• Home
  • Media
  • News
  • 2018
  • Western Engineering honours 110 students at inaugural Graduate Awards Banquet

Western Engineering honours 110 students at inaugural Graduate Awards Banquet

Western Engineering News | April 17, 2018

On April 11, 2018, Western Engineering hosted its inaugural Graduate Awards Banquet to recognize its students for their hard work and recent successes.  

The total number of awards and scholarships recognized at the banquet was 144, received by 110 students, valued at over $700,000. 

Eighty-six national and provincial scholarships were granted to graduate students, which included a Vanier Graduate scholar, Ontario Trillium scholars, Ontario Graduate scholars, and NSERC and CIHR funded scholarships. 

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both superior leadership skills and an outstanding record of scholarly achievement.

Mechanical and Materials Engineering PhD student Tengyuan Zhang is this year’s Vanier Scholarship recipient. With the support of the scholarship, Zhang can focus on furthering his professional and academic career and is motivated to collaborate and share his research with like-minded students, professors and researchers from all over the world.

“Winning the Vanier Scholarship makes me feel proud, and, at the same time, obliged,” said Zhang. “I feel obliged to push the boundaries of my research area and contribute to the development of new technologies for the fabrication of printed electronics with all my effort.”

Zhang’s life quote is, "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well," and his demonstrated leadership and success throughout his academic career holds true to his mantra. Zhang has published six papers in top journals as the first author and has applied seven patents in total in the US, Canada and China with his supervisor, Professor Jun Yang, during his graduate studies at Western Engineering.

Based on his research, Zhang co-founded Nectro Inc. in 2015, and served as the team leader, with the goal of developing novel materials and improving people's lives. In addition, he served as president of the student union during his undergraduate study at the Beijing Institute of Technology, China.

Western Engineering also grants internal scholarships to its students thanks to the generous supports of its donors.

The Alan G Davenport Memorial Scholarship, established by family and friends of Dr. Alan Garnet Davenport, is awarded to two full-time graduate students conducting research in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alan G. Davenport Wind Tunnel Program, based on academic achievement. This year’s recipients are Kimberley Adamek and Sarah Stevenson.  

“I am extremely fortunate to have received these awards, and I feel very grateful for the people around me that have helped me get here.” said Kimberley Adamek, PhD student and the recipient of both the Alan G Davenport Memorial and the Julie Lassonde Scholarships.

“While I have been passionate and driven to understand how wind moves at multiple scales for many years now, gaining the support from these scholarships helps me feel that I am on the right track and encourages me to continue pursuing my interests.”

Western Engineering’s leading-edge research provides the foundation for graduate student training, and by offering scholarships that help alleviate financial stresses, we can allow students to fully focus on their studies.

See the full list of this year’s award recipients here.

For more information on scholarships available to Western Engineering graduate students, visit our website.