June 26, 2025
One of our Energy Toolbase employees takes academics seriously. Danny has been awarded the APEGA Past Presidents’ Medal in Engineering from the University of Calgary! Danny was selected from the software engineering program.
Danny started at ETB as a Software Developer Intern in 2023. After completing his studies, he joined ETB full-time in May of this year as a Software Developer.
“My main responsibilities are to maintain the ETB Developer website and implement new features,” he said.
Being recognized for top marks isn’t uncommon for Danny.
“I also received the Scholastic Award in grades 8 and 9 for the highest academic average at my junior high, Ernest Morrow School.”
During his internship with ETB, Danny was also the recipient of the Pason Memorial Scholarship in Software Engineering, an award funded by Pason in memory of Bennie Vorster, a Systems Engineer and software engineering student recognized for academic excellence.
“This final award is a crowning achievement that validates the consistency of my efforts in school. All the years dedicated to studying without ever becoming complacent. I was happy just to graduate with a high GPA and didn’t expect to receive any more awards, so I couldn’t ask for a better finish to my academic career. It's the highlight of my education, and I will look back fondly on this moment for the rest of my life.”
When Danny first found out he had received the award, he was in disbelief. He said his only goal throughout his studies was to maintain a high GPA. Once reality kicked in, he was elated. The first people he told were his parents.
“I felt immense pride. I love to let my parents know how successful I am, and I knew they'd be proudly sharing their son’s achievements with their friends and co-workers,” he said.
Despite the excitement of receiving this accolade, Danny said what truly drives him to work hard, both at school and at work, is making his parents proud. In fact, if he had to name two people who supported him through his university journey, he’d say his parents.
“If not for them, I doubt I would’ve had the time and energy to work as hard as I did,” he said.
He also added that he’d like to thank a few close friends, Kaito, Kevin, and Joshua, whose support contributed to his success.
At work, there are many things he enjoys, but it’s the visual impact that excites him the most.
“I get satisfaction out of implementing new features that can be readily demoed, where I can point to a part of the site and say, ‘I made that,’” he said.
Danny noted that he’s especially excited about his contributions to the One-Click Designs project, which rebrands and streamlines the old Proposal Configurations feature, as well as the Document Bundles project.
One of Pason and ETB’s points of pride is the ability for employees to maintain work-life balance, and Danny is active outside of work as well. He loves listening to music and playing video games.
“Additionally, I’m interested in web development even outside of work. I released and am continuously updating a website called Web osu!mania, which is a web port of a popular rhythm game called ‘osu!’. I made it to allow people on restricted devices or networks, such as in schools, to play the game without installing the desktop application. At the time of writing, the site gets about 2,500 daily visitors.”
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