
classes.

Although, I'm also gaining a little pride myself. I did was a research
assistant at CTN and built the first UI tool for building the brain model. And
I just joined Facebook and had the Waterloo students win the hackathon next
door on my second week :)

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sgreenlay
If you are interested in browsing the source for our hack it is on GitHub:
<https://github.com/sgreenlay/PYLONS>.

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AYBABTME
Congrats on the win, and cool publicity... but how can I get in there at 12k$
a year, plus a rent and food and other expenses. How much will it pay off,
versus my education at the University of Ottawa?

Given that I learn much more by myself, reading reference books, taking online
courses with coursera, doing projects by myself. Is there any return on
investment that I could expect from an education there, instead of my current
university?

~~~
paulgb
Waterloo has a co-op program where you switch off every four months between
working and school. The co-ops can be very well compensated, so many students
graduate with little or no student debt.

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speg
Came here to say this. I finished w/ $40k in the bank but the experiences gave
me so much more.

~~~
MikeKusold
How many years did it take for you to earn your B.S. with all the constant co-
oping?

~~~
kineticflow
An example schedule for an Engineering student is:

Year 1: School, coop, School

Year 2: coop, School, coop

Year 3: School, coop, School

Year 4: coop, School, coop

Year 5: School, school.

4 years and 8 months. Order may vary slightly.

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kitcar
As someone interested in recruiting from Waterloo, but not from the
school/area - where are the best places to make job postings / network?

~~~
stevenameyer
Well if your looking to hire Co-ops from the university here is the link
<https://uwaterloo.ca/jobmine/employers>

~~~
cbhl
Be wary the CECA has been known to give smaller employers sub-optimal advice.
You'll want to get someone who understands the process to help you through it.
If top students don't understand the benefits of working for your particular
organization it's possible that they'll pick a safe job at a Google or
Microsoft over you, and you'll get a mediocre student (or worse, none at all)
after the first round of matching.

~~~
stevenameyer
This is very true. The system is not optimal from an employer or employee
standpoint. But it is especially difficult if you are not a company with a
recognized name on campus. As a student it is difficult to weed through a
couple thousand job descriptions accurately.

~~~
joebobfrank
Exactly, I'm a student at waterloo, and there were over 900 job postings for
Software/Computer engineers. It's pretty much impossible for a student to read
through every one, so you have to make sure yours stands out.

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tetester
"Show me the gender distribution of my friends" - 178.72% Male

~~~
sgreenlay
178 is the number, and 72 is the percentage. Unfortunately the comma is easy
to mistake for a period.

~~~
cbhl
Sounds like an i18n nightmare waiting to happen; in some locales, the comma is
the period and vice versa.

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j-b
I was just in Waterloo at a database technical conference and most of the
folks I worked with were very smart people with BMaths from UW. Google, Sybase
, SAP, Oracle, Intel, etc.. all have offices to snap up the technical talent
there.

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mtw
Winning for Waterloo hackathon or global hackathon? it's not clear in the
article

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psobot
Facebook's global university hackathon.

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supersaiyan
Actually facebook has been recruiting a lot too, they had a meetup for
facebook interviewees the day before the official interviews, there were 100+
students there, I was really suprised

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meangeme
Scott talked about the win on CTV National News tonight, you can watch it
here!
[http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=820148&playlistId=1.1...](http://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=820148&playlistId=1.1066270&binId=1.811536)

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melvinng
Congrats Jinny, Scott and Fravic!!

~~~
fwilliams
Hello Melvin.

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ptrinh
In the US, there is Drexel University which also has an awesome co-op program.
Many students here had worked in employers like Fb, Google, MS, Amazon, ...
and then have fulltime offers.

So if you want to stay in the US and have the co-op, go to Drexel.

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ekm2
U waterloo:Expect my graduate school application in a few weeks time

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abbasmehdi
Are there details about how others did etc.?

Regards, Bitter UBC grad...

~~~
kevhsu
UIUC was 2nd. I was on this team. We did a Street Fighter browser-based game
controlled by webcam. You can play against friends over the internet in
realtime.

MIT was 3rd with a chrome extension called "minimap" that allows you to scroll
in your browser with smartphone or webcam. Also allows you to have a "minimap"
next to your scrollbar that shows a preview of the entire webpage

CMU got an honorable mention for a real time strategy (?) game called "The
Hackers" that is based on managing a team for a hackathon.

UBC was there, but I've forgotten what their hack was. Sorry! Was really tired
and nervous during demos!

Facebook showed me the time of my life. Eager to apply for a job there...

~~~
graeham
UBC made a "pager" for facebook using a LCD display and controlled by an
arduino. We built the hardware, case, and were able to push "pokes", wall
posts, and messages to the pager. From the pager, we had two buttons that
would push back to either dismiss the message or "like"/poke back.

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xspectre
Good job Waterloo. Water Water Water - Loo Loo Loo!

~~~
supersaiyan
it's Water Water Water - Wu Wu Wu

~~~
wensi
Proud to be a UW student!

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icewater
What does this have to do with ninjas or quotes?

~~~
goosling
icewater: Ninjaquote was our winning project for the regional Waterloo
Hackathon. It was a name chosen at the (nearly) last minute, when the domain
with the name that we originally wanted wasn't available. :) -- Jinny

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eloelz
as a Waterloo grad this year, gratz!

