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Mechtronix announces first graduate award winner

Mr. Xavier Hervé, President of MWC, met with and congratulated Ms. Carissa Carman, who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts with a concentration in Fibres, in the presence of Concordia President and Vice-Chancellor Judith Woodsworth at the university's annual, Donor and Student Excellence Recognition Ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel inMontreal. The Mechtronix Graduate Award allows for the creation of a scholarship to encourage innovative excellence. MWC plans to host an exhibition of Ms. Carman's artwork this May.

"The Faculty of Fine Arts is one of Canada's most avant-garde institutions in terms of visual and performing arts and it is an honor to be a contributor to their innovative spirit", said Mr. Hervé, President of MWC. "Innovation is at the core of revolutionary changes whether in thinking, arts or science and it should be encouraged at all levels. If not for the support Mechtronix had since its creation in the late 1980's, we might have not radically changed the way flight training technology was designed and constructed. We are very happy to support these creative students and are looking forward to admiring their artwork when displayed at our premises in a couple of months."

Said Ms. Carman, "The Mechtronix award will make it possible for me to work on an extensive project this summer in a rural property outside of Joliette, Quebec. I will focus on growing dye plants, building site-specific land sculptures and becoming completely immersed in French, which is critical to my upcoming project about language and conversation. This exciting project is also critical for my thesis exhibition in 2011."

Each year for five years, through a competition, Concordia will grant a student who symbolizes innovative excellence in visual arts the graduate award, which is the most recent of numerous gifts made to Concordia by Mechtronix and follows a donation of $150,000 to the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science earlier this month. Mechtronix Systems Inc., an MWC company, was founded by a team of engineering students from Concordia and giving the new generation the opportunity to express their innovative minds is at the core of the group's values.

About Ms. Carissa Carman
Carissa Carman is a first year Master of Fine Arts Candidate in Fibres at Concordia University. Carissa is an emerging artist in collaborative, social and relational artwork and a research assistant for Subtela, Hexagram. Originally from California, she earned her BA from the University of California Chico. She has been awarded residencies and grants from the Women's Studio Workshop, Andy WarholFoundation, New York Foundation of the Arts, New York Council of the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. She most recently was the Director of the Chashama North Residency program in New York State, and recently launched her largest collaborative project The Waterpod (http://www.thewaterpod.org/), which received world-wide press and exhibition locations throughout New York City. She has artworks in major collections at Yale, Rhode Island School of Design, Virginia Commonwealth and Wesleyan University.