Co-op/Internship Students of the Year Award

The Nascent Co-op/Internship Students of the Year Award recognizes two students and their exceptional contribution to their respective co-op/internship employer and involvement in the Lassonde community. Congratulations to Antonia Pennella and Aryeh Weinberger for contributing extraordinary value to our workplace partners.

Aryeh Weinberger, Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Student, Advantage Forensics
4 months (May 2019 – August 2019)

Aryeh is a 4th year Mechanical Engineering student who completed a 4-month co-op work term this past summer at Advantage Forensics Inc. During this time, he worked closely with the Collision Reconstruction and Product Failure forensic engineering teams where Aryeh was given increasing amounts of responsibility on the investigation and analysis of files around vehicle collision reconstruction, commercial truck collisions, industrial workplace accidents, skydiving cases and video analysis.

One of Aryeh’s very first cases involved a solo trip to Las Vegas to photograph and document a recreational accident scene. This was an invaluable learning experience for Aryeh as he gained considerable amount of independence and responsibility, being 3500 km away from home. Moreover, Aryeh has made a significant impact on the research and development of current and future road lighting design assessments for multimillion-dollar litigation cases involving nighttime collisions. Aryeh’s research and recommendations have led to new state-of-the-art upgrades in measurement equipment purchased by the company.

“I found Aryeh to be an exceptionally talented engineering student in all areas… We were exceptionally impressed with the quality of co-op talent from the Lassonde School of Engineering.”
– Jason Young, Founder and President, Advantage Forensics Inc.

Above his projects and responsibilities, Aryeh demonstrated great initiative by volunteering to develop a new corporate website for the firm. In the little time that Aryeh worked for Advantage Forensics inc, he has contributed greatly to the company’s continued position as the foremost experts in nighttime visibility forensics in Ontario. As a result of his excellent work ethic and achievements, Aryeh has been offered full-time employment as a Junior Forensic Engineering Investigator with the firm, upon graduation.

Antonia Pennella, Mechanical Engineering
Research Assistant, LURA, Melenka Research Group, York University
4 months (May 2019 – August 2019)

As a 3rd year Mechanical Engineering student, Antonia worked under Assistant Professor Melenka’s supervision in the role of Research Assistant with the Lassonde Undergraduate Research Award (LURA) for 4-months supporting Melenka’s group in the design and construction of a low cost composite braiding machine. During the course of her co-op, Antonia went above and beyond in demonstrating an excellent work ethic and contributed greatly to the establishment of the Melenka Research Group. Her outstanding project and scholarly work has earned her Best Poster at the Lassonde Undergraduate Research Conference, as well as the James Wu Research Internship Award for participating in research. Antonia had also taken on a leadership and support role in the aiding of high school and graduate students in their research projects in addition to assisting in the management of the research lab.

“Antonia has made major contributions to the establishment of my research group and laboratory. Antonia’s work in constructing a braiding machine in my lab will result in numerous future journal publications.”
– Garrett Melenka, Assistant Professor, York University

One of Antonia’s many key accomplishments was her involvement in exposing young women to the STEAM program. She mentored two high-school students and supervised their research project, produced detailed lesson plans and facilitated numerous activities for the students in order to ensure that they were gaining optimal hands-on experience in the lab. Antonia also took it upon herself to aid and support the research of graduate students in the lab and machine shop. Antonia’s excellent contributions have earned her solid praise from her peers and the wider research community at Lassonde and York University.