The Faculty of Engineering welcomed five Schulich Leader Scholars to its 2025 first-year class through the prestigious Schulich Leader Scholarships program.
The cohort includes Kaibo Huang (Software Engineering), Hilary Pang (Mechatronics Engineering), Matthew Petersen (Systems Design Engineering), and Azka Siddiqui and Cherry Wang (both Computer Engineering).
The Schulich Leader Scholarships are awarded annually to 100 high-school graduates across Canada. Each recipient receives between $100,000 and $120,000 in recognition of their outstanding entrepreneurial talent in STEM.
Huang likes to push himself beyond his comfort zone and chose software engineering because it covers a broad range of subjects including math and computer science. He hopes to one day work with machine learning and data.
Pang is focused on robotics and accessibility and aims to launch a prosthetics startup one day that uses AI to advance mobility. “Mechatronics Engineering perfectly combines my love for mechanical systems, electronics and programming — skills I developed through hands-on projects and builds in high school,” she said.
Petersen is a founder of Project WhyFi, a student-led organization that educates youth on financial literacy. He is excited to join the Systems Design Engineering program and apply his classroom learning to real-world challenges and work towards shaping a better future.
Siddiqui chose Computer Engineering as she wants a career in building things that merge hardware and software. She looks forward to being part of Waterloo’s startup and innovation ecosystem. “Being able to live on campus because of this scholarship puts me in a much better place to learn, collaborate and build,” she said.
Wang’s interests pivoted from animation to coding after taking her first computer science class in Grade 10 and discovering Computer Engineering. “My dream is to create technology that solves real problems in overlooked communities,” she said.
Go to Meet Waterloo’s 10 new Schulich Leaders for the full story.