Amanda Adam is a Grade 11 academic student at St. Mildred’s- Lightbourn School in Oakville, Ontario. Amanda is the incoming elected student leader of her school's STEMR (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Robotics) department, the Co-Lead and Co-Founder of her school's Jack Chapter (a council dedicated to ending the stigma surrounding mental health), the Business Lead on the Robotics team: SWAT 771, the President of the Oakville and Mississauga Branch of DoingWells (a non-profit organization that raises funds to build wells in developing countries), and is an active member on her school's Debate/Model United Nations team.
Having attended an all-girls school since she was 11, Amanda understands the power women have to make a change and the importance of gender equality. Through the outreach events of her school's all-girls robotics team, she is able to advocate for gender equality, while inspiring all generations of every gender to make a much-needed change for women.
After spending an amazing summer at SHAD UBC in 2016, Amanda was inspired to enter the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF). Her project was called: Developing a Wearable Device to Treat Cold Urticaria. The purpose of the project was to create a new treatment for Cold Urticaria, which is essentially an allergic reaction to the cold. Currently, there aren't any long-term treatments for this condition, and barely any organizations trying to develop a solution. The aim of the project was to develop a long-lasting solution, that does not possess any side effects to one's health. Amanda's project won the McMaster Chemical Engineering Award and the BASEF Silver Merit Award of Excellence.
Amanda was elected as the STEMR Prefect at her school for the 2017-2018 school year. As the STEMR Prefect she will be in charge of leading all STEMR related activities and events at her school in order to promote women in STEMR fields. This position comes with a lot of responsibilities, but a lot of opportunities as well. So far in her role, Amanda has been trying to start a science fair club to encourage girls in grade 7 and up, to develop a passion for STEMR at a young age, as well as give students the opportunity to apply their learning in real-life scenarios. Recently, Amanda had the opportunity to work as a co-op student at the Techna Institute in the STTARR Innovation Centre for a month. The biomedical engineering co-op allowed her to gain real engineering experience, meet lots of interesting people (including women!) in STEMR related fields, and learn useful new skills such as CADing and programming using JavaScript.
