Jane Goodyer remembers being just one of two women engineers out of 400 when she began her career in the automotive industry roughly 35 years ago.  

“To be that underrepresented, it's just shaped the way I've progressed in my career, to help others who would never see themselves in a STEM career,” said Goodyer, who is now the Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University. 

 Boosting diversity and equity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), investing in a range of social impact programs and funding research to tackle financial crimes are some of the initiatives that will be supported by a four-year, $980,000 donation from Scotiabank. 

“Through this collaboration, I know we will make an incredible social impact, driven by cutting-edge research and a passion for building a more equitable future for all,” said Goodyer. 

The funding will support Lassonde’s Kindergarten to Industry (K2I) Academy, which aims to remove systemic barriers for underrepresented students in STEM. The goal of the K2I Academy is to increase student achievement and enrolment in the prerequisite courses needed to enter post-secondary studies in engineering. 

Lassonde’s Helen Carswell STEAM (Science, Technlogy, Engineering, Arts and Math) Program for Women, for example, will receive funding over four years to support Grade 10 and 11 students from marginalized neighbourhoods. These students will get the opportunity to participate in a summer program of paid research on projects in the fields of engineering and science related to the UN Sustainability Goals, all while earning a high-school credit.  

Scotiabank’s donation will also support York’s Global Financial Crimes Research Fund over four years and Computer Security Program Fund for two years.  

Part of the donation, named the Scotiabank Lassonde Financial Crimes Research Initiative, will go towards research conducted by York University graduate students on global financial crimes and money laundering, with an emphasis on detecting and disrupting the flow of illicit financial flows connected to human trafficking and online exploitation. 

The initiative’s research will inform techniques used by financial investigators to spot suspicious transactions, increasing efficiency and effectiveness in investigations, said Stuart Davis, Executive Vice President, Financial Crimes Risk Management, Scotiabank.   

“We believe fighting financial crimes is best done collaboratively. That means sharing knowledge with our partners and law enforcement, working with policy-makers to increase the effectiveness of our framework and learning about the latest technological innovations and how to apply them from industry and academia,” said Davis during the virtual event. “By looking at all these angles, we can stay in lockstep with the bad actors trying impede on the financial system.” 

Financial crimes continue to grow in volume and complexity due to globalization and technological advancements, while at the same time there is a global shortage of trained experts and specialists to tackle this illicit activity.  

“This research initiative aims to create solutions and countermeasures against financial crimes using AI and machine learning, big data, social media, cloud computing and cyber security,” said Uyen T. Nguyen, computer science professor at Lassonde.  

“Our goal is to create long-lasting impact, such as protecting consumers against fraud, creating tools to assist financial institutions and law enforcement in fighting social and environmental crimes and training students for jobs in financial crime analysis and risk management.” 

As well, a new financial crimes course will be added to York University’s curriculum, focused on illicit finance and the ways to identify, report and ultimately stop it, said Davis. 

“Our goal is to whet the appetite of future financial crimes fighting professionals and better prepare those looking for careers in this space. We are also thrilled to see that nearly one third of our funding will be used to advance new ideas in STEM and promote more opportunities for young women and our youth.”