Two U of T Engineering students have been named the 2013 winners of the Personal Scholarship, a $5,000 award offered by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and The Personal insurance company. Stefan Hadjis (EngSci 1T3 + PEY) and Lorne Mlotek (CivE 1T3) submitted the winning applications for the undergraduate scholarships, competing against other Ontario Engineering students entering or completing their fourth year of study in 2013.
The Personal Scholarship includes four awards, two each for undergraduates and graduates. The scholarship recognizes students with strong academic performance who also demonstrate creative thinking, relationship building, leadership qualities and a commitment to serving the engineering community and the public. In their applications, students were asked to share their future plans, extracurricular involvement, and how they intend to contribute to the engineering profession after graduation.
Hadjis’ impressive accomplishments to date include developing a prostate cancer treatment system, which uses high-intensity ultrasound, and working with The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering on a Computer-Aided Design tool for the growing technology of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA). He also travelled to California to present the work at an international symposium in 2012, where he represented U of T and was the symposium’s lone undergraduate speaker. Hadjis intends to continue his research at the graduate level in order to explore new fields and applications for emerging technologies. He eventually plans to apply his research towards starting his own technology company.
“I’m honoured to receive the Personal Scholarship and motivated to continue working towards a level of professionalism and excellence required to be an engineering leader who envisions the technologies of tomorrow,” he said. “I feel grateful to attend the University of Toronto and for the level of enthusiasm and commitment of the engineering Faculty.”
Throughout the past four years, Mlotek has demonstrated his dedication to making an impact on the engineering profession through his participation in co-curricular activities which foster leadership, volunteerism, social equity and environmental sustainability. He has also already begun to make contributions towards the engineering profession and the public by founding LeadingGREEN, a non-profit advocacy organization and education provider for green building certification. LeadingGREEN currently serves more than 500 students and professionals throughout North America.
Lorne intends to put the scholarship towards furthering LeadingGREEN and bringing his affordable LEED training course on a tour across the U.S. in the coming months. He aims to teach the course at over 50 schools between September 2013 and May 2014. Asked what winning the Personal Scholarship means to him, Mlotek said, “The award signifies the profession’s growing recognition outside a strictly technical profession. I believe this is the direction the industry must continue towards in order for engineers to reach their full potential.”
