Engineering student among six Western students named Vanier honourees

Communications Staff | August 4, 2011

Western Engineering student Ahmed Hamada joins his peers from Western - Katie Kryski, Donald Lafreniere, Matthew Quinn, Fabrice Szabo and Jodie Whelan - as recently named recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships, the country’s most prestigious scholarships for doctoral students.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the recipients Wednesday, Aug. 3.

Ahmed Hamada

Hamada, seeking his PhD in civil and environmental engineering/doctor of philosophy, focuses on the area of fluid-structure interaction with a special focus on wind-related structural problems.

His thesis, Development of Design Procedures for Transmission Line Structures Under High Intensity Wind Events Using a Fluid-Structure Interaction Model, addresses the fact most tower failures have been attributed to localized High Intensity Wind (HIW) storms in the form of tornadoes and downbursts. Despite this, current codes do not account for the loads resulting from HIW events in the design of transmission lines. Hamada hopes to establish a methodology for designing reliable transmission line systems under HIW events resulting in utility companies adopting those systems for implementation in their design guidelines.

“Western has a worldwide reputation as a leading institute in wind engineering through its famous Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL),” he says. “Our research group, which consists of more 12 researchers, has been collaborating with researchers from the BLWTL in various research projects.”

In his free time, Hamada plays basketball, soccer and squash as well as serves as Graduate Teaching Assistant Union chief returning officer, Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) councilor for engineering and Graduate Engineering Society vice-president. Hamada developed the first Egyptian Student Association in North America, the Western chapter.

Launched in 2009, the award is designed to attract and retain world-class doctoral students from Canada and around the world. This year, 167 Vanier scholars were announced at 26 universities, with graduate students from the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa choosing Canadian universities for their doctoral studies.

Vanier scholars receive $50,000 annually for up to three years, and each is selected based on his/her demonstrated leadership skills and high standard of scholarly achievement in the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, engineering or health sciences.

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