Newsletter – 2009

Issue 2 (Dec 2009)

www.scarborough.peo.on.ca

Chapter Activities–summary-June to December 2009 11 Jul 09 – Workshop on MS Excel for accounting – a hands-on training 20 Aug 09 – TETRA Society – Assistive technology 15 Sep 09 – SR & ED Seminar 22 Sep 09 – Wind and Nuclear Power Seminar 29 Sep 09 – Astrology is Science 13 Oct 09 – Financial Seminar 19 Oct 09 – Intellectual Property Basics for Engineers 15 Nov 09 – Mathletics – Chapter level 28 Nov 09 – Mathletics – Provincial level 01 Dec 09 - Certificate Presentation Ceremony - Fall 05 Dec 09 – MathBall Event.

Details on events on chapter website – www.scarborough.peo.on.ca/Cha_def.htm

Forthcoming Major Events 06 Feb 2010 – AGM @ Yee-Hong Centre for Geriatric Care. 06 Mar 2010 – BBC 2010 @ Scarborough Civic Centre

NOTICE OF AGM 2010 When – Feb 06, 2010. Time – 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Where – Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care, 60 Scottfield Dr., ON, (SE of Middlefield and Finch Avenue). Full details on the chapter website. Also see chapter By-Laws, Section 8 on the chapter board, which consists of • four elected officers – Chair, Vice Chair.

Treasurer and Secretary • the immediate Past Chair – not elected; and • four elected executives. All officers and executives will be elected at the AGM. If you are interested in serving the chapter board please contact Search Committee, Chair - Ranee Mahalingam, M.Eng., P.Eng., before Jan 22, 2010. Nomination forms are available at website – see under AGM 2010. Eligibility criteria are in the chapter By-Laws.

Chapter Chair’s Message 2009 has ended after a year of hectic activities in the

community by Scarborough Chapter to highlight the

importance of the role of engineers in the day-to-day

life of the general public.

Your team at the helm of the

chapter worked very hard to fulfil

your expectations after the

January 2009 AGM. As promised

at that AGM, chapter board

meetings were scheduled on the

first Friday of every month and

the details of the meetings were promptly published in

our website. This schedule brought in many new

members and volunteers to our meetings. Only the

active participation of the members will help us to

build a dynamic organization.

A self-regulatory body like PEO can only be

maintained and run effectively by the participation of

all the members. The democratic powers provided to

engineers by the Professional Engineers Act need the

contribution of all engineers to function properly.

On our part, we have built very strong bridges with the

community, schools and politicians. We have

organized many community events where the

participation from parents, teachers and politicians

was overwhelming. We also organized many events

jointly with other community organizations. In

addition, a fair number of these joint activities were

conducted cooperatively with other PEO chapters.

For the 2010 AGM, we have invited Dr. Donald

Wallace, Executive Director, Ontario Centre for

Engineering and Public Policy to speak on how and

why engineers should be active in formulating public

policy.

Our chapter will also join the new PEO initiative on

mentoring new and foreign-trained engineers. This

mentoring programme will guide them in obtaining the

licence. Our chapter will take further efforts to find

ways and means to provide opportunities to obtain the

engineering experience required by the licensee.

Raju Chander, M.S., P. Eng.

GLP (Government Liaison Program) Activities

N. Madusuthanan, P.Eng. (GLP Member) On 24 June 2009, I, as a GLP member, attended the “Take me out to the Ball Game” Fundraiser for Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Brad Duguid MPP Scarborough Centre, organized by the Scarborough Centre Provincial Liberal Association. PEO CEO Kim Allen P.Eng., PEO Councillor Santosh Gupta P.Eng., and Howard Brown were present from PEO. Labour Minister Peter Fonseca, MPP (Mississauga East-Cooksville), Michael Gravelle, MPP (Thunder Bay-Superior North) and North Bay Mayor Vic Fiedelli and Brad Duguid, MPP, addressed the gathering and then we all went to enjoy the Ball Game.

Aspiring Engineering University Entrance Scholarship 2009

Ranee Mahalingam, M.Eng., P.Eng. Scholarship Committee Chair The Professional Engineers Ontario Scarborough Chapter (PEOSC) successfully launched its first Aspiring Engineering Scholarship 2009 program in the summer of 2009. The chapter board constituted a scholarship sub-committee and nominated Ranee Mahalingam, P.Eng., Ken Chiu, P.Eng., Samer Zabana, P.Eng., and Kwame Johnson, EIT, as members. The committee designed a flyer and circulated to schools within Toronto District School Boards via email, posted within libraries and sent via

electronic enewsletter to chapter members at large. An application form was developed incorporating selection criteria and marking scheme and posted on the chapter website. Fourteen applications were received, of which two were disqualified due to incompleteness. All the applications were evaluated based on the academic performance, extra curricular activities and an essay of less than 50 words. Based on the first screening, six candidates (three males and three females) were invited for an interview in August 2009. The following two students, one female and one male, were selected for the award of $500 each: Sreemoyee Chakraborty, East York Collegiate Institute Yiyang Shen, R.H King Academy

To encourage the other participants, the PEOSC board recommended awarding the balance of 10 students with $100 each as a participation award. All the 12 recipients were invited to the Fall 2009 Certificate Presentation Ceremony to present the scholarships hosted on December 1, 2009.at Qssis Banquet Halls in Scarborough. In this ceremony, over 50 newly licensed engineers also received their licences. Due to first-year work load at the university, only five scholarship recipients and some parents were in attendance. The scholarship recipients were delighted and cheered by over 100 engineers who were present at the ceremony. In addition to the scholarship cheques, the students were presented with framed certificates and beautiful writing pads by Denis Carlos, P.Eng., Senior Councillor, and Chapter Chair, Raju Chander, P.Eng..

The details for Aspiring Engineer 2010 program will be posted on our chapter website in March 2010. If you or your organization would like to sponsor this program, please check out our website for details.

Mathletics N. Asogan, P.Eng. This year, the chapter conducted two Mathletics events and participated in one event. First was on 15

Nov 09 – the regular event conducted by

the chapter.

Chapter level Mathletics

Second was on 28 Nov 09 – the first province-wide event where the winners of chapter-level contests at different chapters of the province participated. Two prominent MPPs from Queen’s Park participated and awarded the presents to the winners.

First Place winner of Provincial Mathletics with the two MPPs. The third event was a mix of a Basketball game and Mathletics - jointly organized by

• PEO Scarborough Chapter • NSBE Toronto Alumni Extension

• The Josiah Lynch Community Organization

The contestants participated in a round of Mathletics and then in a basketball game. The results of both parts were counted to select the winning team.

Mathletics at MathBall Event

Ball game at MathBall Event

Participants were boys and girls of ages 11 to 13 years

Licence Presentation to Engineers! By Ken Chiu PEO Scarborough Chapter presents licence certificates to engineers every year in the spring and fall. This event gives PEO Scarborough Chapter an opportunity to stress the importance of engineering in providing public safety and how engineers need to be dedicated to the Canadian society at large. Important dignitaries like Hon. Brad Duguid, MPP, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs & Deputy House Leader, and Hon. Margarett Best, MPP, Minister for Health Promotion and Bas Balkissoon, MPP, have recognized these new engineers by giving exclusive certificates or pins to the new engineers on behalf of the Province of Ontario government. PEO council members like the Vice President, Regional Councillors, Councillors-at-large and Councillors (Lieutenant Governor Appointees) also take a very active part in this celebration. This important event is organized by a group of dedicated volunteers of the chapter who volunteer their time and effort for hosting this celebration in a professional manner. Recently, we had the fall 2009 event on December 01, 2009 for 52 newly licensed engineers to celebrate their achievements. Pictures and Names are shown as below.

Licence Recipients – Fall 2009

Bottom Row L-R : John Plessas, P.Eng.; Jensen Chua, P.Eng.; Jeffrey Liaw, P.Eng.; Ganesha Gangkatharan, P.Eng.; Faye Lee, P.Eng.; Cosimo Commisso, P.Eng.; Ben Jing, P.Eng.; Ayad Karem, P.Eng.; Asaad Mousa, P.Eng.; Arun Sharma, P.Eng.; Alice Zhang, P.Eng.

Middle Row L-R : Richard Zhang, P.Eng.; Patrick Chan, P.Eng.; Nimalan Rajanathan, P.Eng.; Murat Firat, P.Eng.; Mohammad-Reza Yousefi, P.Eng.; Mitko Zdravevski, P.Eng.; Md Sayedur Rahman, P.Eng.; Md Sajjadul Haque, P.Eng.; Margie Ma, P.Eng.; Lin Lan, P.Eng.; Lily Liu, P.Eng.; Joyce Yang, P.Eng.

Upper Row L-R : Xiao Yung Yu, P.Eng.; Xiaodong Wan, P.Eng.; Wadie Hani Shuhaibar, P.Eng.; Suresh Puradchithasan, P.Eng,; Shumin Gao, P.Eng.; Shanu Shaikh, P.Eng.; Satya Mallampalli, P.Eng.; Ryan Lian, P.Eng.; Ronak Patel, P.Eng.; Rizwan Rashid, P.Eng.; Ritesh Patel, P.Eng.

PEO Elections 2010 – 2011 Please visit www.peo.on.ca for details

PEO council elections are due in Feb 2010. Your votes count. Nominees for East Central Region Councillor Denis Carlos, M.BA., P.Eng. Michael Chan, P.Eng. Jin (Jane) Huang, P.Eng.

Editor – Naryanapillai Asogan, P.Eng.