Tejinder Singh has come a long way since he was a boy who loved taking his electronic toys apart and seeing if he could put them back together again.
Now a postdoctoral fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a research associate at Waterloo Engineering, Singh added to a growing list of accomplishments when he was chosen to receive the Spring 2021 Governor General’s Gold Medal for the highest standing in a doctoral program at the University of Waterloo.
All along the road from childhood toys to contributions towards space exploration, however, one thing has remained the same for the new doctor of electrical and computer engineering: a keen interest in understanding and creating technology.
“Whatever I achieved during my PhD was a direct result of my curiosity and my passion for learning,” says Singh, who assembled his first computer when he was only 10. “Since my research was on a topic that I thoroughly enjoyed, it never felt like a burden.”
Go to From childhood toys to the NASA jet propulsion lab for the full story on Singh.
Singh, his wife and fellow researcher, Navjot Khaira, and his PhD supervisor, Raafat Mansour, are also featured in a video about graduate studies at Waterloo Engineering.