Awards dinner celebrates students, staff, faculty and alumni

Over 2,500 students received awards this year for everything from top marks, to extracurricular activities, such as leadership, community engagement and involvement in athletics.

Recognizing outstanding alumni

The 2014 Faculty of Engineering alumni medals and honours were also presented at the dinner.   

The recipient of the Alumni Achievement Medal for Academic Excellence was Yusuf Chisti (PhD '88, Chemical). Currently a professor at the School of Engineering at Massey University in New Zealand, Chisti is a highly-accomplished academic who is internationally recognized for his research achievements in chemical and biological engineering.

The Alumni Achievement Medal for Professional Achievement was awarded to Alison Brooks (BES '85 and BARCH '88).The founder and creative director of Alison Brooks Architects London, she is one of the leading architects of her generation. Brooks was honoured with the title of outstanding female architect in the world by the Architects Journal magazine published in 2013.

Khaled Al Sabawi (BASc '06, Computer) received the Young Alumni Achievement Medal. He is the founder and president of MENA Geothermal, a green energy business, which installed the first geothermal systems in Palestine in 2007.  He is also the founder of TABO, a development project that is part of Union Construction and Investment, one the largest real-estate development companies in Palestine. It offers affordable, registered plots of residential land in the West Bank. 

 

The recipients of this year’s Team Alumni Achievement Medal were Frank Baylis (BASc '86, Electrical) and Kris Shah  (BASc '86, Electrical) of Baylis Medical, a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of high-technology medical devices. Baylis Medical’s innovations include the world’s first cooled-RF platform for pain management procedures and the OsteoCool® system for treatment of pain emanating from metastatic bone tumors.

The 2014 Friend of the Faculty Award was presented to the Marsland Family. As Waterloo region business and community leaders, the Marslands have helped fund a number of Waterloo Engineering's student teams and often attend their unveiling and appreciation events. Recognizing the need to provide the teams with a home, the family donated $1 million to the building of what is today the Sedra Student Design Centre in Engineering 5.  In recognition of the Marslands’ contribution, the centre now includes the Marsland Family Pathway.