NEWS BEYOND OUR BORDERS
CANADA
IndigeSTEAM Empowers Indigenous Youth
Globe Newswire – Indigenous peoples in Canada (First Nations, Métis and Inuit people) are highly underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professions. As of September 30, 2018, the Association for Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta reports that of its total membership base of 76,400 members only 323 self-identified as Aboriginal (0.42 per cent of total membership).
IndigeSTEAM is a youth outreach program that was established to bring more diverse perspectives and seeks to eliminate barriers Indigenous youth face in STEM.
“We believe that incorporating art, creativity and social innovation into STEM outreach will lead to more successful engagement with all youth. We are passionate about the importance of these connections being made in a culturally relevant and appropriate way,” states Deanna Burgart, the co-founder and president of IndigeSTEAM who is an engineer and member of Fond du Lac First Nation, Saskatchewan.
Because of the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in STEM, IndigeSTEAM sees the need to connect those in the mentoring space to provide a safe space for support, collaboration and the opportunity to build strategies to engage more Indigenous and non-Indigenous STEM professionals in reaching out to Indigenous Nations and youth.
IndigeSTEAM hosted its first Indigenous STEM Leadership Gathering at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta on November 15 – 16, 2018.
To learn more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3979710#ixzz5Uz2uUoud
Faculty named for renowned woman engineer
CBC – Concordia University’s engineering faculty is making history with its new name — the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science — the first in Canada to be named after a woman, the university says.
Dr. Gina Parvaneh Cody, P.Eng., is the former executive chair and principal shareholder of CCI Group, a large engineering firm in Toronto. In another first, Cody became the first woman at Concordia to obtain a PhD in building engineering in 1989.
The title is in recognition of a $15 million donation Cody has made to the school, the largest personal donation in Concordia’s history.
The university says it will be dedicating part of the money to creating a fund for equity, diversity and inclusion programming.
“I arrived in Canada as a young student from Iran in 1979 with $2,000,” Cody said in a news release sent by the university.
“My gift to the university is for the next generation, so that more people can succeed like I did.”
She added that she wanted to make the donation because university is a place for “women, people of colour, Indigenous populations and other minorities to pursue their dreams.”
The gift will also help fund scholarships and research on smart cities and allow for the creation of three new chairs in the faculty.
There will now be chairs specializing in data analytics and artificial intelligence, “the internet of things” and “Internet 4.0” and advanced manufacturing.
The goal in lending her name to the school, Cody says, is to help break down barriers for women in engineering.
Smarter and safer roads paved with research
APEGA – Good communication makes everything easier. That fact underlines the mandate of the ACTIVE-AURORA project team, spearheaded by Tony Qiu, P.Eng., PhD, as it logs hours researching and testing vehicles that talk with their surroundings to help ease gridlock, improve safety and increase energy efficiency.
An associate professor with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Engineering and the director of the university’s Centre for Smart Transportation, Dr. Qiu previously ran a pilot project that tested various applications of car communication, such as notifying drivers of unsafe speeds and high-collision locations, recommending driving speeds based on traffic and issuing warnings about pedestrians and whether the vehicle can make an upcoming green light.
Now gearing up for the second phase of the project—namely security—the team has been awarded a $500,000 grant from Transport Canada to incorporate a security system that will safeguard information. Breaches are a threat when vehicles send information to each other and traffic management centres.
“Developing a security credential management system is an essential technical component to ensure that connected vehicles can securely function and communicate effectively as they become more widespread,” says Dr. Qiu in a U of A story. “It is a critical component that will help us move one step closer to seeing more of this technology on public roads.”
Driverless technology makes Alberta inroads
APEGA – Albertans and visitors to the province will be among the first in the country to try out autonomous vehicle technology. A 12-passenger driverless shuttle called Ela is being piloted by Pacific Western Transportation in Calgary and Edmonton, at locations segregated from pedestrian and other traffic.
Edmonton’s test section remained undetermined, but in Calgary the shuttle will run on a service road between TELUS Spark and the Calgary Zoo.
Created by French company EasyMile, Ela has carried several hundred thousand people at 170 locations worldwide without a single safety-threatening incident. The shuttle, which has an emergency stop button but no steering wheel, operates using lidar (light imaging, detection and ranging, a surveying technology that uses pulsed laser technology).
Ela relies on a series of 3D sensors to continually compose a 3D map and monitor the surrounding environment for potential collision risks.
New regs for internationally trained applicants
OIQ – Quebec engineering regulator l’Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) announced a significant and immediate regulatory change affecting some internationally trained professionals (ITPs) applying for engineering licences to work within the province of Quebec.
The change is intended to make ITPs’ application process more personal and reflective of each candidate’s background and takes into consideration their diplomas earned as well as their relevant work experience and all competencies acquired when their admissions applications are evaluated.
Its objective is to ease access to the profession for ITPs while maintaining a rigorous competency validation process that protects the public.
Of the 46 professional orders in Quebec, OIQ has one of the highest rates of ITP applications: In the 2017–2018 period, a quarter of all applicants for an OIQ engineering licence received their education from a university outside Canada.
Of these internationally trained candidates, 60 per cent of them received their education from countries with no mutual recognition agreement (MRA), which is an international agreement between countries that establishes mutual recognition of academic and professional credentials, intended to foster mobility for engineers looking to practice in other jurisdictions.
Historically, ITPs from countries without an MRA have had to overcome significant hurdles. Under the old application process, ITPs who obtained their education from jurisdictions without MRAs could have faced up to 11 examinations. The process took up to 16 months.
Only 58 per cent of ITPs under this system were able to successfully navigate this process and get a permit to work in Quebec. OIQ has now set a target success rate of 75 per cent and lowered the process to eight months.
Under the new procedure, these candidates are now able to take university courses, work on engineering projects and have interviews to demonstrate their engineering skills meet OIQ’s standards. Whatever the path the candidates take, their skills will be assessed by a panel of OIQ experts and licensed engineers.
Although this new regulation is designed to lessen the burden on ITPs with training from non-MRA countries, OIQ notes there can still be hurdles. Their integration also depends on the work and assistance of many other parties, including immigrant support organizations, universities and various job market–related bodies.