A student joining the Department of Systems Design Engineering this fall has been named a 2026 Loran Scholar, one of Canada's most competitive undergraduate awards.
Umayeer Ahsan was one of just 36 students selected nationwide from a pool of more than 5,400 applicants. The four-year award, valued at more than $100,000, supports recipients through mentorship, experiential learning and a national peer network.
Ahsan, who is from Toronto, said the honour means more than financial support. "It means having a network of people I can actively learn from and collaborate with to create meaningful change that reaches beyond Canada," he said.
He chose to study systems design engineering after noticing throughout high school that his best moments came from identifying problems and using critical thinking to design solutions. Waterloo is one of Loran's five founding university partners and has supported 55 Loran Scholars since 1989, including 12 current scholars.