Accolades - Summer and September 2018

Faculty members

Christophe Guy was named an Engineers Canada Fellow. The national association elects its members to the fellowship in honour for outstanding service to the engineering profession. Guy is a professor in Concordia’s Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering and Concordia’s Vice-President of Research and Graduate Studies.

Concordia’s Board of Governors has approved the reappointment of Amir Asif as dean of the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science for a second five-year term. Asif has led several impressive projects during his first term, including the creation of the new Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering.

Habib Benali is the new scientific director of Concordia’s PERFORM Centre. He will oversee the facility’s many programs related to physical activity, nutrition and lifestyle. Benali is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds the Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Imaging and Healthy Aging.

Van Suong Hoa, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, is the recipient of the Order of Merit of Brossard, which is the highest distinction for a person living in Brossard, Que.

Catherine Mulligan, professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the Engineering Institute of Canada’s (EIC) John B. Stirling Medal, which recognizes leadership and distinguished national service within the Institute and its Member Societies. Muthukumaran Packirisamy, professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, was also inducted as an EIC fellow for his exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada.

Ali Dolatabadi, professor and graduate and PhD program director in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, and Arash Mohammadi, assistant professor with the Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering, received the 2018 President’s Excellence in Teaching Awards. This award celebrates highly engaged faculty who inspire, challenge and motivate students to hone their critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.

Zhibin Ye, professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, was inducted into the Provost’s Circle of Distinction. The honour recognizes Ye’s accomplishments in the design of new polymers and nanomaterials for new applications in the chemical, biomedical and composite materials industries. He was also recently admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the U.K. for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of chemical sciences.

One of two 2018 Academic Leadership Awards went to Ted Stathopoulos, professor in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, for his 38-years of administrative excellence. Stathopoulos has served as president of CUFA since 2013, was director at the Centre for Building Studies from 1998 to 2001, and successfully lead the CEAB accreditation of our undergraduate engineering programs.

Akshay Rathore, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his co-authors won the 2018 Premium Award for Best Paper in IET Power Electronics. Premium Awards recognize the best research papers published during the last two years. Rathore’s paper investigates capacitively coupled wireless power transfer for low power applications.

Graduate Students

Amir Hooshiar, a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, won the 2018 NSERC Gilles Brassard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. The award is given to a Vanier scholar who best exemplifies outstanding interdisciplinary research. Hooshiar is the first Concordian to receive the award since its inception in 2012.

Soliman Abu-Samra, a PhD student in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, won second place at the Canadian Network of Asset Managers’ (CNAM) Student Research Symposium in Windsor, Ont.

Alireza Mohammadi, a PhD student in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the Alain Lamoreaux Award from the Association des ingénieurs du Québec for his research on user comfort on Montreal’s metro system.

PhD graduate from the Department of  Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Camilo Ortiz-Astoriquiza, who was supervised by Ivan Contreras,  has been awarded this year the prestigious SOLA Dissertation Award given by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Montreal Operations Research Student Chapter (MORSC) has been awarded the INFORMS 2018 Student Chapter Annual Award at the Magna Cum Laude level to acknowledge the group's leadership includes several of our industrial engineering graduate students.

Carlos Zetina, a PhD candidate in the Department of  Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, supervised by Ivan Contreras, was awarded the Judith Liebman Award from INFORMS recognizing volunteers who have made outstanding and sustained contributions to their student chapters.

Undergraduate Students

A team of undergradaute students from the Department of  Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering won the 2018 National Design competition for the Best Video, the highest award among 17 Capstone projects across Canada. Team members: M. Wladysiuk, P. Hadlock, U. Beezloll, M. Cherng, R. Bondyra, V. Hill, A. Carriere and S.R. Hassan.

Floriane Miquet-Westphal, a research assistant and third-year undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering shared her experience with problem-based learning and developing crucial skills as an undergrad. Read the article.

Hamaad Nami was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Youth Medals for his sustained efforts and positive influence in his community. Nami is an undergraduate student in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering; president of the Muslim Students Association, one of Concordia’s biggest and most active student groups; and a staff member of the Concordia Student Union’s Advocacy Centre.