Name: Aziz Abdellahi College affiliation: MIT Course of study: Materials Science and Engineering Degree: PhD Year: Graduate Student Hometown: Montreal, Canada Collegiate Coach: Master Dan Chuang Weight Class: Welter Year of Birth: 1984 Interests: Energy and sustainable development, History, Physics, Science-Fiction, Hockey, Boxing

ECTC Tournament Record:

2011 Cornell Tournament - A-Team Sparring, Silver
2011 MIT Tournament - A-Team Sparring, 5th

2011 U Penn Tournament - A-Team Sparring, Gold
2010 Princeton Tournament - A-Team Sparring, Bronze

Other Tournament Record:

2011 US Open (Austin, TX) - 2nd Round (Lightweight)
5 time Canadian National Team Member in ITF Taekwondo
2010 ISKA (International Sports Karate Association) World Championsips (Orlando, Florida), Gold

More about Aziz:

Outside of Taekwondo and my Ph D, I am also involved in the MIT Energy Club. I organize lectures at MIT on various topics in the field of sustainable energy (global warming, renewable energy, etc). I am also a huge fan of boxing and hockey, which I follow religiously. I love traveling and learning languages (I speak French, English, Spanish and some Arabic). I also like reading about history, physics and science in general.

Thoughts on the ECTC (INCTL) or Taekwondo in general:

Competing in the ECTC has been a great experience for me. I grew up learning ITF Taekwondo, so adjustment to the WTF style and rules was challenging. The ECTC circuit is unique in that it allows athletes to gain solid competitive experience in a short amount of time. Nowhere else can non-international athletes get so many quality sparring matches in the span of only a year. I love the camaraderie in the league and the electric atmosphere around the ring. I have had the chance to compete at many levels (local, national and international) in my career, but I have rarely seen a circuit where it is so much fun to compete !