2025 Co-op Students of the Year

Giang Tran  

Global Business and Digital Arts, Faculty of Arts 

Employer: Rootly AI 

Giang Tran, working as a product and visual designer at Rootly, was the startup’s inaugural co-op student. She delivered exceptional impact during Rootly’s critical growth phase by: 

• Designing major product features including a two-month redesign of Rootly’s on-call scheduling tool for more than 500 clients. The improvements reduced resolution time by 15% and enabled an artificial intelligence (AI) editor that is now used by over 1,000 on-call engineers.  
• Delivering more than 80 UX improvements across Rootly’s platform and contributing directly to the company’s growth toward $10 million in annual revenue.  
• Leading strategic brand and marketing initiatives, including designing a Times Square billboard, establishing Rootly’s first brand guidelines and creating AI-powered workflows that reduced marketing asset creation time by half. 

Aiden Sarrafzadeh 

Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering 

Employer: Women’s College Hospital

As a research assistant at Women’s College Hospital, Aiden Sarrafzadeh applied his engineering background to advance health care research, AI initiatives and patient-oriented innovation. Highlights from his work term include: 

• Consulting with bioethicists, human factors experts and health care organizations to develop and prototype an AI chatbot to support health care innovations. 

• Supporting the CHILD-BRIGHT Network by authoring three impact reports to demonstrate the network’s value to funders. His work helped contribute to continued funding and publications. 

• Evaluating AI clinical decision support tools by completing 20 hours of clinical shadowing to connect digital health research with real-world practice. 

Francesca Girmenia 

Environment and Business, Faculty of Environment 

Employer: Graz University of Technology

As a young researcher at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Francesca Girmenia played a key role in shaping the university’s approach to carbon removal. She delivered research and strategic insights to advance TU Graz’s climate neutrality objectives for 2030 by: 

• Authoring a 28-page report including carbon removal technologies, emissions reduction potential, value-chain actors and financial investments to inform TU Graz’s procurement strategy.  

• Conducting interviews with key industry stakeholders, building new external relationships and collecting critical financial and market data.  

• Presenting recommendations directly to the vice rector of sustainability and rectorate of TU Graz. Girmenia’s insights now guide TU Graz’s long-term climate strategy. 

Christina Yang 

Health Sciences, Faculty of Health 

Employer: Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Christina Yang made a strong impression as a clinical research assistant at the Odette Cancer Centre. In her role, she completed meaningful clinical research work that directly impacted patient care, including

• Launching the world’s first clinical trial testing a new way to prevent radiation burns in breast cancer patients and recruiting more than 70 patients.  

• Introducing a new treatment for radiation-related skin wounds, enrolling 20 patients who experienced reduced pain and improved healing, and helping to initiate a larger trial to change standard care.  

• Leading international patient experience research by recruiting nearly 100 patients worldwide and presenting results at major conferences.

Yang is also the recipient of the 2025 Experiential & Work-Integrated Learning Ontario (EWO) Co-op Student of the Year award. 

Vinayak Bector

Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics 

Employer: xAI

Vinayak Bector’s work as a web engineer at xAI focused on building the company’s encrypted messaging platform that is used by 650 million people monthly. His accomplishments include: 

• Delivering more than 420 improvements, becoming one of the most active contributors on the team and helping bring a major new feature to users faster.  

• Improving the product across multiple platforms by helping update emojis, fixing issues in older parts of the app and making sure features worked smoothly on different devices.  

• Creating app changes projected to save the company more than $3 million per year. 

Allysa Greidanus

Chemistry, Faculty of Science

Employer: Murphy Lab, Faculty of Science, University of Waterloo

As a research assistant in the Murphy Lab at the University of Waterloo, Allysa Greidanus focused on finding practical solutions in wastewater purification. She went above and beyond by: 

• Developing a new approach to clean more than 40 tons of contaminated wastewater, unlocking nearly $40 million worth of heavy water (D20) resources. 

• Introducing a new treatment method that makes it easy for the company to use in their industrial facility. 

• Securing a renewed five-year research partnership with deutraMed that will support future coop students.