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
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
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
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.
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