Student Achievement

Our students achieve. Here is a sample of student success at Lakehead, celebrated in the 2010-2011 school year.

Civil Engineering Steel Bridge Team Places First Overall

Lakehead's Civil Engineering Steel Bridge Team won first place in the 20th annual AISC/ASCE U.S. National Student Steel Bridge Competition, besting 47 other universities in North America. The five-member Steel Bridge Team comprised graduating students Damien Ch'ng, Dave Enns, Cory Goulet, Chris Kukkee, and Kristin Myles. Lakehead's team earned its invitation by placing first at the Midwest Regional Qualifier Student Steel Bridge Competition, hosted by the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND, in March 2011.

Lakehead University 2011 U.S. National Student Steel Bridge Champion

Research that Transforms Local and Global Discourses

Lakehead's Advanced Institute for Globalization and Culture (aig+c) awarded grants to four graduate students whose research crosses disciplinary boundaries while engaging in issues of globalization and culture: James Czank (Education), Marnie Lidstone (History), Paula Thiessen (English); and Rhonda Stock (Education).

aig+c

Exceptional Athletes, Outstanding Teams

Two basketball players received top honours this year. Tasia McKenna was named Female Athlete of the Year and Jamie Searle was named Male Athlete of the Year. McKenna was honoured for her tireless effort on the court, team leadership, and outstanding individual performance for the women's basketball team. Searle was awarded the Keith MacPherson trophy for the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) playoffs' Most Valuable Player. He was chosen as a First team OUA All Star and was named Most Valuable Player in the Lakehead Men's Basketball Team for the 2010-11 season.

Lakehead's Men's Basketball team placed first in the OUA championships and went on to compete in the Canadian Interuniversity Sports (CIS) national championships in Halifax where they placed fifth among the eight teams. Lakehead's women's Nordic Ski Team placed first in the OUA championships and finished the year with a second place standing on the national stage. As well, Lakehead hosted the 2011 OUA and CIS Wrestling Championships at the Thunder Bay campus and will host the CIS Championship again in 2012.

Thunderwolves

Students Excel at Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM)

All undergraduate medical students in the 2011 graduating class were successfully matched to Canadian residency programs on their first attempt. This is the second time that NOSM was the only Canadian medical school to have all students matched in the first round of matches of the Canadian Residency Matching Service (CaRMS).

The results of the Medical Council of Canada (MCC) Part II qualifying examinations in 2011 showed that NOSM's residents completing training ranked first among Canada's 17 medical schools in overall performance, and achieved a 100% pass rate. Residents rated first in the category of legal, ethical, and organizational aspects of the practice of medicine, with above-average standing in the categories of patient interaction and data acquisition.

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

Award-winning Business Administration Students

Four Lakehead Accounting students - John Blanchette, Michael Iorianni, Angela Pratola, and Jessica Tolone - won first place in the tenth Gathering of Accounting Academics, Practitioners, and Students (GAAPS) hosted by the University of Manitoba in conjunction with the Certified General Accountants (CGA) of Manitoba. In the final round of the Intercollegiate Business Competition (ICBC) held at Queen's University in January 2011, the accounting team of Angela Pratola and John Blanchette placed second overall.

For his video entitled "Rule The Tube 2010 - CA Rockstar," Lakehead University Accounting student Richard Jagielowicz was named winner in the University category of the Rule the Tube 2010 competition. The YouTube contest, offered to high school and university accounting students across Ontario, was held by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (ICAO).

Faculty of Business Administration

FSAE Team Competes Internationally

Lakehead's Formula SAE Team placed 39th out of 120 international teams at the FSAE International Competition, which took place at the Michigan International Speedway from May 12 - 15. Scores for the team's static and dynamic events improved vastly over those from last year - when the team was named "Rookie of the Year."

Faculty of Engineering

Student Visual Arts Awards Presented Before Capacity Gallery Crowd

The Thunder Bay Art Gallery was overflowing at the Opening Reception and Awards Presentation of the 2011 Annual Student Juried and Major Studio Exhibitions in March. Since the early 1980s, Lakehead's Department of Visual Arts has been mounting annual shows of its students' work. This year's show is the biggest ever with 85 works in the Juried Exhibition, and 50 works in the Major Studio Exhibition, including drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, mixed media, and video

Student Visual Arts Awards Presented Before Capacity Gallery Crowd

Practice, Practice, Practice

Two Lakehead music students performed piano pieces at Carnegie Hall in January 2011 as part of the annual Crescendo International Music competition for youth, where they placed second and third respectively. Robyn Tenkula is a student of Dr. Evgueni Tchougounov and Jonathan Boo is a recently graduated student of Heather Morrison. The annual Crescendo International Music Competition focuses on young talent in Canada and the U.S. and holds auditions in multiple North American cities.

Lakehead Piano Students to Perform at Carnegie Hall

Software Engineering Students Compete with the Best

Fourth-year software engineering students Tony Sinclair and Nicole Negherbon, together with Greg Toombs, electrical engineer, competed against 14 other finalists in the Ontario Centres for Excellence (OCE) Discovery 2011 Connections Competition in Toronto in May 2011.The students' degree project work continued development on the Electric Bus Management System (EBMS) in conjunction with research and development start-up Electrodynamics Inc., an industry partner to the OCE project. The EBMS concept is to develop a software control system to manage electrical components across multiple vehicle platforms.

Lakehead Engineering Students Degree Project Finalist at Ontario Centres for Excellence Discovery 2011

Lakehead Shads get Top Marks at 2010 Cup

Lakehead's Shad Valley team placed well in their annual competition, which focuses on science, engineering, technology, and innovation. Their product, a capsule that meets consumer demand for a safe, effective, and non-invasive method of delivering the influenza vaccine into the bloodstream, won first place for the Best Marketing Plan and Best Application of Scientific Principles, second place for Best Overall Project, and third place for Best Business Plan.

Let the Shad Begin!

Ontario Special Olympics

Lakehead students in Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism, Education, and Kinesiology took on leadership roles in staging events for the Special Olympics held in Thunder Bay in 2011. President and CEO of Special Olympics Ontario, Glenn MacDonell said, "The support from Lakehead University has been nothing short of remarkable. Special Olympics truly appreciates the support and effort that both students and faculty have put towards our Games and our organization."

Lakehead Students Plan Special Olympics Unified Sport Day

Go Green Challenge

Bradley Doff and Peter Stevens entered an innovative, informative, colourful, stop-motion video in the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation Go Green Challenge. Together they wrote a script, edited it down to a workable length, and then mixed humour with a quirky animation approach that, in 600 or so photos, created a very effective video that educates people about how GIS can be a very important tool when planning where to plant trees. The video uses Lakehead University's campus to model their Smart Greening approach that uses technology to "plant trees in the perfect places." The campus, notes Bradley, "is really a neighbourhood, even a small city, with the same struggles that a small city experiences."

Graduate Students Receive Funds for Northern Field Research

Six graduate students in the Master of Science (MSc) degree program and the Master of Environmental Studies (MES) degree program were awarded $15,000 for field research support in northern Canada. The funds were granted through the Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP), a Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development program administered at Lakehead by the Centre for Northern Studies (CNS). Over the past two years, Lakehead students have been awarded almost $35,000 to offset the cost of conducting fieldwork in the Canadian North. The student's continued success at these highly competitive grants underscores the ongoing significance of Lakehead University in northern research.

Office of Research