2021 Pearl Sullivan Emerging Global Leaders Award Recipient
Amanda (Mandy) Coleman, BASc '21, Environmental Engineering
Mandy has been selected as the inaugural winner of the Pearl Sullivan Emerging Global Leader Award. Mandy’s dedication to help solve the global water crisis specifically with her human-centred approach using an engineering framework has helped communities in Pakistan create a sustainable water supply where none existed before. From her dynamic leadership as the UW President of the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter where she revamped EWB’s member learning sessions, improved chapter-wide socials and transitioned it to a vibrant virtual community to meet the needs of the changing world, Mandy has exemplified what an emerging global leader means. To further her experience in international water resources, while contributing her robust environmental engineering knowledge, Mandy sought out international development projects in Africa. For one of her work terms, she undertook a business development fellowship in Uganda where she supported a grassroots organization as they launched a clean energy enterprise to address energy poverty in Kampala. Throughout her academic career at Waterloo Engineering, Mandy has embodied the heart of the engineering profession: to improve the human condition. In particular, her ability and insistence in designing technology for the operational context that fully engages the local community is inspiring and embodies the spirit of the legendary Waterloo Pump which transformed clean water access in communities across the developing world.
As the winner of the prestigious Pearl Sullivan Emerging Global Leader Award, Mandy intends to use the $50,000 award to fund a year’s internship with a global non-governmental organization (NGO) so she can turn her dream of addressing the world’s water crisis into a reality.
2021 Pearl Sullivan Emergering Global Leaders Award Finalists
Fraser exemplifies what it is to be a T-shaped engineer – an individual who possesses deep, technical skills but also has broader attributes such as compassion, empathy, communication skills, team building, imagination and creativity. His cross-discipline competence has allowed Fraser to build community and purpose wherever and whatever he turns his attention to. Since his first term where he joined the UW Robotics team to then leading the Mars Rover team by third year – where his team experienced success in Waterloo Engineering highest ever Systems Acceptance Review application – Fraser has brought leadership and community spirit. An ardent athlete who understands the ability that sport has to bring people together, Fraser has played on 19 intramural teams at UW, acting as captain in several. His involvement with the WUSA club Power to Change saw him in multiple roles ranging from one-on-one mentorship to organizing its weekly meetings of over one hundred participants. Fraser successfully competed in the prestigious Hult Prize (known as the “Nobel Prize for students” with more than 300,000 students competing worldwide), where his team, Save Bread - a food waste reduction platform - won at the university level.
Nathan’s contributions to the global engineering community have been truly remarkable considering that much of it has occurred during his years as a biomedical engineering student at Waterloo Engineering. Known to be a principled altruist, agile problem solver and a reflective leader, Nathan’s academic and co-op success has allowed him to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our times. As project lead at SeroTracker, a COVID-19 antibody testing data hub in partnership with Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force and the World Health Organization, Nathan made invaluable contributions resulting in the project’s success. In 2018, Nathan was recognized when he won the the Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning national co-op student of the year award in addition to receiving the co-op student of the year award from the faculty of engineering for his exceptional contributions to his employer and research project, which became part of a publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2016, Nathan co-founded the BioTEC conference, a biotechnology and bio-engineering conference held at UWaterloo. Most recently, Nathan, as an inaugural McCall MacBain Scholar, has chosen to pursue an MSc in Electrical Engineering at McGill where he will work on stress-measuring sensors.
A dynamic scholar, Corbin has seamlessly blended academic excellence, engineering prowess, business acumen and leadership throughout his time at Waterloo Engineering. Corbin consistently brought the highest levels of contribution to some of the most challenging situations. As co-director of Hack The North, in 2018-2019 he oversaw a team of 40 organizers, 200+ volunteers and hosted 1,500 students from more than 34 countries, helping it to grow into one of the world’s largest and most admired hackathons. With technical project awards from MIT and Princeton, Corbin has shown his software engineering ability is world class. A winner of the prestigious C.D. Howe National Engineering Scholarship (one of two awarded nationally for outstanding leadership and academic achievement), Corbin has also won the First in Class Engineering Scholarship which is presented to the top student in each engineering class based on academic achievement as well as the Engineering Faculty/Staff Upper Year Scholarship. During this time, he also acted as a Student Ambassador for Waterloo Engineering, touring prospective students and families, while championing the University of Waterloo. During his studies, he worked for a growing startup, where he was not only a top contributor but led and mentored other engineers – many far older and more experienced – allowing them to achieve greater success. Now a Waterloo Engineering graduate with a deep focus on quantum computing, Corbin is joining QuEra, a quantum computing startup and ramping up his involvement with Qubit by Quibit, a free online quantum computing school aimed at high schoolers.
“Inclusion in a community, such as Waterloo Engineering, is vital for mental health,” is the mindset that has formed the foundation for Heather’s multitude of successes. With an open heart and keen mind, Heather has embraced the many opportunities available to undergraduate students to engage in diverse experiences and has joyfully brought others into these communities. As a four-time leader of Orientation, Heather is often the first face of leadership that undergraduates see upon arrival. From her work as a member of the organizing committee for the Conference on Sustainability to her ongoing contributions to the Engineering Society where she undertook Board of Director terms, Council Chair, or creating a Strategic Plan, her goal has always been to encourage inclusivity and approachability. In Spring 2020, Heather realized the pivot to online education prevented students, especially in first and second year, from fully integrating into the Engineering Community as normally would happen in person, so she co-founded the Mech Mentorship program to encourage younger years to connect with others in their department. Through this program, she encouraged interactions with the greater engineering community as a whole, through active advertising. In the first term of the program over 120 students participated, creating community spirit in a time of great uncertainty.