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| 2009 CFISU Scholarship Recipients
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Danielle works for the Canadian Space Agency as a Flight Controller for the Robotics Systems of the International Space Station.
She is one of the ten Canadian members of the NASA group that plans and executes operations for the Space Station Robotics systems.
She also supported the Phoenix Polar Lander mission as a flight controller during its second month of operations on the surface of Mars.
She grew up in Amos, Quebec looking at the stars and dreaming of outer space, obtained her bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from
École Polytechnique de Montréal, and subsequently started at the Canadian Space Agency as a co-op student,
which led to the position that she now occupies. She is currently completing a Master's Degree in Engineering Management
from the Université de Sherbrooke. Danielle also took part in two expeditions to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah; Expedition 44, in 2006,
where she had the role of Chief Engineer, and Expedition 57, in 2007, where she was the Executive Officer.
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Martin earned his double Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering (Canada/France) at Université de Sherbrooke (Québec).
At present, he is working on his Master’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering at Laval University in Quebec City. He has space related work experiences with EADS Airbus, in Bremen, Germany, where he was a weight calculation engineer on the A400M (internship);
also with CNES-French Space Agency, in Evry, France, as a space composite structures dimensioning engineer (internship);
and with Politecnico di Torino, in Turin, Italy, as a research assistant in vibrations (internship).
He also has experience outside the space field as a research assistant in a wind tunnel laboratory (internship) with THERMAUS,
in Sherbrooke, Québec; with GTM Bâtiment, in Paris France, as a manager assistant on a construction site (internship);
and with DENIM SWIFT, Drummondville Québec, as a thermal engineer (internship). He has done volunteer work at Laval,
greeting foreign students and teaching French as a second language at Collège Frontière.
He speaks good Italian, intermediate Spanish and German, and beginner Japanese.
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Guy is an M.A.Sc candidate, Space Systems Engineering at the University of Toronto. His thesis topics are the Assembly, Integration and Testing
of the CanX Nanosatellites. This involves developing innovative integration techniques for the BRITE, CanX-4/-5 and the AISS at -1
nanosatellite missions. He also worked as a mission analyst and payload integration specialist on the conceptual design of an altimetry satellite.
He received his B.Eng. Mechanical Engineering at McGill University with Technical Elective Courses in Spacecraft Dynamics, Control Systems,
and Mechanics of Composite Materials, Value Engineering, and Product Design. His related work experiences are: at University of Toronto, Teaching assistant
for the AER301, Dynamics; at McGill University, a CNC milling machine operator in the Dept. of Physics and a graphic design Teaching assistant;
at Stryker Medical Quebec, intern in the Dept. of Manufacturing, Research & Development and Quality Control; at Ruhr Universitat, Bochum, Germany;
on a two-month internship, assisting PhD Mechanical Engineering students conduct research in gear fatigue and wear. Guy has traveled to 23 countries
and is conversational in Spanish and Russian. He is involved with several space and astronomy societies. He is a certified diver, a licensed pilot
and advanced radio operator. At McGill, he was on the F-SAE racing team and part of the Mars Desert Research Station crew.
He is a championship wrestler and enjoys ultimate Frisbee, soccer, ball hockey and softball.
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Adam earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree, Honours Psychology & Arts and Business, at University of Waterloo, Ontario.
He did Co-op Internships as a Technical Writer at Business Objects in Vancouver; an Editor/Technical Writer at Multi-Health Systems,
in Toronto; and a Staff Tutor at Sheridan College, Oakville, ON. He also did an International Academic Exchange at the
National University of Singapore. At present he is a candidate for Joint MBA/Law program (M.B.A., LL.B./B.C.L.) at McGill University.
His professional experience consists of work in the Philippines with UNANG HAKBANG FOUNDATION, as an Administrative Consultant
which involved the assessment of the foundation’s educational- support programming for the underprivileged children.
Before that, he worked with WIZMET INTERNATIONAL, in Lachine Quebec, where he assisted in a wide range of functions,
including direct sales, accounting, customs auditing and inventory management. His volunteer experiences include
Editor for Managing & Developing the international magazine MBAs Without Borders;
chairperson of the McGill PGSS Constitution Committee; Emergency Room Volunteer at St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver.
As an academic with a non-engineering educational background, at SSP’09 he hopes to offer a measure of diversity
that will complement many of the more technical minded attendees.
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Heather Lynn is a candidate in a MD/PhD Program (Stem Cell Biology) at the University of British Columbia.
She has completed two years of MD training, and is in her fourth year of PhD training. In September 2009,
she will commence her final two years of MD training. She received her Bachelor of Science degree, Biotechnology (Honours, Comp) also from UBC.
Over the past four years, she acted as a graduate student responsible for research projects including design and implementation of experiments
within mice to study 3D proliferation of blood vessel stem cells within a subcutaneous bioreactor which she surgically implants.
Her work experience during University includes, in part: Research Student at the
James Hogg i Capture Centre for cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research examining the involvement of hematopoietic stem cells in cardiovascular disease;
Research Consultant at QLT Vancouver BC, on a project studying age related macular degeneration; and at
UBC Microbiology 447 Experimental Research investigating plasmid copy number within microorganisms; – to name a few.
She is the founder and former co-owner of UBC’s first student owned and operated café, at the entrance of campus.
She is the author/co-author of a dozen publications and the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions.
She is a Private in the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve, enjoys Downhill Mountain biking,
rock climbing, snowboarding, skydiving, scuba, ballroom dancing and plays the saxophone and weight trains.
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Tomas earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
He also has a diploma in Electronics Technology in Control Systems from Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, in Toronto.
He has space industry experience, having worked with MDA (Space Missions) in Brampton, ON, where he helped define scientific instrumentation
for a lunar manufacturing mission. He also worked at Automated Mining Systems and MDA (Terrestrial Missions) on Automating robotic equipment
for mines in Germany. He acquired research experience in Dr. Steve Mann’s Humanistic Intelligence Laboratory
(designing wearable computer technologies and advances vision systems, with applications for future space suits).
Recently he was employed at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC., where he designed and implemented a large cross-national
public domain database and web interface (in English & Spanish) to assist policy makers in the field of international development.
He has also done volunteer health work in Mexico. He is a very active amateur astronomer. He speaks English, Spanish, German and French with proficiency and basic Chinese (mandarin) and Japanese.
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Reg is a Master of Architecture (MArch) candidate at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
He received his Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Co-op Program, also at Waterloo.
His work experience consists of Teacher’s Assistant at U of Waterloo (Cambridge),
organizing class schedules, itineraries, and field trips for students; participating in student design Desk Reviews;
acting as guest panelist in student Final Critiques. Earlier, he was a Project Coordinator with Buchan Group International,
in London, U.K, working with the leading Architects on one of the largest commercial projects in Europe (Westfield London).
He also obtained considerable experience as a Co-op student with several firms; PBK Architects Inc., Vancouver, working with
project coordinators and designers in creation of elevations and layouts; Paul Merrick Architects Limited, Victoria, BC on a
large scale multi-use condominium project; Quadrangle Architects Limited, Toronto, large scale residential building projects;
Gren Weis Architect and Associates, Oakville ON, increased use and experience with Auto Cad for details and plans of several projects.
He enjoys ink and pencil sketching, watercolor and oil painting, participating in team and solo sports and astronomy.
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At the time of this writing, Natalie is a candidate for a Master of Applied Science, Aerospace Engineering (expected April 2009)
at University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. She has a Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering, from University of Calgary, Alberta.
Her work experiences consist of an internship at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre doing failure analysis of transformers;
reliability engineering for various flight hardware; and fiber optic design, manufacturing and integration.
She also spent time with Devon Canada Corporation, in Calgary, as an Oil and Gas Production Engineering Intern
developing model simulations of gas gathering systems; managing and providing recommendations for suspended well bores;
researching the litho logy, production, and work-over methods for the Viking gas formation.
She also worked as a Project Developer for Minds in Motion, in Calgary. Natalie has a Private Pilot’s license,
does private tutoring to high school students, volunteers at the Ontario Science Centre Recreational Outreach programs,
was a Mechanical Manager in the University of Calgary’s Solar Car Teams I and II, and was a Discovery Dome Host at the Calgary Science Centre.
She has Classical Piano training, loves cross-country and trail running, camping, fishing, fencing, ultimate Frisbee and baking.
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Alexandre is a candidate for a PhD in Telecommunications (expected 2010) at l’Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS),
Université du Québec à Montréal. He earned his MSc, Telecommunications, also at INRS, and his B.Eng. Computer Engineering
at Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQA). His research and developments experiences include: a Doctoral Research Project at INRS,
studying and designing various high gain millimeter-wave dielectric resonator antennas; a Master’s Research Project at INRS,
designing and fabricating a dual-polarized microchip antenna; as Research Assistant at UQA, designing and fabricating an autonomous robotic platform
to obtain propagation measurements in confined areas; as an Engineering Intern with Québec Department of Transport,
designing an intelligent electronic odometer allowing the workers to situate their vehicles in real-time on the Quebec road system.
He has co-authored four published articles co-presented at a half dozen conferences/symposia and has made many presentations at institutes of
higher learning in Québec. He is the recipient of awards from Bell Canada, INRS, NSERC, Fond québecois de la recherche sur la nature et
les technologies, and the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec. He has been playing bass guitar for 12 years.
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Syed graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, with a minor in management. He gained his early design engineering
experience while working in the Telecom, Semiconductor and Aerospace Industries (Honeywell Aerospace; Ceyba Networks; Teradyne; Nortel),
before joining COMDEV in Cambridge, Ontario. At COMDEV, he worked as a Work Package Lead on two very high profile projects in the
Space Electronics Division of NASA’s John Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and on the European Space Agency’s SWARM Project. JWST is the new telescope for imaging and spectroscopy planned for launch in 2013. SWARM is a constellation of three scientific satellites measuring Earth’s magnetic field and its variation. This work included design, work package management, analysis,
documentation, testing systems integration and support and provided interaction with NASA and ESA. This year, he accepted the position of Program Manager at COMDEV, and has been given the task of managing JWST. This involves project planning, schedule reviews, running daily whiteboards and ensuring project milestones are achieved on time within allocated costs.
Syed lives in Mississauga with his wife and three children.
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Erik is a Lieutenant Commander in the Canadian Forces. He received a BSc Mechanical Engineering at Royal Military College of Canada
and an Electrical Engineering Certificate at Technical University of Nova Scotia. He is at present on secondment to the Canadian Space Agency,
in St-Hubert, Québec, as a Technology Development Manager. His major responsibilities are in Direct Space R and D Projects;
to manage contracts with industry and academia; to advise on R and D technology priorities and roadmaps; and to foster collaboration with other
government departments and space agencies. Prior to this assignment, he was with Defense R and D Canada, at Val Cartier, Que, as a Project Manager
and Naval Liaison Officer. He did sea-time in H.M.C.S. Montréal as Combat Systems Engineering Officer, where he gained significant exposure
to many cultures, e.g. during a seven month deployment in the Persian Gulf. At one point in his career, he was selected in the Canadian Forces
post graduate program (Master of Engineering) but instead opted to be posted to the Canadian Space Agency in order to broaden
his professional experience. He is studying Spanish, German and Russian.
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Dominic has a Bachelor of Science degree (Honours, Specialization in Environmental Sciences) from Concordia University, in Montréal,
and an Arts and Science Certificate (concentration in Geography and Hispanic Studies) from the Université de Montréal. He is studying for a
Master of Science degree (Planetary Sciences, Geology) at the University of Western Ontario. At present he works as a
Supply Technician in the Canadian Forces Army Reserve, 51e Bataillon de Service du Canada, at St-Hubert, Québec,
where he is second-in command of the Supply Section. His duties consist of equipment management, weapons vault management,
warehousing, military vehicle operations, dangerous goods transportation, field tactics and operations survival, weapons training, et al.
In June 2006 to July 2007, he was a Field Assistant in Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk with the Aurora Research Institute gathering soil, ice, water and
rock samples through measurements, GPS mapping, etc. Before that he was a student in Tropical Ecology at La Suerte Biological Research Station, in Costa Rica.
In 2004, Dominic was with the Canadian Forces as a Peacekeeper for six months on the Israeli/Syrian border. His other interests are camping, scuba diving, canoeing, hiking and board games.
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