Waterloo Technical - an extension of your team.

We are an extension of your team

We strive for enduring partnerships that will disrupt established industries and empower future generations.

Waterloo Technical is a product design, prototyping and manufacturing company. We are a turnkey solution for start-ups and SMEs that want to outsource R&D and leverage our experience to take on complex technological challenges and find creative product solutions. Our flexibility and small size mean we collaborate closely with clients, establishing personal relationships that last years.

Small Team. Big Ideas.

Founded in 2012, we have built a diverse team of problem-solvers with expertise in industrial design; mechanical and electrical systems; firmware programming; and manufacturing. We work across these disciplines to transform great ideas into disruptive products that contribute to business growth for our clients.

Grant Unsworth

Founder & Team Lead

Grant founded WTI in 2012 in search of opportunities to build new and meaningful products. In the decade since, his background in mechanical & electrical systems has come quite handy in making this vision a reality. Currently, Grant acts as project manager to steer projects and build lasting relationships with clients.

Wandering into the shop, you may find him hunched over a microscope; he gets a strange level of gratification assembling PCBs. In his spare time, Grant can be found biking and building LEGO with his kids.

He holds a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Umer Javed

Creative Director

Umer has worked as a designer in markets ranging from aviation to outdoor fashion. As WTI's industrial design lead, he kickstarts project ideation with an eye for the end-user and an uncanny ability to think outside of the box.

He is a generalist and credits his skills to having been surrounded by geniuses in a wide range of industries.

When he is not pretending to be Dieter Rams at work, he spends his free time climbing and practicing photography.

Andrés Blanco

Industrial Designer

Our resident coffee connoisseur, Andrés brings our team more than just the perfect caffeinated blend. He translates client requirements into insightful human-centric design concepts.

With nearly a decade’s worth of professional experience spanning remote communities in the Columbian Caribbean coast to start-ups in Silicon Valley, Andrés’ areas of expertise include 3D rendering, human-centered design and user-experience design.

Andrés holds a degree in Industrial Design from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Columbia.

Thomas Edmonds

Prototyping and Manufacturing Technician

Thomas leads prototyping at WTI, building and testing products that the team is hard at work on. With a Bachelor of Industrial Design, he communicates crucial insights to our designers as part of our iterative approach to product development.

Thomas has fully embraced the 3D printing revolution, starting up a 3D printing factory at home. When faced with life’s problems, expect the response “I could 3D print a part for that”.

When he’s not in the shop, Thomas can be found roaming antique markets in search of things to refurbish; from gumball machines to diecast toy cars.

Wilfred Mok

Mechanical Designer

When Wilfred is called in, it means its time to get things manufactured! Meticulous and detail oriented, Wilfred is on the frontlines translating concepts into manufacturable designs, and collaborating with vendors to get products into production.

Wilfred holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Phil Hilger

Software Developer

For the last two decades, Phil has been developing software for any microprocessor he can get his hands on. As a hardcore Software Developer (is that an oxymoron?), Phil loves well written, concise and secure code just as much as he loves prototyping the next big thing.

Phil’s first 2 years with WTI were spent wanderlusting for 40,000 km on a motorcycle from Vancouver all the way down to Argentina. We’re not sure if he finally ran out of gas or got fed up with the remote desktop, but eventually Phil moved to Waterloo to be close to the team.

Collins Angelo

Mechanical Designer

Collins has more than 12 years of experience designing products for the automotive, earth moving, and consumer product industry.

He specializes in the conceptualization and development of novel mechanical designs, and applies the rigor of engineering principles to provide technically feasible solutions.

Collins holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters degree in Engineering Management from the University of Windsor.

Moh Abdelilah

Electrical Designer

Polished. Well documented. Production-ready PCBs. This is Moh’s specialty and he’s spent the last decade perfecting the vital skill sets of schematic design and PCB layouts. As WTI’s lead Electrical Designer, Moh translates his experience to produce everything from low-cost consumer products to satellite-connected industrial fleets.

Moh holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from AAST Cairo.

András Karakai

Electrical Designer

Born behind the Iron Curtain, András grew up tinkering with old radios, diodes, transistors, and any electronics he could get his hands on. His endeavors in electronics soon expanded to computer programming on a Commodore 64.

András brings nearly 20 years of professional experience designing PCBs for high volume production environments. Nowadays, he spends his time designing consumer electronics and programming them to do things he never could have imagined possible on that original Commodore 64.

András is always open to learning something new, exploring photography, computer graphics, hiking, and geocaching. When he’s not at work, he’s spending time with his loving wife, rogue cat, and restless hens.

Juan Vicondo

Industrial Designer

Elrika van Heerden

Mechanical Designer

Andres Pieroni

Mechanical Designer

What Makes Us Different

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Collaboration

We believe close collaboration is crucial to project success. We partner with start-ups and SMEs to deeply understand their requirements and align ourselves with their goals.

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Culture

The majority of projects we take on involve disrupting an established industry. We foster a workplace culture of unconventional ideas. We put a lot of effort into cultivating our reputation as an innovative product development company.

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Curiosity

Curiosity is key to creativity, so we lean into uncertainty with interest. Our drive to understand means we are continuously expanding our skillset and find new ways to improve.

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Eyes on the Road

We are not a firm with our head in the clouds. We are pragmatic decision-makers with a constant eye on building scalable ideas. We understand costs, and we understand margins.

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Client Retention

Many of our clients have been working with us for years. We cultivate strong and open relationships.

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Enthusiasm

We are a young group that gets excited about the projects we work on. It shows!

Add WTI to your team
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Over the past two years of working with WTI, we have experienced an exceptionally high level of professionalism and expertise. They understood our initial requirements and offered valuable recommendations, insights and suggestions for feature enhancements.

Norm M. Zastre, COO, HCL