Graduate Student Awards

ECE Travel Award

Award Schedule and Eligibility

The departmental travel awards are assigned in three competitions per year. Approximately $15,000 is available annually. Any funds not allotted will roll over into the following competition. The student must be presenting at a conference to qualify for funding. A travel application can only be submitted once. Each Travel Award Application is eligible for a maximum award of $500.

Conference travel dates Application Due Date Awards announced by Funds available
January 1 to April 30 May 15 June 15 Up to $4,000
May 1 to August 31 September 15 October 15 Up to $7,000
September 1 to December 31 January 15 February 15 Up to $4,000

Submission Procedure

The graduate student has to submit the following to the ECE graduate coordinator:

Please note that this process is different from the process to be reimbursed. Once a travel award is approved, the student will need to submit an expense report (here), by clicking on the purple square “Western Financials Login”.  Once the expense report is submitted, please print a copy and attach your original receipts to this and submit to the ECE graduate coordinator for approval. 

Graduate Student Travel Award Allocation

These awards are administered by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and allocated by the department’s Graduate Committee. Eligible students will be awarded $500 to cover part of his/her travel expenses of attending a conference to present research work the student conducted at Western as part of his/her current graduate program requirements. To be eligible for a travel award, a student must be enrolled full-time in a graduate program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The committee selects awardees out of students applied for the award based on a point system procedure. In this procedure, each applicant is allotted 100 points as baseline. The applicant's total points will be calculated by adding or subtracting points based on the following table:

Condition Added points
Applicant received award by conference where presentation is given +30
International conference +10
Awarded travel award once in past 12 months -20
Overtime Student at time of Paper Submission -20
Applicant not first author in the article's authors list -30
Awarded travel award twice in past 12 months -40

After obtaining total points of each applicant, a list of applicants sorted according to the total points will be compiled. Finally, the committee will use this list to award applicants starting from the one with the highest points and moving down the list until available travel award funds are fully allocated.

Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research

The ECE Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research recognizes excellence in research by a graduate student at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western University. The Award will provide a way for members of the Electrical and Computer Engineering community to appreciate and celebrate research achievement of their most outstanding graduate students. The ECE Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research will consist of a certificate and carry a cash award of $500. The Award will be presented during the annual ECE graduate symposium.

Please Apply at https://westerneng.awardspring.ca

 

Terms of Reference

The ECE Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research is intended to recognize research achievement of work while the student is conducting his/ her graduate degree at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western University.

Only full-time graduate students currently registered in an ECE graduate program are eligible to apply.  Applications for overtime students at the time of nominations are not accepted.

Every year, two awards are available for PhD students and one award is available for MESc students. A graduate student can receive the award only once.

If there is no suitable candidate in a year no award will be made.

The Application must include the following:

  • A covering letter showing evidence of the impact of the nominee’s research and explaining the particular significance of their research contributions. The expectation is that the nominee has published his/her research finding in Tier-1 journal publications, in reputable international conferences with very low acceptance rate, or other high impact research contributions. Only contributions while conducting research at Western ECE (e.g., that will be included in the student’s thesis) will be considered. Self-nominations are accepted.
  • A curriculum vitae of the nominee (including a listing of recent awards);
  • A document listing the publications of the candidate while attending Western University
  • Letters of support from both internal and external individuals including, faculty members, industry collaborators, etc. (up to a maximum of 4 letters).

 

 

R.K. Swartman Master of Engineering Program Award 

Awarded to graduating students from the Master of Engineering Program, based on outstanding academic achievement and active community engagement. This award will be divided equally between four students from each recognized department in the Faculty of Engineering (Chemical & Biochemical; Civil & Environmental; Electrical & Computer; and Mechanical & Materials). This award was established by Mr. Tim Kwan (BESc'73) in honour of Professor Robert K. Swartman.

Value: 4 at $1,000

How to Apply: Applications are accepted through the online application system, https://westerneng.awardspring.ca/ in the winter term. Applications should include a CV and a maximum 300 word essay describing the candidates community involvement. Applications will be assessed by the Graduate Chair Committee in the Faculty of Engineering, which includes at least one faculty representative from each of the four core departments identified above. At least one member of the committee must hold membership in the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. The final selection of the four students will be made each March.

Ion Inculet PhD Award in Engineering

Awarded annually to a graduate student registered in a PhD program in Electrical and Computer Engineering, based on academic achievement (minimum 85% average over the last 2 years of engineering studies). The candidate will be a Canadian citizen. Preference will be given to a student specializing in Applied Electrostatics. A committee within the Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will select the recipient. At least one member of the committee must hold membership in the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. This award was established by a generous gift from the Estate of Professor Ion Inculet (PhD ’96).

Professor Ion Inculet was born in Romania and immigrated to Canada in 1947. He was educated as an Electrical Engineer. He retired, after 47 years, from Western’s Faculty of Engineering, as Professor Emeritus. He was Director of the Applied Electrostatics Research Centre, and an internationally renowned Inventor (27 patents), Researcher, and Academician. Professor Inculet died in 2011 at the age of 90. Apply online: https://westerneng.awardspring.ca