PEY Co-op Edge Conference 2023 Speakers

There's no substitute for experience

We're very grateful to all our speakers--students, employers, and alumni--for sharing their insights with students pursuing co-op.

View student participants (below)
View employer participants (below)

Students

Theodora Girgis

Engineering Science
MDA – Robotics and Space Operations

About Theodora

Theodora Girgis is an Aerospace EngSci (2T3 + PEY) student with a minor in Engineering Business. She has recently completed a 16 month PEY term as a Systems Engineering Student in the Robotics & Space Operations division at MDA. Throughout her term, Theodora had the opportunity to work on the development of Canadarm3 for NASA’s Lunar Gateway Station, the logistics & operations of Canadarm2 on the International Space Station, as well as several R&D projects for commercial space robotics and new business development. Theodora has also previously completed a summer internship at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and an NSERC-funded research term with the Astrophysics Department at UTSC.

David Jia

Material Science Engineering
Mold-Masters

About David

David is a (2T3+PEY) Material science and Engineering student. In the past 16 months, he has been working as a quality engineer intern at Mold-Masters, a manufacturing company dedicated to hot-runner technology. David is excited to share his PEY experience including tips for hunting a job on the PEY portal, how to thrive and learn during your work term and after the completion of your PEY, how to maintain and build a longer relationship with your colleagues and supervisors as part of your career network.

Charlotte Fritz

Computer Engineering
Grant Thornton LLP

About Charlotte

Charlotte Fritz is a third year computer engineering student (ECE2T5 + PEY + T1) pursuing minors in Artificial Intelligence and Business. This past summer she completed a summer work term as a Cybersecurity Associate with Grant Thornton LLP in Toronto, Canada. Charlotte worked as a key member of the organization’s Managed Security Services practice, applying her technical skills and gaining practical experience in a professional setting. She will emphasize the role of proactive engagement during a work term as a tool for networking and unlocking personal growth opportunities. She will provide strategies for other students to maximize their PEY work term experiences and contribute, learn and grow as professionals in their fields. Charlotte is honoured to serve as a panelist and presenter at this year’s PEY Edge Conference, and looks forward to sharing with and learning from everyone at the conference.

Kaiser Islam

Civil Engineering
Bombardier Aerospace

About Kaiser

Kaiser is a fourth year Civil Engineering student who just completed his 16 month internship position at Arcadis | IBI Group as a Traffic Engineering Intern, where he primarily focused on maintaining IBI Group’s Advanced Traffic Management Software, or ATMS for short. This involved fixing issues in the back end of the software and addressing tickets from clients in a timely fashion.

These clients were from the Department of Transportations (DOT) for different regions in the U.S, including the Ohio DOT (ODOT) and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC). Kaiser has chosen to continue working for the company part-time throughout his last year of university.

Orrin Dahanaggamaarachchi

Engineering Science
Rocket Lab

About Orrin

Orrin is a 3rd year Engineering Science student pursuing the Robotics Major with a minor in Engineering Business. His passion for aerospace allowed him to complete a Summer Work term at Rocket Lab as an Engineering Intern, working on Star Tracker testing and performance validation. Orrin received this opportunity through the Zenith Canada Pathways Foundation, where he was selected as a 2023 Zenith Fellow and inducted into a vibrant community of young aerospace professionals. Much of his interest in space stems from his involvement in the University of Toronto Aerospace Team, where he is a technical lead on the FINCH hyperspectral CubeSat mission. This summer, Orrin also had the opportunity to present some of his team’s technical work at the Small Satellite conference in Utah. Connecting with industry leaders, scholars, and young professionals introduced him to the global scope of the space industry.

Zeina Shaltout

Industrial Engineering
NDAX

About Zeina

Zeina is a passionate and driven 3rd-year Industrial Engineering student who thrives on challenges and innovation. This past summer, she had the privilege of diving deep into the world of fintech through her Co-op work term at NDAX, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges. As a Product/Project Management Intern, Zeina was at the forefront of bridging technology with user-centric solutions, ensuring that NDAX’s offerings were not only cutting-edge but also resonated with the needs of its diverse user base.

Elio Batrouni

Mechanical Engineering
Porche Middle East

About Elio

Meet Elio, a dynamic third-year mechanical engineering student who recently completed a summer co-op at Porsche Middle East as a Technical Aftersales Intern. Elio is passionate about automotive engineering, and their role at Porsche involved addressing complex technical challenges, actively contributing to projects, attending workshops, streamlining operations, and offering vital support to the different markets. His dedication to exceptional customer service shines through, and their enthusiasm for the automotive industry and commitment to excellence drive their aspirations. They aim to apply their knowledge to Porsche’s success and future ventures.

Hetav Pandya

Computer Engineering
Intel Corporation

About Hetav

Greg Cooper

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO)

About Greg

Greg Cooper is going into his fourth year of the Engineering Science program in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Major with certificates in Engineering Business and Artificial Intelligence Engineering. He recently completed his 16-month Professional Experience Year (PEY) at the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) as a Power System Planning Student. During his PEY, Greg contributed to the resource adequacy assessment for the Ontario power system, ensuring the bulk and regional power system has sufficient resources to meet electricity demand over an 18-month to 20+ year time frame.

Tianyu Zhang

Computer Science
Huawei Human Machine Interaction Lab

About Tianyu

Jesus Martinez Padilla

Industrial Engineering
RBC

About Jesus

Jesus Martinez Padilla is a 4th year Industrial Engineering student pursuing a minor in Engineering Business. He completed his PEY Co-op at RBC in the Mutual Funds Distribution and Business Strategy team, where he designed and implemented insights for Financial Planners to improve advise conversations with clients, managed access to investment leads dashboards and supervised their operation to ensure the daily delivery of investment leads, and analyzed action rates and resulting sales of leads programs to understand the quality of leads and efficiency of advisors. Before joining RBC, Jesus did research on pandemic simulation at the Medical Operations Research Laboratory (morLAB), where he Designed and implemented detailed vaccination strategy into existing agent-based simulation of COVID-19 used by Newfoundland & Labrador.

Mahdi Abdul-Jalil

Industrial Engineering
Fidelity Investments Canada

About Mahdi

Mahdi Abdul-Jalil (2T3 + PEY) is a fourth year Industrial Engineering student at the University of Toronto. During his 12-month PEY experience, Mahdi held the position of Emerging Technologies student at Fidelity Investments Canada. As an Emerging Technologies Student, Mahdi was responsible for assisting in the transformation of a traditional asset management model and processes into a digital experience that meets the evolving expectations of consumers. Mahdi worked directly with the existing Asset Management business, along with engineers, designers, finance and data and analytics and others to create a cohesive user experience vision and strategy. Prior to PEY, Mahdi held positions as a Data Scientist at Mamo, a Fintech Startup in the United Arab Emirates as well as a Programming Data Analyst at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Geoffrey Fang

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Infrastructure Ontario (Metrolinx)

About Geoffrey

Sarah Khan

Mechanical Engineering
Honda

About Sarah

Parsa Bondar Sahebi

Civil Engineering
Mattamy Homes

About Parsa

Parsa Bondar Sahebi is a Civil Engineering (2T3+PEY) who did his PEY with Mattamy homes’ urban division. His role focused on project management and project coordination for three separate projects. Sahebi spent the first four months of his PEY on a construction site which gave him extensive hands-on experience. Afterwards, he worked more from the office and got exposed to how a project gets set up for construction. “I believe PEY gave me an invaluable opportunity to get a better gauge for the industry and allowed me to improve on many practical skills. I believe it is very important to ask questions during your PEY and have the enthusiasm to learn as much as possible over the course of the 16 months,” said Sahebi.

Jeremy Lim

Mechanical Engineering
Celestica Inc and Collins Aerospace

About Jeremy

Jeremy Lim is a forth year Mechanical Engineering student (2T3+PEY) in the Mechatronics and Solids stream pursuing his minor in both Engineering Business and Robotics. Jeremy recently completed a 16 month internship at Celestica Inc in North York as a Global Mechanical Commodity Engineering Associate, where he was tasked with the management of pricing and engineering data for A&D build to print and electronic parts sourced from external suppliers.

Besides his PEY Co-op, Jeremy completed a summer internship at Collins Aerospace as a Performance Summer Intern, and is also the Executive Director on the University of Toronto Aerospace Team. On the side, Jeremy is an active volleyball player who plays in both Intramurals and D-League at the University of Toronto and is an active volunteer/participant in Engineering F!rosh Week each year.

Carlo Manalo

Engineering Science
RBC Capital Markets

About Carlo

Susan Ling

Mechanical Engineering
Traverso Lab

About Susan

Lydia Callender

Mechanical Engineering
Bombardier Aerospace

About Lydia

Employers

Amanda Hartley

Director of Research and Development
Baylis Medical Technologies

About Amanda

Amanda Hartley has been a highly valued member of Baylis Medical Technologies for over 12 years, consistently showcasing exceptional technical expertise, leadership, and deep product knowledge. As the Director of Research and Development, she oversees BMT’s product engineering efforts, ensuring BMT remains at the forefront of technology and regulatory compliance. With Amanda’s visionary approach and passion for innovation, she plays a vital role in solidifying BMT’s position as a leader in the medical device industry.Amanda graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor in Engineering.

Amina Sherif

Engineering Manager
Ssense

B.Eng (1T6 + PEY)

About Amina

Amina Sherif has been working in retail and e-Commerce since she did her PEY in 2014 at Walmart Canada as a logistics & supply chain analyst. She then worked part-time at Apple throughout her final two years as an Industrial Engineering student. After a couple of full-time years at Apple, she moved to Loblaw Digital where she transitioned into Engineering Program Management where she led engineering teams in back-end development for online grocery operations systems. She is now at SSENSE, a Montreal-based fashion e-retailer, and proudly volunteers with the Engineering Career Centre as an Alumni Ambassado

Kayla Brendle

University Recruiting Lead
Veeva Systems

About Kayla

Kayla Brendle graduated with a Bachelor’s in Public Relations and spent the first five years of her career working as an Account Manager at AOL and Adobe. Two years ago, she decided to pivot into Employee Success and was recruited by Veeva Systems to join them as a University Recruiting Lead, recruiting for and managing their Engineering Development Program (EDP) in Toronto. While working at Veeva, she has seen EDP Toronto grow exponentially and has hired over 165 Associate and Interns.

Kristen Ridley

Senior Talent Operations Manager
Acciona

About Kristen

Kristen Ridley has over 17 years of Human Resources experience. Over the last 8 years she has been involved in all facets of HR in the Construction and Engineering space. She has developed a special interest in developing young talent and has been involved with U of T since 2015, working with PEY students and new Engineering graduates to help them kick-start their careers in Construction Management.

Trish Hamilton

Project Manager
Infrastructure Ontario

About Trish

Trish Hamilton possesses deep knowledge from her years in the Healthcare sector working both on the clinical and development aspects of healthcare delivery. Her education in Civil Engineering Technology and as a Registered Nurse with hospital clinical management and redevelopment project experience enhances her leadership of Infrastructure Ontario Healthcare projects. Trish has managed a range of project, commercial, and stakeholder challenges in pursuit of the successful delivery of Infrastructure Ontario hospital projects.