Google and the University of Waterloo have announced a significant alliance with a CAD $1 million commitment to rethink how artificial intelligence supports education and workforce preparation.
The collaboration will establish a new academic chair that will drive fresh research and development at the crossroads of learning and future careers. The new chair, titled the Google Chair in the Future of Work and Learning, will be held by Professor Edith Law, a computer science researcher known for her work on human-AI collaboration.
A key component of the partnership is the Futures Lab workshop, which brings student teams, faculty, and Google mentors together in a hands-on prototyping environment. Starting October 6, participants will build AI-enabled learning models using Google’s tools such as Gemini and AI Studio, iterating through cycles of testing and feedback.
Through such immersive labs, the goal is to rethink traditional classroom dynamics. Rather than passively consuming content, students help create AI tools and pedagogical models, exploring essential questions: how to train learners for jobs that do not yet exist, how to meet learners where they are, and how to make education more responsive to constant change.
Google notes that this collaboration builds on a long relationship with Waterloo. Past initiatives include the “Kids on Campus” program that invited grade-school children to engage with STEM on campus, support for Waterloo’s Women in Computer Science program, and joint hosting of AI education events for K-12 teachers.
Waterloo is widely recognized as one of Canada’s leading institutions in computer science and AI research. In addition, Google’s Kitchener-Waterloo engineering hub is its largest office in Canada, playing a central role in products like Google Cloud AI and Android XR.
This new partnership comes amid broader moves by Google to strengthen its role in education and workforce readiness. Earlier this year Google pledged US $1 billion over three years to support AI training and tools in U.S. universities, and made its advanced AI features available to students in multiple countries.
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.
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