Graduate Student Awards

Award Schedule and Eligibility

The departmental travel awards are assigned in three competitions per year. Approximately $15,000 is available annually. Any funds not allotted will roll over into the following competition. The student must be presenting at a conference to qualify for funding. A travel application can only be submitted once. Each Travel Award Application is eligible for a maximum award of $500.

Submission Procedure

The graduate student has to submit the following to the ECE graduate coordinator:

• The completed Travel Award Application Form
• Proof of paper acceptance
• Copy of the paper
• Estimated budget for all expenses

Please note that this process is different from the process to be reimbursed. Once a travel award is approved, the student will need to submit an expense report (here), by clicking on the purple square “Western Financials Login”.  Once the expense report is submitted, please print a copy and attach your original receipts to this and submit to the ECE graduate coordinator for approval. 

Graduate Student Travel Award Allocation

These awards are administered by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and allocated by the department’s Graduate Committee. Eligible students will be awarded $500 to cover part of his/her travel expenses of attending a conference to present research work the student conducted at Western as part of his/her current graduate program requirements. To be eligible for a travel award, a student must be enrolled full-time in a graduate program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The committee selects awardees out of students applied for the award based on a point system procedure. In this procedure, each applicant is allotted 100 points as baseline. The applicant's total points will be calculated by adding or subtracting points based on the following table:

After obtaining total points of each applicant, a list of applicants sorted according to the total points will be compiled. Finally, the committee will use this list to award applicants starting from the one with the highest points and moving down the list until available travel award funds are fully allocated.

The CAGS-ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards recognize Canadian doctoral dissertations that make unusually significant and original contributions to their academic field. They were established in 1994 and are presented annually by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS), with sponsorship support provided by ProQuest. 

A winner from each of the following categories will be selected:

• Engineering, Medical Sciences, and Natural Science
• Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

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Sponsored jointly by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards are made each year to individuals who, in the opinion of the award committee, have completed doctoral dissertations representing original work that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline.

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Awarded annually to a graduate student registered in a PhD program in Electrical and Computer Engineering, based on academic achievement (minimum 85% average over the last 2 years of engineering studies). The candidate will be a Canadian citizen. Preference will be given to a student specializing in Applied Electrostatics. A committee within the Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering will select the recipient. At least one member of the committee must hold membership in the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. This award was established by a generous gift from the Estate of Professor Ion Inculet (PhD ’96).

Professor Ion Inculet was born in Romania and immigrated to Canada in 1947. He was educated as an Electrical Engineer. He retired, after 47 years, from Western’s Faculty of Engineering, as Professor Emeritus. He was Director of the Applied Electrostatics Research Centre, and an internationally renowned Inventor (27 patents), Researcher, and Academician. Professor Inculet died in 2011 at the age of 90. Apply online: https://westerneng.awardspring.ca

OGS awards are merit-based scholarships available to students in all disciplines of graduate study. The OGS program is jointly funded by the Province of Ontario and Ontario universities. The Province of Ontario contributes two-thirds of the value of the award and the University provides one-third through private donations to Western.

Value: $15,000 for one year (3 consecutive terms)

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For more than 150 years, the Governor General's Gold Medals have recognized the outstanding scholastic achievements of students in Canada. They are awarded to master's or doctoral students who have achieved the highest academic standing in their degree programs.

The purpose of this program is to:

• Encourage scholarship across Canada and recognize outstanding students
• Maintain a spirit of universality across the country; the Directives were designed to ensure that the medals are awarded based on academic criteria only
• Present the medals on behalf of, and in the name of, the Governor General at an appropriate ceremony where possible

The medal is accompanied by a certificate signed by the Governor General, and is not associated with any monetary award.

SGPS will accept one research-based master’s (thesis) nomination and one doctoral (PhD) nomination per faculty. 

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The Tri-Agency scholarship and fellowship programs administered by CIHR, NSERC, and SSHRC have been streamlined into a new harmonized program called the Canada Research Training Awards Suite (CRTAS).

The following scholarships will sunset, and be re-branded as CRTAS: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (Vanier CGS); Canada Graduate Scholarships - Master’s (CGSM); CIHR: Frederick Banting & Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Awards (CGSD); CIHR: Doctoral Foreign Study Awards (DFSA); NSERC: Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (CGSD); NSERC: Postgraduate Scholarships-Doctoral (PGSD); SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships-Doctoral Program (CGSD); and SSHRC: Doctoral Fellowships.

The new harmonized programs within CRTAS are:

• Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Master’s (CGRS M)
• Canada Graduate Research Scholarship – Doctoral (CGRS D)

The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS) is committed to supporting ongoing research, scholarship, and creative activity at Western University by encouraging more graduate students to apply for Canada’s leading government scholarships.

“Tri-Agency” is the umbrella term used to describe the three Canadian government scholarship funding agencies:

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)

Both master’s and doctoral students can apply for the appropriate Tri-Agency scholarship before and during their graduate program.  

Students apply for a scholarship with one of the Tri-Agencies based on their area of research; if successful, they receive significant financial support to pursue their studies, enhance their credentials, and act as leaders in the pursuit of scholarly excellence.

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The Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence is a $17,500 entrance award that recognizes exceptional students pursuing AI master’s programs in Ontario. As a scholarship recipient, you gain enhanced access to Ontario’s thriving AI ecosystem. Connecting you with a community of over 960 researchers, major Canadian companies, and the startups solving tomorrow’s biggest challenges through unparalleled networking and career-defining connections. This scholarship is offered by the Vector Institute. 

Successful nominees will win the following award: 

• $17,500 for one year (three consecutive terms) 

The one-year award will start in May, September, or January based on the award holder’s program start date. The award is non-transferable; selected recipients are required to register at the Ontario university and program to which they were nominated to receive the award. 

Please review the Vector Scholarship in AI webpage for the full scholarship details. 

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