Summer 2017 10 Engineering and Design Students Win Big at 2016 Co-op Awards Carleton’s Co-op Awards are held each year by the Co-operative Education Office to recognize the outstanding achievements, contributions and performance of co-op students and their employers. On March 24, 2017, two students from the Faculty of Engineering and Design were rewarded for their exceptional co-op efforts. Third year computer systems engineering student Stefan Murga was named as winner of the 2016 Undergraduate Co-op Student of the Year Award for his impressive work and project management performance at Stantec Consulting Ltd. over the course of an eight- month work term. Carleton’s co-op program provides students with the opportunity to gain valuable real-world experience in their field of study, while also offering employers the benefit of having highly motivated and talented students on staff. One of Murga’s most significant work term accomplishments according to his co- op supervisor Peter Dyck, Principal Power Systems Engineer at Stantec, was his success in updating and converting a number of custom databases that were originally not well developed and suffered from substantial limitations as a result. “He outperformed all of his peers in all aspects during his terms with us,” explained Dyck. “The efficiency gains from the new software usage will save the company a considerable amount of money annually.” Murga’s win marks the third consecutive year in which the undergraduate award has been presented to a student enrolled in one of Carleton’s engineering programs. This year’s awards also included the inaugural presentation of the Co-op Champion Award to fourth year Interactive Multimedia and Design (IMD) student Taryn Laurendeau for her exceptional work and unprecedented promotion of Carleton’s co-op program. Laurendeau self-developed her co-op position at the Montreal office of MPC Film, a global visual effects studio, with whom she has worked on multiple feature length films for major studios. While working out of Montreal, she took it upon herself to facilitate meetings between leadership at MPC and Carleton’s Co-op Office in order to strengthen their working relationship. Laurendeau’s efforts to make hiring from the Bachelor of Information Technology’s IMD program a regular occurrence have already proven fruitful, having helped to develop a scripting/coding co- op position for a second year Carleton IMD student. Those interested in participating in Carleton’s co-op program as an employer are encouraged to visit cuhire.carleton.ca. Third year Computer Systems Engineering student, Stefan Murga. Fourth year Interactive Multimedia and Design student, Taryn Laurendeau.