One of the biggest intangible benefits of receiving a Schulich Leader Scholarship is the inclusion in our growing community of top emerging innovators. Each year, the Schulich Foundation subsidizes a full-day of connection and learning from one-another to kick off the academic year with some motivation under our belts. SLXCA 2019 had no shortage of this, with seven partner universities playing host to events that synced up through a national broadcast and shared itinerary.  

Schulich Leaders had the opportunity to meet the incoming 2019 cohort, catch up with old friends, compete in team-building activities, educate one another in round tables discussions and kick back after the conference for food and drinks.

Our opening keynote speaker was broadcasted from SLXBC out of UBC, Dr. Michel Laberge, Chief Scientist and Founder of General Fusion with his presentation: “Fusion: Transforming the Way the World is Energized”. Dr. Laberge believes Fusion energy will be a reality within 15 years! Watch his talk + Q&A here.

Visit General Fusion to learn more about the ground-breaking work being done out of Burnaby, BC.  

Schulich Leaders collaborated in small teams to identify and propose new ways to develop our high-potential network of scholars for the evolution of our program as we head into year nine.  

At Toronto’s SLXON event, the morning portion was dedicated to an industry Job Fair with companies and organizations intent on scooping up Schulich Leaders as intern and entry-level recruits. We were fortunate to have a spectrum of great opportunities available to engage our Leaders such as: Google Canada, Hatch, Lockheed Martin Canada, IBM Canada, Softchoice, 360insights, Homewise, Inkbox, Spin Master Ltd., Mitacs, Amgen Scholars, Scotiabank, Medical Makers, Nova Chemicals, Smith + Andersen Engineering Consultants and Sunnybrook Medventions.  

Schulich Leaders around the country delivered compelling presentations called “Leader Talks” on a variety of topics that covered their unique STEM discipline to internship and exchange experiences that have had a profound impact on their growth as leaders. 

Watch Leader talks from SLXAB @UCalgary:
Kinga Nolan (2017 Leader at USaskatchewan, Agricultural Economics): “Room to Grow: Utilizing Innovation in Agriculture” - Watch here
MK Hickox (2015 Leader Graduate in Biology from Queen’s, MSc 2022 candidate at McGill in Neotropical Biology): “An Activist Lens, A Changed Tomorrow” - Watch here
Ethan Rigby (2017 Leader at UCalgary, Software Engineering & Business): “Spring in the South of Spain: The Benefits of Study Abroad” - Watch here  
Alana Krug-MacLeod (2016 Leader at USaskatchewan, Environmental Biology): “Sturdy Science: Using Interdisciplinarity and Sustainability to Solve Environmental Problems” - Watch here  

SLXBC Leader Talks were delivered by Lasya Vankayala (2016 Leader at UBC, Honours Biochemistry), titled: “Science and Serendipidity, a Weird and Wonderful Journey”; Raaj Chatterjee (2014 Leader Graduate at SFU, Mechatronics Engineering, MASc candidate 2022 at SFU, Mechantronics), titled: “Stories and Hopes: An Undergraduate Experience”; Rika Sugimoto-Dimitrova (2015 Leader @ UBC, Engineering Physics), titled: “Around the World in 3 x 80 Days”. Unfortunately, we had technical issues with the recordings that are unavailable.  

Leader Talks from SLXON @ MaRS in Toronto:
Raffi Hotter (2018 Leader at McGill, Honours Mathematics & Computer Science, Minor in Physics): “Hacking the Brain” - Watch here
Isabel Hazan (2016 Leader at Queen’s, Applied Mathematics & Mechanical Engineering): “Carving out your own path and refusing to conform” - Watch here
Atif Mahmud (2018 Leader at UWaterloo, Joint-Honours in Software Engineering, Combinatorics and Optimaization, Co-op): “Flowi | Why we build disruptive technology” - Watch here 

Leader Talks from SLXNB @ University of New Brunswick:
Wes Finck (2015 Leader at UNB, Electrical Engineering): “Addressing Technological Disruption” - Watch here
Amanda MacLean and Jack deGooyer (2014 Schulich Leader Graduate from Dalhousie in Chemical Engineering & 2016 Leader at Dalhousie in Electrical and Computer Engineering): “What Even is Design?” - Watch here 

Local talks were given across the country, including a fire-side chat at SLXAB with 2x Canadian Olympic Medalist in Luge and Schulich School of Engineering at UCalgary student, Alex Gough; At SLXQC at Polytechnique Montréal, the Leader at Google Canada’s Brain Group, Dr. Hugo Larochelle, delivered a presentation titled: “Apprentissage profond, une révolution tehcnolgique de l’intelligence artificielle”, followed by the Head of the Optical Radiology Lab at Polytechnique Montréal, Dr. Frédéric LeBlond, with a presentation titled: “Biomedical Physics and Engineering at the Service of Medicine”. At SLXON at MaRS, the closing industry guest speaker was the Chief Scientist and Head of UBER’s Advanced Technology Group, Dr. Raquel Urtasun, with her presentation titled: “Towards Affordable Self-Driving Vehicles” (Watch here).  

We were so fortunate that almost 75% of our network of close to 400 Schulich Leaders were able to travel to these provincial hubs to take in an exciting day together that keeps our network tight-knit, while creating memories and opportunities that will benefit so many Schulich Leaders!

Thank you to all of our terrific Schulich Leader volunteers and speakers that dedicated significant time to plan and execute these invaluable events!

See you next year on September 12, 2020!!