Winnipeg student wins $120K scholarship to pursue tech dreams at U of Waterloo
Winnipeg grad wins $120K scholarship
13 hours ago
Duration 1:56
Social Sharing
A Winnipeg high school student with a passion for technology has won a $120,000 scholarship to study at Ontario's University of Waterloo in the fall.
Cherry Wang, a Grade 12 student at Miles Macdonell Collegiate, was one of 100 students selected from more than 350,000 applicants across Canada to receive a Schulich Leader Scholarship this year.
"I feel really excited, really happy about it because it is something that's going to help me and my family out tremendously," Wang said.
"It's an incredible award. Without it, I probably wouldn't be at Waterloo in the fall this year."
Wang moved with her family from China to Winnipeg when she was in Grade 4. At the time, she spoke no English.
Now she's mastered multiple coding languages and hopes to pursue a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and work at Google one day.
"At first, coding was pretty difficult. I didn't know what to do, but slowly I got the hang of it and I found it really cool that you can write just a couple lines of code and something incredible happens," Wang said.
Computer science teacher Sam Adamson said Wang is an ambitious and capable student who has become a role model for other students interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
"I met Cherry when she was in Grade 9. She reached out to me because she needed help with her Chromebook [laptop]. Since then she's just grown into the tech leader of the school," Adamson said.
She said Wang is very involved in computer science extracurriculars and helps lead the school hackathons twice a year. Wang is also involved in the robotics club.
"She's just such a fantastic student, a fantastic leader in the school," Adamson said. "I'm expecting to see her flourish in whatever it is that she's finding an interest in."
Wang said she's interested in pursuing multiple paths within the tech space, from electronics startups to app development.
Right now she's working on an artificial intelligence-powered productivity app to help people streamline scheduling.
"I have many paths and many things that I have planned out. But currently, I want to go further in tech and gain more experiences," Wang said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
42 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
What Are the Top 5 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Buy Right Now?
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to be the most important technological advancement in history, and it still appears to be in its early innings. As such, the space is still one of the most promising places to invest. When delving down to specific stocks to focus attention on, five of the best AI-related offerings to buy right now are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR), and GitLab (NASDAQ: GTLB). Each company has found a unique niche in the AI sector to exploit, and each has big opportunities ahead. Let's look at why these are among the best AI stocks to invest in right now for the long term. 1. Nvidia Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) have become the backbone of AI infrastructure. These powerful chips are used to help power AI workloads, and demand has been soaring. The company's wide moat, however, comes from its CUDA software platform. Nvidia launched CUDA two decades ago to allow developers to program its GPUs more easily. It pushed CUDA into universities and research institutions early on, which helped CUDA become the de facto software program for AI developers. In Q1, the company had an over 90% market share in the GPU space. As a result, where AI infrastructure spending goes, Nvidia is sure to follow. While a slowdown in data center spending would be a risk, right now, demand for AI chips is only getting bigger. This is being driven by cloud computing companies pouring money into AI infrastructure to keep up with demand; large tech companies and AI start-ups spending big to create new foundational AI models; and even countries making large investments to not fall behind in the AI race. As AI infrastructure spending continues to ramp up, Nvidia remains a clear winner. 2. Broadcom Another company taking advantage of the AI infrastructure build-out is Broadcom. Rather than designing GPUs like Nvidia, it's been focused on networking components and helping customers design custom AI chips. It also added a software component when it acquired VMWare. Thus far, its strategy is paying off. Its Ethernet switches and other networking components help efficiently move data within huge AI clusters, making them an essential part of data center infrastructure. Last quarter, its AI networking revenue soared 70% and accounted for 40% of Broadcom's total AI revenue. However, Broadcom's biggest long-term opportunity comes from helping customers design custom AI chips, which can offer better performance and lower power consumption than off-the-shelf GPUs. Demand is starting to pick up. Broadcom says its top three custom chip customers are on track to deploy 1 million AI chip clusters each by 2027, representing a total opportunity of between $60 billion to $90 billion. On the software side, Broadcom also benefits from transitioning VMWare customers from perpetual licenses to a subscription models and upgrading them to its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform. VCF helps customers build hybrid and multi-cloud environments so they can manage workloads across public clouds and their own on-premises data centers. At the end of last quarter, 87% of its top 10,000 customers had adopted VCF. While an AI infrastructure spending slowdown is a risk, given its networking leadership, custom AI chip opportunity, and growing software revenue, Broadcom is well-positioned moving forward. 3. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing While semiconductor companies garner most of the attention from investors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is the company that actually manufactures most of these AI chips. It's the clear leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and a key partner to top customers like Nvidia, Apple, and Broadcom. Meanwhile, AI is driving its business. High-performance computing now makes up 59% of its revenue, up from 46% a year ago. Most of that comes from advanced nodes. Nodes refer to the manufacturing process used to make chips. The smaller the number (measured in nanometers), the more transistors you can pack onto a chip. This improves a chip's performance and power efficiency, and TSMC is the best in the world at making these at scale. And with rivals struggling to make advanced chips, this has given TSMC strong pricing power, as well. The biggest risk to TSMC is a slowdown in AI infrastructure spending, which would hit both revenue and fab utilization. However, the company is working closely with its largest customers to build out capacity in lockstep with their demand. With advanced-node capacity tight, TSMC is well-positioned to continue to be an AI infrastructure build-out winner. 4. Palantir Technologies Palantir Technologies has emerged as a key player in the AI space. Instead of putting resources into developing AI models, the company focuses on the applications and workflow layers of AI to essentially develop an AI operating system. It does this by gathering data from a wide array of sources and organizing it into an ontology that links the data to its real-world counterparts. As a result, the company's AI Platform (AIP) can help organizations solve complex problems. This includes everything from monitoring sepsis in hospitals to streamlining underwriting processes in insurance. The sheer number of use cases across various industries that AIP can handle is just an enormous opportunity for Palantir moving forward. The company saw its revenue growth consistently accelerate over the past two years, including a 39% increase last quarter. The stock is not without risks, as it carries a high valuation and is exposed to government budget cuts, since the federal government is still its largest client. However, Palantir is unique in the AI space and has one of the biggest opportunities in front of it. 5. GitLab GitLab is a leader in the DevSecOps space, offering a platform that helps developers build software securely. It's been an AI winner, as customers expand seats and upgrade to its higher-tier platforms as AI increases the customers' software development. GitLab is also helping customers become more productive with products like GitLab Duo, which uses AI to provide code suggestions and automation to streamline development. The company consistently delivered strong revenue growth of between 25% to 40% over the past two years and boasts impressive gross margins and solid free cash flow. It's also done a great job growing within its existing customer base, as evidenced by its 122% dollar-based net retention over the past 12 months. Most of this is coming from seat expansions, followed by strong upgrades to higher-tiered offerings. While there has been concern that AI will replace coders, right now the opposite has been true, as GitLab's technology is being used to make software developers more productive, not replace them. This is driving strong growth and makes the company look like a solid long-term winner. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $659,171!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $891,722!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to172%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
The U.S. is cutting billions from science. Canadian researchers say it's time to step up
Social Sharing Scientists in Canada are scrambling. Over the past few months, the U.S. government has cut billions of dollars in funding from scientific research as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures. "It's really shocking. It's really like this big cloud over science," Kate Moran, CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, told Quirks & Quarks. Ocean Networks Canada participates in a project called the Argo system, an international program that collects information from on and under the ocean using a fleet of robotic instruments that drift with the ocean currents. But that program, which is led by researchers in the U.S., could be at risk. Many Canadian research groups rely heavily on U.S. partners for support and data. But since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, that support has taken a massive hit. The New York Times reported in March that the administration plans to reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) workforce by up to 20 per cent, which Moran says could have a direct impact on their work. Some of those staffing cuts at the NOAA have already happened. "Because the U.S. is such a big player, I'm not sure we could step up and be like the U.S.," said Moran. And cuts are happening across the board. The administration terminated $1 billion US in cuts to the National Institutes of Health, a move ruled "void and illegal" and blocked by a district judge earlier this month. The government has also been in a battle with Harvard University, putting billions of dollars of potential funding in jeopardy. Layoffs across a number of government agencies have been put on hold by a federal judge in California. In an executive order issued by the White House in May, Trump said that "over the last 5 years, confidence that scientists act in the best interests of the public has fallen significantly." "My Administration is committed to restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous, and impactful, and that Federal decisions are informed by the most credible, reliable, and impartial scientific evidence available." Environment and Climate Change Canada told CBC in a statement it "has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on operational and research activities related to weather, climate, satellites, and water monitoring," and that the "department has not been formally informed of any changes to its collaboration with NOAA." The trickle-down effect of cuts has left Canadian researchers trying to figure out how to adapt to these uncertain times, while others say it's now Canada's responsibility to step up. Targeting climate science Environmental science and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts seem to be a direct target of the Trump administration's cuts. More than 1,000 scientists and other employees are set to be laid-off from the Environmental Protection Agency's research office. The effects have been felt in Canada. Researchers here filling out forms for U.S. government grants have had to answer questions such as "Can you confirm this is not a climate or 'environmental justice' project or include such elements?" and "Can you confirm that this is no DEI project or DEI elements of the project?" The political climate has Deborah Wench on edge. She relies heavily on information from long-term monitoring projects to fuel her research into the carbon cycle. Wench studies how carbon flows between different climates. To do that, she needs long-term data sets collected from satellites. Wench says the U.S. operates a lot of the satellites used in her research. "I'm not really sure how to express this. It's mostly, for me, a sense of impending doom," said Wench, an associate professor at the University of Toronto. "It's taken decades and the careers of thousands of people to build up these measurement records, and it looks like it will take months to destroy them." Though she didn't want to specify which specific instruments she uses, she says she's concerned it's on the chopping block in the U.S., which would mean a loss of long-term monitoring. Then there's HAWC, a project that will use three Canadian-built instruments to measure the amount of aerosols, water vapour and thin ice clouds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The information could be used to improve future climate projects, assuming it continues to receive NASA support. Trump's 2026 budget, released in May, proposed a $6 billion US funding cut to the space agency, amounting to 24 per cent of NASA's current budget. WATCH | Canadian scientists trying to keep world's ocean sensors afloat: Canadian scientists trying to keep world's ocean sensors afloat 12 minutes ago Duration 1:32 These robot scientists dive deep into the ocean to measure the vital signs of planet Earth. But proposed funding cuts in the U.S. could mean critical climate data is on the chopping block. "Much of it is just so speculative, right?" said Chris Fletcher, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo. "We're still kind of on the descent.... So it's unclear yet exactly how all of this will shake out, and it's quite unsettling." One of the HAWC instruments was supposed to be attached to a NASA satellite. But Fletcher says that's now in question. "I'm confident from the Canadian side that because of this tremendous investment that Canada has made, that our instruments will fly. The question is about which components of the proposed NASA mission will fly," said Fletcher. CBC reached out to the Canadian Space Agency, but did not recieve a comment before publication. What happens next Canada's Department of Innovation, Science and Industry did not provide an interview or comment to CBC about how Canada plans to respond to funding cuts in the U.S. Frédéric Bouchard says the turmoil in the U.S. means a greater responsibility for Canada to assert its scientific sovereignty. He was part of the federally funded Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System, which, in 2023, took a deep dive into how Canada could better support scientific research. "It's our own responsibility to make sure that we have a strong and generous science capacity so we have access to the experts we need, when we need them," said Bouchard, a philosopher of science and dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at the Université de Montréal. "We shouldn't wait for other countries to do all the hard work and hope that we can benefit from it." He says that as American scientists leave the United States, Canada could welcome some of those researchers. He also said it will be important to invest in the future, including support for graduate students both in Canada and abroad in the United States, to make sure they're able to continue work in their field. Even so, Bouchard says, what's happening in the U.S. is going to have an impact — there's no stopping that. "What's happening is destabilizing science across the world," said Bouchard. "We need to make sure we play a larger role and that we build our own muscle mass, if you will, to be able to withstand more of the disruption." Moran says Ocean Networks Canada, and other organizations like it, are ready to do so. She says they are prepared to do simple things, such as download data to protect the long-term data sets. And if there are more cuts in the U.S., she says she's prepared to make the case to the Canadian government and request more funding. "We're talking about what we could do to fill those gaps," said Moran. "Canada has all the skills and knowledge and scientists." Politically-driven chaos is disrupting U.S. scientific institutions and creating challenges for science in Canada. Science is a global endeavour and collaborations with the U.S. are routine. In this special episode of Quirks & Quarks, we explore what Canadian scientists are doing to preserve their work to assert scientific sovereignty in the face of this unprecedented destabilization. Canadian climate scientists brace for cuts to climate science infrastructure and data U.S. President Donald Trump's attacks on climate science are putting our Earth observing systems, in the oceans and in orbit, at risk. Canadian scientists who rely on U.S. led climate data infrastructure worry about losing long-term data that would affect our ability to understand our changing climate. With: Kate Moran, the president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada and Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Victoria Debra Wunch, Physicist at the University of TorontoChris Fletcher, Department of Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Waterloo U.S. cuts to Great Lakes science and monitoring threaten our shared freshwater resourceU.S. budget and staffing cuts are jeopardizing the long-standing collaboration with our southern neighbour to maintain the health of the Great Lakes, our shared resource and the largest freshwater system in the world. With: Jérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and part-time professor at the University of OttawaGreg McClinchey, policy and legislative director with the Great Lakes Fishery CommissionMichael Wilkie, Biologist at Wilfred Laurier UniversityBrittney Borowiec, research associate in the Wilkie Lab at Wilfred Laurier UniversityAaron Fisk, Ecologist and Canada Research Chair at the University of Windsor Unexpected ways U.S. culture war policies are affecting Canadian scientists One of the first things President Trump did after taking office was to sign an executive order eliminating all DEI policies in the federal government. This is having far-reaching consequences for Canadian scientists as they navigate the new reality of our frequent research partner's hostility against so-called 'woke science.'With:Dr. Sofia Ahmed, Clinician scientist, and academic lead for the Women and Children's Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta Angela Kaida, professor of health sciences and Canada Research Chair at Simon Fraser University in VancouverDawn Bowdish, professor of immunology, the executive director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health and Canada Research Chair at McMaster UniversityKevin Zhao, MD/PhD student in immunology in the Bowdish Lab at McMaster UniversityJérôme Marty, executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research Canada has a 'responsibility' to step up and assert scientific sovereigntyA 2023 report on how to strengthen our federal research support system could be our roadmap to more robust scientific sovereignty. The Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System made recommendations to the federal government for how we could reform our funding landscape. The intent was to allow us to quickly respond to national research priorities and to make Canada a more enticing research partner in world science. With: Frédéric Bouchard, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of philosophy of science at the Université de Montreal. Chair of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System.
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
SAAQclic: Former CEO says his confidence in IT VP has been shaken
Commissioner Denis Gallant of the Commission of Inquiry into the Management of the Modernization of the Société de l'assurance automobile (SAAQ) IT Systems is awaiting the start of the public inquiry into the failures of the SAAQclic platform in Montreal on Thursday, April 24 2025. A public inquiry into the SAAQ's costly digital transformation has revealed that it could cost the province nearly half a billion dollars more than originally anticipated. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) The former president and CEO of Quebec's auto insurance board (SAAQ) says his confidence in his IT leader 'seriously eroded' after the failed launch of the SAAQclic platform, but he was not ready to fire him. On Friday, Denis Marsolais testified about the first weeks of the crisis that followed the disastrous rollout of the new interface in February 2023. He was the one who found himself in the spotlight 'defending his organization' in the media. He relied on the words of his vice-president of information technology (IT), Karl Malenfant. Marsolais gave the example of a radio interview with host Paul Arcand in the early days of the crisis. 'I told him, 'Rest assured, Mr. Arcand, I'm told that the problems (with) the software will be resolved within two to three months.'' 'Again, I'm not making this up. I'm not the expert. I was told that the problems would be resolved within three months,' Marsolais told the Gallant Commission. 'Who told you that?' asked Commissioner Denis Gallant. Malenfant, replied the former CEO. 'Mr. Malenfant, he's selling you the seventh wonder of the world, and you end up with a system that doesn't work,' said the commissioner. Gallant asked him if he still trust his VP of IT, even though there were endless queues in front of the branches and people were not signing up for the platform. 'Now it's starting to seriously fall apart,' Marsolais acknowledged. Yet in the weeks and days leading up to the launch of SAAQclic, he said he was confident about the project, despite some warnings. 'Everyone was not only confident, but agreed to roll it out and that we were ready for deployment. So I trusted the experts around the table,' he said. 'I wasn't told everything' Marsolais suggested that he ultimately felt betrayed by Malenfant. 'Throughout my career, I have always had associate deputy ministers and vice-presidents in my inner circle. I have always trusted these people. They have always been loyal to me. They have never betrayed my trust,' he said. 'Today, I have to tell you that I think there is an exception to the rule,' he added. Marsolais felt that Malenfant did not give him 'all the information at the right time.' 'I am increasingly certain that I was not told everything,' he said, adding that he 'should have been more vigilant.' The executive revealed that someone had suggested he dismiss his IT boss in March 2023. He felt that replacing Malenfant in the middle of a mess would have been 'even more dramatic.' 'I told him that Mr. Malenfant is theoretically retiring in December. (...) I said, 'Give me until June. In June, he will take early retirement and that's it,'' explained Marsolais. Instead, it was Marsolais who left first, when he 'left his role' in April. He is now president of the Office de la protection du consommateur (consumer protection agency). Summer break The conclusion of Marsolais' testimony on Friday marked the end of the eighth week of hearings by the Gallant Commission, which aims to shed light on the setbacks encountered during the SAAQ's digital transformation. Public hearings are suspended until Aug. 18 for a summer break. In the meantime, the commission team will continue its investigation. Tens of thousands of documents must be reviewed. To date, more than 300 exhibits have been filed and 45 witnesses have been heard during the public hearings. 'One thing is already clear: the overall budget for the project has grown to immeasurable proportions,' said the commission's chief prosecutor, Simon Tremblay. The SAAQ's failed digital transition is expected to cost taxpayers at least $1.1 billion, or $500 million more than anticipated, according to calculations by the Auditor General of Quebec. One of the next areas the commission is expected to examine is 'who knew what.' 'We got a taste of it this week. This is the beginning of that part,' said Tremblay. There are still several key players to be questioned, including former CEO Nathalie Tremblay and the current CEO, Éric Ducharme, as well as Malenfant, whose name has come up repeatedly since the testimony began. The latter submitted a request this week to obtain participant status, which would allow him to cross-examine witnesses. His request is currently under review. CAQ ministers François Bonnardel and Geneviève Guilbeault have also not been heard so far. The commission will have to hear them before the National Assembly resumes its work in mid-September. The Legault government has granted the Gallant commission a two-and-a-half-month extension to complete its mandate. The commissioner must submit his report by Dec. 15 at the latest, according to the new schedule. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French June 20, 2025. Frédéric Lacroix-Couture, The Canadian Press
