Canyu Wu: From Wonder at the Living World to a Commitment to Women’s Health
Imagine the teenage Canyu Wu meeting the Canyu Wu of today. What would she think? “I’d like to believe she would be quite proud!” the latter replies with a smile. “Above all, the ‘me of yesterday’ would be surprised to see how much the world opens up to those who simply dare to ask.”
None of the partnerships this entrepreneurial-minded woman has built came out of nowhere, she is quick to point out. Each began with an idea and the courage to approach people who could help bring it to life. But knowing which doors to knock on is only half the journey. Project after project, she has proved that she deserved the trust placed in her.
This outstanding biomedical engineering student at McGill University has become the second recipient of Polytechnique Montréal’s Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Excellence Scholarship. The Canada-wide scholarship, worth $25,000, is awarded each year to a female engineering student whose commitment extends well beyond her academic studies.
For Canyu Wu, that commitment takes many forms: a citizen science platform for a polluted lake, a health-care incubator that connects young founders with clinicians from major hospitals, and a deeply rooted conviction that women’s health deserves serious attention at last.
To understand what connects all of these endeavours, we must return to what has always driven her: a question she asks about almost everything: “Why does it work this way?” The engineer within her was already visible, less as a career ambition than as a way of engaging with the world.
An entrepreneur who takes action
Canyu’s entrepreneurial spirit first emerged in high school. “I started a natural and personalized soap-making company called Paōs. I loved the experience of building something from scratch!”
Each of her projects pursues the same goal: giving back directly to a community. In 2024, she founded the first engineering club at Marianopolis College and grew it to 130 members. In 2026, as a McGill student, she launched the McGill Ventures Health Tech Innovation Lab in collaboration with Deloitte. The incubator connects young health-care entrepreneurs with clinicians from the McGill University Health Centre and Mayo Clinic to foster new partnerships.
She is also a co-founder of CADeau, a citizen science platform dedicated to protecting Lake Osisko. Through an interactive map and a virtual terrarium game, young people in Rouyn-Noranda can document shoreline degradation and contribute to conservation efforts. The project placed fourth in the national 2025 AquaHacking competition.
A leader surrounded by support
Canyu’s ability to build and create was initially developed as she gradually strengthened her leadership skills. Between 2023 and 2024, she rose through the ranks of the Marianopolis Young Leaders Organization, first as marketing lead and then as vice-president of public relations.
It was there that she learned a distinction that still guides her today: doing means acting alone; leading means accepting that others may be better than you in their own area of expertise and trusting them. “A team can always accomplish more than a leader working alone,” she says.
She also cultivates this resilience on a Muay Thai mat, where she learns to face obstacles and setbacks.
A Fight for Women’s Health
Of all her commitments, her dedication to women’s health stands out most. The spark was not abstract: several of her friends were living with poorly understood and inadequately treated women’s health conditions.
“Medical research has long favoured male models,” she observes. “The result is years of delay in understanding how some diseases affect women, or how they affect them differently. If research is lagging behind, innovation cannot offer them meaningful solutions.”
She saw this reality take shape during her internship at Eli Health, where she helped develop tools to better understand hormonal health.
“In the coming years, I hope to gain a better understanding of how the female body functions and obtain more data on women’s health, so that I can dedicate myself to developing solutions for conditions affecting so many women, such as menstrual pain,” she says.
A Continuation, Not an End Point
Receiving the Claudette MacKay-Lassonde Excellence Scholarship is a great honour for Canyu, she says. Above all, however, she views it as a serious responsibility: following in Claudette MacKay-Lassonde’s footsteps by helping improve women’s lives. For her, it is a way to contribute to a more equitable world.
