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Apoorva Srivastava, India’s consul general in Toronto, toured the Faculty of Engineering’s research lab facilities and connected with officials of the Master of Engineering (MEng) Graduate Student Society on Tuesday, April 12. 

Your hands tightly clench the wheel; your ears flood with engines roaring. You’re seconds away from thrusting your foot on the pedal, but your mind? For Roman De Angelis, it’s completely still. 

“It's almost blank,” says De Angelis, a 21-year-old professional driver who’s spent more than half of his life on the raceway.

“The second you begin rolling to the start line, everything clears and it’s really quiet and calm. Then, when the race starts, that's kind of when all the chaos breaks loose.”

De Angelis is a third-year mechanical engineering student who’s managed to find time to clinch first place finishes in the Detroit Grand Prix, Northeast Grand Prix and in both the U.S. and Canadian Porsche GT3 Cup Challenges, all while studying full time at the University of Windsor.

His team, The Heart of Racing, competes internationally with an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and uses its platform to raise funds for children’s hospitals. They’ve raised more than $8 million to date.

Engineers must have the ability to solve complex problems, but Norm Becker has taught us they should be equipped with a full heart too.

The University of Windsor alumnus always found ways to use his profession to help others — from his pro bono work everywhere from rural China to the town of LaSalle to establishing four scholarships for UWindsor students following in his footsteps.

Becker passed away in spring 2021 and now, thanks to a memorial scholarship established by his wife, Mary Ellen, he will continue to inspire the next generation of aspiring engineers.

“Norm always had great empathy for students,” says Mary Ellen. “He mentored them gladly, began scholarships to support them and included them on some of his many projects when he could. I believe that this scholarship in his name is a very fitting tribute to his memory."

The Dr. Norbert K. Becker Scholarship in Engineering will support upper-year undergraduate students in civil and environmental engineering based on academic excellence, scholastic potential, good character, and community involvement on campus and beyond.

Despite a couple of challenging years fueled by a pandemic, Lisa Lortie has remained resilient.

In this time, she’s been dubbed a leader in the North American auto industry and her advice on navigating the automotive sector through the COVID crisis was published in a book produced by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) called The Road Forward.

“Stellantis not only maintained learning and leadership development opportunities but increased and adapted them during this trying time,” says Lortie, who leads 10 Stellantis powertrain testing sites that handle everything from testing electric motors to traditional internal combustion engines to transmissions and emissions.

“We shifted to mask and ventilator production — and this happened so quickly, it was amazing. Despite the challenges we faced, we were still able to unveil new products, launch many vehicles, continue investments and report record financial results.”

Lortie BASc ’96, MBA ’00 has dedicated the past two decades of her career to ensuring the safety of millions of vehicles before they hit the road. As global director of propulsion systems testing and analysis, Lortie oversees a professional team of nearly 1,400 scattered across the globe. While working remotely, she says it was critical for her to maintain and develop new mentoring relationships.