Portia Rayner

2022 McCall MacBain Scholar

McGill Faculty of Engineering, MSc, Mechanical Engineering

Education:
University of Alberta (BSc’22)

Edmonton, AB

A mechanical engineering student at the University of Alberta, Portia seeks to encourage young women to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She has mentored high school students, taught at outreach camps, and coordinated logistics for the TeamUp Science junior high competition. Portia also mobilized a team to create Ada Code Challenge, a workshop that introduces girls to the fundamentals of programming hardware. In addition, Portia edits an undergraduate research journal and works part-time in a lab. As a former elite athlete, Portia is keen to help develop technologies for injury prevention and treatment. One of her projects was a balance board to prevent seniors from falling and hurting themselves. She will pursue a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at McGill.