On May 30, McMaster Engineering staff members, Bipasha Bose and Stephanie Haak, received a President’s Award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the McMaster community.
President’s Awards are presented annually to employees for their exceptional service to staff, faculty, students, alumni, donors or visitors, and for enhancing the University’s missions and values.
Bipasha Bose
Bipasha Bose joined McMaster in 2016 as a postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical Engineering, then became principal research engineer at the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI). She is now a senior principal research engineer at MMRI and the program manager and founder of the Material Property Assessment Laboratory (MPAL). Her dedication and work through MMRI and MPAL have helped establish both domestic and international collaborations, including 23 McMaster research groups, 10 universities and colleges, six start-up companies and more than 40 industry partners. She has also played a key role in projects that have displayed remarkable growth and outstanding results in the industry.
Bose plays an active leadership role by mentoring graduate students and applying her expertise in materials engineering to enhance McMaster’s research capacity, output, impact and global reach. She is also passionate about engaging young women in STEM, collaborating with elementary school robotics teams as a mentor. She also played a vital role in the establishment of the MMRI Industrial Training Program by offering her courses for its inauguration.
“Winning this award is incredibly inspiring to me. It validates that my efforts are truly making a positive impact on the McMaster community and beyond. This recognition motivates me even more to surpass my previous achievements. It has boosted my confidence and strengthened my determination to work even harder.”
Stephanie Haak
Stephanie Haak joined the Faculty of Engineering in 2012 and moved to the 5-Year Programs team in 2018 to help launch the Innovation Minor and coordinate programs including Engineering & Society, Engineering & Management and MacChangers. Haak’s reputation for putting effort into the “little” things have accumulated into larger actions that result in significant impact. She played a key role in launching MacBill in 2018, redesigning the Faculty of Engineering website and working with the Engineering & Management Industrial Advisory Council.
Haak’s unwavering dedication to enhancing student experience is evident over her years of service, which included supervising two dozen volunteers and more than 300 high school students for the Deltahacks overnight Hackathons. She has been an exceptional mentor to student societies and actively pursues opportunities to provide meaningful leadership and support to students across McMaster.
“The students are why I do what I do – helping them achieve their goals and dreams is a special privilege that fuels my soul. I am very honoured to receive this award and proud of the work I have done at McMaster so far.”
2023 Nominees
Michele Vaz
Michele Vaz became the business manager for the W Booth School of Engineering Practice & Technology Business in 2019 where she provided administrative direction in operational infrastructure, human resources, financial resources and strategic planning. The strategic plan Vaz developed has become a pillar of the School’s programs and progress.
During COVID-19, Vaz ensured smooth transitions to remote working and learning for the school’s employees and students. In addition, she played a vital role in planning and implementing the strategic plan of advocating for several new staff positions to achieve smart transformation. This included a new position to lead academic programs, which would ultimately orchestrate the Booth School’s large slate of diverse BTech degree-completion and graduate programs.
Christine Rich
Christine Rich became a career educator on the Engineering Co-op & Career Services team in 2018. She has played a key role in the transformational growth of the graduate co-op program from 17 registered co-op work terms to more than 500. In addition, she has built a range of initiatives to support the co-op program including a six-week synchronous course and workshops as well as drop-in sessions designed to increase students’ knowledge, competence and confidence.
Rich is committed to supporting students in their career planning, job search, professional branding, networking and employment/work-term success. She is dedicated to getting to know each student individually, strengthening faculty awareness of the co-op program and initiating meetings with administrators to develop workflows to support enrollment in co-op. Her work has had tremendous positive impact on her colleagues and students in the Faculty of Engineering.