PEY Co-op Program
Recognition Awards 2023-2024
Seventh Annual PEY Co-op Award Winners (2023-2024)
The Engineering Career Centre's PEY Co-op Awards celebrate our industry partners and students who help make PEY Co-op a successful and rewarding program. PEY Co-op provides our students with full-time job experience that can only be gained from this immersive industry program.
Thank you to everyone who submitted entries to acknowledge the dedicated people who went above and beyond during both Summer and the 12–16-month 2023-2024 work terms.
We are thrilled to share this year's award recipients in the following categories:
- PEY Co-op Student of the Year
- PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year
- PEY Co-op Employer of the Year
We also wish to acknowledge all of our outstanding nominees for their significant contributions to our community. In addition, we thank each of the nominators for taking the time to acknowledge and recognize this important work.
PEY Co-op Student of the Year
The PEY Co-op Student of the Year Award recognizes a PEY Co-op student that demonstrated excellence in the workplace as an outstanding member of the employer’s team. Employers nominate students for this award, and this year two students were recognized for their exceptional contributions in their respective workplaces.
Charlotte Zhang
PEY Co-op Employer: DHL Supply Chain
Charlotte (Xianqiu) Zhang is a fourth-year Industrial Engineering student, graduating this summer. She completed her PEY Co-op at DHL Supply Chain, a leading third-party logistics company, as an Engineering Analyst Intern on the Solution Design team. The team develops customized warehousing solutions and supports clients across various sectors. During her term, Charlotte worked on a range of warehousing challenges and gained valuable industry experience.
Throughout her studies, Charlotte has developed a strong interest in using data-driven analysis for problem-solving. The 16-month internship allowed her to develop both her technical and soft skills in a professional setting, with the warmest and most supportive team. Charlotte would like to thank her manager, Mayur Board, and the entire Canadian SD team for their guidance and mentorship. She is incredibly honoured and grateful to receive this award.
Going forward, Charlotte hopes to further expand her skillset in data analytics and engineering consulting, as well as continue exploring her interests in the supply chain and healthcare industries.
Patricia Krisanti
Summer Co-op Employer: Toronto Metropolitan University
Patricia Krisanti (EngSci 2T6 + PEY) is a third-year Engineering Science student specializing in Biomedical Systems Engineering with a Robotics minor. She completed her 4-month summer co-op as a research assistant at the Building Science Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), where she developed an automated aerial thermal imaging system using a sub-250g drone and Raspberry Pi to support building inspections.
The system captures real-time infrared imagery to detect air leakage around windows and doors. By remaining under the 250g threshold, it can be safely operated in urban environments, helping reduce barriers to thermal imaging for both inspection and research purposes.
She would like to thank Professor Helen Stopps and Professor Sarah Haines for their guidance and the opportunity to explore an interdisciplinary and impactful application of engineering.
PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year
The PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year Award recognizes an exemplary individual and their commitment to excellence in mentoring. Through a range of professional development opportunities, the mentor guided and supported a PEY Co-op student or students to enhance their skills and knowledge during the 2023-2024 work term.
Bryan Gellner
BlueRock Therapeutics
Bryan is a Senior Biomedical Engineer at BlueRock Therapeutics and a proud three-time University of Toronto Mechanical Engineering graduate (1T4, 1T5, and 1T9—including a year as a PEY student!). After earning his PhD, Bryan entered the medical device industry, where he has remained ever since. His career has spanned work in cardiac catheters, diagnostic microbiology instrumentation, and most recently, developing delivery devices for stem cell-derived cellular therapies at BlueRock Therapeutics.
Bryan is passionate about mentorship, and over his career has had many opportunities to supervise young engineers, including the chance to bring things full circle and supervise a handful of PEY students. In 2023, he hired Spencer Hofstee-Mangoff as the inaugural co-op on BlueRock’s device development team. Spencer made such a strong impact that, after he returned to finish his degree, the team brought on another U of T PEY student to continue Spencer’s work! Bryan is continually inspired by the creativity, passion, and technical skill of today’s young engineers and looks forward to continuing to contribute to their growth and to the PEY pipeline that first helped launch his own career.
PEY Co-op Employer of the Year
The PEY Co-op Employer of the Year Award recognizes an exceptional employer that hired from the PEY Co-op Program during the 2023-2024 work term. The recipient of this award provided a unique work experience and fostered a positive and supportive environment to a PEY Co-op student or students through enriching professional development opportunities. Because of the employer, the student or students came away from their PEY Co-op experience with enhanced knowledge, honed interests and a head start on developing as a professional.
Nuclear Promise X
At NPX, we’re not your typical consultants—we're a nuclear innovation firm with deep industry roots and a bold mindset. Our purpose is simple: modernize nuclear to power a sustainable future.
We combine decades of hands-on nuclear expertise with practical innovation in AI, automation, and digital transformation. Whether it’s strategy consulting, engineering & project delivery, or implementing real-world AI, our mission-driven team moves fast to solve problems that matter.
Bridging proven experience with modern tools, we help the nuclear industry do more with less time, fewer resources, and greater impact.
Learn more at www.npxinnovation.ca.
Seventh Annual Awards Reception Photo Gallery
PEY Co-op Student of the Year Nominees
Adriano De Sanctis - Accenture Strategy & Consulting
Aidan Torres - GHD
Amir Babazadehjoudi - Bombardier
Annoah Breau - Weir Project Consultants Inc
Antariksh Roy - Toronto Transit Commission
Ashley Yokingco - Amico Patient Care Corporation
Bavya Mittal - Golden Freight Forwarding & Marketing Inc.
Ben Gloade - Environment and Climate Change Canada
Birva Shah - Air Canada
Cameron Goss - Pomerleau
Christopher Adolphe - AMD
Collin Pickersgill - Burloak Technologies
Crystal Fang - Pratt & Whitney Canada
Demeng Chen - Trend Micro
Guillermo Gutiérrez González - Compass Renewable Energy Consulting Inc.
Hassan Africawala - Ontario Power Generation
Hawa Hafejee - TC Energy
Ho June Kim - Canadian Tire
Hoda Eissa - City of Toronto
Ian Kunka - NOVA Chemicals
Ibrahim Sweidan - Alphawave Semi
Ingy Elmandouh - IPG Interface PHYs
Isaac Nielsen - Enbridge
Jaden Majumdar - Posterity Group
Jasmine Chahal - Scotiabank
Jason (Jiajun) Zhang - Bluerock Therapeutics
Ji Sayo - University of Toronto
Jiacheng (Raymond ) Li - WSP Canada
John Wang - Stelco Inc.
Junrui (Arielle) Zhang - Huawei Technologies Canada
Kathy Nguyen - Agnico Eagle
Kaylin Rushlow - Beedie Construction
Krish Patel - Huawei Technologies Canada
Lauren Valentini - Mattamy Homes
Lawrence Fan - Arcadis
Maheeka Nanayakkara - Aramark
Minghao Li - Huawei Technologies Canada
Mustafa Nisar - AMD
Navin Vanderwert - Intersect Power
Nick Tan - Parsons Inc.
Oluwafoyinsola Adewusi - BASF Canada
Patrick Zhou - Wattpad Inc.
Polina Loukianenkov - RDH Building Science Inc.
Quincy Garcia - Environment and Climate Change Canada
Rachel Yang - Real Life Robotics
Ralph Maalouf - Purolator
Ruoheng Wang - Qualcomm Canada Inc.
Selim Abdelwahab - Electronic Arts
Seshill Real Armas - Ontario Power Generation
Shankeran Vijayakumar - Questrade Financial Group
Shou-Yi Hung - Huawei Technologies Canada
Siddhartha Challa - SENER SES CANADA
Sogand Okhovatian - Parklane Mechanical Acoustics
Thomas Culham - e-Zinc Inc.
Veer Kapadia - Indian Register of Shipping
Yanchi Wang - Geotab
Yusra Chowdhury - Quantum Lifecycle Partners LP
Yvonne Zhang - WSP Canada
Ziana Suleman - KPMG
Ziang Jiao - Huawei Technologies Canada
PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year Nominees
Aarzoo Dhanani - Crozier Consulting Engineers
Alex Ng - Zebra Technologies
AlexBin (Alex) Xie - AMD
Amiy Srivastava - Stelco
Andrew Polo - Aramark Canada
Anusha Venkatesh - Altera
Arighna Maity - Wattpad Inc.
Bazlul Karim - TC Energy
Bethany Read - Metro Supply Chain
Charga De Silva - Environment and Climate Change Canada
Chau Johnston - TC Energy
Daniel Valentiner - Material Science Corporation
Devin Luu - e-Zinc Inc.
Dushyant Bhan - Altera
Elsa Jacob - BlueRock Therapeutics
Gerardo Sanchez - Quanta Technology
Hamid Tabrizi - Ontario Power Generation
Haomin Li - Ericsson
Karissa Palinka - Ontario Power Generation
Leonardo Ombuki - Arla Foods Canada
Liam Coleman - Hatch Ltd.
Marta Horofker - Molson Coors Beverage Company
Matthew Roffel - Geotab
Milan Cerovina - University of Toronto Facilities and Services
Moustafa ElShamy - Synopsys
Patrick Chin - Terrestrial Energy Inc.
Paul Lee - Huawei Technologies Canada
Paul Colbourne - Lumentum
Robert Colangelo - Husky Technologies
Segio Sabogal - Acciona Infrastructure North America
Sharath Raju - Altera Coorporation
Stephan de Wit - Geotab
Thomas Robert - Safran Landing Systems
Victor Ugorji - Purolator
Viken Koukounian - Parklane Mechanical Acoustics
Yu Yan - AMD
PEY Co-op Employer of the Year Nominees
AMD
BASF Canada
BlueRock Therapeutics
Cadence Design Systems Inc.
Compugen
Ericsson Canada Inc.
Geotab
Huawei Technologies Canada
Lumentum
Nuclear Promise X
Parklane Mechanical Acoustics
Red Hat
Veeva Systems
Wattpad Inc.
With our seventh annual PEY Co-op Program Recognition Awards, the Engineering Career Centre celebrates the students, employers, and ambassadors in the engineering community who contributed to the excellence of our flagship work-experience program in 2023-2024.