- Recruitment for the 2019 INFINITI Engineering Academy closes on a high note with another Canadian student registration record
- 10 finalists from across Canada will compete next week to secure one of the seven, one-year placements with INFINITI and Renault F1® Team
- The two-day finals will take place on June 5th and 6th in Montreal, trackside prior to the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2019
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, May 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The recruitment phase of the 2019 INFINITI Engineering Academy (IEA) Canadian final closes with a 15 per cent increase in registration versus 2018.
Driven by the success of previous IEA programs in Canada, the fourth consecutive year of this unique automotive-to-motorsport engineering recruitment program attracted young engineers from across the country.
“Formula One™ is engineering in the form of motorsport at the highest level. It’s also very difficult to start a career in F1®, teams can hire talent from around the world, so standing out from the crowd is almost impossible. The INFINITI Engineering Academy is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for up and coming engineers in Canada to have a chance to get exposure to, and work for INFINITI and Renault F1® Team,” says Adam Paterson, managing director of INFINITI Canada. “We are very proud to see that engineering schools across Canada recognize the rare opportunity IEA provides, with the number of registrations from Canadian students increasing each year.”
The 10 finalists this year are comprised of students hailing across Canada, including British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.
2019 Top 10 Canadian finalists:
| CANDIDATES | |||
| # | Name | University | Region |
| 1 | Mitchell Sudano | Concordia University | Montreal, QC |
| 2 | Scott Fjordbotten | University of British Columbia | Vancouver, BC |
| 3 | Matthew Efthimiades | UOIT (University of Ontario Institute of Technology | Oshawa, ON |
| 4 | Derrick Tan | University of Waterloo | Waterloo, ON |
| 5 | Nikolas Imola | Oxford Brookes University | Oxford, UK Hometown: (Toronto, ON) |
| 6 | Luke Gregoris | Western University | London, ON |
| 7 | Kevin Mazur | University of Manitoba | Winnipeg, MB |
| 8 | Matthew Kemp | University of Calgary | Calgary, AB |
| 9 | Thomas Lee | McGill University | Montreal, QC |
| 10 | Adriaan Booysen | University of Alberta | Edmonton, AB |
The INFINITI Engineering Academy is a global search that began in 2014 in the U.S.A. and U.K., and was established in seven regions including Canada from 2016. Taking place in Montreal on June 5th and 6th, the two-day 2019 Canadian finals will be the first of the seven final events taking place across the globe. The 10 Canadian finalists will compete in various challenges on Wednesday at the Luciani INFINITI dealership in Montreal. These challenges will include building a small-scale prototype car, interviews and, for the second year in-a-row, a decision-making test.
The decision-making component was first integrated into the IEA final evaluation when INFINITI partnered last year with Harvard University Professor, Dr. Julia Minson, who specializes in decision science. Dr. Minson has worked with the INFINITI Engineering Academy to conduct ground-breaking research on decision making in engineering, and how the very best engineers perform under pressure to make decisions when faced with vast amounts of complex data.
Only three finalists will be selected to move on to Thursday’s trackside final at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. They will be granted access to the Renault F1® Team's pit lane, garage and paddock areas before the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI GRAND PRIX DU CANADA 2019, where they will carry out several challenges under the watchful eye of drivers Nico Hülkenberg, Daniel Riccardo, and other members of Renault F1® Team.
The IEA 2019 Canadian winner will be crowned on Thursday, earning the only placement available for Canada - a highly sought-after year-long placement in the United Kingdom working six months with INFINITI and six months with Renault F1® Team.
That placement could lead to the job opportunity of a lifetime, as it did for the 2017 Canadian IEA winner, Matthew Crossan, who now works full-time with Renault F1® Team as a Simulation Development Engineer in the team's Vehicle Performance Group.
"This is our fourth year hosting the INFINTI Engineering Academy in Canada and it’s always exciting to see some of Canada’s top engineering students participate, exploring their potential to work in Formula One™," concluded Paterson. "With every year the IEA program runs in Canada, that’s another year of Canadian talent contributing to INFINITI and Renault F1® Team.”
For more information on the INFINITI Engineering Academy, please visit academy.infiniti.com.
Media contacts:
Didier Marsaud
Director, Corporate Communications
INFINITI Motor Company - Canada
Telephone: 905-629-6400
Email: didier.marsaud@infiniticanada.com
Jenn McCarthy
Manager, Product Communications
INFINITI Motor Company - Canada
Telephone: 905-629-6350
Email: jennifer.mccarthy@infiniticanada.com
Roxane Barry
Planner, Product Communications
INFINITI Motor Company - Canada
Telephone: 905-629-6461
Email: roxane.barry@infiniticanada.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d1116270-c37f-4a88-8eb1-98ea134c41d2