Two systems design engineering (SYDE) alumni were recognized at the 2021 Faculty of Engineering Alumni Achievement event.
Dr. Glen W. Bandiera – Individual Alumni Achievement Medal for Community Service
Skills Glen Bandiera (BASc ’90, systems design engineering)learned as a Waterloo student over 30 years ago still guide him in his career today with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.
As the college’s executive director of specialty education for the past four months, Bandiera often calls on the knowledge he gained as a Waterloo Engineering student and later as an emergency room physician and director.
After completing his Waterloo degree in 1990, Bandiera attended McMaster University where he graduated as a physician with a specialty in trauma and emergency medicine in 1998. He later completed a master of education degree at the University of Toronto.
For 10 years he worked as a staff emergency physician and trauma team leader at St. Michael’s
Hospital in Toronto, one of only two trauma centres serving over seven million people. He then completed two five-year terms as chief of emergency medicine at St. Michael’s.
Glen Bandiera working at St. Michael's Hospital.
For his last seven years at St. Michael’s, he concurrently served as associate dean, postgraduate medical education at the University of Toronto where he holds the rank of full professor.
As a physician, he not only wanted to make a difference in the operating room but outside it as well.
Through his many research, academic leadership roles, and work with accreditation reform, Bandiera has pursued his passion for improving the education and preparation for practice for all specialty physicians in Canada. He has also contributed immensely to advancing hospital process improvement.
“One of the things I hope the next generation in medicine and as well as engineering come away with is an appreciation for societal need and their role in it,” Bandiera says.
Olga Pawluczyk – Individual Alumni Achievement Medal in Professional Achievement
Olga Pawluczyk (BASc ’98, systems design engineering) describes running P&P Optica as her dream job because it combines many of her interests – engineering, medical imaging and problem solving.
The company is a leader in advancing the field of spectroscopy by developing and testing multispectral and hyperspectral imaging technology for applications in the medical, recycling, oil and gas, space exploration, and food industries.
Launched in 1995 by her father, Romuald, Pawluczyk joined P&P Optica in 2000 and became its CEO five years later.
The company built its first spectrometer in 2003 for the Ontario Cancer Institute. The institute has since purchased several more systems that are used to identify the risks of breast cancer.
Recently, P&P Optica created a Smart Imaging System for assessing food quality and safety through identifying foreign objects at line speed in real time. The technology has been tested in leading food plants throughout Canada.
Pawluczyk says her Waterloo Engineering experience has been invaluable to her career as CEO of P&P Optica.
“The group work and the camaraderie of systems design really prepared me for running a company right now,” she says.
Olga Pawluczyk, CEO of P&P Optica
Honouring exceptional alumni and a valued supporter was originally posted in Waterloo News.