PEY Co-op Program
Recognition Awards

Fifth Annual PEY Co-op Award Winners (2021-2022)

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 the 12-to-16-month 2021-2022 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.

Aseem Gill - Student - cropped

Aseem Gill

PEY Co-op Employer: University of British Columbia

I am a graduating Chemical Engineering student born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon. I spent my co-op term at the University of British Columbia, working on developing a novel method for the synthesis of PEM water electrolysis membranes. My work resulted in a successful method, and I published my work in August 2022. I’m honoured to receive this award, and I’d like to thank Dr. Jason Kwan, Dr. David Wilkinson, and Dr. Baizeng Fang for guiding me throughout my work term at UBC and giving me an opportunity to excel. For my next step, I’ll be beginning my Ph.D. at the University of Toronto this coming May, where I’ll be working on applying deep learning techniques for the discovery of novel materials for sustainability applications.

Christine Huang - Student - cropped

Christine Huang

PEY Co-op Employer: Sunnybrook Research Institute

Christine Huang (EngSci Biomed, 2T2+PEY) was a bioengineering co-op student at the Orthopaedics Biomechanics Laboratory (OBL) located at the Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI). During her PEY, Christine was involved in several research projects relating to bone metastases. Her contributions have been showcased at conferences such as the Canadian Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting (CORS COA), the International Combined Orthopaedic Research Society (iCORS) World Congress of Orthopaedic Research, and the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) Annual Meeting. Christine’s experience at OBL has convinced her to pursue a MASc in biomedical engineering this coming Fall. She would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Cari Whyne, Dr. Margarete Akens, and Dr. Michael Hardisty for their guidance and mentorship. She would also like to extend a special thanks to the OBL team, especially PhD candidates Alison Tolgyesi and Azin Mirzajavadkhan, for their support.

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, this individual guided and supported a PEY Co-op student or students to enhance their skills and knowledge during the 2020-2021 work term.

Alexander Brandimarte - Mentor - cropped

Alexander Brandimarte

PEY Co-op Employer: RBC

Alex started his career at RBC in 2016 as a PEY studying Engineering Science (MSF option). He served as an ETF and Program Trader building pricing models for Canadian stocks and ETFs. Upon graduating, he returned as a quantitative market maker and subsequently transitioned to algorithmic trading with an emphasis on AI. Alex’s current work centers around AI initiatives within Global Markets, focusing on financial recommendation systems.

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 2020-2021 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.

P&G Logo

Procter & Gamble

P&G serves nearly five billion people around the world and has the strongest portfolio of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Tide®, Pantene®, Pampers®, Gillette®, and Old Spice®.  P&G Canada has been named an accredited Indigenous Employer of Choice (2022) + one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers (2022), Canada’s and GTA's Top 100 Employers (2022) and Canada’s Top Employers for Young People (2022). Join us to grow your skills as a world-class leader! Check out current openings at www.pgcareers.com.

PEY Co-op Student of the Year Nominees

Chaitanya Ahuja - Environment and Climate Change Canada

Nada Al Aker - Scotiabank

Bethany Chu - AMD

Fred Chun - Safran Landing Systems Canada

Ningxu Fu - AMD

Colin Graham - Zebra Technologies

Vicky Huang - Safran Landing Systems

Faisal Hussaini - ATI Technologies ULC

James Kokoska - SCBU Security Diagnostics

Kujtim Dokaj - ZS Associates

Janelle Law - Red Hat

Sumin Lee - RESHENIE

Emiko Marr - Mattamy Homes

Shayshu Nahata-Ragubance - Scotiabank

Kate Ni - Scotiabank

Scott Oxholm - Scotiabank

Adrian Ramlal - Intel

Daniel Rossos - IBM Canada

Joseph Sawaya - Red Hat

Ammol Singh - AMD

Lauren Streitmatter - Posterity Group Consulting

Ron Thomas - Huawei Technologies

Haochen Wang - Huawei Technologies

Shane Younghusband - Peel Plastic Products

Sam (Lijin) Yu - Litens Automotive Partnership

Tao Zhong - Huawei Technologies

PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year Nominees

Aziz Ahmed - Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

Trevor Ahmedali - Proofpoint Inc.

Sal Alberti - Kinaxis

Erika Aruja - Posterity Group Consulting

Arka Bhattacharjee - Conavi Medical

Terry Borer - Intel

Mark Bourgeault - Huawei Technologies

Eric Bryce - National Bank Financial

Michael DiBernardo - Winterlight Labs

Clint D'Souza - AMD

Carrie Fallows - AMD

Kaya Gangesan - IBM

Mark Horbal - CPP Investments

Philip Hum - Scotiabank

Steven Jones - Conavi Medical

Aditi Kumaraswamy - High Level Design

Harish V Kumaravel - PwC Canada

Jason Kwan - University of British Columbia

Kelvin Lam - PocketHealth

Bingbing Liu - Huawei Technologies

Eric Lu - Moody's Analytics

Edward Mandac - AMD

Vlad Mandrychenko - Garner Distributed Workflow

Kyla Mitchell - Walmart Canada

Daniel Mok - Baylis Medical

Subhayu Mukherjee - Xero

Aingaran Nadesan - Qualcomm

Alex Ng - Zebra Technologies

Patrick Ng - Scotiabank

Amanda Nowicki - Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

Tyler Bryce Nowicki - Huawei Technologies

Ashley Ong - AMD

Alejandro Ramirez - AMD

Vasily Rudchenko - Intel

Cong Tang - Qualcomm

Arun Thangavelu - Celestica

Tim Vanderhoek - Intel

Jason Wong - Proofpoint Inc.

Evelina Zhang - Marvell Technology

Xiaopeng (Parker) Zhang - Qualcomm

Jingyi Zhang - ModiFace

PEY Co-op Employer of the Year Nominees

AMD

Applyboard

CPP Investments

CrowdTwist

Huawei Technologies

Intel

Mars Canada

Marvell Technology

Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

Points International Ltd.

Proofpoint

PwC Canada

Qualcomm

Quanta Technology

Seismic Software Inc.

Sunnybrook Research Institute

Synopsys Canada

Walmart Canada

Winterlight Labs

Xero