Engineer Alumni Magazine Spring2014

U of A Engineer Spring 2014 1

Spr ing 2014 W W W. E N G I N E E R I N G . UA L B E RTA . C A

Keeping in Touch with

Alumni

GNCTR turns 40Connected to the North

From Arts to EngineeringCreating a legacy

Stepping up to

the plate

2 U of A Engineer Spring 2014

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Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Faculty of Engineering, University of Alberta

E6-050 Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex

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Vision To be one of the largest and most accomplished engineering teaching and research centres, a leader in North America.

Mission To prepare top-quality engineering professionals, to conduct world-leading research and to celebrate the first-class reputation and outstanding accomplishments of alumni.

Values Dedication, integrity, professionalism and excellence in teaching, research and service to the global economy and community.

EngineerUofA

U of A Engineer is the Faculty of Engineering alumni magazine. It is published twice a year by the Dean’s Office and is distributed to Faculty of Engineering alumni, friends, students and staff.

Dean of Engineering David T. Lynch

(PhD Chemical ’82), PEng

External Relations Team Nena Jocic-Andrejevic, Linda Kelly,

Leanne Nickel, Cindy Spears, Trevor Wiltzen

Publisher/Managing Editor Richard Cairney

Copy Editing/Proof Reading Richard Cairney, Leanne Nickel, Philip Mail

Art Direction Halkier + Dutton Strategic Design

Contributing writers and photographers Brian Alary, Nicole Basaraba, Jason Franson,

Demetri Giannitsois, Tyler Heal, Mifi Purves, Richard Siemens

Advertising Richard Cairney

Tel: 780.492.4514 or 1.800.407.8345

Send Comments to: Richard Cairney

Faculty of Engineering E6-050 Engineering Teaching

and Learning Complex University of Alberta

Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4 Tel: 780.492.4514 or 1.800.407.8354

Fax: 780.492.0500 email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca

Change of address: [email protected]

Spring 2014 Issue 35

One of my colleagues mis-heard Fred Keating, who eloquently emceed the APEGA

Summit Awards ceremony recently—or maybe Fred made a slip. When Fred

referred to the “University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering” my colleague heard

“Family of Engineering.” It doesn’t matter whether this was mis-spoken or mis-heard

or intentional or not—it was entirely appropriate for the setting. Engineers

and geoscientists from across the province gathered to honour our peers

for their outstanding achievements and dedication their professions and

their service to the greater community.

Zeroing in on our Faculty of Engineering alumni, partners and

supporters in attendance and those being honoured, it was something of

a “Family of Engineering” event. Recipients of the Summit awards are

congratulated in this edition of U of A Engineer and I’m sure you’ll be

hearing more about them in future editions.

We’re also profiling, in this edition of the magazine, alumni who are

serving society at large through their support of the Faculty of Engineering

in a variety of ways. Contributions large and small have meaningful

impacts on our students and researchers and, in turn, on the community at large.

There are other ways that you, as members of the “University of Alberta Family of

Engineering” can support our students, professors and researchers.

• Hire a Co-op student: Our faculty houses one of the most active co-op programs

in Canada and it’s growing. By providing future engineers with real-world

engineering jobs you are helping the next generation of engineering professionals

gain, very early in their careers, foundational experiences that ultimately help them

become outstanding members of the engineering profession.

• Mentor a young alumni: Take time in the workplace to visit with young

engineering alumni—they can keep you up to date on happenings around the

faculty and you can guide them as they gain their bearings as young professionals.

• Share our stories: Through this magazine and on our websites (www.engineering.

ualberta.ca) you’ll learn more about what our alumni, students and professors are

doing in their profession, in teaching, research and community service. Share your

pride in your school by sharing these stories with friends and colleagues.

• Provide financial support: There are numerous ways that you can support

students or establish research partnerships and, as you’ll see in the pages of this

magazine, you can have more of an impact than you ever imagined.

Those here on campus in turn do everything we can to recognize the impact that

all of our alumni have in their profession and in their community. Taken as a whole,

working together, our collective impact in Alberta, across Canada and around the

world is something our “family” can be truly proud of.

Tom Gooding (Mechanical ’78) Alumni Council Representative

FSC LOGO

All in the family

Message from Alumni Council

COVER STORY

8 “He gets on base”The movie Moneyball encapsulated former Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel’s strategy for success: don’t try to hit a home run, just get on base.

11 From Canada to QatarA long-serving chemical engineering professor is taking on an exciting new role—and moving from one extreme climate to another.

12 HVAC comebackA $1.5-million gift from Engineered Air ensures the revival of HVAC engineering, and alumnus Robert Prybysh comes back to school as the Engineered Air Fellow in HVAC Engineering. His goal: to transform the industry.

15 CEOs must mend their waysRetired engineer and business leader Chuck Hantho accepts an honorary degree and calls for greater corporate responsibility from today’s CEOs, reminding graduating engineers that their duty is to serve society, not shareholders.

16 300 pounds of speedIt was one of those ideas that sounded so crazy, it just might work. Forty years later, the annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race has become a national institution. This year U of A Engineering students won the race to the bottom, in style.

32 Brain gainResearch capacity at the Faculty of Engineering is growing, as the federal Canada Research Chairs program renews three chair holders and appoints two new chairs.

36 Enduring supportAfter graduating in 1948, the late Donald Lougheed didn’t sit still, rising to the highest levels of the energy industry. He leaves a final gift that will ensure ongoing support of students and researchers.

38 Change the worldJim and Marlene Sorensen “didn’t start a multimillion-dollar corporation,” but with proper planning they discovered they had the capacity to provide for their family and establish a new chair in biomedical research dedicated to bringing new medical technologies to market.

Spring 2014

Table of ContentsU of A Engineer is the Faculty of Engineering

alumni magazine. It is published twice a year by the Dean’s Office and is distributed to Faculty of Engineering alumni, friends, students and staff.

Dean of Engineering David T. Lynch

(PhD Chemical ’82), PEng

External Relations Team Nena Jocic-Andrejevic, Linda Kelly,

Leanne Nickel, Cindy Spears, Trevor Wiltzen

Publisher/Managing Editor Richard Cairney

Copy Editing/Proof Reading Richard Cairney, Leanne Nickel, Philip Mail

Art Direction Halkier + Dutton Strategic Design

Contributing writers and photographers Brian Alary, Nicole Basaraba, Jason Franson,

Demetri Giannitsois, Tyler Heal, Mifi Purves, Richard Siemens

Advertising Richard Cairney

Tel: 780.492.4514 or 1.800.407.8345

Send Comments to: Richard Cairney

Faculty of Engineering E6-050 Engineering Teaching

and Learning Complex University of Alberta

Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4 Tel: 780.492.4514 or 1.800.407.8354

Fax: 780.492.0500 email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.engineering.ualberta.ca

Change of address: [email protected]


20 Paving the way for successImagine what Ralph Haas sees when he looks at a road map: endless kilometres of vital infrastructure to maintain. Known as the Father of Pavement Management, Haas has created a fellowship to support young academics in his field.

22 Next thing you know, your dad’s your supervisorAs an arts student, Hala AbouRizk-Newstead never imagined she’d end up in engineering. That all changed when she took a summer job in the Department of Civil Engineering.

25 The $50 questionWhat would you rather do with $50? Buy a knick-knack, or pay it forward to a struggling engineering student?

26 Otherwise engagedThe Faculty of Engineering is connecting students and mentors to people in Canada’s own remote corners, helping northern communities solve everyday challenges.

30 Alumni WeekendRenew old friendships, visit your professors, meet today’s engineering students and find out what’s going on at the University of Alberta. Check out this guide to the Faculty of Engineering’s Alumni Weekend events!

On the Cover: Former Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel (Chemical ‘68 LLD [Hon] ‘10) reached the highest levels of industry one step at a time. Now he and Enbridge are working to empower the next generation of engineering professionals. Photo: Jason Franson.

6 ENGGnews

36 Kudos

37 In Memoriam

DEPARTMENTS

12 16 2625


MessagefromtheEditor

I’ve said it before and will say it again: being

editor of U of A Engineer is the best job ever.

First of all, there are all the amazing, friendly, and

talented engineering alumni, professors, students

and partners of the Faculty of Engineering that

I get to talk to. Hearing your

stories and sharing in your

struggles and achievements

is a great pleasure. Sharing

those stories is an honour. As

editor, I strive to make sure

that stories in our magazine

are accurate and give the

Faculty of Engineering a

chance to shine through the

achievement of its alumni,

but also to give the people

we are featuring an opportunity to speak out

about issues they are passionate about. We

also work hard to show you, our alumni, how

the faculty itself is growing and what we are

achieving in teaching, research and service to the

community.

Wanted: Your OpinionAs awesome as these stories are, it is still

possible to tell a story poorly. Our goal—my

personal and professional objective as editor—

is to share these stories in the best way possible.

Putting together a publication like U of A

Engineer is not done in one fell swoop. Rather,

it is the culmination of a million little things.

My hope is that our writing is zesty—that it

catches your attention and holds you.

Graphic design, the use of charts and

graphs where they help tell a story more

clearly, and photographs that draw the reader’s

eye and tell their own part of the story are an

absolute must.

So, when U of A Engineer won a silver

medal in the Print–General Interest

Magazine category earlier this year, we here

were all pretty proud. Our writers, editors,

proofreaders, photographers, designers

and printers all got the recognition they

deserved. The award is from the Council for

the Advancement and Support of Education,

District VIII (representing universities and

colleges in Western Canada and the U.S.

Pacific Northwest).

This award has spurred us to take your

alumni magazine to the next level. It’s our plan

to introduce new features into the magazine, to

make it more readable, to tell more stories and

to tell them in a more compelling way.

Here’s where you come in: let us know

when you have a story about yourself or

another alumnus. Let us know what you

like and don’t like about the magazine.

Be involved. Our next edition comes out in

early September, in time for Alumni Weekend.

Be sure to connect with me well ahead of time

to talk about what you’d like to see in your

alumni magazine. Reach me at

[email protected]

Richard Cairney Editor

Staying in touch just got easierWant to be informed about what’s going on in the Faculty of Engineering? Want to hear about other alumni, students and professors?

Become a fan of the U of A’s Facebook page—you’ll get news, photos and videos about the Faculty, students and alumni sent directly to your own Facebook account.

Join us online at: www.facebook.com/UofAEngineering.


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ENGGNEWSIn 2003, engineering alumni Gary and Graeme Wicentowich’s father, Ron, was diagnosed with cancer. Their family and friends raised $12,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation through an event called Razored for Ron. The following year, and every year since then, the Engineering Students’ Society has co-ordinated the fundraiser, now known as the Engineering Head Shave.

To date, the Engineering Head Shave has raised more than $260,000 for the Cross Cancer Institute.

This year, Engineering students celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Head Shave.

While many participants and donors get involved because their family has been affected by cancer, others feel it’s just the right thing to do.

“I really don’t have a good reason why I haven’t done this before,” said civil engineering student Gordon Winter, who raised $100. “It’s a simple thing to do and every dollar counts.”

In terms of financial impact, Dean of Students Frank Robinson didn’t have a lot of hair to give, but raised more than $2,200—saying that Dean of Engineering David Lynch was by far the largest single contributor.

A handful of alumni, including Nicole Stodola (Computer ’13), took the day off work to get their heads shaved. Stodola raised about $400 as a student in 2009 and this year raised nearly $800.

“It’s been wonderful to see this,” said Gary Wicentowich, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2009. “Every year students from across the university really get behind this.”

Taking a cue from vehicles used to explore Mars, a University of Alberta engineering research group is fine-tuning a robotic rover designed to monitor drying oil sands tailings.

Led by mechanical engineering professor Mike Lipsett, the team completed successful preliminary trials of its vehicle in partnership with Shell Canada at the Albian Sands/ Muskeg River Mine near Fort McMurray. The team’s remote vehicle scurried across fields of drying tailings to study the geotechnical performance of a tailings reclamation project.

Equipped with on-board sensors, the vehicle gathered data on surface soil strength, and even drilled through the surface crust to bring back soil samples for Shell operations personnel.

“Nobody has ever put a robot onto tailings to understand their characteristics,” said Lipsett.

The graduate students contributing to this project bring valuable and relevant experience. As undergraduates, they developed an award-winning design for a drill that could be mounted on a Mars rover vehicle to take soil samples. The team is now borrowing ideas from that design to reduce the weight of Lipsett’s rover.

These technologies can also be used to help scientists in other areas of research. Lipsett and his team have been working on drills for permafrost researchers, and he has interest from researchers from the U of A Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences in using a rover in Arctic glacier research.

Engineering Head Shave marks a milestone

Inspired by Mars missions, engineering team sends ‘rover’ to inspect tailings

The Faculty of Engineering’s DiscoverE outreach program has won a prestigious Google RISE Award for the second year running, and plans to use the prize money to grow its initiative to teach computer programming to girls.

DiscoverE is the only program in Canada to have won RISE awards.

This year’s award and $30,000 in prize money is directed at DiscoverE’s innovative Girls Coding Club, which teaches computer programming to girls from Grades 3 – 9.

Girls Coding Club co-ordinator Alix Krahn, who is completing her computer engineering degree this spring, says it’s important that girls get specific

encouragement in the high tech world.

“I had an affinity for math and finding patterns and that’s what led me to engineering. But no one ever suggested I look into computers or coding,” she said. “In the coding course in my first year of engineering I realized ‘Yeah—I’m good at this.’ Girls aren’t encouraged to look into this area but the boys in my class had been doing this since they were 12 or 13.”

One idea DiscoverE is investigating is to have girls from the coding club set up chapters at their own schools to teach their peers how to program.

“In DiscoverE we move from inspiring kids in science, technology, engineering and

math to empowering them; to move them from consuming technology to producing technology,” said Mohamed El-Daly, the Faculty of Engineering’s outreach co-ordinator. “We don’t want them to sit around and wait for someone to write software for them, we want to give them the tools to address their problems or the problems of the community.”

DiscoverE RISEs to teach girls to write code

Nicole Stodola (Computer ’13) was one of a group of young alumni who returned to the Faculty of Engineering to raise money at the Engineering Head Shave.

Graduate student Nicholas Olmedo, mechanical engineering professor Mike Lipsett and the research team’s rover.

DiscoverE director Mohamed El-Daly, far right, celebrates winning a second Google RISE Award with the DE team.


The U of A men’s curling team, led by third-year chemical engineering student Brendan Bottcher, won a bronze medal at the 2013 Winter Universiade Games in Trentino, Italy.

Bottcher’s Team Canada rink includes lead Karrick Martin, second Brad Thiessen, third Mick Lizemore and alternate Parker Konschuh. The men’s rink, which includes five members from the University of Alberta Golden Bears curling program, defeated Norway 6-5 in extra ends, after losing 7-4 to Great Britain in the semi-final.

It was the second international medal for Bottcher, who celebrated his 22nd birthday with the win. In 2012, he led a Canadian team to the World Junior Championship in Sweden.

Another highlight of the games was Bottcher’s selection as flag-bearer for Canada at the opening ceremonies.

“You always see the flag bearer as the leader of the team, and this is the first competition I’ve been at where the team is so large,” Bottcher said. “I’ve played at world championships and national championships where your team is quite small and here I’m representing a much larger group. I’m really proud to be doing that for Canada at these Games.”

More than 2,800 participants from 52 countries, including a record 149 Canadians (107 athletes), attended the biennial multi-sport competition in December.

Engineering student leads curling team to bronze at Universiade

Brendan Bottcher shows fine form at the Universiade Games.

Engineering students were exhausted but pleased with their performance hosting more than 250 students from across Western Canada for the annual Western Engineering Competition.

“We got overwhelmingly good feedback,” said mechanical engineering student Sarah-Jane Laxdal, one of the event’s lead co-ordinators.

“It’s a lot of project management, which I enjoy,” she said. Jokingly, she added: “I kept thinking that depending on how the event goes, WEC would make or break my career opportunities.”

WEC attracted students from 12 engineering schools across Western Canada to take part in professional networking, a career fair, technical tours of local industries, and engineering competitions.

Competitions were judged by professional engineers working in industry—many of them U of A Engineering alumni.

“Just off the top of my head I can count 10 judges who were competitors in the 2011 or 2012 WEC,” said Laxdal. “All of the judges are very professional but it’s good to have more recent graduates there too, who have experienced the camaraderie of WEC and know what it’s like to be in the competitions.”

Studying, organizing an event for 250 engineering students … it’s all in a day’s work!


Former Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel, seem here after receiving the Canadian Business Leadership Award in 2013, has joined forces with Enbridge to support construction of the new Innovation Centre for Engineering and to provide scholarships and bursaries for engineering students.

The best advice former Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel ever got was from professor Leonard Gads, who told students not to be overwhelmed by events, but to stay focused and move forward. Now, he’s joined forces with Enbridge to return the favour. By Richard Cairney

Stepping up to the plate


Advice is a funny thing. Most people have a surplus of it but few are willing to take it—especially unsolicited. Good thing, then, that at the age of 18 Pat Daniel (Chemical ’68, LLD [Hon] ’10) paid heed to former engineering professor Leonard Gads. In the fall of 1964, Daniel and his classmates were fresh-faced kids who had no frame of reference for university life or the demanding workload they’d unwittingly signed on for. Daniel remembers Gads addressing the new students and sharing what sounded like practical advice. In essence, Gads told the students that entering university could be an overwhelming experience for young people, that they were in unfamiliar territory and experiencing change. Many, like Daniel, were away from home for the first time. Gads advised them to “buckle down and get to work and learn to adjust” because time and time again, through school and in their personal and professional lives, they’d need to adapt to change.

“He told us: ‘Don’t take too long to get oriented. There’s work to be done, and if you’re overwhelmed by it or overcome by it you’ll be out of here by Christmas.’ I would probably give an 18-year-old kid the same kind of advice today,” says Daniel. Gads spoke to the same group of students again during their final semester as they prepared to graduate. He instructed them not to be intimidated by professional life, to “roll with the punches and get on with the work, and don’t let circumstances overwhelm you.”

In both instances, Daniel followed Gads’ advice. After graduating and even before convocation ceremonies, Daniel left Edmonton for a job working as a young engineer with DuPont in Kingston, Ontario. Here again he was on his own, entering new territory. He was learning that change begets change and that success breeds success, one step at a time.

“Academically I felt very prepared,” he says, recalling his first job as an engineer. “The education at the U of A was outstanding, but you’re a brand-new engineer. You have all this book experience and no real-life experience. You’re not prepared to do much more than is expected of a new engineer but I felt I couldn’t have been better prepared—not

only the academic preparation, but from the comments from people like Professor Gads in saying ‘Hey, don’t be overwhelmed by all of this and don’t be feeling sorry for yourself, just get on with the work.’”

That’s precisely what Daniel did. His background shows a pattern of steadily increasing responsibilities including process engineering, information technology and corporate planning positions with Hudson’s Bay Oil & Gas and Home Oil. Following IPL’s acquisition of Home Oil, Daniel served as director of planning for Interhome Energy, Inc. and was responsible for the start-up of Enbridge’s technology and consulting business unit, its international division and its expansion into the natural gas business. He held the position of president and CEO of Enbridge from January 2001 to February 2012. During that period the company flourished. The company’s share price more than doubled, its workforce quadrupled and its market value rose to $30.1 billion from $6.8 billion.

In an industry that has come under intense scrutiny, Daniel was an innovator. His own passion for the environment emerged at Enbridge through sustainable development initiatives that require the company to invest in renewable energy. The company’s Neutral Footprint Initiative, for example, was established in 2009 to balance its environmental impact by offsetting any land it disturbs. Daniel also invested in social programs, knowing the transformative impact that reliable and affordable energy has on societies and economies. His own travels have taken Daniel to areas where energy is, at best, scarce. Enbridge’s Energy4Everyone Foundation is having positive impacts in developing countries in Africa and Latin America. The company’s exhaustive efforts in environmental and social responsibility have been recognized with awards as varied as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Forbes 100 Most Trusted Companies in America. Daniel’s leadership and commitment to these principles was demonstrated vividly during what was perhaps his most challenging time at the helm of Enbridge. He personally led work following the July 2010 pipeline rupture in Michigan, spending four months on the scene dealing with the oil spill and remediation.

The fact that this record of achievement can be summarized in a few sentences does a disservice to the fact that success is built slowly, over decades. And only as goals are met does hindsight give us the credentials to dispense good advice. This was the opportunity Daniel had while receiving an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Alberta in 2010. In delivering his convocation address Daniel now found himself at the podium, facing nearly 1,000 brand-new engineers about to embark on their careers. The tables had turned. In addressing the graduates, Daniel put his own twist on the advice he and his classmates received, choosing instead to illustrate the point by using a sports analogy.

An avid baseball fan, Daniel appreciates home-run heroics and the high drama of a grand slam as much as anyone else. But in day-to-day life he favours the single base hit. Whenever an objective seems out of reach, he says, it’s better to focus on getting things done one step at a time. He shared that message with the young engineering graduands that day: “Plan on hitting singles all your life,” he said, plainly. “If you happen to hit one out of the park, that’s a bonus, but plan on pounding your way through your whole career. It might not be the only way to win, but it’s the only way I know to win consistently.”

Most projects involve a million little details and success comes in increments—like hitting a single in baseball. “When I talk to young people today who are looking for advice and counsel, as I was at their age, they think they’re going to get the ‘home run’ advice. They think they’re going to walk out of our lunch or coffee meeting and go hit a home run. I would prefer to mentor people on how to consistently and gradually get to where they want to go.” Many young professionals, including a good number of engineering graduates, have

“I don’t think there are many better engineers in the world than what the U of A turns out.” — Pat Daniel

Photo: Jason Franson

Stepping up to the plate


entrepreneurial ambitions. Daniel gives them the same talk. “Even in those cases I think many of them think they’re going to start a company and IPO it and be rich by the time they’re 30. That is very, very rare. They’re better off hitting a bunch of singles and gradually building a business than swinging for the fences.”

Daniel cringes a little when he hears young people say they want to become a CEO. His experience of the job is that you are in it 24/7 and because of that, it’s impossible to raise a family at the same time. Daniel himself first became a CEO in his mid-50s. He also feels it is vitally important to spend your professional life occupied with something you’re genuinely excited and passionate about. The term “work-life balance” screeches like nails on a chalkboard to Daniel because it implies that it’s OK to have a job or career that you find boring or unsatisfying in comparison to your personal life. “If you can’t find work which is part of your life—if at the end of the day you say ‘I’m done work, now I can LIVE,’ then you should just move on. Find something that you love to do and you will consider it an important part of your life.”

That’s why Daniel has spent much of his time involved in community projects. With respect to contributing to the community, Daniel served as a member of the National Petroleum Council and a director of the American Petroleum Institute. He volunteers with numerous organizations including the United Way and the Nature Conservancy of Canada. (The latter involvement makes it all the more fitting that the rare book the university donated to the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library in Daniel’s name on the occasion of his honorary degree was a 1925 copy of Izaak Walton’s The compleat angler, or the contemplative man’s recreation: Being a discourse of fish & fishing not unworthy of the perusal of most anglers.)

Young graduates, he notes, are primarily responsible for building their own careers

and families. But as they grow more successful in their professions, the scope of their responsibilities broadens to include improving the community at large.

One more way Daniel has carried out this aspect of community service is through a gift to the Faculty of Engineering. Daniel has recently given $500,000 and Enbridge will partially match that with $400,000 to create the Patrick D. Daniel / Enbridge Inc. Engineering Endowment Fund at the University of Alberta.

In recognition of this support, a large conference room on the 8th floor of the new Innovation Centre for Engineering (ICE) building, with seating for at least 100, will be named the Patrick D. Daniel / Enbridge Inc. Engineering Conference Room.

These gifts will have an immediate and enduring impact on the Faculty of Engineering and its students, says Dean of Engineering David Lynch. Initially, the income from the endowment fund will help pay for the ICE construction costs and will also provide some scholarships. After the ICE construction costs are fully paid, interest generated by the endowment will be used to fund student projects, and

to provide entrance awards to assist new engineering students.

Lynch smiles at Daniel’s recollections of Professor Gads and the fact that the Faculty of Engineering had such a profound impact on Daniel. “Through his gift to the Faculty of Engineering, Pat is acknowledging the transformative experience he had as a student, and he’s helping ensure that engineering students for generations to come continue to receive the best engineering education possible,” says Lynch. “He’s helping the next generations of engineers and for that we are truly thankful.”

Lynch notes that Enbridge is also contributing to a meaningful educational experience. “Enbridge supports the Faculty of Engineering in many ways. It is the single largest employer of engineering co-op

students, providing about 100 four-month work terms per year; Enbridge also provides scholarships and conducts collaborative research.”

For Enbridge, support for the Faculty of Engineering is a natural part of community involvement.

“The concept of community is profoundly important to Enbridge. We believe in initiatives that make our communities smarter, safer, healthier, greener, and more inspiring,” says Dan O’Grady, National Manager, Community Partners. “We’re proud to support the University of Alberta with the Patrick D. Daniel/Enbridge Academic Excellence Scholarships in Engineering. Through their achievements within the Faculty of Engineering, these brilliant, capable, and innovative young minds have already shown that they will make our community a better place to live.”

Motivation for creating the gift was simple, Daniel says.

“In my case the motivation is that, first of all, I feel so thankful for the education I got and admittedly I did pay my own way and had the support of my parents but it’s the professors and the quality of the education I am so thankful for. I want to perpetuate that and make it as available to as many people as have the desire to have that education. I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t so overwhelmingly impressed with the job that Dean Lynch has done with the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A. It is a true success story and I’m very pleased to contribute to that.”

As an employer, and a captain of industry, Daniel knows whereof he speaks when he assesses the calibre of engineers who graduate from the U of A. Buildings and facilities are one thing, he says, “but the quality of the graduates—that’s what it’s all about. I don’t think there are many better engineers in the world than the U of A turns out.”

It sounds like hyperbole but Daniel says it again: “In the world.”

“I think Enbridge is the biggest employer of U of A graduates in the world and we have been able to move U of A engineers anywhere . . . they can compete anywhere in the world.”

“It’s the professors and the quality of the education I am so thankful for. I want to perpetuate that and make it as available to as many people as have the desire to have that education.


After 30 years at the Faculty of Engineering, chemical engineering professor Murray Gray is taking on a new role as vice-president of research at a new university in Doha, Qatar.

“I’m going to a university that doesn’t have any professors yet,” Gray says of his appointment to the Hamad bin Khalifa University. “It’s a new challenge, a brand-new university.”

The institute is unique in that it is a graduate studies university focused on leading-edge research as part of that nation’s drive to diversify its resource-based economy.

The university is supported by the Qatar Foundation, which receives natural resource royalties, “so this is clearly reinvestment,” says Gray. “They’re very focused on the future and they’re making education and research a priority.”

Chemical engineering professor Murray Gray has played vital roles at the university. Seen above in his lab as scientific director of the Institute for Oil Sands Innovation (formerly COSI), he has also served in senior-level administrative capacities.

Richard

Siem

ens

MURRAYGRAY’SBIG MOVE

Gray earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Toronto and his master’s at the University of Calgary. He later attended the California Institute of Technology, where he was awarded a PhD. He began his career at the Faculty of Engineering as a “junior professor.”

“The Faculty of Engineering that I joined was quite different. It was a lot smaller, relatively, than the faculty of today. There were about 15 faculty members (in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering), and smaller classes.”

Today, the faculty has just over 200 professors and about 4,200 undergraduate and 1,600 graduate students.

Gray’s achievements as a teacher, researcher and administrator grew alongside the faculty. He served as dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research from 1994-1998 and as scientific director of the Institute for Oil Sands Innovation (formerly COSI) since 2005. In

January 2012, he was appointed to work half-time as vice-provost (academic) and associate vice-president (research). Gray has supervised or co-supervised more than 75 master’s and PhD students.

So, why the change?“I was in a situation where I was looking

at doing something different,” he explains. “You come to a point in your career where you stay put for good or you try something new. I was intrigued by this opportunity.”

His first priority in Qatar will be to recruit deans, and in turn help them recruit professors.

“It’s exciting and very unique. Almost nobody starts universities at the graduate studies level. The objective of the university is to move (the country) beyond petroleum.”

Asked what he’ll miss, Gray immediately replies: “The green.”

“I’ll be living in the flip side of our climate. It’ll be hot and unpleasant during the summer months and more comfortable in the winter. And I will certainly miss the people I’ve worked with here. It’s been a great 30 years.”

Respected as an educator, researcher and administrator, Murray Gray is leaving the snow for the sand BY RICHARD CAIRNEY

Engineers specializing in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) affect every aspect of your life, ensuring the buildings we live, work and play in are safe, comfortable and healthy. In your home, a crowded subway car or an office tower, HVAC systems affect the quality of the air you breathe and your comfort, and keep you safe in emergencies like fires or gas leaks.

Robert Prybysh (Mechanical ’99, MSc ’01) has been named as the inaugural Engineered Air Fellow in HVAC Engineering and he plans to take HVAC systems to a new level of sophistication, with an emphasis on efficiency and safety.

A founding principal and chief engineer for Arrow Engineering Inc., an integrated buildings engineering firm, Prybysh has returned to the Faculty of Engineering to earn his PhD. When he saw jobs identical to his own being advertised in other provinces with a strict educational qualification of a PhD, Prybysh knew that for him and his company to remain competitive, he’d have to upgrade his credentials.

HVAC engineering, he notes, is often overlooked as a leading-edge research area.

“Less than 100 years ago, we sat in our basements and lit a fire and hoped the hot air would rise to heat the rest of the house,” he says, adding that the field predates automobiles and electronics.

As we work to develop new heating and cooling systems that are more efficient and effective, HVAC engineering is again at the forefront, he said.

Working toward his PhD with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s construction engineering research group, Prybysh is teaching and


Dem

etri Giannitsios


Robert Prybysh, seen here outside of his lab on the roof of the Mechanical Engineering Building, has been named the Engineered Air Fellow in HVAC Engineering.

By Richard Cairney

ROBERT PRYBYSH PLANS TO TURN TODAY’S INNOVATION INTO A MAINSTAY OF HVAC DESIGN

Changeis in the air


To help educate the next generation of HVAC engineers and advance research in this field, Calgary-based Engineered Air has made a generous donation to the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering.

The $1.5-million gift will establish the Engineered Air Chair in HVAC Engineering and the Engineered Air Fellow in HVAC Engineering.

“Not that many engineering schools teach HVAC engineering,” Engineered Air President David Taylor said during a special event to announce the gift last November. “A lot of people don’t learn about HVAC until they enter the profession, and we hope that this gives engineering students a head start, that it will raise awareness of our industry and encourage other companies to do the same.”

Dean of Engineering David Lynch says Taylor’s words rang true as the Faculty of Engineering began searching worldwide for a person with the right blend of academic and industrial experience to be appointed to the Engineered Air Chair in HVAC Engineering.

HVAC COMEBACK$1.5-million gift from Engineered Air ensures revival of HVAC engineering

conducting research in the basics of heat transfer, mixtures of gases and vapours (psychometrics), thermodynamics, combustion, refrigeration cycles, fluid mechanics, pipe flow, pumps, fans, furnaces and boilers, as well as the more advanced topics of thermo-system design and equipment selection in HVAC engineering.

Prybysh is investigating the efficiencies of an innovative combined system for potable water, heating and cooling. Although uncommon, these systems are in use in Alberta and cost less to install and maintain than systems typically in use. Prybysh has designed these systems and had them installed in apartment buildings with 40-200 units. In his U of A lab, based in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prybysh has constructed a working model of the system, capable of providing heating, air conditioning and drinking water to a fourplex. He’s using this system to collect data on its efficiency.

“It seems like a no-brainer to use these systems, but there’s no hard data on them yet,” says Prybysh. “I’ll be able to generate the data engineers need to see so that they can consider these systems as options in their designs. They perform as well as our standard technologies while costing less and requiring less maintenance.”

Robert Prybysh is using some new fittings in his lab. Left: Zone valves are common in HVAC but this model is exceptional because it is specifically designed for use with potable water. Centre: Detail from the cooling system shows a series of thin chambers containing, alternately, potable water and Propylene glycol, considered to be food grade and non-toxic. Right: Autoflow valves regulate fluid flow at a specific rate regardless of pressure driving the flow. This design, which is new to the market, is completely safe for use with potable water.

“A lot of people don’t learn about HVAC until they enter the profession, and we hope that this gives engineering students a head start, that it will raise awareness of our industry and encourage other companies to do the same.” — David Taylor

“It almost seemed that we were looking for something that didn’t exist,” Lynch told the crowd of about 80 people gathered for the announcement. “It was something that appeared to have disappeared from the engineering ecosystem, and we realized that this position is even more important than we first realized.”

HVAC engineering, he added, is at the heart of mechanical engineering. “It’s about great engineering design, execution, equipment and facilities, and we take it for granted. In a country like Canada, if you don’t have effective HVAC in your home, you just won’t survive very long. The minute it stops working, you know it.”

University President Indira Samarasekera praised the partnership, saying it brings Taylor’s family full circle: Engineered Air founder and CEO Don Taylor (David’s father) earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in civil engineering at the U of A.

“This (gift) connects us all to your time here at the University of Alberta and is going to benefit generations of engineers,” she said.

Lynch added: “This collaborative partnership highlights an important field of engineering and enhances the outstanding education that we provide to the next generation of engineers. When industry and universities work together, students can more clearly see the connection between their classroom lessons and the practical applications of engineering principles.”

The research and teaching chair will run in perpetuity.

The position of Engineered Air Fellow in HVAC Engineering has been awarded to Robert Prybysh, a founding principal and chief engineer for Edmonton-based Arrow Engineering Inc., an integrated buildings engineering firm.

The holder of the Engineered Air Chair in HVAC Engineering will be named later.


Short-sighted CEOs

obsessed with quarterly

results and pleasing

shareholders need to

“reform and rewire” to gain

public trust and better serve

society, says the Faculty

of Engineering’s newest

honorary doctor of laws.

Chuck Hantho, a University of Alberta engineering alumnus (Chemical ’53) with a 35-year business career in the Canadian manufacturing sector, delivered a compelling address at the fall 2013 convocation ceremony. Hantho told the audience that public trust in capitalism is at an all-time low due to greed, bad management or bad governance, exemplified by the financial meltdown. Business leaders need to think and act differently, especially when it comes to sustainability and the environment.

Hantho formed these opinions through experience. After graduating, he was hired to work at Canadian Industries Ltd. (CIL). In the late 1950s, he moved to the sales side of the company, and he became general manager of the plastics division a decade later. He was appointed corporate vice-president in 1971 and later became

CEO. He retired from that position in 1988 and subsequently took over as CEO of Dominion Textile (a Canadian-based multinational with investments in the U.S., Europe and the Far East) just as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement came into effect. Later in his career, Hantho focused on corporate governance.

In each instance, he paid close attention to what is now popularly referred to as the triple bottom line: a company’s economic, environmental and social contributions.

“Individuals with the scientific, technological and problem-solving skills that you have acquired over your years at the U of A are ideally suited to playing a leadership role in addressing these pressing issues,” Hantho told the graduating engineers.

Hantho says business must serve more than shareholders—it must also serve employees, suppliers, customers, communities and the environment. As an example, he cited the “multi-stakeholder model” used by companies like the health-care consumer product manufacturer Unilever, which has created a 10-year plan for sustainable growth.

“This plan applies across the entire

value chain, taking responsibility for their suppliers, distributors and, crucially, how the ultimate consumers use their products,” he said. “Sustainability is at the heart of their business model.”

Closer to home, oil sands, railway and pipeline companies are deeply enmeshed in debates about environmental sustainability and safety—issues of vital importance to the economy.

Hantho says enlightened companies think proactively about these issues and incorporate strategies into their business model to gain a competitive advantage. He urged graduating engineers to demand that kind of leadership and innovation when entering the workforce.

“I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with companies with very high standards of business ethics, and where concern for employees, health and safety, the environment and the welfare of communities in which they operated were paramount,” he said. “They were not perfect, but they all had a built-in culture of doing the right things for the long-term success of the business.”

—with files from Brian Allary

“I’ve had the good fortune to be involved with companies with very high standards of business ethics, and where concern for employees, health and safety, the environment and the welfare of communities in which they operated were paramount.” – CHUCK HANTHO

After 35 years in the manufacturing sector, Chuck Hantho calls for greater corporate responsibility and reminds new engineers to act in the interest of society By Richard Cairney

Hantho urges corporate

leaders to think beyond

quarterly reports Richard

Siem

ens


This is how you cement your place in

As the GNCTR competition turns 40, U of A engineering

students are the tops at getting to the bottom

By Mifi Purvis

CONCRETE TOBOGGAN HISTORY


A fourth-year civil engineering student at the U of A, Cusveller was the co-captain of a team of 30 mostly engineering students, all of whom had travelled to Western University, 2014 host of the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race. The team was competing in the 40th anniversary of the GNCTR, a three-day weekend that comprised several competitive events.

This particular event was called King of the Hill and it pitted two costumed teams against each other in a kind of drag race of custom-designed and -built five-person sleds. Each toboggan could weigh no more than 300 pounds (about 135 kilograms) and had to have concrete in contact with the snow at all times. And each had to have a functional steering and brake system. Rules permitted two sled pushers, but no part of them could cross the start line once the sled was in motion.

Cusveller eyed his competitors, sizing up not just their sled but the crew. From UBC Okanagan, the opponents were a tough-

This is how you cement your place inCONCRETE TOBOGGAN HISTORY

looking team, which not even their monkey costumes—complete with ears, tails and onesies—could hide. Never mind. Those monkeys were no match for Cusveller and the U of A’s Alberta Beef team. Cusveller straightened his own tail and squared his shoulders, ready for battle. At the official signal, the Alberta Beef pushers, Dylan Bolch (materials engineering) and Steven Duncan (a grad student in mining engineering) started the sled in motion. Things were looking good, but as the pushers readied to let loose, disaster struck: Bolch tripped on his tail and sprawled across the start line.

The team was disqualified immediately for the infraction.

Fortunately, King of the Hill was just one of 21 events on which industry professionals judged teams. Cusveller and his colleagues swept seven of the categories, coming in as the winningest team and taking home the grand title.

Cusveller’s team excelled in the areas that matter to engineers: innovative design,

Ryan Cusveller stood atop a hill in London, Ont., under a grey sky in late

January, surveying the slope in front of him. It was a little after 2 p.m.

and it had been snowing for hours—that wet, heavy snow of southern

Ontario. There was no way to tell how it would affect the running ability

of his sled, built and tested as it was in the dry, powdery conditions of

central Alberta. But if Cusveller harboured any serious concerns, it was

hard to tell by looking at him—he was wearing a cow costume, after all.

Photograp

hy: Richard

Cairney Left: the 2014 team takes its sled on a test run. Top: the 2011 team cheers for the cameras.


the steering system and the braking system. “The sled has a cool way of braking, where the longer back skis rotate upwards and the entire rear end of the sled drops,” Cusveller says. When the back end drops, a large plow on the bottom side of the sled digs into the snow and stops the toboggan. A concrete sled needs good brakes.

The team also won bests for concrete mix, concrete reinforcement and, a more recent category, sustainability. “We took old sinks and toilets that were bound for the landfill and ran them through a crusher to add to our concrete mix,” Cusveller explains. “Once it’s polished up it looks really nice.” He speculates that this kind of reuse could find a home in more decorative concretes, such as those used in countertops.

And that’s what brings this whole fanciful exercise full circle. It’s about engineering students getting together and throwing a practical spin on what they learn.

Stephanie Jaeger, a fifth-year civil engineering co-op student and co-captain of this year’s team, says she has been asked about GNCTR during job interviews and often cites her experience with the team as an example of design work and team

work. Another benefit, she says, is that members learn some engineering concepts through the team, even before professors introduce the subjects in classes. Being part of GNCTR also gave her experience using Solidworks to design and analyze the toboggan.

“I guess what I took away from it was that whole hands-on project management side,” adds Cusveller, who was in his third year on the GNCTR team at the U of A. It’s a project that demands planning, technical know-how and management capacity. It also has a bit of a “secret society” element to it. “I was in an interview for a summer job, and it turned out the interviewer had participated in the GNCTR in the past,” Cusveller says. “It provided an automatic connection.” While the GNCTR alumni stop short of having a secret handshake, they do have elders.

Sidney Simmonds (Civil ’54, MSc ’56), professor emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, taught at the faculty from 1957 to 1993. Simmonds earned a PhD at the University of Illinois. Years later, back home and on the faculty at the U of A, he formed an Alberta chapter of the American Concrete

The number of test mixes of concrete the team poured to assess mix performance and make improvements The time, in minutes, of each concrete pourThe number of old toilets and sinks the team used in its concrete mixesThe number of months over which concrete mixing and pouring took place before the final skis were pouredThe estimated number of person-hours required to design and build the sledThe weight of the sled in poundsThe number of long skisThe number of people from the 30-person team who can ride on the toboggan at any one time

10

120

17

3

2,500

28025

The 2014 GNCTR winning sled, by the numbers

Top: GNCTR Team Alberta Beef costume director Samantha Fox, in full Alberta Beef regalia, leads a sewing session in the Civil Engineering Club office/ Bottom: Rick Mercer corrects his oversteering while piloting the 2011 U of A GNCTR team down Connors Hill.

Excerpts from the 2014 U of A GNCTR technical book include modelling of the

sled frame (Page 19) as well as calculations and schematics.


Institute, the venerable voice of reinforced concrete. As its first president, Simmonds helped the chapter organize speakers, meetings and workshops of interest to students and industry professionals. “It was through the ACI that I heard about the concrete canoe races,” Simmonds says. The first canoe race was held at the University of Illinois in 1971, and it gave him an idea—he helped spearhead a toboggan race, which he says is “more appropriate to the climate in Alberta.”

“The first race was held in 1974,” Simmonds says. “It was in Red Deer and was between the U of A, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and the University of Calgary.” That year, SAIT won.

Toboggans constructed by student teams that first year were reminiscent of the bentwood numbers kids still use: a long, flat rectangle that curls up at the front. “The control was such that they had to go down the hill one at a time for safety reasons,” Simmonds says. The rules around securing cost-prohibitive insurance for yearly faculty events were more stringent than one-off events, so hosting was rotated among participating schools.

Team spirit evolved, with some teams opting to don, or doff, costumes. (“One team came down nude about 20 years ago,” Simmonds recalls.) The race’s fame spread, and one year a team from Germany (fully clothed) won the title. Over the years, groups started seeking sponsors for burgeoning teams, travel costs and increasingly complex sled design. In the early years, the venture seemed risky enough that some would-be supporters—Labatt and Canada Cement, Simmonds says—backed out after looking into sponsorship. Fortunately, other sponsors stepped in, and the engineering improved. “Braking and steering systems came pretty early on,” Simmonds recalls. When you’re hurtling down a hill on a 300-pound sled, a well-designed brake system takes on sudden importance.

Brad Baumle (Civil ’96) is now an employee at Graham Infrastructure, in Calgary. He’s a three-time alumnus of GNCTR from the 1990s. “Graham is

Diamond ($5,000+)Faculty of Engineering Student Project Fund

Halbar Stainless ProductsShell

Platinum ($2,500-$4,999)Graham Construction

AeconDesco Coatings of Alberta

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Norfab Mfg.

Gold ($1,500-$2,999)Inland Concrete

Silver ($500-$1,499)Lafarge

Flatiron ConstructionACI - Alberta ChapterThurber EngineeringAl-Terra EngineeringGolder Associates

PCL Klohn Crippen Berger

Canadian Natural Resources Limited

Bronze ($50-$499)Associated Engineering

Ellis DonSika

Whitemud ResourcesBP Composites

a GNCTR sponsor,” Baumle says. The company provides generous financial support, recognizing the event as one that fosters connection among students, faculty and professionals.

“I encourage it, it’s a great experience,” he says. “It helps students network and meet students from other schools, and also potential employers. It’s a great addition to the résumé, too.” And never forget the hard skills, learned the hard way. “In my first year, in our first race, the brake didn’t work,” Baumle says with a laugh. “We got it running for the second race.”

Cusveller has felt the sting of an inadequate brake system, too. Last year, his team went down a steep slope at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. The sled broke 78 km/h, crashing into an ice barrier despite the application of the brakes, causing injuries, including to one team member who broke a leg. Subsequent teams raced from the halfway point on the hill.

Hosting the national competition in 2011, the U of A team was in the national spotlight when comedian Rick Mercer featured GNCTR on his television program, Rick Mercer Report.

“Parents: if you have children considering a career in engineering, you may want to watch this—and seriously reconsider,” Mercer joked on the program.

Taking the driver’s seat of the toboggan, Mercer led the U of A team in the right direction—downhill. On his first run (down Connors Hill in Edmonton) the sled veered left into a snowbank, damaging a front ski. After replacing the part, students managed to roll the sled before reaching the finish line, with Mercer on board.

At 40, the GNCTR attracts sponsors like Graham, which offers time and money for the cause. This year in Ontario, heavyweights PCL, Ledcor and Holcim were title sponsors, recognizing the event as a great training ground for future engineers. And the pros were on hand to see one of Cusveller’s team’s proudest innovations: the brake system. After all, good brakes are a concrete toboggan driver’s best hedge against a looming ice wall.

GNCTR Sponsors


Paving the way for young academics

Ralph Haas and

Stantec join

forces to support

academics early in

their careers

By Richard Cairney

Ralph Haas (Civil ’61, MSc ’63) knows a thing or two about creating a successful career as an academic and a researcher. In 1966, after teaching at Carleton University for three years, he became an associate professor at Waterloo University. He twice served as chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering there, retired from teaching in 1996 and became a professor emeritus at the university. He is internationally renowned as a researcher and is known as “the Father of Pavement Management” for his pioneering work prescribing methods to monitor and maintain the countless kilometres of roads we rely on every day.

Now, he’s helping pave the way for future generations of engineering professors. The University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering has announced the creation of the Ralph Haas / Stantec Fellow in Civil Engineering, a one-of-a-kind award for promising young professors in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Established through a gift from Haas and with support from Stantec Engineering, the fellowship is the first of its kind at the U of A.

Alireza Bayat, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the inaugural fellowship.

Bayat, who heads the Faculty of Engineering’s Centre of Excellence for Trenchless Technology, says the award is meaningful because it provides recognition of his early career achievements in teaching and research. And, he says, Haas’s name lends a good deal of prestige to the award.

“Ralph is such a strong role model for me and for many young professors,” says Bayat. “You want your career to go as well as his. And to have Stantec Engineering as a partner in this means a lot—it is really quite an honour.”

Stantec senior vice-president Carl Clayton says initiatives such as this not only recognize talent, but also nurture it in young engineers.

Clayton calls Haas “a true leader in education” who has “demonstrated the value in continually investing in education. . . . We think this fellowship is a really great idea.”

Haas’s achievements have had a profound impact on civil infrastructure engineering. Pavement management is what you might guess it is: monitoring, maintaining and improving pavement.

“Pavements are the highest asset value and highest expenditure part of our transportation system and need to be

managed well,” Haas explains. “That means you need to get proper information about it, you look at the demands on the system, you try to project into the future the condition and performance of pavements, you do lifetime economic cycle analyses and optimize expenditures, considering too that you have constraints on resources.”

Proper management of this valuable asset includes environmental stewardship, achieved through efficient use of energy resources and the sector’s remarkable recycling habits.

“You want to reduce emissions as much as possible and be able to reuse materials. The pavement field has the highest area of recycling of any product or material in the world—we recycle 90 per cent of what we use.”

Haas has published more than 400 academic papers and 12 books. The achievements he is most proud of are the textbooks and manuals he has written, which are used by engineering professionals around the world. His most recent book leverages the management principles he developed for pavement and applies them to other civil assets, such as water, sewers and buildings.

“We’ve tried to apply good business and management practices to other assets, to the things that you and I use every day that we all want to be in good repair.”

Dean of Engineering David Lynch praised Haas and Stantec for “very significant and generous” support and encouragement to young professors.

“It’s important to provide this kind of recognition and support for faculty members early in their careers, when it sometimes seems that everything is a struggle,” Lynch said.

Haas says several factors led him to establish the fellowship. “Part of it goes back, in large degree, to the memories I have of the U of A,” he said, adding that the idea of creating an award that “would recognize the achievements and potential of early-career professors” took shape when his son Carl won a similar award at the University of Texas at Austin. (Carl holds the Canada Research Chair in Construction and Management of Sustainable Infrastructure at the University of Waterloo.)

“If you look at how many students there were when I was there, I’d guess there were

10,000 or less. We thought it was pretty big, but it was easier to associate with people in other faculties. Even though we had these friendly rivalries, there was much more of an intimate feeling. You had a much more personalized experience.”

Haas says he was academically “rusty” during his first year of studies because he’d been working with the Department of Highways for eight years before marrying and getting back to school. He certainly got the knack of studying, and went on to dedicate his career to teaching and research.

This year, the Transportation Research Board of the U.S. National Academies conferred its highest honour, the Roy W. Crum Award, upon Haas in recognition of outstanding achievement in transportation research. Haas is only the second Canadian to receive the award in its 66-year history. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the American Society for Civil Engineering and the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, and is a member of the Order of Canada. He has been awarded the Queen’s silver and golden jubilee medals.

Take the plunge

University of Alberta ENGINEERING

The Engineering Student Life Enhancement Fund (ESLEF) recognizes that successful engineers need not only technical skills, but also well-developed skills in teamwork, communication, management, and creativity. While these skills are learned through formal engineering education, they are more often honed through hands-on activities outside the classroom.

The ESLEF provides funding for extracurricular projects and student activities that focus on the non-academic qualities of a successful engineer. The fund supports our student vehicles projects – helping to fund teams through the phases of designing, building, and taking their vehicle to competition. The fund also helps improve student learning and study spaces; supports our varsity-level athletes through the U of A’s Adopt-an-Athlete program; and provides financial assistance for engineering students to attend technical, leadership, and professional development conferences and competitions.

To support student projects visit www.engineering.ualberta.ca/giving

You can read about building an underwater robotic vehicle in a textbook—or you can build one yourself. Support from the Engineering Student Life Enhancement Fund enables students to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom to real-life challenges.



B CD

EARTS

ENGINEERINGfrom

toin one smooth move

Photograp

hy: Dem

etri Giannitsosis


Some master’s students find it awkward when their folks take an interest in their thesis research—they complain that their parents just don’t get it. Imagine what life would be like, however, if your own father were your co-supervisor.

That was the case for Hala AbouRizk-Newstead, who graduated last fall with a master’s degree from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her father, Simaan AbouRizk, is one of the University of Alberta’s most highly regarded professors. He is recognized internationally for his research in construction engineering and has supervised nearly 100 master’s and PhD students over the course of a remarkable career. Simaan co-supervised his daughter’s master’s degree, with construction engineering professor Aminah Robinson Fayek taking the lead.

It isn’t every day that an Arts graduate signs on for a master’s degree in engineering. At first blush, it seems difficult to connect the dots between Hala’s undergraduate degree—a double major in psychology and sociology in the Faculty of Arts—and construction engineering. But there are important and direct connections. For example, how can construction engineers more accurately predict how long it will take a work crew to complete certain tasks, when there are so many variables, including skill levels, expertise and morale?

Even if you haven’t spent time in the construction industry, you can guess that construction foremen don’t typically address the “adaptive cognitive dimensions” of their work crews. They do not, even occasionally, reference

Martin’s Occupational Engagement and Motivational Wheel. Construction site foremen are pragmatists who manage people, materials and production deadlines. They expect workers to show up at work on time every day and produce, period. But the industry struggles with issues related to worker performance, such as absenteeism, labour supply and expertise.

Hala brought the right blend of skills to the Faculty of Engineering as a summer student in 2009. That summer, she was hired to work with former civil engineering professor Sang Hyung Lee and Robinson Fayek, who were researching absenteeism in the construction industry with a colleague from the Alberta School of Business.

Hala AbouRizk-Newstead brings a valuable skill set from her double major in psychology and sociology to help construction engineers plan their projects more accurately BY RICHARD CAIRNEY

Hala AbouRizk-Newstead,centre, with her father Simaan AbouRizk and Aminah Robinson Fayek.


“Absenteeism hinders productivity and morale and it’s really easy for some people in the construction industry not to show up. There was a culture of absenteeism that developed and I was looking at what caused it, what caused workers to get into those habits and how to get them out of it,” she explains.

As an Arts undergraduate working with engineering professors, Hala understandably felt like a fish out of water. But she soon discovered the two disciplines are natural allies. “You’d be surprised at how many similarities there were. I went in a little nervous, but once people start talking about research it’s almost the same language. Everyone has their own perspective, but when you start talking about investigating something you all come together and listen to each other’s ideas, because everyone wants to solve the problem. It was very quantitative on the engineering side, and social sciences also take fuzzy information and turn it into something that has a number at the end of it.”

In fact, Hala notes, Robinson Fayek’s NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Strategic Construction Modeling and Delivery focuses on incorporating “fuzzy logic” into construction engineering.

The summer research project ultimately changed Hala’s life. It introduced her to the world in which her father has achieved so much, as holder of a Canada Research Chair and the NSERC/Alberta Construction Industry Senior Industrial Research Chair in Construction Engineering and Management.

“Growing up I knew what my Dad did; I loved what my Dad had always done,” she says. “He was a professor at the university—he was exactly what I hoped I would become. But that summer really changed my path.”

After completing her undergraduate degree, Hala took a job as a facilitator and analyst at SMA Consulting, which provides consulting services to the construction industry. Meanwhile, back at the Faculty of Engineering, Lee was working on ways to lure Hala back to school to work on her master’s degree.

Simaan recalls with a laugh that Lee “tried talking me into talking her into coming here,” and he admits he always dreamed of working with his daughter. “I

always wanted her to come into engineering in the first place, but I wanted her to make her own decision.”

In the end, Hala did make the decision, and began working on her master’s degree part time, exploring new methods of analyzing risk in the construction industry. Her lead supervisor was Robinson Fayek. Hala’s work zeroed in on the intangible ways that probability and severity of risks are estimated in the construction industry.

It’s important to be able to quantify the intuition that construction engineers and experienced industry workers develop over time. A formula to determine severity of risks was established years ago by assigning a numeric value to the probability of an event occurring and multiplying it by a dollar value or hours of work lost if the event occurred.

Interestingly, Hala discovered a huge discrepancy among industry leaders when they used the words “likely” or “unlikely” to describe the probability of an adverse event. When asked to apply a percentage to the word “likely,” the replies ranged from 60 to 90 per cent.

“There’s a lot of literature in psychology about what different terms like ‘somewhat

likely’ or ‘likely’ mean in surveys, so we

looked into that, and I also did my own

surveys about what those terms mean to

people in the industry,” she says.

Completing her thesis helped Hala

build professional skills she uses every

day. Her job with SMA focuses on risk

management. She works with companies

to develop the most effective engineering

plans possible. She facilitates workshops

with construction experts to identify risks

in projects, assign dollar or time values to

them and develop strategies to mitigate

the risks. But it goes beyond planning—

with SMA, Hala continues to work with

clients to ensure those early-stage plans are

actually carried out (mitigating the risk that

they may not be).

“The reason I did my thesis was that I

had this very clear gap in the work I was

doing. I thought, what better way to solve

my own problem than with a thesis project

on risk management?”

Applying research from the thesis

Simaan had written when she was a child,

Hala created a set of standardized tables

that can be used to make more accurate

estimates of risk and severity.

“Along the way, she showed us what we

were doing wrong,” adds Simaan.

Both Hala and Simaan admit there were

times when the pressure of her research

built up. “My Mom kept us both sane

through this, I’m sure,” says Hala.

Interestingly, Simaan says the experience

of co-supervising his daughter has given

him a fresh outlook on teaching. His stake

in Hala’s success was personal, whereas it’s

professional for the rest of the students

he supervises. It’s a fine distinction, but

Simaan contends that it’s refreshing to

experience graduate studies on a personal

level again. It has reminded him what

graduate students experience and what they

need from their teachers and supervisors.

“It rejuvenates you to rediscover what is

good and important,” he says. “And it’s good

to see someone succeed, but it’s different

when it’s your daughter. It’s rewarding to

see she has become an authority, and that

she has built herself a good career.”


“Growing up I knew what

my Dad did; I loved what

my Dad had always done.

He was a professor at the

university—he was exactly

what I hoped I would

become. But that summer

really changed my path.”

— Hala AbouRizk-Newstead

Simaan AbouRizk and Hala AbouRizk-Newstead

U of A Engineer Fall 2012 25U of A Engineer Spring 2014 25

Memories of the years of hard work we put in at university are ours forever. They invoke powerful emotions, encapsulating the joy of discovery and the bonds of true friendship. Unfortunately we also feel anxiety and despair as we struggle with new concepts and worry about getting by on a student’s budget. The journey from student to engineer is long and challenging but by our own determination and ingenuity and with the support of friends and family we reach our goals and reap the rewards. We find great jobs with amazing colleagues and are finally free of the financial burdens of student life.

This journey is where Julie Kim (Civil ’12) found the inspiration to establish a bursary for students experiencing financial hardship. Every year for the next five years $1,500 is going to be awarded to an undergraduate Civil and Environmental Engineering Department student, either Canadian or international, facing financial challenges.

The idea came to Kim after graduating and taking a job with Bird Construction. Walking the aisle of a store while shopping, Kim realized she had no qualms about dropping $50 on a product she didn’t need. If she’d still been a student, Kim would have looked at the price tag and walked away—$50 was a lot of money.

Her co-workers, who she says “treat me like family,” also inspired her to help others. “I’d ask them for financial advice and they’d tell me not to get caught up with money, not to get trapped in a materialistic lifestyle and to be smart with my finances and to always remember the things I value—which are family, friends and education.”

By establishing the “Ju Hee Kim Bursary,” Kim hopes to help students in need.

“I know it’s not a lot but I want to help someone who’s passionate about engineering but having a hard time financially. I want people to see hope,” she says. “I thought if I started something like this I would

remember the times when I was struggling. I don’t want to forget where I came from.”

An international student from South Korea, Kim was required to pay the full price of tuition—$ 21,000 per year. The plan was that her family would cover the cost. But when Kim started school her father’s business went through financial hardships. Her education appeared to be in jeopardy. Kim didn’t visit her family once during the four years she studied engineering. She lived with a family that deferred her rent until after she graduated. She took part-time jobs as a waitress, a barista and in the retail sector. She landed a summer job with Stantec in Edmonton after completing her third year of studies, and then worked part time with the engineering firm during her final year.

She still found time to volunteer with the Civil Engineering Students’ Society and

served as president during her fourth year of studies. “My friends knew I was stressing out at times and they were always there to support me. I’m grateful to have friends like them. The experiences I got while participating in a student club are priceless.”

Establishing the bursary also helps Kim remember her friends—and it’s an emotional pat on the back she awards herself for sticking with her studies even through tough times.

“I’m doing this because I don’t want someone to give up their dream. I want them to know there are lots of opportunities once you’re done school. I want to give them hope that there are good things out there and good people who are willing to help,” she says. “And I want to be thankful to myself for not giving up and for my friends and all the people who helped me stay positive.”

Julie Kim (Civil ’12) has established a $1,500 bursary that will help a civil engineering student in financial need.

Fresh out of school, Julie Kim decided to do something to help students who faced the same financial difficulties she overcame. By Richard Cairney

THE $50 TESTR

ichard C

airney


The hamlet’s view of the fjord, its jumble of ice rearranged daily by the tides, is uninterrupted by tall buildings or trees. Directly across the water are sweeping and jagged peaks, the highest points on the Canadian Shield. It’s the sight that greeted a group of engineering students when they settled in the remote Inuk community for the summer of 2013.

Pang is pretty much the definition of a remote community. In this way, it has a lot in common with other such places, from Himalayan mountain towns to northern Laotian farming communities. Remote communities face engineering and social challenges related to technology,

infrastructure, the environment and public services. In larger centres, there is better access to resources, technology and people with expertise to solve what, in small towns and villages, become major challenges. Across Canada, issues like health care, housing and secure freshwater supplies are common problems in small towns and villages.

For years, mechanical engineering professor Larry Kostiuk wondered what might happen if Canadians put the same energy into helping people at home as they do into helping communities in far-flung corners of the world. He envisioned a model similar to Engineers Without

Borders, within Canada. He met kindred spirits in Fraser Mah (Civil ’12) and Tyler Heal (Civil ’13), a pair of forward-looking students bent on applying skills to the betterment of society. Currently working on his master’s degree in civil engineering, Mah has served as an Engineers Without Borders Junior Fellow, working in Malawi in 2011. Heal, originally from Yellowknife, N.W.T., was anxious to bring an engineer’s problem-solving approach to issues in the North.

The three met frequently to brainstorm ways of connecting engineering students, aided by mentors in the engineering profession, to northern communities. They didn’t stop there: the organization they hoped to create would cross all faculties at the University of Alberta and would, in fact, be open to communities and universities across Canada. They found a natural ally in mechanical engineering professor

anorthernengagement

Pangnirtung, Nunavut, is spectacular in May. The snow has started its uneven retreat, and it doesn’t get particularly dark—it won’t for months. Pang is the only settlement on Cumberland Sound, and it sits on a finger-like fjord poking from the sound inwards to the heart of Baffin Island.

Tyler Heal

anorthernengagementModelling itself on organizations that provide in-the-field help abroad, a new initiative looks to remote Canadian communities By Richard Cairney

Sushanta Mitra. He leads the IC-IMPACTS Canadian Network Centre of Excellence at the U of A. IC-IMPACTS is an international partnership between Canada and India aimed at solving mutual challenges—such as those faced in remote communities.

The culmination of these efforts is Engage North. In essence, Engage North is a University of Alberta organization that builds connections between students from across Canada and indigenous northern communities. These connections include supporting awareness and educational events in the south as well as arranging for students to live and work in northern communities. With the help of Mitra and sponsorship of IC-IMPACTS, Engage North came to fruition last spring when three engineering students became the first Engage North fellows, and found

Pangnirtung

themselves bound for Pangnirtung. Environmental engineering students Stephanie Lettner and Heidi Johnson and civil engineering student Keita Hill worked from May to August for the hamlet. Hill was tasked with helping mitigate the effects of spring flooding, while Johnson and Lettner worked on finding ways to reduce the hamlet’s power bills by using energy-efficient lighting.

At the end of the summer, Ron Mongeau, then the chief administrator for

the hamlet of 1,500, said the program was an unqualified success.

“Their impact on our community was so much more than I imagined. It has been really gratifying.”

That was also the feeling for Engage North’s leadership committee and its director, Janelle Morin (Arts ’11), a former Students’ Union president and the organization’s only full-time employee. Working from an office in historic Pembina Hall, which houses the Faculty of Native Studies, Morin has many

Larry Kostiuk envisioned a model similar to Engineers Without Borders, but within Canada.


day-to-day duties. Chief among them is connecting with remote communities, with whom she can match the services and talents that Engage North fellows bring, and create projects the fellows can execute.

Morin jokes that she’s a matchmaker when it comes to connecting students and experts with northern and remote centres. But there’s more to it than that. As well as establishing relationships with communities and learning about projects they’d like help with, Morin also helps promote Engage North to students and professors across the U of A campus and beyond.

“When our students come back from a fellowship, their mandate is to share their knowledge and experience across campus and with external groups,” she says, adding that the fellows have made presentations to the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, the U of A Water Research Initiative and science teachers from across the province.

“Our hope is that by introducing people to the idea of connecting with northern communities, they’ll see the value in those

ways of life and the tremendous value of those communities.”

This summer, the program is growing. Graduate and undergraduate students from the Faculties of Engineering, Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences, Arts and the Alberta School of Business—as well as one open studies student and a student from the University of Toronto—will work in partnerships with Dene Tha’ First Nation


The spring thaw and flooding can be more than an inconvenience for people in Pangnirtung. Several years ago, an early thaw combined with unseasonal heavy rain; floodwaters washed out a vital bridge. It’s one of the reasons a small group of engineering students found themselves in the Nunavut community last summer. Under the auspices of Engage North, the trio used their engineering know-how and worked with locals to devise flood control and, in another project, reduce energy use.

Engineering students Stephanie Lettner, Heidi Johnson and Keita Hill worked for the Hamlet of Pangnirtung from May to August 2013. Hill was there to help find solutions to spring flooding, while Johnson and Lettner discovered ways to reduce the hamlet’s power bills.

By the end of the summer, Hill’s group was drawing up plans to help mitigate flooding, and Johnson and Lettner had partnered with a

communities and the Beaver First Nation in northern Alberta. Pangnirtung is involved for a second year, with projects that focus more on culture, art and commerce.

It’s a sign of definite growth for Engage North, and Kostiuk will be watching closely to see the impacts of that growth.

“Right now we don’t know if this is scalable,” Kostiuk says. “We don’t know what we could gain or lose. Last year, having three

thewaystoengageVancouver-based lighting company to help the hamlet take strides on energy conservation.

Based on a research report and recommendations compiled by Lettner and Johnson, the hamlet chose to use LED lighting in its offices and shops, upgrading the lighting systems. The students helped devise a plan to allow the hamlet to pay for the new lights through monthly savings in energy costs, rather than upfront. It’s a welcome development in a town that uses diesel fuel to generate electricity and goes without daylight for much of the winter. Lighting costs add up quickly.

Lettner, an environmental engineering student, and Johnson, a mechanical engineering student, took stock of lighting in about 12 buildings owned by the hamlet, then researched three years’ worth of power bills from each of the buildings. Although it was challenging to try to determine what percentage of power was

drawn by lights, seasonal spikes in energy use told an interesting story.

“Looking at the utility bills, you can definitely see that in the winter there’s way more energy use,” says Johnson. “In the pump house, most of the energy use is from the pumps. But in other buildings where there are people, you can see the difference in lighting costs.”

With respect to the spring flooding, Hill, a civil engineering student, travelled north with surveying equipment and checked the slope of all the culverts in the hamlet, accompanied work crews installing new culverts and worked with the town foreman to try to devise ways to thaw ice that blocks the culverts in the spring.

Hill found that the southern technology didn’t transfer so well. “The culverts are the last things to melt—it’s ice in a metal tube underground. In the spring, water just goes over the roads. Culverts just don’t work well up there.”

Spring time in Pangnirtung: snow is melting and flooding is a possibility. For the second year in a row, Engage North fellows will be working with the hamlet over the summer.

Stephanie Lettner

Heidi Johnson

Keita Hill

EngageNorthpartnerships take root


Dene Tha’ Graduate Project: Health in a Remote Community An Engage North graduate fellow will work with Dene Tha’ Health Centre, community members and community groups to understand the core health challenges that face the Dene Tha’ people and look at opportunities to improve health delivery. He or she will analyze what health delivery looks like in the community and identify what environmental or water infrastructure conditions contribute to the core health challenges. The grad student will explore how mobile health technologies might help health delivery in the community. During the project, the fellow will be able to call on mentorship from an IC-IMPACTS expert who can provide knowledge in mobile health technologies and from other experts as appropriate.

Dene Tha’ Undergraduate Radio ProjectWorking with local groups, a media consultant and Dene Tha’ staff, the Engage North grad fellow will support the development of a radio broadcasting program for the Dene Tha’ First Nation. This could mean helping to create a corporate society for the CKCA-FM Dene Tha’ Communications Society radio station, supporting a training program for community-based radio and providing communications and administrative support in the development of a community radio station.

Dene Tha’ Undergraduate Research and Archeology ProjectFor July and August, an Engage North fellow will work on an archeology project, helping supervise younger students from northern First Nations communities as they learn about their cultural history through archeological sites. This could mean visiting sacred sites and cataloguing archeological objects. In May and June, the fellow will support the community under the guidance of the director of health, which could mean anything from supporting the health centre to supporting youth initiatives.

Pangnirtung Undergraduate Nutrition Calorie Dollars ProjectThe Pangnirtung health committee has an interest in improving community health and well-being. Working with this group and other institutions and community members, the Engage North fellow has the opportunity to research local food prices, compare nutritional choices based on cost and popularity and come up with a way to measure the costs and impacts of food choices in Pangnirtung. The fellow will look at the caloric and nutritional value of foods per unit cost. From here, he or she will determine the “calorie value” of a dollar in Pangnirtung—a novel take on the costs of eating.

Pangnirtung Undergraduate Youth Coding Club ProjectThe Youth Coding Club is a new group under the Making Connections for Youth program. Working with the youth co-ordinator, community and business partners, the Hamlet of Pangnirtung and local youth, the Engage North fellow will share his or her expertise in computer coding and gaming, leading a weekly club and creating a plan to ensure the club’s longevity and support.

Pangnirtung Undergraduate Print Shop Archive Project The Pangnirtung Print Shop/Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts and Crafts houses world-class Inuit art. Working with the Uqqurmiut Centre staff, the Hamlet of Pangnirtung and local artists, the Engage North fellow can help showcase work by local artists. This may include cataloguing and digitizing historical prints. It might mean the creation of online selling tools, pop-up displays or galleries.

Beaver First Nation Undergraduate Agricultural Land Analysis Project Working with community members, business leaders and mentors from the University of Alberta, two Engage North fellows get to research community uses for a large plot of land belonging to the Beaver First Nation. This includes analyzing the land’s agricultural potential to contribute income for the benefit of band members.

students in Pangnirtung was simple. This year, we have three communities and band councils and elders and established specialists in their own areas, so it’s more complicated.”

He hastens to add that support from IC-IMPACTS and the Government of Alberta is reassuring. Potential for corporate support seems to be strong, and even experts from various professions are stepping to the plate to find ways of interacting with smaller communities.

Don Thurston (Chemical ’58) served for 15 years on the national board of Engineers Without Borders and is now supporting Engage North with his experience and expertise. He sees support coming from a wide spectrum of groups including alumni and the private sector.

“It is stunning how many private sector firms are interested in this kind of thing, co-operating and providing technical assistance,” he says. “It’s the perfect storm.”

Thurston says Engage North could tap into the talents of engineers who have taken part in Engineers Without Borders for more than 15 years.

Thurston envisions an exchange in which members of the communities that Engage North partners with travel to larger centres to run mirror fellowship projects. This summer, for instance, an Engage North Fellow will be helping the Beaver First Nation assess the value and possible uses of a large parcel of land. Thurston wonders what kinds of ideas someone from the First Nation would offer on, say, a plot of land just off the downtown core in Calgary or Edmonton.

A fresh perspective is often the path to a practical solution, and Thurston says he’d appreciate new perspectives in his own backyard. “It would be terrific to have one or two young people from communities we partner with come to Calgary and help us solve our problems,” he says. “That’s the kind of thing that would really warm my heart.”

Janelle Morin jokes that she’s a matchmaker when it comes to connecting students with northern and remote centres.

Now in its second year, Engage North is growing by building new partnerships. This summer, the Dene Tha’ First Nation and the Beaver First Nation will work with Engage North fellows, and the Hamlet of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, will continue its relationship with Engage North—this year hosting three Engage North fellows. Here are the 2014 Engage North projects:


2014AlumniWeekend

Thursday, September 18 through Sunday, September 21

Even if it’s been years since you’ve been “back to school” in September, it’s a great time to come back to campus for Alumni Weekend! Our evergreen and gold campus will warmly welcome all engineering alumni this year from September 18-21. Together with the U of A’s Office of Alumni Relations, the Faculty of Engineering’s External Relations team is busy planning a great weekend of activities for our alumni to enjoy. All alumni are invited back to campus for a great celebration, regardless of year of graduation – but this year, if you graduated in a year ending in a “4” or a “9”, you are celebrating a special anniversary!

Beginning with the Alumni Recognition Awards on Thursday, September 18, and ending with a concert by the University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Ensemble on Sunday, September 21, the weekend is full of opportunities to see the people and places that you got to know so well as a student.

You’ll see a few changes with the all-campus events this year. There will be three separate Saturday night activities based on year of graduation. Graduates from 1964 and earlier can enjoy a semi-formal dinner at the Hotel Macdonald, while graduates from the years 1965 to 1994 can gather at the Telus Centre (111 Street & 87 Avenue) for a reception. Across the street, members of the classes of 1999 and 2004 will enjoy a casual get-together at Hudson’s Canadian Tap House.

A brief overview of the Engineering and all-campus events being held is included below. The August edition of New Trail will have complete details on all the activities taking place during Alumni Weekend 2014. Information is also available on the Faculty of Engineering’s website (www.engineering.ualberta.ca/alumni), as well as in the alumni section of the University of Alberta’s website.

External Relations Team Contacts – Alumni and Individual Class ReunionsIn addition to the Faculty of Engineering special events planned for all engineering alumni and those celebrating a milestone anniversary year, some engineering reunion classes will be holding private class dinners, social evenings or other events throughout Alumni Weekend. For specific information on individual engineering class events, please contact the External Relations officer as noted below or visit our alumni web page for more information at www.engineering.ualberta.ca/alumni.

Chemical, Materials, Metallurgical, Mineral, Electrical, Computer, Engineering PhysicsContact: Leanne Nickel 780-492-4159 or [email protected]

Civil, Environmental, Mining, PetroleumContact: Trevor Wiltzen 780-492-4004 or [email protected]

MechanicalContact: Linda Kelly 780-492-4160 or [email protected]



2014

Class Reunion Organizers

Other reunions of interest

The engineering alumni below have enthusiastically volunteered to be class reunion organizers for Alumni Weekend 2014. If you are a member of one of the classes listed below, you may already have received a call or email regarding plans for the reunion of your class. If not, please contact the External Relations Team Contact listed on the first page of this article to find out how to get in touch with your class organizer. If your class is not listed – especially if you are from the Class of 1954, 1964, 1974 or 1989 – you may want to consider volunteering to help ensure you don’t miss a great opportunity to get together!

1949 Chemical Engineering William McMillan

1954 Petroleum Engineering Leroy Field

1959 Chemical Engineering Wayne Maunder

1959 Civil Engineering Donald Bacon

1964 Mechanical Engineering Jack Nodwell

1979 Mechanical Engineering Grant Shannon

1984 Chemical Engineering David Morris

1984 Mechanical Engineering David Rumbold

Faculty of Engineering Alumni Special Events


All Campus EventsJoin alumni from other faculties on campus at the following events.

Thursday, September 18Alumni Recognition AwardsTime: Ceremony 7:00 p.m. Reception to follow Location: Jubilee Auditorium (11455 87 Ave) Dress: Business attire Cost: Free

Friday, September 19Tuck Shop TentHours of Operation: 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Location: Quad (by Athabasca and Pembina Halls)

Class of ’64 Cap ‘n GownTime: 10:00 a.m. (TBC); Light lunch to follow Location: Convocation Hall, Old Arts Bldg. Cost: Free

Saturday, September 20Tuck Shop TentHours of Operation: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Location: Quad (by Athabasca and Pembina Halls)

Golden Grads Dinner (1964 grads and earlier)Time: 5:30 Cocktail Reception; 6:30 p.m. Dinner (TBC) Location: Empire Ballroom, Hotel Macdonald (10065 100 St) Dress: Semi-formal Cost: $50

Reception (Grads from 1965 to 1994)Time: 7:00 p.m. (TBC) Location: TELUS Centre (corner of 111 St and 87 Ave) Cost: TBC

Young Alumni Event (1999 and 2004 classes) Time: 7:30 p.m. (TBC) Location: Hudson’s Canadian Tap House (11113 87 Ave) Cost: TBC

Sunday, September 21University Symphony Orchestra & Symphonic Wind Ensemble ConcertTime: 3:00 p.m. Location: Convocation Hall, Old Arts Bldg. Cost: Free

50th Anniversary of SUB ExpansionContacts: Wes Cragg, David Jenkins, Rev. Iain Macdonald, Marilou Neufeld, Francis Saville

75th Anniversary of Kappa Sigma at U of AContact: Burn Evans

Note: All Engineering Alumni Weekend events are FREE to alumni and their guests. However, pre-registration is requested to help ensure adequate space and refreshments. To register, visit http://alumni.ualberta.ca/events/alumni-weekend beginning in June. For further information on any Engineering event, contact Cindy Spears at [email protected].

Class of 1954 Engineering Alumni LuncheonFriday, September 19, 2014 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Faculty Club, University of Alberta Who’s Invited: Engineering graduates from 1954 and earlier, and their spouses/guests.

Dean’s Engineering ReceptionFriday, September 19, 2014 4:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Solarium, 2nd Floor (Maier Learning Centre), Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex Who’s Invited: All engineering graduates and their spouses/guests.

Dean’s Engineering Alumni BreakfastSaturday, September 20, 2014 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Solarium, 2nd Floor (Maier Learning Centre), Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex Who’s Invited: Engineering graduates from 1969 and earlier, and their spouses/guests.

Note: Reunion class photos will be taken at the breakfast for any class that wishes to have one.

Engineering Expo 2014Saturday, September 20, 2014 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex (ETLC) Maier Learning Centre (ground and 2nd floors) Who’s Invited: Open to everyone and the general public

Note: Please visit www.engineering.ualberta.ca/Expo for more information and a schedule of tours, activities and events.


no detail too smallno problem too big


Two Faculty of Engineering professors have been appointed as Canada Research Chairs and three were re-appointed to their CRC positions, continuing the faculty’s leading-edge research into communications and energy and adding key positions in nanotechnology and oil sands tailings treatment.

One of the new CRC appointees, Carlo Montemagno, is accustomed to starting small to tackle big-picture problems. A professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, he leads a team of 35 researchers from a range of disciplines who are taking cues from nature to solve problems in environment, energy and health.

That’s also his aim as the new holder of the Canada Research Chair in Intelligent Nanosystems.

“Our work is about harnessing the power of N—nature, nanotechnology and networks,” says Montemagno. “We use living systems in nature as the inspiration; we use nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate matter at its smallest scale; and we build systems in the understanding that we have to make these small elements work together in complex networks.”

The physical home of this work is the Ingenuity Lab, a collaboration among the U of A, the National Institute for Nanotechnology and Alberta Innovates – Technology Futures. Montemagno is the lab’s director and has assembled a research team with backgrounds in biochemistry, organic chemistry, neurobiology, molecular biology, physics, computer science, engineering and materials science.

Reducing greenhouse gases is one of the challenges his team is addressing, by capturing carbon dioxide emissions and converting them into high-value chemicals.

Montemagno says the process involves mimicking photosynthesis, using engineered

no detail too smallno problem too big

There’s a serious case of brain gain at the Faculty of Engineering. Two new research chairs are building teams, investigating intelligent nanosystems and devising new approaches to tackle tailings.

By Bryan Alary and Nicole Basaraba

Chemical and Materials Engineering professors João Soares (left) and Carlo Montemagno have been appointed to hold two new Canada Research Chairs.


and decrease energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Gray, who holds the Tier 1 CRC in Oils Sands Upgrading and who was until recently a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, is working on developing better methods to measure the viscosity and surface tension of bitumen during high-temperature cracking, and investigating new applications of biotechnology to purify oil derived from bitumen.

Zhenghe Xu: Getting the oil from Canada’s oil sands

Xu, who holds the Tier 1 CRC in Mineral Processing, is addressing a major challenge facing the oil sands industry: finding the best possible way to separate the bitumen from the sand while respecting the environment as well as cost requirements. In mineral processing, mined ores are first crushed and ground to break minerals and metals off waste rocks (liberation). The liberated minerals and metals are then separated by physical methods such as gravity separation, magnetic separation, electrostatic separation and flotation. Located in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Xu’s research is focused on clarifying the colloidal interactions involved in flotation and developing a more versatile, effective separation process.

molecules to create a structure that metabolizes CO

2. Unlike fermentation and

other processes used to convert chemicals, this method is far more energy-efficient.

“You make something that has the same sort of features that are associated with a living process that you want to emulate.”

In another project, Montemagno’s team has turned to cells, viruses and bacteria and how they identify chemicals to react to their environment. The aim is to develop “an exquisite molecular recognition technology” that can find rare precious metals in dilute quantities for extraction. This type of bio-mining is being explored to transform waste from a copper mine into a valuable product, and ultimately could benefit oil sands operations as well.

“The idea is converting waste into a resource and doing it in a way in which you provide more economic opportunity while you’re being a stronger steward of our natural resources.”

João Soares, also based in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, was appointed to the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Polymer Reaction Engineering. His research will focus on challenges presented by tailings in oil sands mining.

Despite many technological advances in oil sands extraction techniques, the large volume of high-water-content tailings remains an unsolved problem. Soares’ polymer reaction engineering techniques will help develop a new generation of efficient polymer flocculants to dewater tailings and potentially reduce or eliminate tailings ponds. The objective is to create a framework to determine the best polymerization conditions and polymer microstructures to meet specific oil sands and polyolefin industry performance requirements.

“Reactions change from the lab scale to the industrial scale, so we’ll use polymer reaction engineering to look at making polymers, analyzing the molecular architecture and seeing how different conditions affect the microstructure,” Soares says.

The research team plans to look for combinations of different polymers with distinct microstructures (polymer cocktails) that can be used to meet oil sands industry requirements.

“A single polymer might not be able to achieve everything we want, so we’ll create complex polymers and modify polyolefins to accommodate new structures.”

Soares is building a team of about 10 researchers who are coming from as far as the United Kingdom, South Africa, Thailand and Brazil. He also hopes to build a strong network of polymer researchers at the University of Alberta.

Other Faculty of Engineering Canada Research Chairs have been renewed, including:

Mojgan Daneshmand: Microscopic technology, big results

Daneshmand, based in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holder of a Tier 2 CRC in Radio Frequency Microsystems for Communication and Sensing, is looking at using wireless technology to save lives. She works with tiny micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, that make it possible for researchers to develop “smart” products—taking what microelectronics can do already but creating whole computer systems on a single chip. She will apply radio frequency and MEMS to mobile and satellite communication and biomedical applications, an approach that can determine, for example, how to measure pressure in the brain for patients who suffer from head injuries or brain diseases.

Murray Gray: Purifying bitumenAlmost a quarter of Canada’s liquid

hydrocarbons is produced from the oil sands, a proportion that is expected to reach 50 per cent. This increased reliance on synthetic crude requires new and improved technologies in bitumen upgrading to improve product quality and yield,

Chemical and Materials Engineering professor and Ingenuity Lab director Carlo Montemagno speaks at a ceremony announcing Canada Research Chair appointments.

“Reactions change from the lab scale to the industrial scale, so we’ll use polymer reaction engineering to look at making polymers, analyzing the molecular architecture and seeing how different conditions affect the microstructure.” — João Soares

SMITH, DANIEL PEngHas been appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his contributions as an environmental engineer, designing water and energy management systems in Northern Canada. Smith is a professor emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He was a principal investigator in the Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance Project studying the impact of forest management practices on water quality, served as president of Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and chair of the Western Canada Water Environment Association, and is currently president of the International Ozone Association’s Pan American group. He supervised more than 200 graduate students and co-founded the Faculty of Engineering’s undergraduate program in environmental engineering.

SOONG, ANTHONY (Electrical ’91 PhD ’97)

Has been named a 2014 IEEE Fellow. He joined Qualcomm infrastructure division’s research and development group in Colorado as a senior engineer in 1997 and later joined Ericsson. He is currently chief scientist for wireless research and standards at Huawei Technologies in Plano, Texas.

VILLENEUVE, CLAUDIA PEng (Civil ’00, MEng ’01)

Has been promoted to supervisor, Canadian projects, within Enbridge Pipelines. Since joining Enbridge she has been a project engineer, compliance engineer and senior project manager of construction projects, including a $100-million petroleum tank farm addition. Claudia is the VP of Mentorship for Enbridge’s Toastmasters Pipe Up Club and teaches a technical course she developed called ‘Fundamentals of Station and Terminal Design’ through Enbridge University.

WILSON, WARD, PEng, PGeo, FCAE

Has been named a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. Wilson is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental

Engineering and principal investigator of the Oil Sands Tailings Research Facility. He has been a key consultant on a number of industrial projects, including Antamina Mine (Peru) and Xstrata’s Frieda River Project, the Raglan Mine, Sagittarius Mine and Tampakan Mine.


BELLAMY, MARK PEng(Civil ’97)

Has won the APEGA Community Service Award. For more than 25 years, Bellamy has supported organizations that reflect his

commitment to the profession, youth development and the Lethbridge community. In 2003, he helped establish the Southern Alberta Technology Council, a Lethbridge-based, non-profit society focused on science outreach at the elementary and high school levels. He co-founded and has chaired the Lethbridge Regional Science Fair and Science Olympics and has raised funds to send regional finalists to the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

BROKS, LEO PEng(Civil ’70)

Has been awarded the Consulting Engineers of Alberta’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service. Leo serves as board

chair of Al-Terra Engineering Inc. The company is a long-time supporter of the U of A Faculty of Engineering Co-op program. Leo and his brother Corry also contribute to engineering student development through two scholarships valued at $5,000 each.

BROKS, CORRY PEng(Civil ’76)

Has been awarded the Consulting Engineers of Alberta’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Distinguished Service. Corry is the founder and

president of Al-Terra Engineering Inc. He established the company in 1976. The company is a long-time supporter of the U of A Faculty of Engineering Co-op program. Corry and his brother Leo also contribute to engineering student development through two scholarships valued at $5,000 each.

CHEN, JIE PEngHas been named as a Fellow in the Engineering Institute of Canada. Chen is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering and an adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alberta. He is also a research officer at the National Research Council / National Institute for Nanotechnology. In 2003 Chen received the Distinguished Lecturer award from the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and in 2008 received the Canadian Foundation of Innovation Leaders’ Opportunity Award.

Taking pride in achievementKudosENNIS, CLAIRE PEng(Mechanical ’07)

Has won the APEGA Early Accomplishment Award. Just seven years after graduating, Ennis contributed to advancements in airborne

leak detection by investigating the fundamental governing equations and solutions to predict the diffusion of gas leakage from an underground pipeline. She led a team of five that included both Professional Engineers and technologists in a field test to simulate the leak and validate her model results with credible data. In August 2013, she was promoted to the role of Team Leader for the SCLAIRTECH™ Process Technology Team. She is the youngest person to be promoted to this level in the history of the NOVA Chemicals Research and Technology Centre.

HAAS, RALPH PEng(Civil ’61 MSc ’63)

Has been awarded the Roy W. Crum Award, the U.S. National Academies’ Transportation Research Board’s highest honour. Haas is regarded as “the father of pavement management” for his pioneering work in pavement research. The award is presented in recognition of outstanding achievement in transportation research. Haas is the Norman W. McLeod Engineering Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

HARRON, LORNA PEng(Metallurgical ’95 MEng ’97)

Has been awarded the APEGA Outstanding Mentor Award. Harron mentors multiple young Professional Engineers and Engineers-In-

Training at Enbridge Pipelines. She established a program called FEMINEN (Females in Engineering) at Enbridge, an employee resource group started to promote the engagement and retention of female professional engineers at Enbridge. She also works through the FEMINEN program to help girls clubs in the community, university student groups, Aboriginal female groups and APEGA initiatives.

HUANG, BIAO PEng(PhD ’97)

Has won the APEGA Outstanding Researcher Award. A professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Huang is

the NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Control of Oil Sands Processes. He is a leader in the research of process-control systems, specifically predictive, inferential-sensing research

with oil sands processes. By applying his research at Suncor’s Firebag site, Huang and his team demonstrated the accuracy of real-time steam quality measurement can be improved by 67 per cent using predictive, inferential-sensing technology.

KRESTA, SUZANNE PEngHas been awarded the Engineers Canada Meritorious Award for Professional Service. This award is presented to a professional engineer for outstanding contribution to a professional, consulting or technical engineering association or society in Canada. Kresta is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. A respected and accomplished educator, Kresta has also been the recipient of the U of A 2010 Rutherford Award, a 2012 Killam Annual Professorship, and was named the 2012 U of A Academic Women’s Association Woman of the Year.

MITRA, SUSHANTA PEngHas been named a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada. A professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and assistant vice-president (research) at the University of Alberta, Mitra received his PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is the director of the Micro and Nano-scale Transport Laboratory located at the National Institute for Nanotechnology. He is also leading a 15-member Canadian team on Bioconversion of Coal, funded through Carbon Management Canada-NCE.

PATERNEAU, CONNIE PEng(Electrical ’80)

Has been voted as president-elect of APEGA. Parenteau was elected APEGA vice-president in 2013. She is a strong advocate of involvement in professional and community affairs and is an active community volunteer. In 1993, she was the recipient of the APEGA Early Accomplishment Summit Award.

POWLEY, GAIL PEng(Chemical ’84)

Has won the APEGA Women in Engineering and Geoscience Champion Award. Powley was the inaugural chair of the Women in

APEGA Committee and has been instrumental in pulling together a diverse group of Members to advise APEGA on important issues in the attraction, retention and growth of women in the engineering and geoscience professions in Alberta. She is a tireless advocate for diversity in the workplace. She has been involved in many organizations and is a founding member of Women in Science, Engineering and Research, MentorUP Alberta, and Bridge for Engineering, Science, and Technology Talent.Do you have news to share? Send your news of awards,

appointments and other successes to [email protected]


Celebrating a life, mourning a loss, creating a legacy

Donald Douglas Lougheed (Mining ’48) passed away peacefully on Sept. 10, 2013, in Calgary with his beloved wife Doreen (nee Bradley) at his side.

Don graduated at the top of his class. His first paycheque, from Imperial Oil, came in the summer of 1945 when he worked as a student geologist and engineer at Pouce Coupe in northeastern B.C. He returned to Imperial for the next two summers, working around Spirit River and High Prairie, both in Alberta.

In a 2007 U of A Engineer article profiling Don, he said he chose mining engineering because it included two geology courses. During Don’s third year of studies, Imperial struck oil at a well located in what is now the town of Devon, near Edmonton. He said the event had very little impact.

“Lookit, back in those days, it wasn’t a big deal,” he recalled. “Nobody realized yet how significant it was. One little oil well? It’s news now, but in 1947-48 it was a marginal affair.”

But with Alberta’s oil boom gathering momentum, Imperial hired Don and sent him on a whirlwind training course across the province: three months in Leduc, three months in Turner Valley, three months in Redwater and three months in Calgary. The ride continued another 38 years, with Don working hard and constantly learning, to reach the most senior levels in the company.

He witnessed remarkable technological changes over the course of his career. In the 1950s, Imperial sent him to work in Standard Oil of New Jersey’s upstream research lab in Tulsa, Okla. There, he worked on early IBM computers to model the performance of reservoirs. Although

the name hadn’t yet been coined, he was becoming a reservoir engineer.

Don and Doreen, who earned her Bachelor of Commerce degree at the U of A in 1949, raised their family on the road. They lived six times in Calgary, twice in Edmonton and once each in Regina, Toronto, New York and Tulsa.

“Most people today don’t understand that back then, if you got promoted every couple of years and moved up, you’d stay with the company,” he said. “Each new step brought new experiences and new friends to appreciate and treasure. We feel it broadens the outlook of children and adults to see more of our world.”

He was appointed executive vice-president and a director of Imperial Oil in 1976. Under Don’s leadership, the company invested in Syncrude and developed the Cold Lake oil sands project. He also served as a director of Exxon’s research centre in Houston. Following his retirement in 1986, he served as a director of the Imperial Oil Pension Plan. As well, Don contributed to business and community organizations. He served as a director of the Canadian Gas Association, the Canadian Petroleum Association and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. He also served on a fundraising committee for Canada’s team competing in the Commonwealth Games. Don had a lifelong passion for golf, skiing and world travel—activities that he shared with his family and friends. He also enjoyed many golf, skiing and hunting trips with his friends, known as the “Rat Pack.”

As was typical of Don in his service to the community and helping others,

he and his family planned ahead to leave a significant gift to the Faculty of Engineering. His will included a gift of shares in Imperial Oil valued at more than $500,000.

The donation is a fitting and enduring legacy. This single act will have a major impact on the Faculty of Engineering, helping to support engineering students who, like Don, follow their curiosity. It will advance engineering education and research; this gift will ultimately affect the community as a whole as successive generations of graduates enter the engineering profession and researchers generate new knowledge.

Don is survived by his wife Doreen, his sister Barbara Looy; his daughters, Dianne Lougheed Keefe and Deborah Sinclair; and his much loved grandchildren, Allison Coulthard, Bradley Sinclair, Carolyn Dumbeck, Jennifer Kavalinas and Jeffrey Sinclair. Donald Douglas was the son of Edgar and Edna Lougheed and the grandson of Sir James and Lady Isabella Lougheed. He was predeceased by his brother, former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, and his infant son, Douglas Norman.

“Each new step brought new experiences and new friends to appreciate and treasure.” — Don Lougheed

U of A Engineer Fall 2013 37

U of A Engineer gives you exclusive access to a dedicated readership of highly educated engineering graduates with a broad range of interests and expertise. You are also accessing a readership of young, ambitious engineering students: U of A Engineer is mailed directly to 18,000 engineering alumni and about 3,000 copies are circulated to students, professors and partners.

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F A C U L T Y O F ENGINEERING

Aie, Edward Wong, Chemical ‘63, in March 2014Aldi, Richard Gordon, Chemical ‘72, in March 2014Allen, Dwayne, Electrical ‘65, in November 2013Andrews, Glen Frederick, Mining ‘60, in September 2013Baracos, Andrew, Civil ‘47, MSc (Civil) ‘49, in July 2013Bath, Duncan Thomas, Electrical ‘45, in December 2013Bobey, Nestor, MSc (Civil) ‘65, in November 2013Connell, Ronald D., Electrical ‘51, in October 2013Corrigan, Ross Owen, Civil ‘95, in June 2013Coulman, Richard Lancelot, Civil ‘59, in September 2013Crocker, Robert C., Chemical ‘50, in September 2013Cuthill, Trevor F., Mineral Process ‘61, in March 2014Dacyszyn, James Michael, Civil ‘54, in October 2013Davediuk, Fred, Electrical ‘52, in October 2013Davies, Jonathan Homfray, Mechanical ‘00, in January 2014de Paiva, H. Rod, Civil ‘55, in August 2013Dick, John, Chemical ‘46, in October 2013Duffy, R. Gail, Petroleum ‘54, in January 2014Edmunds, Neil Roger, Mechanical ‘78, in December 2013Elliott, Cam, Chemical ‘43, in November 2013Evenson, Robert Stanley, Mechanical ‘86, MSc (Mechanical) ‘88, in October 2013Fielder, Bruce C., Metallurgical ‘81, in February 2014

Foo, Edwin Marr, Civil ‘54, in December 2013Fox, William, Electrical ‘51, in August 2013Fraser, Kenneth Mackenzie, Chemical ‘65, in April 2014Gillies, David Gerald, Civil ‘48, in September 2013Good, William Keith, Mechanical ‘63, in December 2013Graham, Robert Erwin, Civil ‘57, in January 2014Hannochko, Gerald Frederick, Electrical ‘73, in November 2013Heaney, Gerry Patrick, Civil ‘49, in October 2013Herzog, Stanley Albert, Petroleum ‘52, in January 2014Hudema, Terry William, Civil ‘71, in January 2014Humphries, R Gordon, Mining ‘49, in September 2013Hunter, Robert Joseph, Civil ‘63, in March 2014Hurst, Charles Kenneth, Civil ‘37, in November 2013Jackiw, Leo A., Civil ‘54, in January 2014Kachorowski, Walter, Electrical ‘61, in October 2013Keir, Robert William, Mining ‘50, MSc (Metallurgical) ‘59, in March 2014Kemp, Edward Millard, Petroleum ‘56, in November 2013Kerby, John Brant, Civil ‘49, in January 2014Kidd, R. Keith, Mining ‘54, in August 2013Koslowski, Michael Wilfrid, Mining ‘49, in March 2014Laverty, Ted, Electrical ‘52, in January 2014

Leith, Hermen Edwin, Petroleum ‘51, in August 2013Lougheed, Donald Douglas, Mining ‘48, in September 2013Lovse, Bill, Civil ‘76, in December 2013Low, Dick, Civil ‘46, in December 2013Lyne, Edmund J, Electrical ‘61, in January 2014Mark, Gordon Allan, Mining ‘00, in October 2013Mazurek, Lawrence Alexander, Chemical ‘53, in October 2013McGibbon, Gregor Donald, Engineering Physics ‘50, in January 2014McLure, Gord Eldon, Mining ‘40, in July 2013Meeuwissen, Bill, Chemical ‘80, in March 2014Obradovich, Danica, Chemical ‘74, in March 2014Pearce, Leo Alfred, Civil ‘48, in September 2013Proudfoot, Robert George, Electrical ‘46, in January 2014Ratzlaff, Kurt Paul, Civil ‘82, PhD (Structural) ‘95, in September 2013Regalbuto, Carmelo, MEng (Environmental) ‘86, in March 2014Rosenquist, Walter S, Civil ‘57, in August 2013Roxburgh, Peter Clement, Civil ‘51, in September 2013Ruus, Ivar, Petroleum ‘54, in August 2013Sims, Michelle Rae, Petroleum ‘91, in March 2014Smith, Donald Murray, Electrical ‘43, in March 2014Sollanych, Ronald William, Electrical ‘65, in March 2014Stickney, William James, Chemical ‘33, in December 2013

Tharin, John, Mineral Process ‘62, in July 2013Thomson, Jerry, Mechanical ‘61, in November 2013Tipper, Robert William, Civil ‘51, in August 2013Torchinsky, Benjamin Bernard, Civil ‘47, MSc (Civil) ‘49, DSc (Hon) ‘03, in December 2013Van Ramen, Tim Etienne, Electrical ‘71, in December 2013Walker, Allan Ross, Civil ‘48, in April 2014Wohl, Robert D., Mechanical ‘62, in December 2013

The Faculty of Engineering was recently made aware of the passing of the following alumni more than a year ago:

Angus, William Roger, Electrical ‘49, in March 2013Anwar, Iqbal, MSc (Mechanical) ‘69, PhD (Mechanical) ‘72, in February 2009Bowers, H. Keith, Civil ‘55, in May 2013Burton, J. Frank, Mining ‘48, in August 2011Carson, Doyle Myles G. G, Chemical ‘75, in 2007Clink, Allan Ray, Electrical ‘41, in October 2012Collin, David Bruce, Mechanical ‘78, in July 2007Cross, Alexander Rothney, Chemical ‘39, in December 2003Ferdous, Jannatul, MSc (Civil) ‘13, in December 2012Fiori, Marco, Petroleum ‘81, MSc (Petroleum) ‘83, in February 2012Fitzgerald, Leo David, Mining ‘52, in March 1984Fox, Richard Arthur, Civil ‘58, in August 2009

Guarnaschelli, Claudio, Mining ‘61, MSc (Metallurgical) ‘65, in May 2013Herring, Hubert Lloyd, Petroleum ‘52, in March 2007Johnston, Leslie Rennie, Civil ‘51, in March 2003Kaye, John, Electrical ‘50, in July 2003Leask, John Angus (Jack), Mining ‘48, in November 2011Lishingman, Guy Likhiknok, Chemical ‘78, date unknown Low, Robert Douglas, Civil ‘46, in March 2013Malone, Melville Chatwin, Chemical ‘50, in April 2012McDonald, Alvin Francis, Civil ‘51, date unknownMcGregor, John Lester, Electrical ‘48, in 2003Meckling, Arthur Charles, Electrical ‘50, in December 2008Noble, Alexander Kenneth, Electrical ‘51, in February 2013Prieur, Louis Arthur, Chemical ‘50, in December 2004Rice, Leonard Derald, Civil ‘55, in November 2011Scott, Robert Govenlock, Electrical ‘34, in March 2004Stagg, Leslie John, Mechanical ‘81, in May 2013Sutherland, Rae, Civil ‘48, in July 2006Tempest, Douglas William V. V., Mechanical ‘80, in June 2006Wheeler, Gale C., Civil ‘52, in June 2006Young, James D., Electrical ‘54, in 2010

In Memoriam The Faculty of Engineering sincerely regrets the passing of the following alumni and friends.


Fall 2011 W W W. E N G I N E E R I N G . UA L B E RTA . C A

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Anne Marie Toutant (Mining ’87)

knows that any worthwhile

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attention to detail—even if the

results are temporary


Spr ing 2012W W W. E N G I N E E R I N G . UA L B E RTA . C A

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SLAVE LAKERebuilding

Through Old Testament torment to a miraculous rebirth, Brian Vance has been calm in the eye of a storm


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THANKS FOR THE MEMORYHow Lubomyr Romankiw revolutionalized data storage

Engineering alumnus Jim Sorensen (Chemical ’63) and his wife Marlene (MEd ’70) have come up with a plan to support the commercialization of new biomedical technologies.

Planned gift will help bridge gap between medical technology research and patient care By Richard Cairney

If you find a cause you believe in, you can

find a way to help



A $2.2-million donation from University of Alberta engineering

alumni Jim Sorensen (Chemical ’63) and his wife Marlene (MEd ’70) will aid in the commercialization of new medical technologies.

The Sorensens are establishing a new chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering that Jim describes as “revolutionary” because its goal is to commercialize new medical technology.

“The result will be the commercialization of medical technologies which would improve the lives of Canadians and people around the world through better health care,” Jim says. “This chair will meet an enormous need, as traditional granting programs do not provide funding for commercialization activities.”

Innovations can become stalled in a no man’s land of funding between their starting point in a university research lab and the product refinement stage that makes a new technology or process market ready. In this grey area, research agencies argue that they have done their job of funding research, but investors often view these new innovations as still too high risk.

The person ultimately appointed as chair holder will be responsible for shepherding researchers’ innovations through this difficult phase.

The Faculty of Engineering has been expanding its biomedical engineering

education and research capacity over the years, offering biomedical options in each engineering program and developing a deep pool of leading, interdisciplinary biomedical engineering researchers.

Dean of Engineering David Lynch says biomedical engineering is an area of “major focus and prominence” in the faculty, with more than 30 professors and their graduate students exploring biomedical engineering applications such as imaging technologies, drug delivery systems and technologies to support remote medicine.

Funding for the Jim Sorensen Chair in Biomedical Engineering will exist in perpetuity. The Sorensens have pledged $2.2 million and the faculty is contributing $800,000. Interest from the $3-million endowment will fund the chair.

The Sorensens previously established the Trudy Sorensen Memorial Scholarship in Biomedical Engineering. Named for their late daughter, who died of breast cancer, the $5,000 scholarship is awarded annually to a student with superior academic achievement entering the second, third or fourth year of study in the Materials Engineering - Biomedical option.

Jim, an independent consultant specializing in refinery design, says he and Marlene were pleasantly surprised to discover they were capable of establishing a chair program “even though I did not start a multimillion-dollar corporation.”

Jim says the Faculty of Engineering “helped us realize our dream” by helping the couple have an impact on health care.

Lynch says the “very special gift” will have a lasting impact and will help bring biomedical research from the research lab to the bedside.

U of A engineering professors are recognized internationally for key biomedical advances, including inhalable drug delivery, medical imaging and the

development of a femtosecond laser scalpel and more. The new chair will help bring those advances to health practitioners.

“This gift helps us move in a direction where there is a person at the end of the process who will benefit from this research. This helps us move from the lab, to commercialize for the public good, to translate education and research to use,” Lynch says.

“This gift is forever. It is a perpetual endowment on behalf of our faculty and students and ultimately for all of those patients who will be affected by this donation.”

Jim Sorensen (Chemical ’63) and his wife Marlene (MEd ’70) had no idea they’d be able to make a $2.2-million gift to support the University of Alberta. But they have, in establishing the Jim Sorensen Chair in Biomedical Engineering.

“I didn’t start a multimillion-dollar corporation,” says Jim, adding that the Faculty of Engineering “helped us realize our dream” of giving back to the university and having an impact on health care.

Working with the Faculty of Engineering and their own financial and legal advisers, the Sorensens have pledged $800,000 from mutual fund earnings over the next several years and $1.4 million from their estate. The faculty will contribute an additional $800,000. Interest from the $3-million endowment will fund the chair in perpetuity.

“Each of us has the opportunity to look at our assets today and see how much of our estate is going to be taxed in the future,” says Nena Jocic-

Andrejevic, the Faculty of Engineering’s manager of gift planning. “With careful planning in advance, we can support causes we are passionate about.”

Jocic-Andrejevic’s role is to meet with alumni to learn what their philanthropic interests are, help them take stock of their estate and explore different scenarios helping them to plan their gifts better, ensuring significant tax savings to the estate.

“What happens next is that people like the Sorensens

present these ideas to their own accountants and lawyers and members of their family to talk about what they want to do, and why, and how they can create a legacy.”

It’s important to note that the idea is to ensure family members are taken care of first, she says.

“Creating a legacy this way simply means that

you now have a say in how your taxes are spent—that they go to an organization or cause you support. Your family members get everything they would otherwise get, and you have the luxury of redirecting your taxes to something you feel is important, and your family can celebrate this with you.”

‘You have a say in how your taxes are spent’

“The result will be the commercialization of medical technologies which would improve the lives of Canadians and people around the world through better health care.” – Jim Sorensen

For more information on making a planned gift to the Faculty of Engineering, contact Nena Jocic-Andrejevic at 780-492-8969 or via email at [email protected].


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Engineer Alumni Magazine Spring2014