Google partnered with the University of Waterloo to launch the Futures Lab, an eight-week program where students build artificial intelligence prototypes with expert mentorship. One year in, the partnership is helping students from diverse majors build real-world AI tools and develop practical skills for their future careers.
What the Futures Lab is and how it works
The bootcamp-style workshop exposes students to AI-related skills, such as prompt engineering, as well as Google’s suite of AI tools, including Gemini Canvas and Google AI Studio.
Students from diverse fields like computer science, business and natural sciences develop tools designed to reshape how we learn. Students work in interdisciplinary teams, alongside Waterloo faculty and Google mentors, to experiment with AI-powered tools and critically engage with AI’s role in education and society.
Led by Dr. Edith Law, the Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning, the partnership moves beyond theory, helping students co-create the very technology that will define the future of education and work.
The partnership includes a $1 million research agreement to create the Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning. The Chair is situated within a broader initiative, the Future of Work Institute, which is supported by a $450,000 grant from the University of Waterloo’s Global Futures Fund.
Student projects from the first year
In December 2025, the first of these recurring workshops concluded with the “Google-UWaterloo Symposium on the Future of Learning,” where student teams showcased their projects for the public.
Finished prototypes included Kanji Garden, an app that teaches Japanese through immersive, AI-generated stories and visuals instead of rote memorization. SignFluent is a real-time American Sign Language learning tool that provides instant feedback on a user’s form. MuscleMemory is an on-the-go calisthenics training tool that uses AI camera tracking to provide instant audio feedback on exercise form.
G1NIUS won the Best Prototype Award at the symposium. Other award recipients included SignFluent, an AI-driven American Sign Language platform delivering real-time guided practice with integrated social learning; ELIX, a game that promotes active learning by teaching AI students who track the user’s understanding and knowledge gaps; and FeynMind, a platform that develops teaching skills and perspective-taking through AI agents.
Why Google chose Waterloo
Google chose the University of Waterloo for this shared initiative because of the university’s emphasis on experiential learning through its largest-in-Canada co-operative education program, its track record of cutting-edge AI research and the university’s close alumni ties to the company.
Google’s Kitchener-Waterloo office is the company’s largest engineering hub in Canada, contributing to the development of products such as Google Cloud AI, Workspace and Android XR.
Students also received exclusive talks and mentorship from Google staff, many of whom are Waterloo alumni.
The program also fits into a broader pattern of major technology companies seeking earlier access to AI talent. Much of the demand for graduates with applied AI skills is being driven by the same forces shaping the rapid growth of enterprise AI tooling across the industry.
What comes next
This spring, with the support of the Global Futures Fund, the Future of Work Institute kicked off eight interdisciplinary projects from across Waterloo’s faculties to tackle complex problems at the intersection of technology and social well-being.
Future of Work Executive Director Edith Law also ran a series of AI Literacy workshops and is teaching a new AI transformation capstone course in the fall.
The one-year review, published on Google’s official blog, comes at a moment when employers across the technology sector are pressing universities to close the gap between academic training and applied AI skills.
The push to embed real-world tool use into coursework, rather than relying solely on theoretical instruction, is increasingly shaping how institutions partner with industry.
Google and Waterloo say they intend to publish results and prototypes to help educators, institutions and communities adopt more agile, AI-grounded approaches to learning and workforce readiness.
