2024 Award Recipients

PhD (Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering)

Dr. Robyn Paul’s dedication to enhancing the quality of the student experience, her outstanding leadership, and her many contributions as an academic and advocate, make her an exemplary recipient for the President’s Award.

Paul’s contributions have been many and multi-faceted, from advocacy and organizing events to building community and providing educational leadership. Her work includes the co-development and implementation of the first-year engineering mental wellness program, which led to the engineering Certificate in Personal Community and Mental Well-Being, and facilitating collaborative learning spaces in electrical engineering.

She has been engaged in activism in engineering, including advocating for an updated and more inclusive engineering iron ring ritual. On the research side, she fostered a community of practice among her peers through the Engineering Education Students’ Society, an organization she co-founded.

Paul’s work always ensures the voices of students are heard, especially those of marginalized and LGBTQ2S+ identities. She championed underrepresented identities on multiple committees, and the Gender and Sexuality Alliance of the Graduate Students’ Association.

Paul’s academic and professional excellence is evident through her many publications, awards, and distinctions. She published six journal articles, three book chapters, and approximately 40 conference publications (half as first author). She also received provincial and national recognition for her research through the Alberta Innovates (Technology) Award and the NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral.

Other notable achievements include winning the Graduate Students Association (GSA) Citizenship Award (twice) and the GSA Leadership Award, and being named on four University of Calgary Teaching Awards. Paul has also been nationally recognized for her work through the Canadian Engineering Education Association Student Award and the Silver Anniversary Graduate Fellowship.

Paul has joined the Schulich School of Engineering as an assistant professor in the new Sustainable Systems Engineering program. She is looking forward to being part of fostering a program and culture, here at UCalgary, that teaches engineering graduates to approach technical problems more holistically and regeneratively, with social and environmental justice values at the forefront of their engineering designs.