Nathan Duarte was honoured today as Waterloo Engineering’s top co-op student, as well as one of the country’s 2018 Co-op Students of the Year as selected by Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Canada.
The third-year biomedical engineering student helped develop a novel bio-ink that can be used to decrease the amount of time it takes to 3D-print kidney tissues while he was on a co-op term at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.
Nathan Duarte (back left) of Waterloo Engineering poses with the University's other top co-op students (clockwise from back middle) Stephanie Chan (science), James Schnarr (environment), Lauren Katherine McLennan (applied health sciences), Yutong Wu (mathematics) and Krista Duncan (arts).
During his work term, Duarte had the opportunity to demo his work for Hansjörg Wyss, the benefactor of the Harvard institute.
He also co-authored an article about his research that was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
Duarte and co-op students of the year from Waterloo’s other five faculties were recognized at a ceremony for their contributions to their employers, their communities and the development of experiential education.
Emily Lam, also a biomedical engineering student, received an honourable mention at the event, which was held in the William M. Tatham Centre for Co-operative Education & Career Action.
“Across every discipline and level of experience you can find a student who has created a meaningful impact in their workplace,” said Ross Johnston, executive director of co-operative education at Waterloo. “The growing number of employers from all over the world who hire Waterloo students demonstrates the reaches of our reputation for excellence.”