The University of Waterloo, located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is a comprehensive public university that was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles. It has grown into an institution of more than 42,000 students, faculty, and staff. The school is notable for being the first accredited university in North America to create a Faculty of Mathematics, which is now the world's largest, and to have the largest cooperative education program in the world. The school is also known for having more companies formed by its faculty, students, and alumni than any other Canadian university, and as such, the university has been called the "Silicon Valley of the North".