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.
Christie Wong
Industrial Designer
Christie grew up with a colouring pencil in one hand and a book in the other. Evidence of her artistic roots and curious nature can be found dotted across every project brief that comes out of our studio.
A perpetual student of design, she enjoys attending design conferences and immersing herself in graphic, UX/UI, and service design.
Christie is always in search of a new creative outlet: baking sourdough breads, knitting a super soft sweater, and fabricating stained glass pieces.
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.
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.
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.
