Our new partnership with the University of Waterloo on the future of learning and work
Education can be a powerful equalizer, opening doors and creating new opportunities in people's lives. As a proud University of Waterloo alumnus, I've experienced firsthand the impact that an innovative approach to learning can have on a career. My sister also attended Waterloo, and it opened up many opportunities for her as well. The university's world-class co-op program taught me the value of hands-on, experiential learning. Today, as part of the Technology & Society team I am still doing exactly that: imagining, co-creating, and prototyping ambitious technologies to benefit people in collaboration with industry trailblazers.
In an era of rapid technological advancement, ensuring education can continue to fulfill that promise for everyone is critical. That is why today, I'm announcing a strategic partnership between Google and the University of Waterloo to explore how AI can shape the future of learning and work readiness. This collaboration brings together our expertise in AI with University of Waterloo's visionary educational approach. To kick things off, we will be providing a $1 million CAD contribution to establish a new Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning to explore new paradigms of learning and teaching. This partnership marks our shared commitment to redefine education and empower the next generation to thrive in an AI-driven world.
Professor Edith Law will be the inaugural Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning. Professor Law is an esteemed Computer Science professor and Executive Director of the University of Waterloo’s newly established Future of Work Institute, widely recognized for her pioneering contributions to fostering human-AI collaboration in the pursuit of enhanced creativity. She will be working closely with students and researchers to co-create AI-facilitated learning technologies and to answer some of the fundamental questions facing educational institutions today: How can we best prepare students for jobs that don’t exist yet? How do we evolve the learning experience to meet learners where they are? How do we make sure learners are ready for the workforce in an increasingly evolving world?
Learning by doing: The Futures Lab workshop
The centrepiece of this partnership is the Futures Lab: An AI Prototyping Workshop. This unique, hands-on learning lab is designed to get students actively involved in the development process. Interdisciplinary student teams will come together, multiple times per year, with University of Waterloo faculty and Google mentors to build new, AI-powered learning prototypes, with tools such as Gemini and AI Studio.
The first workshop, kicking off on October 6, will have students co-develop cutting-edge prototypes and receive direct feedback as they tackle challenges at the intersection of learning and AI. This hands-on approach will help students think critically and imagine AI’s role in education and society. The experience will culminate in a symposium where students will showcase their projects and share their insights.
Our ongoing commitment to Waterloo
We have a history of working with the University of Waterloo, and this partnership reflects our shared commitment to applying technology responsibly to advance learning. Together we co-created Kids on Campus, a program that brings Grade 4 classes to the university for a day of STEM activities. Google has also provided funding for the university's Women in Computer Science (WiCS) program and, most recently, we collaborated with the university’s Jimmy Lin Data and the Waterloo Data and Artificial Intelligence Institute to host a K-12 AI Day for Educators.
The University of Waterloo is recognized not only as Canada's top institution for computer science and AI, but one of the leading computer science programs in the world. In addition, Google’s Kitchener-Waterloo office is our largest engineering hub in Canada, contributing to the development of Google products, such as Google Cloud AI, Workspace and Android XR, used around the world.
The collaboration between Google's expertise in artificial intelligence and the University of Waterloo's distinguished position in educational leadership is poised to yield transformative learning experiences. These initiatives are designed to address the critical challenges confronting educators and students globally. We look forward to sharing the research and ingenious prototypes the Learning Labs produce, as we help to shape the future of work in Canada and around the world.
