![Douglas Kneale, Matt St. Louis, Kemal Tepe, Rupp Carriveau, Andrzej Sobiesiak, Jeff Defoe, Mehrdad Saif](http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/diasporayouthconference/sites/uwindsor.ca.dailynews/files/styles/full/public/600_medals-of-excellence.jpg?itok=8AjwUshH)
A commitment to innovation, teaching and engineering at the University of Windsor landed nine engineering faculty and staff members medals of excellence at a ceremony on June 29.
Mehrdad Saif, the dean of engineering, handed out five medals as well as four honourable mentions at the engineering faculty’s 2016 Medals of Excellence Ceremony for outstanding faculty and staff performances in research, teaching and service.
“The Faculty of Engineering is blessed with many talented, hard-working individuals who are putting engineering at the University of Windsor on the map,” Dr. Saif said. “I’d like to congratulate this year’s recipients and thank them for their exceptional leadership and service. Their contributions are advancing Canadian innovation, shaping UWindsor engineering and impacting students’ lives.”
Professors Rupp Carriveau and Jeff Defoe were honoured for their innovative research in renewable energy and turbomachinery. Dr. Carriveau, the recipient of the senior research award, started his career at UWindsor in July 2004 in civil and environmental engineering. Now, as an associate professor, he works with several international industry and university partners to advance wind energy and energy storage technologies—research that led him to a UWindsor Outstanding Faculty Researcher Award in 2014.
In the past two years of his UWindsor career, Dr. Defoe, junior research award recipient and assistant professor in mechanical, automotive and materials engineering, has established the Turbomachinery and Unsteady Flows Research Group, secured an NSERC Discovery Grant and in addition to advising the SAE Aero Design team, received a 2016 Young Engineer Turbo Expo Participation Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ International Gas Turbine Institute.
Kemal Tepe, professor of electrical and computer engineering, received the teaching award for his dedication to student capstone projects and recruiting future students. Dr. Tepe’s outstanding teaching performance is also noted in his students’ course evaluation responses.
Matt St. Louis received the staff award for his success in managing several civil and environmental engineering laboratories. St. Louis, who started as an engineering technician in September 2005, is known for his lab expertise and willingness to help faculty, staff and students. He was praised as the “silent, unsung hero” who keeps the civil engineering department running smoothly.
Andrzej Sobiesiak, head of the Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering Department, received the faculty award for 18 years of dedicated service, including nine years at the helm of MAME. In 2014-15, Dr. Sobiesiak’s leadership helped the MAME programs secure the highest accreditation ratings available through the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board prior to facilitating the merger of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and MAME departments.
Sarah Cats, Zbigniew Pasek, Xiang Chen and Nader Zamani received honourable mentions. Recipients were chosen from nominations submitted by department heads and colleagues. This is the second annual engineering Medals of Excellence Ceremony.
View photos from the ceremony on the UWindsor Engineering Facebook page.