New award highlights 2SLGBTQ+ engineering talent

Stevie Desmarais has a talent for designing underwater robots. Having just graduated from the engineering program at the University of Alberta, Desmarais is a mechanical lead on the Autonomous Robot Vehicle Project (ARVP), a team of engineering students who compete in the annual RoboSub competition by developing an autonomous underwater vehicle.

Desmarais’s passion for robotics is matched by her drive to make ARVP a safe space for queer people and to support student engineers from the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

In recognition of her promising engineering talents, her contributions to the ARVP student group, and her efforts as a champion for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Desmarais was named the inaugural recipient of the Ly 2SLGBTQ+ Award in Engineering. 

The award is the first of its kind in the Faculty of Engineering. It aims to highlight engineering talent from underrepresented groups and show that there are opportunities and support for young people from those communities who are interested in engineering.

“Engineering historically has been dominated by straight white men, with a culture that didn’t know anything about the queer community, and tended to exclude anyone who didn’t fit into that box,” says Desmarais. “This award is important because there’s a lot of great engineering talent in the queer community. It’s not just for the sake of those people, but for the engineering industry — if you’re excluding people, you’re losing out on their perspective and their knowledge base, which is unique to them.”

Desmarais works hard to encourage diversity in the ARVP student group, with 30 per cent of their members and 40 per cent of their executive team belonging to the queer community. She takes this as a good sign that they’re going in the right direction.

Victoria Ly, ’13BSc(CivEng), created the award, inspired by her own experiences as an engineering grad and a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, as well as having served as the director of Student Community & Engagement for the U of A Faculty of Engineering before leaving to work in the industry. Being a trans woman and working in the industry both pre- and post-transition gave Victoria an understanding of the experiences on both sides.

“Cultural, institutional and systemic change takes time,” Ly says. “But it is through our collective efforts and the solidarity of our allies that we are able to fight for and drive meaningful change. I’m hoping this award inspires others in similar positions as my own to give back in their own way, but I also want to emphasize that it is enough to simply exist as a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community in engineering in and of itself.”

Ly has been working with engineering firm CIMA+ since 2023. When CIMA+ learned of Ly’s scholarship initiative, it resonated with the company’s culture of “engineering for people,” and they were inspired to show their support for Ly and the 2SLGBTQ+ community by matching Ly’s scholarship amount.

“From our projects to our hiring practices, community engagement and more, CIMA+ believes that engineering is for people. So, we are happy to support Victoria with her generous 2SLGBTQIA+ scholarship at the University of Alberta,” says Kelly Yuzdepski, Executive Regional Vice President, Western Canada. “Victoria is an integral part of the Transportation group in Edmonton, and we are proud to have someone so dedicated to both her profession and using her personal experiences to carve a path for others on our team.”

Ly is thrilled to see Desmarais, who she has met, be the first to receive the award. “She is incredibly hardworking and really challenges the image or stereotype of what you might expect a typical engineering student to be,” Ly says.

For Desmarais, a support like the Ly 2SLGBTQ+ Award means more than just financial help —– it demonstrates backing from the community for students to be themselves.

“Without community support, it’s very easy to hide and suppress parts of yourself,” says Desmarais. “A lot of young, queer kids in engineering have difficulty finding their community initially, but once they do, it’s smooth sailing from then on out. It becomes very easy to be who you are, and it shows through your work.”