NC State University | May 18, 2026

NewsWise | May 18, 2026

Lucas Xie (Year 3 CivMin) and Jiayu (Sunny) Shi (Year 3 MechE) are among dozens of students supported by the Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Awards

Rough Canadian weather often means transit delays that prevent people from getting where they need to be — but for Lucas Xie (Year 3 CivMin), that challenge sparked an interest in how engineering can better anticipate and respond to climate-related disruptions.

From May to August 2025, Xie worked in the lab of Professor Hamed Ibrahim (CivMin), where he analyzed and processed climate data to study future precipitation and temperature variability across Southern Ontario. The experience helped build the data analysis and forecasting skills he now hopes to apply to transportation engineering problems.

Such analysis could be used by transit authorities to anticipate and possibly prevent weather-related delays before they arise. They could also provide insights to help plan for future shifts in precipitation patterns, such as those caused by climate change. 

“I’ve learned to pair data-driven analysis with design and policy, and I’m focused on applying those skills to build safer, low-carbon urban infrastructure,” says Xie. 

Though the research project was funded primarily by NSERC, Xie’s was made possible by a Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Award, part of a suite of awards created by a transformational gift from alumnus Paul Cadario (CivE 7T3, Hon LLD 1T3) in 2023. 

“I’m always interested in supporting students’ professional and personal development,” said Cadario at the time. 

“I’m delighted to be able to help students realize their potential.” 

More than three dozen students received Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Awards in the most recent round. These awards help defer the costs associated with experiential learning, thereby making the programs more accessible to a wider range of students.  

The Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Awards are typically distributed in the fall and are based on financial need. They support eligible students who have recently completed or are about to start an experiential learning work placement. This includes students enrolled in the Professional Experience Year Co-op (PEY Co-op) Program. 

Cadario’s generous gift also established another award, the Paul Cadario Social Impact Internship,  which support placements at smaller non-profit organizations that may not otherwise be able to offer student internships. 

Both the Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Awards and Paul Cadario Social Impact Internships are available to students in two divisions within U of T, the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and the Faculty of Arts & Science, further extending their impact. 

Jiayu (Sunny) Shi (Year 3 MechE) is another recipient of the Paul Cadario Experiential Learning Student Award. In the summer of  2025, she completed a summer co-op at a company called JanEco Building Maintenance in West Palm Beach, Fla. In May 2026, she began a PEY Co-op placement in Toronto with WSP, an engineering consulting firm. 

After graduation, Shi plans to pursue a career that combines robotics, aerospace and artificial intelligence to develop autonomous systems for exploration and advanced manufacturing. 

“I aim to use my education to design technologies that enhance efficiency, safety and sustainability in the next generation of aerospace and robotic applications,” says Shi. 

“The support I received through this award encouraged me to continue pushing the boundaries of what I can achieve — whether through my coursework, design team involvement or research projects.” 

For his part, Xie plans to continue focusing on the area of transportation engineering, as he believes it’s the best place for him to make a positive impact.  

“I’ve been inspired by Professor Ibrahim — working with him taught me to pair first-principles rigor with practical judgment and to turn messy data into decisions that improve real infrastructure,” says Xie. 

“I’ll utilize my civil engineering and data analysis training to deliver safer, faster corridors that reduce emissions and enhance access for underserved communities.” 

Xie says that the award significantly enriched his educational experience in Ibrahim’s lab. 

“It gave me the time and confidence to turn classroom theory into solutions for safer, lower-carbon urban infrastructure,” says Xie. 

“I’m deeply grateful, and I’ll pay this forward by sharing tools and mentoring other students who want to do impact-focused engineering.” 

By Tyler Irving

This story originally published by Engineering News

Australasian Drilling Magazine (pp. 96-97) | April-May 2026

CivMin researchers shine a bright light on our future as a record crowd assembled to address the concerns of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at an annual symposium.

The third annual Embodied GHG Symposium at the University of Toronto saw its largest attendance to date at its 2026 iteration. With over 220 attendees, the Thursday, April 30 event in Desautels Hall was packed with a balanced contingent of academics, policymakers and industry professionals.

The conference, promoted by School of Cities and led by CivMin Professor Shoshanna Saxe, saw researchers from Civmin’s Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment (CSBE) present. Keynote speaker Hans van der Weidje, Director of Research and Development at Tata Steel in the Netherlands, provided the introductory remarks. Addressing the steel industry overall and the various possibilities available to make a greener product, he illustrated the ways a product could produce fewer GHG emissions through production methods as well as new technologies.

Registrants of students and professors from 10 educational institutions, employees from several municipal governments and a multitude of industrial representatives, gathered to discuss the future of materials while balancing the issues of using less and building more.

Professor Evan Bentz posed many questions to the audience around the theme of building sustainably, giving them time to complete answers and write on sticker notes for discussion later. For instance, do we need to build smaller residential units, or perhaps does the solution lie with better building materials? Giving a nudge to the groups, he asked if we should we focus on materials, public policy or ignore sustainability of materials entirely? Though his suggested answer of “hopium” as a solution was said in jest, it reflects how optimism and inaction could result in complacency and worsening of an issue. Spoiler alert: we should not ignore the problem and should probably try all options  in the quest to solve GHG emission issues.

What if building materials cannot be accounted for the same across the board? Shayan Aboodi, a PhD student under the supervision of CivMin Professor Daman Panesar, presented his research on the environmental impacts of different structural material selections used in mid-rise residential construction practices in Canada. As it turns out, environmental impacts can vary significantly depending on the impact category under assessment and the material emission datasets used in the analysis. What seems to be a lower-impact solution for one impact category may not necessarily remain the preferable option for another.

Professor Aryan Rezaei Rad introduced the confluence of the assembled academics, architects, engineers, contractors and others to something new from something very old. The use of manufactured timber assembly joints to erect massive structures, though used for over a thousand years in Asia, is new to North America. As a strength-to-weight ratio, timber is stronger than other materials, including concrete and steel. Prof. Rad brought along a test specimen, as well as PhD student Amir Heidari, for the poster session, to showcase the incredible strength of this joinery.

The event hosted a poster session. presenting research and case studies along the theme of reducing resource use and embodied GHG in the construction sector.

By Phill Snel

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For those who care about the challenge of building more with less check out the ongoing research of the Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment at https://csbe.civmin.utoronto.ca/research/

CivMin Professor Emeritus Doug Hooton was recognized by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) with a gold pin for 50 years of continuous membership. He began as a student member, before progressing to member, then fellow, then honorary member. He is also one of the only Honorary members of the ACI Ontario chapter, where over the decades he has held every executive role at some point.

The recognition event was held during the ACI Spring Convention in Chicago, with University of Texas at Austin Professor Maria Juenger, the current ACI President, providing the formal acknowledgment on stage.

Wood Central | May 6, 2026

Alumnus Donovan Pollitt (MinE 0T4) has established the Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship in memory of his father, Murray H. Pollitt (MechE 6T3) — mechanical engineer, mine builder, and lifelong champion of Canadian industry. He shares his perspectives from his time at U of T and inspiration in giving back to the engineers of tomorrow.

With the ultimate gesture in giving back to the U of T Engineering community, CivMin alumnus Donovan Pollitt (MinE 0T4) has established a scholarship in memory of his late father, alumnus Murray H. Pollitt (MechE 6T3). The new Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship is a new annual award for upper-year undergraduate students who share the qualities his father most admired: entrepreneurial drive, practical skills and a belief that engineers can build something that matters.

Murray Pollitt earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Toronto in 1963. He went on to become one of the most distinctive figures in Canadian mining — a man who built gold mines in Ontario and Quebec, founded a Bay Street brokerage, and spent decades advocating for the Canadian companies and industries he believed in. But for those who knew him, what tied it all together was something he firmly believed: Canada needs more engineers to grow its economy.

It was a conviction he carried throughout his formal career into the weekends he spent with his children. Now, 14 years after his passing in 2012, that conviction has taken permanent form. Donovan explains his motivation in founding the memorial scholarship, “I was thinking of my dad, one of the biggest boosters of the Engineering program throughout his life, who always felt Canada could always use more engineers. It always felt that way; engineers are practical people. They’re company builders, they’re innovators, they’re all these things that the Canadian economy needs. The idea of having a scholarship, to encourage more kids to pursue engineering, was very much paying tribute to his legacy.”

The idea of having a scholarship, to encourage more kids to pursue engineering, was very much paying tribute to his legacy.
– Donovan Pollitt.

From the engine lab to the gold mine
Murray Pollitt’s path from Mechanical Engineering to gold mining started with a summer job working on Euclid trucks at Iron Ore Company of Canada. Witnessing the scale of the operations gave him a something rare on Bay Street in the 1960s: technical fluency in how mining operations worked.

That grounding in engineering is what gave him the confidence, beginning in the mid-1970s, to begin building a mining company. What followed was nearly four decades of persistent company building — the Joubi Mine in Quebec, the Eagle River Mine near Wawa, Ont., the Edwards Mine, the Mishi Mine, and eventually acquiring the Kiena Mine in Val d’Or, Que. By the time those companies were merged into Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. (TSX: WDO), Murray had put mines into production, employed hundreds of Canadians in both provinces, and built a company that today carries a market capitalization of over CDN$ 4 billion.

Through it all, Murray maintained that his engineering degree was not a credential but a toolkit through which he saw the industry.

Engineers build things — all kinds of things
Murray’s belief in engineering extended well beyond mining. In the early 1970s, alongside his U of T classmate and lifelong friend Ronald Near — also a U of T Mechanical Engineering graduate — he co-founded Toronto Stamp Inc., a manufacturing business that became a lasting enterprise in the Greater Toronto Area. The two met in their university years and shared a conviction that Canada’s strength lay in building real things: companies, products and resources. The friendship, forged in the Engineering program at U of T, produced a partnership enduring for decades.

Murray went on to co-found two further manufacturing ventures — AS&G Lettering Systems Inc. and Permark Inc. — with Near and other partners. These were not mining companies, but reflected the same instinct: an engineer with entrepreneurial drive could identify a need and build something around it. For Murray, mining and manufacturing were two expressions of the same fundamental idea. Canada had resources, Canada had talent, and Canada needed builders.

Passing it on: the driveway, the engine lab, and a career in mining
From an early age, Murray made the world of mechanical things visible and exciting for his children, whether that meant rebuilding a two-stroke engine in the driveway on a weekend or, on one memorable occasion, a trip to the engine lab in the Mechanical Engineering building at U of T.

“When I was probably 10 or 11 years old, we fixed up a two-stroke dirt bike. Then the next weekend he took me to Mechanical Engineering at U of T to go see an old Merlin engine from a fighter plane. It had been in the lab when he was in undergrad, and it was still in the engine lab then.”
— Donovan Pollitt

Building on humble professional origins, with his first summer job helping geologists sample outcrops in northern Ontario, Donovan went on to earn his undergraduate degree in the Lassonde Mineral Engineering program. Today he serves as President and Director of White Gold Corp (TSXV: WGO).

Like his father before him, Donovan made the most of his time at Skule™ and encourages students to embrace opportunities to expand their horizons and stay involved in a variety of ways. He participated in Skule™ Night, played in the Lady Godiva Memorial Band, was active in Min Club, and captained the Mining Games team for several years. He took the field course at Camp on Gull Lake near Minden, Ont. — a two-week practical exercise he describes as a formative experience in teamwork and self-knowledge — and came away with friendships that have lasted into his professional life.

“A lot of the people I work with today are people I got to know at U of T Engineering. I’m still in touch with a lot of my classmates on a regular basis.”
— Donovan Pollitt

The scholarship: looking for Canada’s future builders
The Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship is, in many ways, a portrait of its namesake: it is not designed primarily to reward the student at the top of the grade list. Murray Pollitt was not a man who measured worth by credentials alone. He measured it by what people built and how they led.

Accordingly, the scholarship is open to third- and fourth-year students in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering who combine solid academic standing with demonstrated qualities of leadership and character — particularly those shown through extracurricular involvement on campus and in the community. Special consideration is given to students who have shown an entrepreneurial interest in engineering-driven sectors such as innovation, energy, mining, or manufacturing, or who have taken their education beyond the classroom through engineering design projects and competitions.

Recipients must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents — a detail that would have pleased Murray, who was a proud and sometimes fierce advocate for Canadian companies and the Canadian workers who built them. The first recipient of the Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship is anticipated to be announced in Fall 2026.

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Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship – Award criteria:
Awarded to an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering on the basis of high academic achievement, financial need, and qualities of character and leadership as demonstrated through involvement in extra-curricular activities both within the University and the community at large. Preference will be given to students proceeding to Year 4. Additional consideration will be given to students with a demonstrated interest in entrepreneurship in the Innovation, energy, mining, or manufacturing sectors or students who have participated in engineering design projects or competitions. Recipients must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to the Murray H. Pollitt Engineering Leadership Scholarship

Paul Walters and Ross Lawrence recently presented the Engineering Class of 5T6 Award of Merit to second-year ECE student Ethan Mao

To ignite and fan the spark in students who show curiosity and to nurture their growth into leaders who make meaningful contributions professionally, within their communities and to the world at large — this is the legacy of the class of 5T6. 

The Engineering Class of 5T6 Award of Merit was created in 1993 to accomplish this mission. It is granted to a student who successfully completes first year in any engineering undergraduate program and is just one of the ways that the class of 5T6 is still giving back to their alma mater, 70 years after they graduated. 

In addition to having excelled in their academic studies, the recipient must demonstrate qualities of strong leadership and character, and be motivated to making a positive difference in the world through involvement in extracurricular activities, either within the University of Toronto or the community at large.  

“We wanted to award a student that showcased high achievement beyond their academics. Someone involved in their community or that wanted to have an impact on society at large,” says Paul Walters (MinE 5T6), president of the 5T6 class and co-founder of this award.

Along with his classmate and award co-founder Ross Lawrence (GeoE 5T6, MCom 5T9) Walters wanted to give back in a way that put the class of 5T6 on the map, creating something people would remember them for. Their class executive committee had come up with the idea for an annual student award.

“We would get together every other month, or so. It was a great way to stay connected with each other,” says Walters.  

Walters and Lawrence met when they were high school students at Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute but cemented their friendship at U of T Engineering.  

Both had long and successful careers. Lawrence became a founding partner in Watts, Griffis and McOuat, Consulting Geologists and Engineers, shortly after graduating. He worked there for more than 50 years. 

After working in Vancouver for a few years, Walters eventually found his way back to Toronto and started his own company, Walters Forensic Engineering, where he worked until his retirement.  

Today, they still have strong memories of how important their time at U of T Engineering was.

“It was very impactful. My engineering education became my lifelong career and many classmates became close friends,” says Lawrence.

“My favourite part was learning to problem solve like an engineer: find all the alternatives to the solution, analyze them and come to a conclusion. This is a good way to work through any challenge in life you have,” says Walters.

No matter where they went, they always made sure to stay in touch. They, and their fellow 5T6 classmates, have met each year with their student recipient in the hopes of passing down some wisdom and career advice to the next generation, and feed their curiosity about new developments in engineering. But it’s also about feeling the energy and enthusiasm they once felt.

Ethan Mao (Year 2 ECE) is the student who received the most recent award. He is involved in many extra-curriculars including serving as the VP Communications of the Engineering Society and as ECE class representative. His proudest accomplishment is bringing back the First Year Chair position.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of First Year Chair had been dormant, but Mao has helped to revive it. He’s responsible for getting first year students actively involved in events, traditions and building community at U of T Engineering.

“Thank you for your generosity and for supporting students like me,” says Mao.

“Your belief in our potential means more than you know, and it continues to inspire me to make the most of every opportunity here at U of T Engineering.” 

Over the years, the 5T6 graduates have seen big changes in the types of students who are receiving the award.

“We had three women in our class — now U of T Engineering is more than 40% women,” says Lawrence. 

“The technology has changed so much and is now incorporated into everything in the faculty,” says Walters.

Overall, Walters and Lawrence are extremely satisfied with what their award and community has achieved. They note how rewarding it is to start something and see it carry on for years.  

What is their advice for current students?

“Think in terms of what contribution you can make in the broader community so when you are studying, you always have in your mind the bigger purpose. Work towards a plan with purpose,” says Walters.

“Some of your fondest memories will be from your time here, and it’s energizing to return to campus and see the next generation. Stay connected with each other and find your legacy here,” says Lawrence. 

By Kristina Kazandjian

This story originally posted by Engineering News