Understand
Waterloo is part of Canada's Technology Triangle, and many companies such as MKS, Sandvine Inc, Research In Motion RIM, Maplesoft, Open Text, Google and Sybase are either based or have branch offices here. Technology companies thrive due to the convenience of the University of Waterloo, which boasts the largest math and computer science undergraduate program in the world. The university is also very famous for its psychology program. Waterloo pioneered university co-op such that today it has the largest co-op undergraduate enrollment in the world.
Waterloo was once known as the "Hartford of Canada" due to the large number of insurance companies that once had their headquarters here. Insurance is still a major industry in Waterloo due to the presence of Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial.
Farmland is quite close outside the city limits, and many Mennonites live close by. St. Jacobs is a small village immediately to the north of the city, with markets and stores that have come to be very popular.
The city of Kitchener is located immediately to the south of Waterloo. These two cities, often referred together as "Kitchener-Waterloo" abbreviated to "K-W", are separate municipalities, but share a long, seamless border. If visiting Waterloo, take Kitchener's attractions into consideration as well. Waterloo's central business district is referred to as "Uptown", in contrast to Kitchener's, which is referred to as "Downtown". Note, however, that Uptown Waterloo is not particularly large compared to neighbouring cities' downtowns; Waterloo is essentially a suburban city. The distributed nature of the city does mean that Uptown Waterloo has maintained a small-town atmosphere for now; plans to intensify the Uptown are afoot.
