Leader of tomorrow nominee from Park
Posted By Catherine Griwkowsky News Staff
Posted 21 days ago
Shawna Pandya is one of three nominees for the ASTech Foundation's Leader of Tomorrow Award.
The 20th annual ASTech awards gala will be held at the Hyatt Regency Calgary on Friday. The gala is one of the most prestigious events for the science and technology community.
"It's humbling to say the least, given the calibre of people I'm up against,"Pandya said. "The past people who have won this award are very, very qualified individuals. Honestly, when I applied it felt like a long shot. When I got the news that I was a finalist, it was definetly an honour."
The award is a recognition of contribution to growth in Alberta, innovation and creativity. She said to be recognized in the leaders of tomorrow category is very humbling, because former winners have done so much in the past.
"The award has always been on my radar," she said. "In science and medicine you are always aware of the ASTech awards. One of the labs I did research in last summer, the Neuroarm project that I worked on at the foothills hospital, Dr. Garnette Sutherland, actually won the award in a different category for innovation."
Pandya, who spent much of her life in Sherwood Park, is currently based out of Silicon Valley on the NASA Ames campus.
Singularity University, where she was one of 12 students accepted into the program, was her launching pad to projects she is working on now.
During her studies at SU she was given a challenge called 10^9+, the goal of which is to positively impact one billion people in 10 years.
"That's what the summer brought, and the project we were working on which is mobile application for disaster response, as well as portable medical technology focused on disaster response, drew a lot of positive feedback from the first-response and disaster response community so we're taking it forward into start up," she said.
If that didn't keep her busy enough, she is working with international, not-for-profit organizations in information technologies and space technology spin-offs, Space Without Borders and the tentatively titled Unite.
Her passion lies in the two extremes of humanity — surviving and thriving.
"On the survival side, what are the worst of human problems that need to be address in terms of poverty, health care management and accessibility, famine, resource management," she said. "Also, on the thriving side, what is the best of what we've achieved in terms of innovation, knowledge, technology. I see myself in those spaces, continuing to innovate continuing to create, and using these solutions we've developed to help create a sustainable award where we've addressed these issues of poverty and disparity and generally contribute to global development."
Also nominated from Edmonton is Dr. Shaheed Merani, an md/phd student at the University of Alberta who has already authored 20 peer-reviewed articles, was president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, has served on the board of directors for five non-profit organizations, and wrote a 700-page published text book.
catherine@sherwoodparknews.com
