<story><title>University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook&apos;s Hackathon</title><url>http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/news/facebook-hackathon</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>otoburb</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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 :)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>guyzero</author><text>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&apos;ve been winning ACM programming contests since the math building had the dinosaur pit (&lt;a href=&quot;http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/cs/redroom/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/cs/redroom/&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;p&gt;As for campus being ugly... hey, you can&apos;t have everything.</text></comment>
<story><title>University of Waterloo Students Win Facebook&apos;s Hackathon</title><url>http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/news/facebook-hackathon</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>otoburb</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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 :)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>stevenameyer</author><text>While Waterloo has been a talent poaching ground for Microsoft and RIM for a while, and more recently for Google, Facebook and the likes. The thing i think that really gets overlooked is the startup community in the area.&lt;p&gt;With an incubator residence on campus (&lt;a href=&quot;http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://velocity.uwaterloo.ca/&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;Another new incubator in the region (&lt;a href=&quot;http://hyperdrive.communitech.ca/#applyNow&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://hyperdrive.communitech.ca/#applyNow&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;An organization dedicated to helping startups in the are (&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.communitech.ca/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https://www.communitech.ca/&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;p&gt;The recent successes of companies like BufferBox and Kik, have showed that startups can succeed and thrive in the area.</text></comment>