This is an excerpt from an article written by Feridun Hamdullahpur, President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Waterloo, and can be read in full at The Globe and Mail. 

Since the World Economic Forum defined the Fourth Industrial Revolution in 2016, the worlds of academia, technology, finance and policy-making have been flooded with talk about exciting things seemingly from science-fiction. Nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars and robots.

However, yesterday’s science fiction is becoming today’s reality. Our economy is increasingly being driven by ideas and intellectual property that are allowing us to create financial and social wealth, while also attempting to make the world a better place.