Bernie Weil, Record
staff
UW spawns new generation of sophisticated companies Record staff Waterloo is having a baby boom- but the "babies" are high-technology companies, godchildren of the University of Waterloo. 路 路 -路They're finTnjfP1IT:II1JJStreet,popping .up.m. offices uptown and in stark, rectangular buildings on the city's outskirts. They are creating jobs at a rate that has surpassed the city's traditional industries such as Labatt's Breweries and Joseph Seagram and Sons Ltd. It's been happening slowly but steadily for almost a decade. Typically, an office would be rented and two University of Waterloo graduates would set up shop to produce computer software. Few people even knew what software was but the students knew it was the coming thing. Although sa-called "high-tech" companies are being established throughout Waterloo Region, the City of Waterloo has been the main beneficiary, largely because of the fatherly presence of the University of Waterloo.
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Waterloo Region is on the threshold of a hightech boom. Record staff writers Joe Sinasac and Philip Bast have compiled a comprehensive report- the f1rst of two parts -on the new industrial revolution, its link to the University of Waterloo,-fts efhJct em the corrTFrruflity and its rosy future. Additional stones, photos on A 7. The second pnrt will be featured Saturday.
Indeed, in the last two months a series of major announcements has pushed Waterloo's high-tech boom and the university connection into the limelight. On April 10, computer manufacturer .-H.ewlett-Packard Canada Lt,d. became the "first co'mpany to decide to mbve to UW's industrial research park, taking out an option to buy 25 acres of the university's north campus. It will be the site for a facility to build electronic monitoring equip't for natural re-
source industries. The provincial government jumped into the limelight three days later with a promise of $31.1 million for a new computer research building at UW. The university threw in another $14 million to fill the place . Then in a double dose of good news, two major projects were announced on May; 14. The Digital Equipment Company 6f Canada Ltd.f doriated $25 million worth of computers to UW See Future--Page A2.
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.mover the next four years and gleeful uni'vetsity administrators reciprocated . ~y·_J>rOinising to do $40 million worth of. ·res~rch. A fleet of true~ delivered the fin;t'Digital shipment - $6.7 million worth;. of computer equipment - on . Thursday. The second dose was the long-delayed . announcenwnt by the Oxford Englisli DiCtionaryjlto computerize what is con.: sidered the definitive dictionary .of the English language. UW is, of course, involved to the tune of $6 million. The university is asked to put its computer knowhow to the test and find ways of putting the mammoth 12-volume dictionary into a computer. .There are other names that are beCC!niirig commonly associated with hightechnology - Raytheon, NCR Canada Ltd., and Electrohome have had links with UW fo~ars. ,;:wa~rloo's 6usiness development di~•. .Gerrv O'Ne!if can quickly list some three dozen firms that fit the high~p category. He adds that many more tti)"ltlonal companies supply high-tech firms with components for their prod-
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'AI1d a recent UW study found atxiut 60 compm.1ies that were started by stu,.>r< •., • • ' '
dents, faculty and staff over the yearsmany related to the university's worldrenowned computer research. The benefits of the boom have spun off into the entire region. Cambridge received a CAD/CAM centre from the province more than a year ago to help area industries switch to computer-aided design and manufacturing equipment. Other high-tech firms are dotted throughout the region, although nowhere in the concentration found within a kilometre or two of the university. Waterloo's development is a typical example described in a bestselling book called Megatrends. Author John Naisbitt describes a world where information becomes the product and workers create new knowledge instead of widgets on an assembly line. In Naisbitt's scenario, high-tech firms are the result of the information age while traditional manufacturing either declines or stagnates. In the transition period, millions of workers could be uprooted from their jobs and only those fortunate enough to train for the new type of work will survive. Some observers say new technology will create as many jobs as it will replace while others believe many jobs
will disappear forever. John Schey, a UW mechanical engineering professor who is an expert on the impacts of new technology, says, "those companies that embrace new technology may compete better and expand - hire more PEXJple. Those that don't embrace new technology may go out of business." That's the challenge the new breed of entrepreneurs face. And it's a challenge that requires a new outlook. While it's easy to observe the overall changes in industry, a puzzling question remains. That is, what do these hightech companies do? There is no simple answer. Some, like rs;~~ J,~; in Waterloo make er l'eririmals. Others, such as Electrohome, make television-like computer monitors. Still others write the programs that make computers function. Some tell industries how to use robots and computers to rrtodemize their plants. And some make the parts that go .: into computers and micro-electronic equipment. The high-tech revolution is a phenomenom that elates Waterloo municipal officials. The city is finally cashing in on year's of laying the ground-work for industrial development.