Stefanie Smith and Corey Bellemore of the Lancer track and cross country teams were multiple winners at the Evening of Excellence awards banquet, Wednesday at the St. Clair Centre of the Arts, including the Banner and Olympic shields, respectively, as University of Windsor athletes of the year.

Bellemore established himself as one of the elite university runners in Canada this year, helping the men’s cross country team to a silver medal at the Ontario championships, finishing seventh overall to earn provincial all-conference honours. He also finished in the top 10 individually at the national championships while guiding Windsor to a silver-medal team finish.

On the inside track, Bellemore brought home four medals from the Ontario University Athletics championship meet, earning the track MVP title and leading the Blue and Gold to re-capture the OUA title. At nationals, he won gold in the men’s 600m and 4x800m relay, added a third medal in the 1000m and was named the outstanding performer of the meet to help the Lancers bring home their second-straight Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship.

Smith cruised through the cross country season in preparation for the OUA and CIS championship meets; she took bronze medals at both. Her all-Canadian status in cross country qualified her for a spot on the team representing Canada at the FISU World meet, in March in Italy.

Moving into the track and field season, Smith continued to gain momentum and turned in one of the most impressive three-week performances in school history. She broke three separate long-time school records in the 3000m, the mile and 1500m, including two held by Lancer legend Missy McCleary. She capped off her year at the OUA championship meet, where she earned another bronze medal in the women’s 3000m just prior to leaving for Italy.

The DeMarco Awards, presented annually to the female and male students that best combine academic achievement with athletic prowess, went to Akbal Gill of men’s soccer and Shannon Dean of women’s volleyball.

The Gino Fracas Coach of the Year Award was presented to Brett Lumley, who led the men’s track and field team to its 21st national team title.

Rookie of the year awards went to two basketball players: Kaylee Anagnostopoulos, earlier named to the national all-rookie team, and Isiah Osborne, CIS rookie of the year.

“A” Awards, marking major contributions to Lancer Athletics, went to Richard Mallat and Kathy Harvie. Both will retire in just over a week—Mallat after 43 years as lead equipment technician, and Harvie following 26 years as a Lancer athletic therapist.

Read more at goLancers.ca.

A public performance of the children’s opera Brundibàr, Thursday at the Windsor Jewish Community Centre, will raise funds to send this local production to the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The story of children overcoming a bully was first performed at a Jewish orphanage in occupied Prague during the Second World War. It was later reprised many times at the Theresienstadt concentration camp, when the original cast of children found themselves there as inmates. After a final performance for visiting officials from the Red Cross in 1944, the entire cast was shipped to Auschwitz, where they perished.

The local production, featuring 19 members of the Music Moves Kids children’s choir, is performing before school groups this week. Several UWindsor alumni are attached to the project, including director Tracey Atin (MA 1988, BMus 1990) and music conductor and Music Moves Kids founder, Erin Armstrong (BMus 2007).

“Brundibàr is a wonderful way to introduce children to opera. It has a great story, beautiful and accessible music and is both meaningful and entertaining,” says Atin. “That would be enough to make it a worthwhile endeavour, but in addition, the historical context of the opera offers a way into the difficult, heartbreaking, and essential study of the Holocaust.”

The April 7 staging will add a second act, with Atin and Armstrong—both sopranos—singing works from I Never Saw Another Butterfly, accompanied by pianist Joanna Shultz (BMT 2011) and clarinetist Trevor Pittman, who teaches in the School of Creative Arts.

The curtain will rise at 7:30 p.m. at 1641 Ouellette Avenue. Admission is $20, $10 for students.

Graduating high school seniors who are participating in this weekend’s Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Region FIRST Robotics competition may be eligible for a $1,000 scholarship to attend the University of Windsor.

It is a way to acknowledge the extra work made by these students, says Marian Doll, director of student awards and financial aid.

“We are committed to supporting students who are excelling academically and who go above and beyond by competing in a variety of skills competitions and challenges,” she says. “We hope to reward their dedication and creativity.”

These scholarships may be received in addition to an open entrance scholarship or any other award. To qualify, students must be currently in Grade 12 and entering the University of Windsor in Fall 2016 directly from full-time secondary school studies into a first-year undergraduate program.

Find details on this and other Skills Competition Scholarships on the student awards website.

The FIRST Robotics competition continues through Saturday at the St. Denis Centre.

About 400 students from disciplines across the sciences got a free lunch Tuesday, as acting dean Charles Macdonald and associate dean Phil Dutton served up pizza to all comers in the Essex Hall student lounge.

It was a gesture of appreciation as the students finish the semester and prepare for exams, Dr. Macdonald said.

“As the academic year is coming to an end, we wanted to take some time to congratulate our students on their hard work,” he said. “Hopefully, this gives them an energy boost going into final exams.”

Tuesday’s lunch, which saw more than 800 slices of pizza consumed in less than an hour, was the second year for the event.

Using an integrated timer chip and a lot of imagination, UWindsor engineering students have designed and created various electronic circuits including a line-following robot, water heater, piano-metronome combination and motion-detector siren.

First- and second-year electrical engineering students will present these projects and more in the UWindsor Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) first Electrical Circuit Design Competition between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 7, in the lobby of the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

The students were tasked with designing an electrical circuit using at least one 555 timer—an integrated circuit, or chip, that can be used in a variety of timer, pulse generation and oscillator applications. Professor Mitra Mirhassani, the course supervisor, said the project teaches students how to integrate sensors and electronic components to create systems that perform a variety of functions.

UWindsor’s IEEE and IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) organized the event and will judge each project based on student presentations. Approximately 80 students will compete for IEEE’s electronic design title and IEEE WIE’s top female contestant.

Founded in November 2014, IEEE Windsor has grown to include nearly 160 members and was recently lauded for its recruitment efforts, receiving IEEE’s 2016 Outstanding Section Membership Recruitment Performance award.

The IEEE is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence and is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic and computing fields and related areas of science and technology.

UWindsor alumnus Richard Peddie (BComm 1970, honorary LLD 2001) will draw on his career as a business and sports executive in a free public lecture, entitled “Leadership is a Life Long Journey,” Friday, April 8.

The event, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Human Kinetics, will begin at 10 a.m. in room 140, Human Kinetics Building.

After 19 years in consumer products with Colgate, General Foods and Pillsbury, Peddie became president of the SkyDome (today the Rogers Centre) and then president of NetStar Communications. He became president of the Toronto Raptors in 1996, fulfilling his longtime dream of running a basketball team. In 1998, the Maple Leafs bought the Raptors and created Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, with Peddie as president. Over 14 very busy years, he was instrumental in growing the company’s value from $300 million to $2 billion.

His most recent book, “21 Leadership Lessons,” will be on sale for $15 at the event.