Ukrainian students begin to arrive at University of Waterloo

The University of Waterloo says 34 Ukrainian students are in the process of arriving on campus to continue their studies at the school.

So far, 15 of them have arrived on campus to study with professors to be in an academic internship, while the others are expected to arrive over the first half of June.

The university says the students’ internship will include academic research, hands-on lab tours and workshops focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) at the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute (Waterloo.AI).

The internships, which are free to the students with funding being provided by on-campus and corporate sponsors, will include academic activities, on-campus accommodation and meals, and travel costs.

The school says the idea was born when a couple of engineering professors heard about a similar program being launched by the University of Toronto and then approached Mary Wells, dean of the faculty of engineering.

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Waterloo then borrowed U of T’s applicant list to send offers to 42 potential candidates, with a 50-50 split between men and women as well as graduate and undergraduate students.

“I’m thrilled that within weeks we were able to put a plan together and raise funds needed to bring Ukrainian students to Waterloo to continue their undergraduate and graduate studies,” Wells stated.

The school says one of the students, Severyn Balaniuk, was studying engineering at the National Ukrainian Technical University in Kyiv when the Russian invasion began.

His family fled the country before eventually making their way to Smoky Lake, Alta., which is home to a large Ukrainian population.

“I’ve researched a lot of quantum computing institutes in Canada and the United States, and every time I looked, Waterloo’s was the top result,” Balaniuk said. “I had a tour of it the other day and found it amazing.”