The scholarship was established through a donation from the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation (CEMF) in honour of its founder, Claudette MacKay-Lassonde. It continues the values she embodied: leadership, academic excellence and community involvement. Founded in 1990 in memory of the 14 women who lost their lives in the December 6, 1989 tragedy, the CEMF entrusted Polytechnique Montréal with continuing its mission. 

 “We are very pleased to award this national scholarship to Canyu Wu,” Maud Cohen, president of Polytechnique Montréal, said this morning. “Her passion, engagement and excellence make her an ideal recipient. The Claudette-MacKay-Lassonde Excellence Scholarship reflects Polytechnique Montréal’s commitment to advancing young women in engineering across Canada and honouring Claudette MacKay-Lassonde’s legacy. Canyu’s journey is already extraordinary and an inspiration to the next generation of female engineers to pursue their ambitions and tackle the pressing challenges facing our society.” 

Canyu’s initiatives demonstrate remarkable leadership: founding her college’s first engineering club, creating a citizen science platform to protect a lake, and establishing an incubator that connects young health-care innovators with clinicians from the McGill University Health Centre and Mayo Clinic. She is now dedicated to developing a better understanding of hormonal health, with the hope of one day creating an incubator focused on women’s health innovation. 

At the scholarship presentation, Canyu Wu said: “Receiving this scholarship is more than an honour,” Canyu Wu said at the ceremony. “I feel entrusted with a mission to continue on the path Claudette MacKay-Lassonde charted. I will use this scholarship to continue working on building the structures, organizations and communities that empower women to shape engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship—particularly in the field of women’s health, an area that sorely needs more innovative solutions. This scholarship is a responsibility: to build a fairer, healthier world. I am committed to help bring Claudette’s vision of a future where women are at the forefront of new systems and technologies into reality.” 

 Julie Lassonde, Claudette MacKay-Lassonde’s daughter, added: “It is by supporting exceptional students like Canyu Wu that the scholarship created in my mother’s honour truly comes to life. It inspires the next generation of female engineers in Canada by empowering them to shape the society of tomorrow. This is exactly what my mother, Claudette MacKay-Lassonde, was committed to fostering through her philanthropic work, and it is the mission that this scholarship accomplishes each year.”   

An Engineer Who Puts People First 

Valérie Bélisle, Director of Philanthropy and Alumni Relations, noted that Canyu demonstrates a desire to put engineering at the service of people who are too often left behind by existing systems. 

“By awarding the Claudette-MacKay-Lassonde Excellence Scholarship to Canyu, Polytechnique does far more than recognize talent: it empowers a future leader to amplify her impact. Because a more diverse engineering profession is better equipped to develop solutions that better serve society, Poly embraces its role as a catalyst for change by advancing women's representation in engineering and uniting communities across Canada around this shared ambition. Each recipient becomes a source of inspiration for the next generation and a testament to the power of engineering to change the world.” she said.

Read Canyu Wu's portrait here.