ENG MAG fall09 Low res

F A L L 2 0 0 9 W W W. E N G I N E E R I N G . U A L B E R T A . C A

Keeping in Touch with

Alumni

Sounds like success

Ray Rajotte: biomedical pioneer

Frank Gue thinks of the future

RISINGSTARS

Young alumni feel prepared for anything

Fall 2009 U of A Engineer2

VISION To be one of the

largest and most accomplished

engineering teaching and

research centres, a leader in

North America.

UofAEngineerU of A Engineer is the Faculty of

Engineering alumni magazine. It is published three times a year by the

Dean’s Office and is distributed to Facultyof Engineering alumni, friends, students

and staff.

Dean of EngineeringDavid T. Lynch

(PhD Chemical ’82), PEng

Acting Assistant Dean,External RelationsLaurie Shinkaruk

External Relations teamStephan Bogner, Peggy Hansen,

Nena Jocic-Andrejevic, Linda Kelly,Leanne Nickel, Jamie Reid

Publisher/Managing EditorRichard Cairney

Copy EditorScott Rollans

Art DirectionHalkier + Dutton Strategic Design

Contributing writers and photographersBlue Fish Studios, Suzanne Harris, LarryJohnsrude, Laughing Dog Photography,

Judy Monchuk, Scott Rollans, EllenSchoeck, Debby Waldman, Bruce White

Send Comments to:Richard Cairney

Faculty of EngineeringE6-050 Engineering Teaching

and Learning ComplexUniversity of Alberta

Edmonton, AB T6G 2V4Tel: 780.492.4514 or 1.800.407.8354

Fax: 780.492.0500E-mail: [email protected]

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

Change of address:[email protected]

Fall 2009 Issue 27

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40051128

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:Faculty of Engineering, University of AlbertaE6-050 Engineering Teaching and Learning ComplexEdmonton, AB T6G 2V4

e-mail: [email protected]

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.

Afew months ago, I was honoured to be asked to be the new Engineering representa-tive to the University of Alberta’s Alumni Council.

I’ve had the good fortune of being able to stay closely connected to the Faculty ofEngineering for most of the 33 years since I graduated in Electrical Engineering. I’ve beenthe organizer for our class reunions and have attended a number of engineering alumnifunctions hosted by the Faculty. Through my professional association with StantecConsulting, I’ve had a firsthand view of the growth of the Faculty’s infrastructure over

the past decade—working on many of the new Engineering buildings con-structed in this period.

Being a U of A Engineer has a lot of personal meaning to me as well—wehave six U of A Engineers in our family and are proud to have our names onthe faculty’s “Engineering Generations” wall.

As the Faculty of Engineering’s representative on the U of A AlumniCouncil, I am your voice. I will ensure Engineering’s perspective is includedas the Council determines the short- and long-term goals of the U of AAlumni Association, sets and reviews policy, and identifies programmingneeds. If you would like to share your ideas regarding how the U of A cancontinue to enhance its interactions with and services to its alumni, please e-mail me at [email protected] . I will be happy to pass your

thoughts on at future council meetings.My role also involves ensuring that we support, recognize and celebrate our alumni in

their accomplishments—and with U of A Engineers, there is much to support, recognizeand celebrate! For this, I am happy to have the resources and expertise of the Faculty ofEngineering’s External Relations Office to draw upon.

I’m proud to represent a group of alumni who have a strong reputation on campusand in the community as being enthusiastic, committed leaders. I look forward to beingthe voice of U of A Engineers.

Yours truly,

Glenn M. Stowkowy, P.Eng. (Electrical ’76)Vice PresidentStantec Consulting Ltd.

Engineering RepresentativeMessage from the

to the University of Alberta’s Alumni Council

of ContentsTable F a l l 2 0 0 9

5 Flashes of brillianceA new welding research chair will be thecornerstone of a national welding andjoining centre, and will enhanceAlberta’s $48-billion metal fabricationindustry.

C O V E R S T O R Y6 Rising Stars

Four graduates prepare to leave the nestand enter the next phase of their lives,and four young alumni reflect on theirfirst full year in the profession.

F E A T U R E S

12 Lights, Camera, Teaching!When it comes to teaching, Dr. BrianFleck doesn’t let the walls of a classroomor the borders of a campus restrict him.His work on television, including a spothosting The Nature of Things, allowsFleck to share knowledge with thegeneral public.

16 New lustre on an old ideaRod Precht (Chemical ’92) is one of the up-and-comers in Alberta’s neweconomy. He is pouring heart, soul and“love money” into a nanotechnology-based line of products that battle andprevent bacterial infections.

20 Mistaken identityRay Rajotte (Electrical ’71, MSc Electrical’73, PhD Electrical ’75) pioneered theEdmonton Protocol treatment for type 1diabetes, the first major diabetes treat-ment since the development of syntheticinsulin in 1922. And he credits his educa-tion as an engineer in helping improve thelives of diabetics around the world.

24 Best Supporting ActorJames Bond had Q. And behind every successful student and research is a clevertechnician. Allan Muir helped Ray Rajotteon his journey to discovering a new treatment for diabetes; and Dave Waegehelps students reach new heights at international competitions.

28 Born to BuildBill Kent (Civil ’31) knows tough times. As a student during the Great Depression,he’d scrape by on 10 cents a day. Now,he’s giving back to help Engineering students who are on the edge, financially.

32 Matchmaking in a tenuous timeThe Faculty’s Co-op program is enormouslypopular. Blending an exceptional education with practical work experience,the program is a win-win for students andemployers. But the economic downturn ishaving an impact, and more companiesare needed.

36 Engineering, art and thefuture of citiesAllan Scott (Mechanical ’68) has beeninvolved in Edmonton’s growth fordecades. Under his leadership, the new ArtGallery of Alberta will open in January.

Fall 2009 U of A Engineer 3

37

40 Psyko killerIt is a video gamer’s dream come true:a sound system that matches thequality of graphics on a video game.James Hildebrandt (PhD Mechanical’82) takes video game audio to thenext level.

44 Thinking of the futureThe Faculty of Engineering taughtFrank Gue (Electrical ’51) how to think.He has applied the lesson well.

D E P A R T M E N T S

35 In Memoriam

47 Kudos

14

40

6


Kids. The Faculty of Engineering is thickwith them these days. And by kids, I mean

kids—not our students, but kids. You know, thekind who run too fast and laugh too loud andscream and shout. Okay, our students do thattoo, but not to the same degree.

The kids inhabiting our classrooms andlecture halls are here for the summer Discover Eengineering and science camps that run untilthe end of August. They’re learning aboutengineering, and having fun at the same time.They’re writing computer game programs,building robots, and launching rockets.

They’re being inspired. They are beingencouraged. They feel a sense of belonging.And because of this maybe one day they willbecome engineers.

The halls are alive withthe sound of learning

fromtheEditor

Message

Discover E also reaches well beyond the boundaries of campus. This summer some1,700 campers will visit the U of A, andDiscover E instructors will connect with near-ly 500 more in 16 communities outside ofEdmonton, as far away as Tuktoyaktuk. Lastyear, Discover E reached 17,943 youththrough in-class workshops, camps and com-munity events in over 32 communities. So farthis year, Discover E has staged workshopsfor youths in 50 communities.

Discover E inspires kids and instructorsalike. As profiled in our Spring 2009 edition, three of our young professors, AmosBen Zvi, Anastasia Elias and Ania Ulrich all served as Discover E instructors while they were students here. The experience

contributed to their decision to becometeachers.

It’s an interesting example of the lessonsteachers take from their students; of the fluid-ity of teaching and learning. During the sum-mer months on campus, as kids run too fastand laugh too loud and scream and shout, weare inspired by the sounds of learning.

We hope you enjoy this edition of U of A Engineer as much as our team enjoyed producing it. As always, send letters, comments or possible story ideas to me at [email protected] .

Richard CairneyEditor

Individual Class GatheringsMany Engineering reunion classes will be holding private class dinners, social evenings, or other events throughoutAlumni Weekend. For information on individual class events, pleasecall your department contact as noted below:

Chemical, Materials, Metallurgical Leanne Nickel 780-492-4159 or [email protected]

Civil, Environmental, Mining, PetroleumStephan Bogner 780-492-4004 or [email protected]

Electrical, Computer, Engineering PhysicsJamie Reid 780-492-8351 or [email protected]

MechanicalLinda Kelly 780-492-4160 or [email protected]

ALUMNI WEEKEND 2009You’re invited

Alumni Weekend brings our Faculty of Engineeringfamily together. Here, Howard Moss (Civil ’50) tries hishand at the Punch Punch Revolution System, anElectrical Engineering student project.

All Faculty of Engineering events are FREE to alumni and their

guests. Unless otherwise noted, events will take place in the

Solarium, located on the 2nd floor (Maier Learning Centre)

of the Engineering Teaching and Learning Complex (ETLC).

Class of 1949 Engineering Alumni LuncheonFriday, Oct. 2, 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.Union Bank Inn, 10053 Jasper Avenue

Dean’s Engineering ReceptionFriday, Oct. 2, 4:30 – 7 p.m.

Dean’s Engineering Alumni Brunch Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 - 11 a.m.

Open House, Tours, and LecturesSaturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.Place: Engineering Teaching & Learning Complex (ETLC), Maier Learning Centre (ground and 2nd floors)

For further information, visit www.engineering.ualberta.ca/alumni

Welding and metal fabrication play amajor economic role in Alberta.With approximately $14 billion per

year of existing activity, Alberta is one ofCanada’s major metal manufacturing centres,behind only Ontario and Quebec.

With that in mind, the Faculty ofEngineering, Edmonton-based WeldcoCompanies and several industrial partnershave established the Weldco/Industry Chairin Welding and Joining.

“We are setting out to revolutionize weld-ing in Alberta, Canada, and beyond,” saysDr. Patricio Mendez, who holds the newresearch chair.

“Welding is the critical enabling technolo-gy of Alberta’s metal products fabrication sec-tor, which over the period 2005 to 2010 isexpected to generate $48 billion in revenues,with $12 billion directly accounted for bywelding,” he adds. “In the oil sands sectoralone, estimates of investment in major pro-jects—all of which depend heavily on weld-ing—for the next 25 years exceed $200 billion.These are enormous numbers, even if the cur-rent economic crisis tempers them somewhat.”

Mendez will investigate the science ofwelding while educating the next generation ofengineers who will help industry improve pro-ductivity, safety and environmental steward-ship. This industrial research chair will be thecornerstone upon which the Canadian Centrefor Welding and Joining will be established.

Weldco Companies President DougSchindel says the centre will help industryaddress important challenges.

“In this country we must improve ourproduction efficiency and worker and envi-ronmental protection,” he says. “And weneed to fulfill all of our requirements of sup-porting the community and education. Wecannot expect to hire qualified people if weare not actively supporting the educationalinstitutes that produce those candidates.”

Weldco’s $750,000 support for the chairwas made “because it was the right thing to do,”

Flashes of brilliance

New welding chairaddresses an

economic hot spot

says Schindel. As a field of scientific inquiry,welding is dramatic and mysterious. Gas in anarc weld, for example, reaches 20,000° C—hotter than the surface of the sun—and travels atspeeds of 300 meters per second.

At the core of welding is the field of mag-netohydrodynamics, developed by 1970 NobelPrize recipient Hannes Alfvén to study thebehaviour of the fluid surface of the sun. “It’sincredibly complex, but that’s what you needto know to understand welding at the molecu-lar level,” says Mendez. “We understand thebasics, but there is a lot more going on.”

The chair program will conduct researchinto well-established and new welding techniques including laser beam welding andfriction-stir welding, in which friction is usedto heat but not melt metals, creating astronger, environmentally friendly bondbetween components.

by Richard Cairney


Weldco CEO Doug Schindel, Dr. Patricio Mendez, who holds the new research chair, and assistantprofessor Dr. Adrian Gerlich, who is working work with Mendez in establishing the CanadianCentre for Welding and Joining.

Foto

Pro

jekt



STARSConvocation is one of the most exciting times

of the year at the Faculty of Engineering.

Young, bright, educated students begin their

careers and they find out how good they are:

they draw upon their education, applying

their knowledge and problem-solving skills

to real-world problems. This year, we begin

an annual feature in which we follow four

students as they enter the profession, and ask

four young alumni to reflect on their first

year in the working world. In a year’s time,

we’ll revisit the four young alumni to learn

about their first year in the profession.

b y D e b b y W a l d m a n

Rising

Mike Vanden Ham’s dream job would beto design, build, test, and analyze vehiclesand their components. Given the state of theNorth American auto industry, such posi-tions are likely to be hard to come by, butVanden Ham (Mechanical ’09) is optimistic.

“The downturn in the economy maymake it more challenging for me to get a tra-ditional job in my field, but I am hopeful thatit will create a wave of ingenuity and thegrowth of some leading-edge businesses andideas,” he says.

“It would be very exciting to be involvedin that process.”

Captain of the Golden Bears swim team,Vanden Ham’s interests in math, physics, andthe mechanics of bikes and cars led him to

study engineering. He says the highlight ofhis four years in the Faculty of Engineeringwas working on design projects.

“I enjoyed the freedom and creativity asso-ciated with applying my engineering skills toreal-life problems and, in some cases, gettingto see a final product and its performance.”

Vanden Ham is excited about entering theprofession.

“I’m looking forward to making animpact, assisting or leading the way to dra-matic developments that will cause a shift inthe way we do things and think,” he says.“Innovation has been changing the world forcenturies, and I think that’s great. Now I feelit’s my turn to step up to the plate and hit oneout of the park for our generation.”

Mike VanDen haMinto the deep end


STAR

S

Rebecca Pinto (Chemical ’09) was in herfirst year at the Faculty of Engineering whenshe decided she wanted to be a physician. Butinstead of heading over to biological sciences,Pinto embraced her major.

“After that point I loved engineering,” shesays.

An Engineering Co-op Program studentduring her first couple of years in university,Pinto was fascinated with what she waslearning. After an eight-month work termresearching oil sands chemicals, Pinto real-ized that she needed a change.

“I didn’t want to do managerial stuff,”she recalls. “I didn’t want to do research.”

“I want to be in a job where I can devel-op relationships with my patients, and I honestly think engineering can help,” shesays. “We approach problems differently and

look at things from different angles than people who are going into sciences.”

Pinto maintained a perfect 4.0 averagethroughout her academic career. At the endof her first year, she won the prestigious C.D.Howe Memorial Foundation EngineeringAward, as the top female engineering studentin the country.

The award included a $7,500 stipend forthree years, freeing Pinto to volunteer fororganizations such as Engineers WithoutBorders, Canadian Blood Services, and theChemical Engineering Students’ Society.

“The work ethic you develop in engineer-ing will serve you in any field, but especiallymedicine, because it is such a rigorous field,”she says. “We’ve worked so hard these lastfive years, I almost think medicine will be acakewalk in some ways.”

the engineering advantagerebecca pintoRis

ing

9Fall 2009 U of A Engineer

Jim Murphy (Electrical ’09) entered theFaculty of Engineering nearly 20 years afterflunking out of Brock University in Ontario.“I was a crazy young guy,” he admits. “I wasa wastrel.”

But he was a determined wastrel. Afterbeing turned away from the Army Reservesbecause he was overweight, Murphy took themost physically demanding job he could find,limited his daily diet to one carrot, one apple,two boiled eggs and unlimited water for twoweeks, and dumped the requisite 20 pounds.

Fast-forward to 2003: Murphy is namedthe top junior non-commissioned officer inthe Canadian Armed Forces. He had studiedat the Army’s electronics communicationsschool, but wanted a more thorough educa-tion. The Faculty provided that and more.

“I have the ability now to attack technicalproblems with more rigour, and hence moremotivation, than I could have before,” hesays. “I can look at developing solutions toproblems and actually making them happenas opposed to daydreaming.”

Murphy, who is married and has fourchildren, is headed back to the Armed Forces.He’s not sure what job he’ll be assigned, butknows he’ll be better prepared for it thanksto his four years in the Faculty.

“Now that I’ve done the degree and met the people that I’ve met, especially theprofessors, and discovered the breadth of applications for knowledge I’ve acquired,it’s astonishing how much there is out there,” he says. “Basically, the world is your oyster.”

the prodigal studentjiM Murphy

One of Chris Pichurski’s favourite child-hood memories is visiting the Leduc No. 1Historical Site with his friends and his dad,an oil field equipment truck driver.

“He could explain every rig from 1950on,” recalls Pichurski, who grew up on asmall farm south of Devon, Alberta.

Pichurski (Civil ’09) would have beenhappy as a mechanic, but his parents wantedhim to continue his education. He was so resis-tant that his mother had to complete his regis-tration for him at Grant MacEwan Collegeand even picked out his courses—in Arts.

It wasn’t a good fit: Pichurski was askedto leave. Three years later he returned toschool and eventually entered the Co-op pro-gram in mining engineering. His first workterm, in 2006, was at the Diavik DiamondMines 200 km north of Yellowknife. He

enjoyed the work so much he spent every Co-op term there.

Now working full-time at Diavik,Pichurski is applying his interest in heavyequipment and his problem-solving skills inthe kind of remote environment that he loves.

“In the summer it’s absolutely beautiful—the lake is so pure it’s basically distilledwater,” he says. Pichurski works two weeksat the mine, then comes home for two weeks.And he has begun a master’s program in engi-neering.

“It’s one of those things where it opensmore doors. It leaves open the chance of aPhD, which I would do for the teachingaspect. I’ve tutored kids before, and I sawhow good our teachers are at the U of A, andit’s something we have to think about—whois going to teach in the future.”

Diamond in the roughchris pichurski


As a newly minted junior process engineerat Bantrel in Calgary last year, Jessie Smith’sassignment was to help revamp a sulphurprocessing plant near Montreal. Becausethere weren’t many new engineers on the pro-ject, Smith had the opportunity to assistsenior engineers in a variety of tasks.

“Often it seemed as if I was capable ofmore than they expected,” says Smith(Chemical ’08). “U of A graduates are givenan education in a number of areas, and we’rekept very busy throughout our degrees. Fast-paced work doesn’t come as a shock.”

The more senior engineers were willing tomentor and assist Smith with new tasks, sheadds. “The support system for new graduateswas great.”

But as the economy was beginning tocrumble, large projects at Bantrel were scaleddown or cancelled. The sulphur plant waspostponed. In early December Smith was laidoff.

“It did give me incentive to work as hardas possible for my remaining time,” she says.“I wanted to leave a good impression withthe company should I ever come back.”

Smith is still looking for a new job, andencourages new graduates to be flexible whenit comes to the job market. “Anything thatallows for learning and new experiences willbe beneficial in the long term,” she says. “Ajob may not be what someone assumed theywould be doing upon graduation, but it maystill end up being a rewarding experience.”

jessie sMithengineer for life

Within a month of earning his degree,Nick Schwinghamer (Electrical ’08) washired as a design engineer at Edmonton’sEleven Engineering. His work at the wirelessaudio company included designing hardwareand writing software for everything fromiPod docks for household use to wirelessaudio packs for arena rock concerts.

Between work, playing for a Division 1men’s recreational hockey team, and spend-ing time with his family and girlfriend,Schwinghamer was challenged, busy, andentirely content. Then his boss sent him toChina—and his life changed in ways he nevercould have imagined.

“It was incredible,” he says of his stint inShenzhen, designing fixtures to test ElevenEngineering products produced in Chinesefactories. “It was something I never would

have expected. But working with a small com-pany, it’s great to be thrown into the action,and you get a lot more opportunities that youwouldn’t get with larger companies.”

In September, Schwinghamer will onceagain become a full-time student, this time in the U of A’s combined MBA/MEng program. He’s looking forward to going back to university, where he developed theproblem-solving skills that have taken him sofar during his relatively short time in thework force.

“Ninety percent of this job is trying to figure out why what you designed didn’twork the first time,” he says. “The ability towork through the problems is the biggestthing I got from my time at the U of A. It’sreally something that will help me throughmy entire life.”

the china effectnick schWinghaMer

STAR

SRis

ing


During his five years in the Faculty ofEngineering, Dustin Birtch (Mechanical ’08)may have spent more time with the FormulaSAE (FSAE) Race Team than in a classroom.His devotion to extracurricular learning hashad a positive impact on his career prospects.

Both of Birtch’s post-graduation jobshave come as a direct result of his FSAE experience.

Dr. David Checkel, one of the professorsBirtch had worked with on the team, offereda short-term project researching traffic flowfor the City of Edmonton.

Then, FSAE advisor Dr. Curt Stout forwarded a call from CSP InnovativeEngineering in Edmonton to the FormulaTeam. Birtch got the job.

CSP designs, builds, and maintains cast-steel products such as crushing rolls for

diamond and coal mines, and counterweightsand flywheels for the oil field industry. “I’minvolved with everything,” Birtch says. “I’m not stuck just designing. I get to head tothe machine shop and see parts being built,and to the field and see them in use.”

The FSAE experience gave Birtch the edgehe needed to succeed. Students are responsiblefor everything from fundraising, to designingand building the cars, to travelling to Los Angeles for races.

“In the classroom, you learn the funda-mentals of engineering, why things aredesigned a certain way,” Birtch says.“Outside, you get to really learn more hands-on. I learned how to work with a team, howto work with machine shops, the importanceof communication, and understanding whatmakes a good design.”

the race to successDustin birtch

Of the six job offers Kayla Dawson(Environmental ’08) received when she grad-uated, the most appealing came fromFinavera Renewables Inc., a wind energycompany based in Vancouver, B.C.

Dawson knew next to nothing about theindustry, but a year into her career is moreconfident than ever that she made the rightchoice.

“I love my job,” she says. “I get to go toevery meeting and, because the office is sosmall, I’m exposed to what’s happening notonly with wind development activities but onthe financial side of things, the marketingside of things, everything. I have neverlearned as much in my life as I have in thepast year.”

Dawson oversees the engineering ele-ments of wind farm development including

turbine procurement and management oftechnical consultants and contractors.

During much of her first year, Dawsonprepared proposals to construct and operatefour wind farms in northern B.C. She drewheavily on lessons from Dr. DarylMcCartney, whose classes taught her to puttogether a complex and comprehensivereport.

“I work with a lot of non-engineers, andI found I was able to help everyone focus onhow we were going to organize the reportbefore we began to get into it,” she says.

Finavera encourages teamwork, anotherskill Dawson developed in the Faculty. “Weput in a lot of long hours putting the propos-al together, and coming out of engineeringthat wasn’t odd to me,” she says. “You havea project, you put the hours in.”

Wind in her sailskayla DaWson

r. Brian Fleck is afraid. He is sitting inan ultralight aircraft filming the debutepisode of Project X, a CBC TV pro-gram modeled after the sort of

“extreme science” programming offered bycable stations like Discovery. The theme ofthe pilot episode is flight, and Fleck, a new-comer to television, is literally and figurative-ly flying by the seat of his pants as herepeatedly improvises an introduction to the

LightsCameraTeaching!

b y R i c h a r d C a i r n e y

D


series, being filmed by a camera bolted to theaircraft’s frame.

“Hi. My name is Brian Fleck. Welcome toProject X,” he shouts into the camera.“Today, we’re going to talk about flight.”

To hear him describe the scene from thesafety of his Department of MechanicalEngineering office, it seems Fleck (Mechanical’89) regards the term “aircraft” as perhapstoo grand a description of an ultralight.



“These things are suicide machines! They’relike flying motorcycles! A person would haveto have a death wish,” he says of the experi-ence. “The pilot was diving down towardscrops and you’d get so close to the ground thatyou could feel the change in temperature andhumidity. You could smell the canola.”

Fleck has tested the metal of medievalarmor, driven muscle cars along the PacificCoast Highway in search of the car of thefuture, and eaten at one of the finest restau-rants in the world—all in the name of science.

Last year Fleck and Marc Huot, one of hisgraduate students, were regular cast memberson CBC’s Project X. Earlier this year, Fleckserved as guest host of CBC’s long-runningscience program, The Nature of Things. Inthe episode he hosted, “The Future of theCar” (available online at www.cbc.ca/docu-mentaries/natureofthings/), Fleck travelledthe world, following the leading edge of newcar design from race tracks in America, toleading-edge designers planning to mass pro-duce communal cars, to a small Italianautomaker whose manufacturing process stillinvolves craftsmanship.

It isn’t a stretch to say that Fleck is teach-ing even when he’s hosting television pro-grams. In fact, in his capacity as a sciencebroadcaster and public intellectual, you couldsay that he has lectured millions.

“When you’re doing these programs youhave to remember that people aren’t watch-ing TV to learn,” he says. “You have to sneakup on them. You have to teach them some-thing without them knowing it.”

Educating students, on the other hand, isa completely different challenge, and one thatFleck approaches with equal passion.

Whereas television hosts want viewers tolike them, a university professor needs tostrike a balance between respect and friend-ship, serving as an educator and mentor. Fleckfeels that learning is best achieved when stu-dents discover information on their own. As ifto illustrate the point, a group of his studentsknock on the lab door (in the middle of aninterview for this article) to ask Fleck aboutan end-of-term design assignment due laterthat afternoon. Politely, Fleck listens to theirquestions and, without giving away answers,points the students in the right direction.

“The key for teaching to work is to real-ize that the teacher is a pointer,” he says.

“You point students to information. A gooduniversity has to provide students withopportunities to discover things. If, as a pro-fessor, you just stood there and said somestuff in a classroom—well, you could just putyour lectures in a book.”

Fleck admits he never experienced anysort of epiphany where clouds parted and he felt an educational calling. And yet, his position as a professor seems in someways preordained. Fleck first becameinvolved with teaching and research after an argument with one of his own U of A professors, Dr. Dave Wilson.

“I admonished him because his eyesseemed to be roving around in a suspiciousmanner,” Wilson recalls. “Usually miscreantswould just put their tails between their legsand slink off, but Brian came to me after-wards and explained it was all very inno-cent.” Fleck’s sincerity and communicationskills impressed Wilson. “I immediatelythought that someone who could speakwhole paragraphs with words of more thanone syllable might be a worthy candidate of alab position. He was a quite exceptionalundergraduate student because he had seenthe world and knew who Shakespeare was—and he has capitalized on that.”

At the time Fleck worked in his lab,Wilson was researching the way air leaks outof houses, an area of study that came to haveimportant public safety implications. Theexperience had a lasting impact on Fleck.

“I decided I wanted to focus on humansafety and hazards, and my first job as anengineer was looking at how sour gas mightbe dispersed in the atmosphere.”

But after a while, Fleck worried that his research in industry wasn’t having animpact, so he moved on to earn his master’sdegree at Laval University, writing a thesis

“These things are

suicide machines!

They’re like flying

motorcycles!

A person would

have to have a

death wish.”

–Brian Fleck

Mechanical Engineering professor Fleck testedthe strength of armor during an episode of CBCTV’s Project X.


(in French) on fluid mechanics and directnumerical simulation. Craving more industrial work, he then applied for researchfunding from British Gas to finance research onnatural gas burners in steel reheat furnaces, while earning his PhD throughQueen’s University.

His next stop was a faculty position at theRoyal Military College of Canada inKingston, Ontario, teaching classes with asfew as four students—a considerably moreintimate setting than a current U of A labcourse, in which he teaches 140 students withthe help of 14 teaching assistants.

As an educator Fleck relies, in part, on hisexperiences as a student.

“I really came to understand that what Iliked about the university teaching experiencewas the challenge when things were left open-

ended, when you were allowed to play withthings. I know some students don’t like that,but I find it best prepares you for life and sim-ulates reality—and I don’t think rote learningcaptures any of that.

“No one is going to graduate from here and write exams . . . No one learns anythingexciting while studying for exams, and you cer-tainly don’t learn anything from writingexams. And because engineers don’t write a lotof exams in the course of their careers, examsare not necessarily good predictors of who’sgoing to be a good engineer.”

Wilson agrees: “No one teaches anyonemuch. Students have to go in and learn it.You have to convince the students that it isreally worth pursuing a subject on their own.All you can do is be persuasive and inspiringand convincing.”

At the same time, Fleck knows that stu-dents need hard and fast structure andlessons, even if it means he’s unpopular.

“Good educators can get good evalua-tions and still be firm. My job is not to get the best teaching evaluation. I’m not trying to get the best teaching evaluation. If the course content says you have to learnhow an aircraft engine is made, I can’t let thatone slide.

“One of the jobs of a professor is to befair and firm and, in some ways I think, to bemore like the person who will be their super-visor in the workplace.”

On the other side of the coin, students areresponsible for becoming active learners.“You have to work and think and problemsolve,” says Fleck. “It’s not always about getting straight As.”

With a camera mounted on the windshield of a Mustang convertible, Fleck prepares to take a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway.



ilver, used throughout history forjewellery and currency, has alsobeen known since ancient timesfor its healing properties. Early

Mediterranean civilizations fashioned vesselsout of the precious metal to keep water freshand free of contamination. Royalty used silverware cutlery to stop the spread of disease. Folk remedies used silver in variousforms to ward off illness.

Now Rod Precht (Chemical ’92) is takingthis old metal high-tech with a medical appli-cation that helps heal wounds and stops thespread of harmful bacteria.

With the help of the University of Albertaand Economic Development Edmonton,through their technology commercializationcentre TEC Edmonton, Precht plans tolaunch his product this fall. It’s a bandage,infused with microscopic grains of silver, thatkills bacteria and stops infections more effi-ciently and inexpensively than any otherproduct on the market. Next year, he plans to

Rod Precht (Chemical ’92)

is on the leading edge of a

nanotechnology-fuelled

revolution in wound care

and disease prevention.

b y L a r r y J o h n s r u d e

NewLustreA

S

ON AN OLD IDEA


follow up with another product line: silver-based cleaners designed to keep surfaces freeof disease-causing bacteria.

It will cap a decade-long pursuit of anidea so powerful he could not let it fail.

“I believe in the technology,” Precht saysin his airy fourth-floor TEC Edmonton officein Enterprise Square (the old Bay building).“Hospital-related infections leading to deathare greater than breast cancer, car accidents,and heart attacks combined. That is a hugeproblem. We want to be part of having asolution to it.”

Born and raised in Edmonton, Prechtenrolled in chemical engineering at theUniversity of Alberta to prepare for a job in theprovince’s oil industry. But he was divertedfrom that path when he went to hear a campuslecture from Dr. David Suzuki. It inspired himto follow an engineering path that had more todo with the living than the dead.

Taking microbiology and biochemistry aselectives—a challenge for someone who had-

n’t even taken high school biology—Prechtbecame fascinated with the ability of minuteamounts of silver to kill and halt the repro-duction of bacteria without posing a risk tohuman cells or the environment.

“I devoted my efforts to understandingthe properties of silver,” he says. “I thought ifI understood it well enough, I could createmy own company.”

After graduating in 1992, Precht got a jobwith Westaim (which later acquired NucrystPharmaceuticals Inc.), where he co-developed amethod for spraying silver crystals onto fabricfor wound treatment. He then went to NucrystPharmaceuticals Inc. As product developmentmanager at Nucryst, Precht worked with Dr.Rob Burrell, a Faculty of Engineering professorwho now holds the Canada Research Chair inNanostructured Biomaterials and serves aschair of the Department of BiomedicalEngineering. Burrell developed Acticoat, a ban-dage lined with nanocrystalline silver, whichrevolutionized wound dressing.

Precht becamefascinated with

the ability ofminute amountsof silver to kill and halt the

reproduction ofbacteria withoutposing a risk tohuman cells or

the environment.

Rod Precht’s company, Exciton Technologies Inc., is on the verge of commercializing a new bacteria-fighting bandage. The wound dressing is coatedwith nanocrystalline silver (insets) that has anti-bacterial properties.


Working on projects that had immediateclinical applications appealed to Precht. He was impatient with the idea that it could take a decade for a pharmaceutical he helped develop to hit the market. “I saw a far greater opportunity in medical devices,which can get regulatory approval and out on the market in a fraction of that time,” he says.

In 2001, he set out to start his own company, Exciton Technologies Inc. Drawingon his expertise with Nucryst and the expertiseof Dr. Stojaan Djokic, an adjunct professor inthe Faculty of Engineering, Precht took thewound-dressing one step further. Instead ofspraying fabric with silver crystals, Excitontreats the fabric with silver salts using a patent-ed new technology called exSALT. Thisrequires less silver and is therefore less costly.At the same time, the silver permeates the fabric for more thorough treatment of infections.

An energetic 39-year-old, Precht personi-fies Exciton, named after a highly charged,excited electron. He started the companywith what he calls “love money”—almost $1million in cash borrowed from friends, rela-tives, and anyone else he could get to sharehis dream.

“I couldn’t attract industry partnersbecause they wouldn’t pay for research and development. They didn’t know if ourtechnology was unique, and there were allkinds of issues related to getting a patentbefore anyone would make a commitment,”he explains.

When he got the patent in 2007, theresponse from industry wasn’t much better.

“We had companies beginning to take alook at us, but they were telling us to get a product to market first,” he says. “Theydidn’t want to pay for that, either. We needed to raise money. It’s been a fundraisingissue from the get-go.”

Having exhausted his sources of “lovemoney,” Precht hit a wall that many smallstart-ups face, that awkward stage betweenthe hundreds of thousands of dollars they can raise to get their projects onto the drawing boards, and the millions they needto get into production.

That’s where TEC Edmonton came in. Afriend suggested that the business incubator,created to get ideas like Precht’s from thedrawing board to a commercial reality, mightjust be his solution.

Precht didn’t exactly fit the model,though. TEC Edmonton usually takes ideasfrom the university lab to the business world.Precht hadn’t been in university since 1992;he had conducted most of his research at pri-vate labs in Edmonton and at his home.

“We didn’t get a whole lot of support outof the gate because this isn’t university tech-nology and we couldn’t afford universityresources,” Precht says. But he made his presentations to the right people and his persistence paid off. “As an engineer, mytraining was to be a problem solver,” heshrugs. “I had a problem and this is the wayI found to solve it.”

Operating out of Enterprise Square with alab and a prototype machine for infusing fab-ric with silver, Exciton now has a staff of 11. Italso has access to business, marketing, andcommunications expertise, and gets help andbacking when applying for government grants.

“We have a physical presence, a website(www.excitontech.com) and business support,and it all starts to snowball,” he says. “In thepast year, we’ve raised over $3.5 million.” Ofthat, $750,000 came from governmentsources, including a $500,000 commercial-ization grant from the Alberta HeritageFoundation for Medical Research.

“We’re well financed to build next year’sbusiness plan that includes raising revenue,”he says.

The next step will be to leave the incubatorand find a new home. With U.S. Food andDrug Administration approval for exSALTgranted this summer, production will beginbefore winter. Production capacity shouldgrow to 10 times its current level and the num-ber of staff could triple, to 30. Precht alsoexpects patent approval next year for his silver-based disinfectant cleaner, which would add awhole new line to the mix.

“The question is: How big can we makethis?” he says. “We’re targeting a couple ofapplications that will generate X amount of

revenue. The question is: Can we generate10X revenue by doing other devices andexpanding our technology portfolio as well asour target portfolio?”

Initial applications will be in hospitals.The Fireman’s Burn Treatment Unit at theU of A Hospital will conduct the first humantrials of the wound dressing once it receivesapproval. The disinfectant products will beused first to sterilize medical implant devicesand for other hospital uses. After that, silver-infused bandages and liquid disinfectant mayeventually hit the shelves of your local drug-store, depending on marketing plans, businesspartners, and licensing agreements over thenext couple of years.

Precht recognizes there is a huge marketfor his products. More than $12 billion isspent on wound-care products worldwideevery year and an additional $2 billion isspent on disinfectants. According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention,hospital-acquired infections in the U.S. alonecost up to $30 billion a year and the averagecost to treat an individual infection is up to $15,000.

“When you’re dealing with numbers likethose, all you need is a small percentage,” he says.

Along with success in the wound care andantiseptic liquid market, Precht would like tostay involved in the technology incubationand commercialization process that hasbrought Exciton this far. He thinks he has alot to offer.

“I see a lot of companies that are nowgoing through what I went through in theearly stages,” he says. “They’ve got a goodidea, but maybe they can’t find the right linksand need the business skills to get to the nextlevel. This model should work regardless ofwhether it’s silver technology or other typesof technology.”

His advice to others: “Don’t jump off acliff without a parachute. You can never tella person not to go for what they believe in.It’s very important they assess their limita-tions and get help. Don’t think you can do itall yourself.”

The disinfectant products will be used

first to sterilize medical implant

devices.

Larry Johnsrude is anEdmonton-based writer and broadcaster.


r. Ray Rajotte is widely regarded as the first person inthe University of Alberta’s history to have the “bio-medical engineering” designation on his PhD.

The multidisciplinary credentials aren’t surprising.Rajotte has always been difficult to pigeonhole

because he has never been satisfied with the status quo or sat in the same place for very long. Always the pioneer, he was part of the first graduating class from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1962, taking work at Edmonton’s General Hospitalas an X-ray technician. The job set him on a path of research and discovery that has dramatically improved the lives of diabetics aroundthe world.

Rajotte became interested in medical research when working on aproject with Dr. George Bondar, a surgeon at the General, studying X-ray images of blood flow in the heart and in tumours. At about thesame time, Rajotte recalls, he picked up a news magazine and read anarticle about biomedical engineering. He was hooked.

“I didn’t even know what a biomedical engineer was, but this arti-cle said it was the career of the future—and I wanted to be one,” hesays. Although the Department of Biomedical Engineering is nowadministered jointly by the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty ofMedicine and Dentistry, in those early days the Faculty of Engineeringhad no biomedical engineering programs. So, while working towardshis degree in electrical engineering, Rajotte simultaneously took med-ical courses. And while working on his master’s degree in electricalengineering, he learned surgical techniques at the Surgical MedicalResearch Institute in the Faculty of Medicine.

mistaken

IDENTITY

Ray Rajotte has made medical history–as an engineer

Db y R i c h a r d C a i r n e y



The blend of an engineering and medicaleducation paid off handsomely. Rajotte haddeveloped a suite of skills that enabled him todo everything from designing devices to per-fuse stomach tissue, to performing delicatesurgical procedures for his own research.

Rajotte and former electrical engineeringprofessor Dr. Geoff Voss were among thenon-medical faculty members to work at theSMRI, in part to establish credibility withtheir colleagues in medicine.

“Ray was brilliant at surgery. You had toknow surgical procedures to re-implant afetal mouse heart, and Ray was very good atit,” says Voss. “We used to say that Ray wastoo practical to be an academic. Now, he is avery practical academic.”

Rajotte might not argue with that point.But he will add that he’s also driven by curios-ity. Curiosity fuelled his desire to follow hismaster’s degree with a PhD, taking hisresearch into cryopreservation even further. In

1972, he read an article about successfultransplant of the islets of Langerhans, the cellsthat produce insulin. Islet cell transplantationwas becoming a hot research topic around theworld, and Rajotte was interested.

“I said, ‘Geez’—and this is how researchis—I said, ‘I wonder if I can successfully cry-opreserve these islet cells, because it couldhave an important clinical application.’ And,using my engineering education, I beganworking on it. And this was my PhD, show-ing that you could cryopreserve the islets ofLangerhans.”

It didn’t happen overnight. Research istypically accentuated by a string of failures,as you gradually learn everything you need tosucceed. And Rajotte, along with supervisorsVoss and Dr. John Dossetor, a nephrologist,had some memorable failures. For instance, ifyou freeze tissue in order to transplant itlater, you need to be able to thaw that tissuewithout blowing it up.

Rajotte’s first research lab seems rudi-mentary compared to the facilities at thestate-of-the-art Alberta Diabetes Institute (hetook the lead in building the institute, andwas its founding scientific director). That firstlab, in the basement of the DentistryPharmacy Building, was a renovated wash-room. And with the guidance of Voss, Rajottehad to build a microwave oven with which tothaw cryopreserved organs and tissue.

“Back in the 1960s, there was no Toshibamicrowave. You couldn’t buy one. Geoff wasan expert, and we built ours from scratch,”says Rajotte. “And this was a big box—prob-ably two feet by two feet. You’d turn thesesuckers on and the lights would go down.”

When it came time to try to thaw a cry-opreserved kidney, Voss calculated how longthe frozen organ should be in the microwave.

“Geoff said that, because ice doesn’tabsorb a lot of energy, it would probably takean hour to thaw a frozen kidney that came inat -200° C,” Rajotte recalls. “So we put ourfirst kidney in there, and we cranked thismachine up. And all of a sudden, within 30seconds, there’s a big explosion—boom!

“I said ‘What the heck is going on?’ and Iopened up this big door and there was kidneyall over the place.”

“That’s what makes labs and engineeringfun,” Voss adds. “We were able to deduce alot from that explosion. And it really put mein my place.”

The cryoprotectants had changed the rateat which the organ would absorb energy, to asurprising extent. The team learned that, ifthey could control the process, they’d be ableto rapidly thaw tissues and organs. Theexperiment raised a host of new questionsabout the circumstances in which ice crystalswould cause cellular damage.

To this day, no one has been able to solvethe riddle of cryopreserving and thawing largeorgans. Rajotte achieved success with the fetalmouse heart and, eventually, with the islets ofLangerhans (which are, so far, the largest mul-ticellular tissues that can be frozen, thawed,and transplanted). Rajotte’s PhD work in theisolation, cryopreservation, and thawing ofthe islets would play a vital role in developinga new treatment for Type 1 diabetes.

After completing post-doctoral work atTennessee, Missouri, and UCLA, Rajottereturned to the U of A, taking a position with

Right: Ray Rajotte, as a graduate student,working with Geoff Voss measuring theviability of thawed fetal mouse heartstransplanted to the ear of mouse.

Below: Isolated islet cells under a microscope.


the departments of surgery and medicine asan assistant professor. There, he began build-ing the islet transplant team he hoped woulddevelop better treatments for diabetics, free-ing them from daily insulin injections.

Because it was difficult to recruit seniorresearchers to Edmonton, Rajotte took onbright graduate students who had family tiesto the province. After their graduate training,he’d send these students for post-doctoraltraining at leading research centres likeOxford and St. Louis, and then recruit themback to Edmonton. During the same periodof time, he developed a breakthrough tech-nique to isolate islet cells from the pancreas,overcoming a challenge that had vexedresearchers for years.

In 1989 that team—Drs. Garth Warnock,Norm Kneteman and Eddie Ryan—demon-strated exciting success with islet transplants.At first, the transplant results were less thanpromising, with two patients still requiringinsulin, albeit at reduced doses. But whenRajotte returned to the bank of islet cell tis-sues he’d isolated and frozen while establish-ing the islet cell transplant team, surgeonswere able to thaw and implant even moreislet cells. One patient remained independentof insulin for nearly three years, a remarkableachievement even by today’sstandards.

Still, fewer than 15 percentof transplant recipients wereable to end their dependenceon insulin. Researchers andfunding agencies were givingup on the whole idea of trans-planting islet cells. In 1995 theMedical Research Council ofCanada and the CanadianDiabetes Association with-drew funding for Rajotte’sresearch.

“The world was quite dis-couraged, and questioned whether islet celltransplants would ever be an effectivesurgery,” says former Dean of Medicine Dr.Lorne Tyrrell. “I had individuals in ourFaculty that encouraged us not to supportthis program any further as it was unlikelyever to be successful.”

“We had hit a dead end,” says Rajotte.“And people would say, ‘You’ve been at thisfor 30 years—why don’t you just give up?’

We didn’t give up because, day in and dayout, we could make this work with small animals, and we knew we could take it to thenext level.”

When all seemed lost, Rajotte presentednew ideas to Tyrrell, winning funding fromthe Faculty for six months. During that time,the team regained its support from the MRCand CDA and funds from the AlbertaDiabetes Foundation.

The next decade brought exciting changes.Rajotte continued building his team, includ-ing the key addition of Dr. James Shapiro andthe development of anti-rejection drugs thatweren’t toxic to islet cells. In 2000 a newseries of clinical trials began on the so-called

“Edmonton Protocol” fortype 1 diabetes with remark-able results: 100 percent ofthe patients who had receivedtransplants remained free ofinsulin for a year.

The news made headlinesaround the world—it was themost important advance indiabetes treatment since thediscovery of insulin in 1922.That discovery, incidentally,was made with the aid ofUniversity of Alberta bio-chemist Dr. James Collip.

With the enormous impactof the Edmonton Protocol, Rajotte continuedto move forward, leading a team that secured$28.5 million in funding from the CanadaFoundation for Innovation. That grant, in turn, leveraged more than $270 million in funding from the Government of Albertaand private donors to build the AlbertaDiabetes Institute. The institute housesresearchers from five university faculties who are working on the diabetes puzzle.

“We’re the largest free-standing diabetesresearch institute in North America, andprobably the world,” says Rajotte. “The islettransplant group is the flagship of the insti-tute, but we are fortunate because we haveexperts from across campus, we have a verystrong nutritional group, a strong exercisephysiology group, and strong populationhealth and data self-signalling groups. Andwe have all these outstanding scientists underone roof.”

Still, new challenges remain. As successfulas the Edmonton Protocol is, Rajotte pointsout a fundamental problem. There are just400 donor pancreases available for trans-plant in Canada every year, and every year

there are 6,000 newly diagnosed cases of type1 diabetes. Rajotte and his team are develop-ing anti-rejection drugs and investigating thepossibility of xenotransplantation—animal-to-human transplants.

Whatever comes next, Rajotte says hiseducation as an engineer has been, and willremain, the ace up his sleeve. People outsideof the medical profession often seem sur-prised to learn Rajotte isn’t an MD. He hasalways proudly worn his engineer’s iron ring.

“When people ask me who I am I just say that I’m a farm boy and an engineer from Wainwright, Alberta,” he says. “I’m an engineer—a biomedical engineer—and that education allowed me over the years to take my basic research to the bedside. We engineers think in terms ofprocess and machines. We think a little differently, and that has been an incredibleasset to me.”

In 2000 a new series of clinical trialsbegan on the so-called “EdmontonProtocol” for Type 1 diabetes withremarkable results: 100 percent of the patients who had received transplants remained free of insulin for a year.

Isolated human islets prepared for transplantation. Each islet is approximately 200 – 300 micrometers in size and has approximately 2,000 cells.

Rajotte’s 1971 graduationphoto.


As a Faculty of Engineering technician,Allan Muir played an important supportingrole in the development of the EdmontonProtocol for islet cell transplants. Transplantpioneer Ray Rajotte (PhD Electrical ’75) stillcalls upon Muir’s expertise.

ames Bond wouldn’t have gotten farwithout Q’s talent for fabricatinghandy and ingenious gadgets. MarioAndretti would never have tasted

a drop of champagne if not for his pit crew. And, every year, dozens of research and engineering student projects would stallat the planning stage without help from the Faculty of Engineering’s crack team ofmachinist-technicians.

They translate ideas into action, thesefolks—people like Allan Muir (still pitchingin, 11 years after his so-called retirement) and David Waege (a relative newcomer, three years in and counting). They standready to tackle any challenge that getsthrown their way, whether it’s crafting anewly invented piece of specialized equip-ment for a research project or refining avaguely sketched-out idea from a Mec E 260student.


In Muir’s case, the job involved makingmedical history—playing a technical supportrole in the development of the EdmontonProtocol for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes.

Seated in a boardroom at the AlbertaDiabetes Institute on campus, Muir clearlyloves his job. After a long and rewarding careeras a machinist in the Civil and MechanicalEngineering departments, Muir has distilled hisduties to the ones he enjoys most. “I’ve alreadybeen retired 11 years, but I hang out aroundhere now, and I love it. I’m only three half-daysa week. I have a little machine shop at home,and I can just carry on. I like doing that.”

What brings a retired machinist to the dia-betes institute? It all started in the early1970s, when Muir’s shop in Civil Engineeringwas just around the corner from the office ofa young grad student named Ray Rajotte.Rajotte, who was beginning a decades-longquest for an alternative treatment for dia-

betes, soon discovered that he could wheedlefavours from his technician neighbour.

“Ray would come over and ask me if hecould get a little bit of stuff done,” recallsMuir. “Sometimes he even drilled the oddhole himself. He told me he had no money, soI would just do it buck-cheap for him.”

Eventually, Muir helped Rajotte designand build a perfusion chamber, a deviceessential to Rajotte’s work with pancreaticislet cells. Rajotte had only a rough idea of what he needed. “Professors always seem to come along with just a little scribble on a hand towel,” Muir laughs.“Ray would say, ‘You know what I mean,Allan, it’s kind of like this…’ I always liked that, because it meant I always had an input into the project. It was kind ofdesign-as-you-go.”

The pair built a second, slightly modifiedperfusion chamber a few years later, then

BESTSUPPORTING

ACTORBy Scott Rollans

J


Department of MechanicalEngineering technician DaveWaege helps enhance students’learning experiences, and supports professors with technical know-how.


Scott Rollans is a writer, editor and musician living in Edmonton.

designs, builds, and eventually drives its ownFormula race car.

Along with numerous industry sponsor-ships, the team receives up to 400 hours ofmachine shop time. They also get countlesshours of consultation with Waege. “It’s niceto have someone who has so much hands-onexperience,” says FSAE team member CahayHo, following the team’s best-ever interna-tional competition. “We’re in the classroommost of the time, and I’m pretty sure that hehas more experience than all of us combined.”

It also helps that, when it comes to theFSAE project, Waege has pretty much seen itall. “I know what’s happening on the car, andI know from year to year to year what’s hap-pened, and what will happen from year toyear. They have the same problems everyyear, just because there are new studentsevery year.”

“He’s a great resource,” marvels FSAEteam leader Marcus Beaudry. “He probablyknows more about cars than anyone else inthe Faculty. We’ll give him a drawing andhe’ll look at us and say ‘You want me to buildTHAT?’ And he’ll help us find a better way ofdoing things.”

At competitions, Waege’s expertise allowshim to assert a calming influence on theteam—even under dire circumstances. “Oneyear, the car wasn’t 100 percent completewhen we went down there,” Waege recalls.“So they were trying to mount all of the body-work to the chassis. And there are so manypeople, and everybody’s got their ideas andeverybody wants to be right.” At times likethose, Waege is part mechanic, part Jedi mas-ter. “You just sort of guide them down thepath. It’s their car, but you give them ideas.”

Like Muir, Waege is constantly gratefulthat he ended up at the U of A, rather than ina typical machine shop.

“Most shops, you go in, and there’s yourmachine. You’ve got a bucket of parts to startmachining—make your parts one afteranother, after another. And when you’re donethose, there’s another bucket standing therewaiting for you.

“Here, every day is different. It’s not anine-to-five job.”

“It isn’t like working in an oilfield shop,making flanges,” he laughs.

At the opposite corner of campus, at hisdesk looking out on the MechanicalEngineering machine shop, machinist/techni-cian David Waege also loves the diverse chal-lenges of his job.

Waege gets the chance to stretch his mindevery day. One moment he’s meeting withprofessors to discuss their research needs,and the next he’s lending much-needed direc-tion to students who “kind of have an idea ofwhat they think they might want” to com-plete a design project.

Those second-year lab projects can beginwith nothing more than a rough drawing ona notepad, or a verbal idea expressed “with alot of hand-waving.” Gradually, though,things literally begin to take shape. “You sitdown with them and you work with them tocreate drawings,” Waege explains. “Youmake sure that it can actually be built forthem. And then, once they’re close enoughfor that, you start actually building the piecesfor their project.”

Waege relishes the endless on-the-job sur-prises. “Sometimes people build somethingthat nobody’s ever seen before. It may or maynot work as well as they hope, but it’s some-thing different. It’s part of what makes this agreat place to work.”

Waege’s support duties sometimes extendwell beyond the machine shop. Every Junefor the past few years, he has accompaniedthe U of A automotive design team to theinternational Formula Society of AutomotiveEngineers’ student competition in California.It’s the culmination of a massive, months-long project, in which a team of students

parted company—until shortly after Muirretired in 1998. “I was actually off on retire-ment for about three months, as my wifesays. Then I got a call from Ray Rajotte ask-ing if I was still around.

“He said, ‘Al, we want to build anotherperfusion chamber, but a bit different. Areyou available, and can you have some access?’So I started doing that in about 1999. Again,I built it from a little bit of hand-waving anda bit on some scratch paper.”

Once Muir and Rajotte refined their per-fusion chamber, the device played a majorrole in the development of the EdmontonProtocol. Muir and Rajotte also evolved intoa finely honed inventing duo. “Between Rayand me, with all this diabetes research, we’vecome up with at least 12 different things,found out they worked, and modified them.There are things for holding beakers, andshaker plates, and coils for cooling off littlewater baths.”

This professional marriage is matched byMuir’s happy—if sometimes unorthodox—life at home, with wife Jean. “My wife and Iwind stainless steel tubing in our basement,”Muir smiles. “We’ve made lots of coils.”

These days Muir often hits the road,installing and maintaining specially modifiedblood processors around the world. Becausethe market is so small, Cobe Cardiovascular(the company that built the basic processor)allowed Muir and the U of A to take chargeof doing the modification needed for theEdmonton Protocol. “So now I’m the manu-facturer, the installer, the serviceman, andeverything for this modification to blood cellprocessors,” Muir laughs.

The job has taken him to Switzerland,Sweden, Sicily, and numerous places in theUnited States—always with Jean at his side.“I say to her, ‘You know, I’m going to be inthe lab, and if you want to go shopping orsightseeing, go ahead.’ And she says, ‘No,we’ll do it together.’ And we can do it wayfaster with two people. So, we’re down onour knees at the machine, and she’s on oneside and I’m on the other side.”

Muir looks back on his long career withsatisfaction and a well-earned feeling ofaccomplishment. He feels lucky to havestretched his skills in a university setting, andamazed at his ongoing professional connec-tion with Rajotte.

“We’ll give him a drawing and he’ll look at us and say‘You want me to build THAT?’ Andhe’ll help us find a better way of doing things.”



ill Kent (Civil ’31), the Faculty’smost recent winner of an AlumniHonour Award, will turn a lively

102 years old this October. “I grew up want-ing to build things, and I’m still chomping atthe bit to build something.”

Kent is sitting in his Langley, B.C., livingroom, where he leads a fully independent,happy life. “This summer,” he confides, “I’mgoing to build a sleeping cabin for a friendout on Salt Spring Island. I’ve already donethe plans and the lumber list.”

Just how early on did Kent show his incli-nation to build things? As a toddler, he wouldtake a clock apart and put it back together.As a young boy, he saw a rotary snowplowclear the railroad tracks near his home inDelburne, Alberta. He made his own versionfrom salvaged scrap metal—and it worked.

In addition to constructing bridges andpower plants over his 37-year career, Kent has been building something else these past few years. When he turned 99, his daughter Jane and son-in-law Stan established a bursary to honour Bill and hislate wife, Doris. The bursary is designed tohelp first-year engineering students who areon the edge financially.

B

BornBuildtoHow Bill Kent beat the Great Depression

by Ellen Schoeck

Bill Kent endured tough times as a university studentduring the Great Depression. At 101, Kent wants to helpEngineering students who are facing financial hardships.


“I well remember the struggle to makeends meet when I was in engineering, and Iknow how my parents sacrificed to get methrough,” he says. “I am deeply grateful thatthis bursary has been established, and nowcontribute to it myself. I also make sure tomeet each year with the student who hasreceived the bursary. It’s a great feeling toknow you are helping someone in need,someone with a passion to be an engineer.”

Kent was born in 1907 in the tiny town of Content, Alberta—his birth certificateactually notes that he was born in theNorthwest Territories. When the railroadbypassed Content, the family moved to nearby Delburne.

“My dad ran a livery stable during an erawhen horses were the main form of trans-portation,” Kent recalls. “When cars startedto rule the road, he had to find anothercareer, and it was my mother who decided weshould move to Edmonton. The reason?Simple. The University of Alberta was there,and she wanted me to live out my dream ofbecoming an engineer.”

Kent’s dad started work for a local lum-ber company, but in the 1920s Alberta was ina deep recession. His mom took in boarders,saving money for Bill’s education. During hisfinal years of high school at what is now OldScona Academic High School, Kent workedduring the summers at the lumber companywith his dad—for 35 cents an hour.

From his first day on campus in September1925, Kent bonded with the U of A. He is theuniversity’s oldest graduate returning eachyear for Alumni Weekend. He loves to “hangout” during those weekends with today’sengineering students, listening to their stories,their concerns about the cost of going to uni-versity, and their dreams for the future.

When Kent began his engineering studiesin 1925, Engineering had been a stand-alonefaculty for four years. The School of Nursinghad just launched; the first medical studentseducated entirely at the U of A graduated that

year, and the Tuck Shop had been open forone year. Enrolment was about 1,220 and thegovernment grant was some $475,000. Onlytwo students on campus had cars.

“If I had a dime in my pocket during thosesix years at the U of A, I thought I was rich,”Kent smiles. “And one day I had a clearchoice while at the Tuck Shop. For 10 cents Icould buy a pack of cigarettes, or I could geta cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. I chosethe latter. It was a wise spending choice, and Ialso credit that choice to my longevity!

“Our pastimes were simple. There wassuicide slide on campus, where you couldhurtle down the hillside on a toboggan downto what is, today, Emily Murphy Park. Oryou could skate at Jimmy Smith’s outdoorrink in Strathcona, at Whyte Avenue just off109 Street, with a freshly flooded rink and aband on ‘skids.’ We’d also skate at the newVarsity Rink on campus, which all the stu-dents helped pay for.”

But most of all, says Kent, “We had closefriends—from high school, and from church.A hike down to Whitemud Creek was free,and we’d roast wieners and buns. We all wentdown to the river as a group, but we cameback as couples.”

Even leaner times soon followed. WithAlberta already in recession, “when the stockmarket crashed in 1929, it had already been sobad that it could hardly get that much worse.”

Kent graduated from Civil Engineering in1931, in the face of the world’s worst finan-cial crisis. He was well-prepared, having gonethrough university in penny-pinching mode.“Dean Wilson suggested I go see the provin-

cial survey head. I did, and ended up survey-ing all over northwest Alberta. I was in thebush and muskeg every summer. In the win-ter, my classmate Dudley Menzies—later thecity’s chief engineer—had me design con-crete, arched bridges around Edmonton. Youprobably cross one of these old bridges if youdrive anywhere near the city’s old core. Butby the time I married in 1934, at the height ofthe Depression, I knew that spending thesummers away from home wasn’t for me.”

So Bill and Doris rented a housekeepingroom in a rambling Vancouver home where atony condo building now stands. “There weresix families and one bathroom,” he recalls.

Jobs were scarce, “and we did anything tosurvive.” Kent tried placer-mining nearKamloops, backbreaking work for about adollar a day in gold flakes. “We’d get a gunnysack of apples for 50 cents and anothergunny sack of onions for a dollar. That wasour diet.”

Then, in 1937, the Lions Gate Bridge wasslated to begin construction. Every engineerwithin spitting distance, including Kent,applied for work.

But Kent had an edge. One night at theVancouver library, he was sitting at a tablestudying bridges. “I was reading one book inparticular about two swing bridges built overFalse Creek—the book was called DePontibus—that’s Latin for “All aboutBridges.” Little did I know that a Mr. Way,who was in charge of the bridge contracts, hadspotted me. He had remembered my namefrom my application for work on the bridgeand asked if I wanted to walk him back to theHotel Georgia. Along the way, we shared abag of peanuts and talked about bridge-build-ing. I was hired the next day and worked con-tinually as an engineer for 37 years.”

Kent helped prevent a serious snag in theLions’ Gate construction. He had taken thefirst course in the “relatively new” soilmechanics area. So, as a young engineer onhis first real job, he looked at the plans forthe piers and thought, this is not the best wayto build them.

“When we started the south anchor,” heexplains, “the test pits showed that the soilwas strong, lots of hardpan, very strong. Sowe convinced the head man, with this newscience, to reduce the size of the anchor,change its shape—and it saved a bundle.”

He loves to ‘hang out’

during those [Alumni]

weekends with today’s

engineering students,

listening to their stories,

their concerns about

the cost of going to

university, and their

dreams for the future.


Ellen Schoeck (BA ‘72, MA ‘77)served as Director of theUniversity Secretariat for 27years, and has written twoaward-winning books about

the U of A: I Was There: A Century ofAlumni Stories about the U of A and a second book dedicated to Bill Kent entitledThe University of Alberta: A Century ofCampus Maps.

Kent went on from there to design or buildbridges and power plants in every provinceand territory in Canada. He lists some of hisfavourite projects: Powell River laboratoryand concrete-arch dam; magnesium plants inNevada during the Second World War; an AirForce training camp at Abbotsford; ChurchillFalls generator installation; Canso Causewayconnecting Cape Breton Island with the main-land; hydro plants at Grand Rapids,McArthur Falls, Exshaw, and Snare River; apowerhouse at Bennett Dam; the western halfof the DEW line; buildings on the UBC andSimon Fraser University campuses; and the St.Lawrence Seaway excavation.

And, remember when Winnipeg almostflooded a few months ago? Kent built theRed River Canal around Winnipeg and theconcrete control dam.

“I find it amazing to look back and thinkespecially about the hydro plants I helpedbuild,” Kent says. “Until I was halfwaythrough Grade 10, I did my homework witha coal oil lamp.”

With his hard-earned life experience, Kentoffers sage advice for getting through toughfinancial times.

First, “Don’t spend needlessly.”Kent likes to point out that, when he trav-

els back to the U of A for Alumni Weekend,he takes the Greyhound red-eye, saving $85each way over on-sale airfares.

Second, “Never give up your chance tofollow your dreams.”

Kent cites the experience of six CivilEngineering classmates who graduated withhim during the Depression. “They all wantedto be engineers and they didn’t let theDepression stop them. Let me tell you aboutjust two. Frank Miller used to go to CampBorden during school holidays, and helearned to fly. By the end of the war, he wasthe top man in the Air Force. And CharlieNicks was an expert in engines. During theDepression he started a business repairingsmall engines—he prospered.”

Third, “When you are able to, give backto others who need a leg up, a helping hand.”

In his dining room, Kent has hung theplaque Dean Lynch gave him to honour thebursary that bears Bill’s and Doris’ names.Kent is particularly pleased that studentsreceive their bursary dollars at the end of thefirst term, when their money is running out.

“If students are struggling financially, itaffects their studies, and if they are worriedstiff at exam time about paying school-relat-ed bills, that’s not good, is it? I am grateful tomy family for establishing this bursary andfeel good, each day, knowing that it is helpingstudents in these tough times.”

Construction on Vancouver’sLions Gate Bridge began in 1934and engineers from miles around,including Kent, applied to workon the project. His own initiativeand a bit of luck secured him an

important job.


ngineering Co-op student MattWilliams couldn’t wait to get outof the classroom and into the oil-patch to figure out for himself

how to implement the bits and pieces ofknowledge he was getting from textbooksand lectures.

“In school they teach you how it shouldbe,” said Williams, a petroleum engineeringstudent, who is finishing his final Co-op termat Talisman Energy Inc. “In the field you seehow it is, how it works and how it doesn’t.”

Williams is one of more than 1,400 stu-dents enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering’sCo-op program: about 40 per cent of allundergraduates after the first year of studiesenter the program. Williams believes hishands-on experience in three different partsof the oil and gas industry will quicklyenhance his future prospects, despite a tougheconomic market that has seen hundreds ofengineers laid off in Alberta’s notoriouslyvolatile energy industry.

Co-op education has been part of theFaculty since 1981, having been establishedafter requests from the province’s energyindustry. During the heady days of theprovince’s 1970s boom, huge numbers of co-op students were coming from Ontario’s

University of Waterloo to work in the oilpatchand getting a jump on Alberta jobs.

“Our students were finding themselves ata disadvantage when they went to look for ajob because they were up against studentswho had already been working for fourmonths,” says Dr. Ken Porteous, AssociateDean of Student and Co-op Services.

The Faculty phased in a five-year Co-opdegree program allowing for three paid andsupervised work terms sequenced in the aca-demic terms: two eight-month work experi-ence terms and another lasting four months.In 1982, all 42 students in the program gotCo-op jobs. By 2008, the 1,457 engineeringstudents had nine full-time co-ordinatorsbeating the bushes for positions acrossCanada, and 1,443 students were hired. Jobscome in all industries and all size of opera-tions: from startup companies to corporategiants and everything in between.

While the work experience was invaluable,Laurie Kemp (Chemical ’04) chose the Co-opprogram for an equally pragmatic reason:“This was an opportunity to pay my waythrough school without making my parents gobroke.” As the fourth of six daughters born toa Ponoka-area farmer and his schoolteacherwife, Kemp grew up understanding the impor-

MatchmakingMatchmakingCo-op jobs vulnerable

in a tough economy

TenuousTimein a

By Judy Monchuk

E

Anthony Eshpeter (ComputerEngineering, '02) found success as aCo-op student with Subnet Solutions.Today, he's vice president of theCalgary firm, and happy with the performance of Faculty of Engineeringstudents the company hires for Co-op placements.



Judy Monchuk is an award winning journalist and author living in Calgary.

tance of practicality. Today, she works onPetro-Canada’s Fort MacKay River oil sandsproject, utilizing steam-assisted gravitydrainage technology on a commercial scale.

The paid work terms have added up overthe years: between 1981 and 2008, studentsearned $220 million on Co-op assignments.But most will cite networking opportunitiesand the chance to learn different corporatecultures as the program’s greatest strengths.

Employer feedback sheets often state howimpressed they are by what the student wasable to bring to the job. Some employers areso impressed with the quality of student workthat the only graduating engineers they hireare those with Co-op experience.

The connection with the big players inindustry has traditionally paid huge divi-dends. Large companies, including energyand utility companies, consulting firms, man-ufacturing and government sectors regularlyhire up to 10 students at a time.

But the recent economic maelstrom haswreaked havoc with work experience posi-tions. Companies facing a collapse in businessare cancelling student jobs or dramatically cut-ting back on the numbers of students they takeon. It’s hard to bring a student in the frontdoor while full-time staff are being let go.

Looking ahead, many employers are taking await-and-see approach before committing toany positions. The fall work term could bebleak, says Calgary-based placement co-ordi-nator Linda Lewington, who has been con-necting students and employers since 1998.

“This is the first time in 11 years that only16 (of 130) students were placed in the firstround,” Lewington said in late June.“Normally we would have placed at least onethird.”

Subnet Solutions is an exception in thecurrent job market. The Calgary firm pro-

vides automation solutions for the utilitiesindustry, monitoring and controlling powergrids. With a growing slate of NorthAmerican clients, Subnet recently added extraCo-op students to its staff list when otheremployers had to back out.

“We’re booming in a time of bust,” saysAnthony Eshpeter (Computer Engineering’02), vice-president of software with Subnet.“Oil and gas may be busting, but the utilitiesindustry is going strong.”

But when Eshpeter arrived at SubnetSolutions in May 1999 for his third co-opplacement, the fledgling company had a staffof fewer than 10. To the young engineer, lim-ited resources offered limitless opportunity.

“I was probably the third person broughtinto the development team for their first prod-uct,” he said. “There was as much responsibil-ity as I wanted to take on and I welcomed it.”

Eshpeter delayed his return to school, tak-ing a year off to complete the project and seeit implemented. After four months in univer-sity to complete his degree, it was back toSubnet, where he moved up the corporateladder quickly. In his executive position,Eshpeter takes an active role in adding youngCo-op students to the staff mix. Subnet cur-rently has six interns among its staff of 70.

“We end up with a lot of jobs that areinteresting and challenging for Co-op stu-dents,” says Eshpeter. “And we’re usuallyquite impressed at how well the students con-tribute to their team.”

That’s a sentiment often expressed inemployer feedback. And the students rise tothe challenges they are given. For example,one Co-op student was the project manager ofa $5-million compressor station. The abilityto help find and groom young talent is part ofthe reason Co-op is deeply integrated in therecruiting strategies of many companies. Thatdoesn’t change, even when times are tough.

Because of the benefits of the Co-op program, some companies are maintainingtheir current student commitments for now,despite a hiring freeze elsewhere.

“The biggest vulnerability the (Co-op)program has is the economy,” says Porteous.“In the past we’ve been able to managethrough, but we will need help from employ-ers out there.”

The changing marketplace will meanchanges in recruiting job placements, given thecurrent economic outlook, and looking to new

industries and corporate partners. Lewingtonand other co-ordinators are knocking ondoors of smaller companies who may not haveconsidered hiring Co-op students in the past.Any new strategies will always include con-necting with successful graduates.

“We expect alumni to go forth, be suc-cessful and eventually give someone else,another student perhaps, a break,” saysLewington. “I’m seeing people I’ve placedwho are now in supervisory roles and theywant to give back.”

Laurie Kemp at Petro-Canada agrees.Kemp mentored Co-op students for threeyears and found it a great learning experience.“When they do catch onto something, it’sawe-inspiring,” she said. “We know what theCo-op student expects from their mentors.”

For students, the work-placement destina-tions may become more varied. Lewingtonwants companies to think about possibilitiesthat may arise in the current market wherework still needs to be done.

“My gut instinct is that there are still jobsout there,” says Lewington. “It’s cheaper tohire a Co-op student than someone full time oron contract. You’ve got bright young peoplewho you can hire to bridge some of the gaps.”

If your company is interested in Co-opstudents, call 1.800.661.4106 (toll free) or inEdmonton call 780.492.5152, or [email protected] .

The changing marketplace will mean

changes in recruiting jobplacements and looking

to new industries andcorporate partners.

Dr. Ken Porteous


in memoriamThe Faculty of Engineering sincerelyregrets the passing of the followingalumni and friends.

The Faculty of Engineering wasrecently made aware of the following alumni who passedaway more than a year ago.

James Alfred Barnes, Electrical ‘51, of Edmonton, AB, in June 2009

Emil John Becze, Eng Physics ‘55, of Edmonton, AB, in April 2009

Peter Edward Den Hartog, Petroleum‘55, of Calgary, AB, in April 2009

Robert B. Dryburgh, Civil ‘58, ofBurlington, ON, in February 2009

James Thomas Flynn, Eng Physics ‘43, of Waterloo, ON, in June 2009

H Thomas Greaves, Electrical ‘50, ofEdmonton, AB, in November 2008

John Gregory, Chemical ‘45, MScChemical '48, of Edmonton, in May 2009

Richard Eugene Harris, Chemical ‘44, of Thornhill, ON, in June 2009

Roger William Hill, Mechanical ‘69, of Calgary, AB, in April 2009

Bradley David Koberstein, Mechanical‘94, of Edmonton, AB, in May 2009

Gary David Kraft, Metallurgical ‘91, of Fruitvale, BC, in January 2009

Robert George Mason, Electrical ‘48, of St. Albert, AB, in March 2009

Leo Francis McDonnell, Chemical ‘48, ofUpper Providence, PA, in January 2009

Alec Duncan McEachern, Chemical ‘57,of Campbellford, ON, in January 2009

Donald John McNeil, Petroleum ‘50, of Trochu, AB, in May 2009

Raymond Clinton Miller, Civil ‘53, of Richmond, BC, in March 2009

Alex Sacuta, Chemical ‘51, ofEdmonton, AB, in April 2009

William Schulz, Chemical ‘56, of FortSaskatchewan, AB, in February 2009

Osman James Walker, Chemical '42, of Lansdowne, ON, in April 2009

John P Walsh, Civil ‘51, of Abbotsford,BC, in May 2009

Karl Michael Weiss, Electrical ‘74, MScElectrical '78, of Kanata, ON, in June 2009

Peter Rollo Willette, Civil ‘88, of St Albert, AB, in May 2009

Luis Berrios Jamett, Electrical ‘89

Allister Scott Brekke, Mechanical ‘72, of Edmonton, AB, in August 2008

William Donald Broughton, Mining ‘49,in August 2006

James Joseph Burris, Chemical ‘46, MScChemical '48, of Lincroft, NJ, inFebruary 2007

Lucien M Dwarkin, Electrical ‘35

Francis William Kelly, Chemical ‘72,MEng Chemical '73, of Calgary, AB, in December 2002

John Charles Pratt, Mining ’32, in October 2003

Kenneth Patrick Sheeran, Electrical ‘50,of Roanoke, VA, in August 2008

DaviD Panar1918-2009

Long-time Mechanical Engineering professor David Panar passed away July 9 inthe Weinberg Residence of the Louis Briar Home and Hospital.

From the very beginning Panar wanted to be an engineer, so in 1937 he enrolledin Engineering at the University of Alberta, where he stayed two years. MechanicalEngineering was not offered at the U of A, so he completed his degree at theUniversity of Michigan.

The Second World War was on. With his knowledge of aircraft engines, andthrough a series of interviews, he was selected to attend a course for the British AirCommission. Panar was then sent on various training courses to a number of aircraftfactories that included the Hawker Hurricane factory in Fort William. This thoroughtraining gave Panar an excellent background in aircraft manufacture and repair. Afew years later when he went to Israel, this training was a major factor in the suc-cessful reconstruction of “the Black Spit,” the first fighter aircraft produced inIsrael—engineered by David Panar.

The story began with the shooting down of an Egyptian Spitfire in May 1948.The aircraft made a wheels-up forced landing on the beach just north of Tel Aviv.Other than a separated right wing, broken propeller, damaged radiators, and bentcrankshaft, this aircraft was in flyable condition. At least it seemed so to David andthe fledgling Israeli Air Force.

The immediate concern was to repair that Spit and to main-tain it in serviceable condition with no spare parts. The hunt forparts was on; spares were available at nearby airfields. A rapidinventory indicated that one, and maybe two, aircraft could beassembled from the spare parts. The project to repair the Tel AvivSpit was abandoned, and the Israeli Air Force shops proceededto assemble, under Panar’s guidance, “Daled 130,” later namedthe “Black Spit.” The aircraft was airborne on its first take-offattempt, then flown to an operational base near Hadera.

When the war ended, Panar returned to the University ofMichigan to take his Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering.At that time the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A was reelingunder the onslaught of the returning veterans. David was offered a teaching position.He remained as a full-time professor at the U of A for over a quarter of a century,but always found ways to work in a little “on the side” consulting. He is rememberedas Mr. Everything—teacher, story teller, entrepreneur, Assistant to the DeputyMinister of Public Works, and the real brain centre of the Department. He wasalways a willing effective teacher who had an excellent rapport with the students.Busy as he was, he seldom missed a lecture. He flitted about the province in a smallplane and once on a take-off he misjudged the height of a wire fence. The wheelscaught and over he went in a perfect “wheels-up” landing. The next morning Panarstaggered in with two black eyes, facial cuts, and a broken nose, but ready to giveone of his best lectures.

Panar is survived by his wife Bea Goldberg, daughter Arna Poupko Fisher, andgrandchildren, Avi (Shifra) Poupko, Tamar (Elliot) Smith, Hindy (Seth) Galena,Eliezer Poupko, Adina Poupko and four great grandchildren.

(With excerpts from George Ford’s article David Panar: The Black Spit and otherreminiscences, U of A Engineer, Winter 2002.)


key figure in the gallery’s transfor-mation is its chairman, Allan Scott(Mechanical ’68). A keen promoter

of his hometown Edmonton, Scott is alsoknown for his sense of humour. Last fall heshowed up at an exhibit opening wearingcasual clothing and a hardhat to announce tothe city’s arts patrons that he’d just visited

allanscott

Engineering, art, and the future

of our cities

the building site and that the job was on time and on budget (it’s still on track to opennext January).

After graduating from the U of A, Scottworked for a number of energy and utilitycompanies. In the mid-1990s, he showed uplate for a meeting of the board of EdmontonTelephones and found himself chairing the

Later this year, the dramatic new Art Gallery of Alberta

will be completed in the heart of Edmonton. The project

involves demolishing half of the 1969-vintage Edmonton

Art Gallery, grafting on a larger structure rising three

storeys above the original roofline, and topping it off with

a curved, soaring stainless steel sculpture inspired by

the northern lights.

byBruceWhite

With construction of the new Art Gallery of Alberta running at full speed this summer, Allan Scott is gearing up for the grand opening in January, 2010.

A



city-owned utility’s privatization committee.(“That was the last time I was ever late for ameeting,” he jokes.) A successful sale led toScott’s becoming president of TelusCommunications, the company’s landlinedivision. He later became a partner in anEdmonton venture capital firm and servedfive years as president of the EdmontonEconomic Development Corporation.

In addition to being chairman of theAGA, Scott is on the boards of Edmonton’sMelcor Developments Ltd. and AssociatedEngineering Ltd. His wife, Marianne, a fineart dealer, owns the Scott Gallery. The Scottshave two grown children and two grandchil-dren. The following is an edited transcript ofa conversation with Allan Scott in early Mayat the AGA’s temporary location inEnterprise Square.

Q. What can you tell us about the newArt Gallery of Alberta?

A. Randall Stout, the architect, had two ele-ments that he wanted to reflect. First, therewere the northern lights because this is anorthern city. And the reason he kept the boxshape was that he wanted to represent thegrid design of the streets in a prairie city. Oneis very strong and angular, while the other isflowing. It’s a unique piece of architecturethat really breaks the boundaries that existed10 or 15 years ago.

Q. What are some of the challenges?

A. The borealis shape is a continuous stain-less steel swoop that goes inside and outsidethe building. Parts of the borealis go through360 degrees of movement, and all that has tobe fit and put together. You start with thesteel frame, then you put an aluminum sub-structure around it, then you wrap thestainless steel around it, and finally you haveto fit the glass curtain wall to that, right?There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle on thatpart of the building.

Q. How did the project come about?

A. When the Edmonton Art Gallery was builtin 1969, it was a tremendous addition thatmany people worked very hard to put inplace. But over the years, the building beganto have more and more liabilities associatedwith its inability to maintain top-tier envi-ronmental standards of temperature and

humidity to preserve works of art. It becameobvious that something needed to be done ifwe were going to continue to have majortravelling exhibitions come to Edmonton.

Some smaller renovations were consid-ered in the 1990s, but finally in 1998 theboard decided that to raise the funds weneeded, we had to do something the peoplereally identified with. So we adopted what wecalled the Go Big or Go Home strategy. But itcouldn’t happen unless you had a lot of peo-ple working towards the goal. The art galleryis fortunate to have the super-dedicated staffand many, many volunteers who have put allthe elements in place.

Q. You held an architectural competitionand then submitted the four finalists tothe public for comment. Why did youchoose that method?

A. That allowed us to get a sense of what peo-ple were feeling. Obviously, the selectioncommittee had to make a decision based on awhole range of factors including the func-tional elements. Notwithstanding that, wehad a feeling that a lot of people fell in lovewith Randall Stout’s design.

Q. The last show at the old EdmontonArt Gallery was remarkable. You invitedall the artists in Edmonton—kids, stu-dents, amateurs, everybody—to puttheir works up in the gallery.

A. Catherine Crowston, the deputy directorhere, came up with the idea—Art for All—inwhich people could hang any painting theywanted in the gallery. We thought we’d get

400 or 500 paintings, but the final total was3,600, and we basically ran out of wall space.We had 12,000 people go through in threeweeks. It beat some of the Picasso exhibitionsthat we’ve had.

Q. You have lived in this community for most of your life. What was it likegrowing up in post-war Edmonton?

A. It had a small-town feel to it, in some waysan idyllic quality of life. You’d ride your biketo school and you didn’t worry about any-thing happening. We’d play sports from dawnto dusk, carry our sticks and skates to thehockey rink. You’d play hockey all day untilyour mother called you home for supper.

Q. Were you interested in art as a young boy?

A. Not really. But my wife has a lifelong inter-est in art and started collecting early in ourmarriage. She has educated me about artquite a bit and we’ve been fortunate to traveland to see a lot of interesting art galleriesaround the world.

Q. Some people consider art and engineering to be opposites: the so-called left brain and right brain. Is that a correct way of understandingthings?

A. If ever there is an answer to your question,then you should look at Leonardo da Vinci,who had a great right brain and a great leftbrain, too. In Milan, you can visit the nation-al science museum and see his models, andthen down the street you can see his Last

Architect Randall Stout’s design blendsswooping curves and hard angles to mimic the grid design of the city, and the northern lights.

Court

esy

Art

Gal

lery

of A

lbert

a

Supper. There are similarities, I think,between the creative process of fantasticmathematics and the creative process that’sinvolved in producing a painting.

Q. When did you decide you wanted to bean engineer?

A. My best friend growing up was TonyHardy, whose father was R. M. Hardy, thefamous soils expert and dean of engineeringat the U of A. From chumming around withTony and listening to all the fantastic jobsthat his father was doing, I think from Grade8 on, I knew that’s what I was going to do.Talk about a straight-line career path.

Q. Was there any time at the U of A whenyou were confronted with the mathe-matics or physics of it, that you said,“I’m not going to be able to do this”?

A. Oh yeah. First-year calculus is alwayssomewhat daunting, for sure.

Q. Are there any research projects thatstand out in your memory?

A. In fourth-year mechanical engineering, agroup of us were working on the concept ofa heat exchanger to cool blood for brainoperations. My career could have taken avastly different turn if I decided that biomed-ical engineering was something that I wantedto do.

Q. What was your first real-world job asan engineer?

A. I went to Ontario Hydro and was second-ed for six months to Atomic Energy ofCanada, and was asked to help design amechanical arm that would extract the fuelbundles from a reactor in an absolute emer-gency if there was no power. The fuel is in along, long cylinder, and you needed to havethis little hand that people could operate toclamp onto the fuel bundles and pullthem out of the reactor. They builta prototype and I think it actual-ly worked.

Q. You got into management prettyquickly.

A. I was always interested in the big picture,how decisions were made and how resourceswere allocated. That was one of the thingsthat drove me to take my MBA. After I grad-uated, I moved into planning and economicsroles at Interprovincial Pipe Line. We did alot of studies, such as the Mackenzie Valleypipeline and the expansion of the pipelinesystem.

Q. Later, in the late 1990s, you alsowere a venture capitalist for a while.What attracted you to that?

A. I am really interested in the innovationprocess and the great ideas emerging fromuniversity labs. Successful venture capitalistsI’ve seen and read about really provide avalue-add to help emerging companies buildmanagement teams and to solve technicalproblems. The little bit of time that we spenttrying to put the Riverview Venture Partnersfund together and develop a bit of a dealflow, that certainly was interesting.

Q. Cities often evolve into rival pairs.How does the Edmonton-Calgary rivalryaffect how our city is evolving?

A. I try to have a pan-Alberta viewpoint. Wehave the chance to go to Calgary to see allkinds of great things, but we have to makesure that here in Edmonton we continue tobuild on our strengths and enhance our identi-ty. Edmonton has a rich cultural history thatresulted from people having long-term roots inthe community—people like Joe Shoctordeveloping the Citadel Theatre and PhilPonting and the folks who put together theWinspear Centre for Music. And we can’t for-get our sports

legacy; whether you’re an Oilers or Eskimosfan, that’s an important part of our identity.Calgary is a great city as well.

Q. Can Calgary and Edmonton ever weanthemselves off the energy boom-bustcycles?

A. I think you have to recognize that the ener-gy industry will be the driving force for a longtime. What we have to do is evolve the indus-try so it meets world environmental stan-dards to develop energy the way it should inthe 21st century. That’s using a lot of innova-tion and fantastic technology that has beenand will be developed here.

Q. Looking out 50 years, what isEdmonton going to be?

A. Unless someone clicks a switch and hydro-carbon energy becomes obsolete, I seeEdmonton continuing to grow. I would hopewe have an advanced technology industry,maybe related to health care, maybe to ener-gy. From a city-building perspective, all citieshave challenges, and we just have to keepworking to improve things. Hopefully the ArtGallery of Alberta will add another fantasticanchor around Churchill Square, which willmake the city better.

Bruce White is an Edmonton-based business writer and editor.([email protected])


n 2000, he began hanging around a Winnipeg gaming storelistening to conversations until identifying the most avidplayers, then approaching them with an unusual request.

“I grabbed strangers,” Hildebrandt laughs. He neededtest subjects to evaluate early versions of his Psyko Audiogaming headphones with 5.1 surround sound.Setting up a demonstration in his first subject’s basement,

Hildebrandt watched anxiously as his contraption of plasticplumbing tubes and high-tech speakers was placed on thegamer’s head and the adventure began.

It’s a good thing looks didn’t count in those early days. Initialmodels of the headphones resembled a modern-day Medusa, thegorgon of Greek legend whose horrifying mane of live snakeswould turn onlookers to stone. But the auditory payoff was nocautionary myth.

The test subject’s response was instantaneous. “When hestopped playing he didn’t even look at me,” says Hildebrandt.“He said to his other friend, ‘You won’t believe what just hap-pened: (a character) shot at me from this angle and I was able tospin around and get him.’

SOUNDSLIKE SUCP s y k o : k i l l e r

James Hildebrandt (MSc Mechanical

?82) was sure he had cracked the

audio code leading to video game

nirvana. He just needed hard-core

gamers to be consumed by his

mythological beast of a headset.

The problem was he didn?t know

I


James Hildebrandt’s high-performance headphonesbring the sound game players hear up to the samelevel as the graphics in video games.

CESS h e a d p h o n e s f o r g a m e r s

by Judy


“These guys didn’t care about what itlooked like as long as it worked,” saysHildebrandt.

The breathless verdict provided a shot ofpositive reinforcement for Hildebrandt, whoseefforts to develop a high-performance headsetwith “precision directional audio” had justbegun. Almost nine years and $1 million indevelopment costs later, gamers from aroundthe world have been pre-ordering the $299 USheadphones from the Psyko Audio Labs web-site (www.psykoaudio.com) and anticipating afall launch. Popular Science recently includedPsyko in its must-have product list for 2009.

The unusual spelling made it easier tosecure a domain name, but the moniker isderived from psychoacoustics, the study ofhuman perception of sounds. Key to thePsyko design is a bank of five speakers on the

headband, with a wave drive of channelsguiding the sound to both ears. This trans-mits sounds in a far more natural mannerthan traditional headphones, allowinggamers to react more quickly to the directionof each gunshot, bomb blast, or snappingtwig. In short, it creates a 3-D sound system.

“Every time I hear a person say ‘I can hearwhere the sound is coming from,’ the hair onthe back of my neck goes up,” saysHildebrandt. The inventor of Psyko Audio’spatent-pending technology, Hildebrandt islisted as CEO, founder, and “head psyko” ofthe Calgary-based business.

“They can play better and get more out ofthe game. If you can tell where the soundcomes from, your performance is improved,”he says. “Then you experience the game in aricher way.”

Despite the early rave reviews from play-

ers, a friend pulled Hildebrandt aside andpointed out a stark downside to the design:“He told me ‘guys that want your head-phones aren’t going to have girlfriends.’ So Ihad to go from Medusa to something thatreally looks nice.”

The second step was improving the fideli-ty. Knowing where a sound comes from isonly part of the information needed by yourbrain. Once the headset prototype was done,


the next challenge was creating a model thatcould be mass-produced. That proved tricky,and led to several design alterations and pro-duction delays.

“We think we’re within weeks of having amass-production design,” Hildebrandt says(in April). “We think by the end of Augustthere will be a small production run: the firstbatch will probably be 500 units.”

Hildebrandt’s long journey began in 2000,when a friend bemoaned the inability of tra-ditional headphones to duplicate the audioexperience of a surround sound system. Hewanted to indulge in his gaming addictionwithout bothering the rest of his family.

“The problem was he had two kids and awife who didn’t want to hear shooting andblasting at 2 a.m., which was the only time hewould play.” Hildebrandt’s graduate degreefocused on acoustics and gave him the toolsto analyze, design, and build systems.Intrigued by the challenge, he soon became aregular fixture in the plumbing supply aislesof Rona and Home Depot, picking up smalltubes that he would melt and mold at home.

“My (future) wife described it as arts andcrafts for grown-up guys,” he laughed. “We’dboth be in the kitchen: she’d be making din-ner while I was making headphones.”

Many improvements to computer tech-nology have been sparked by gamersdemanding more intricate adventures, whichin turn require better components.Increasingly complex graphics pushed thelimits of computer processors. Avid gamerswould “soup up” their hard drives to makethem run faster, much like a hot rod. Thoseintensified computers would burn hotter,forcing development of better systems thathave been used in other industries.

Hildebrandt had no personal passion forgaming—at least not at first. But he becamehooked on gaming while testing his modifiedheadphones on a series of electronic games.

“I thought it would take 10 minutes to testsomething, and suddenly four hours hadpassed,” he says. “I guess I got sucked into it.”

The headset has recently created plenty ofInternet buzz. Hundreds of websites includereviews from gamers who have tried thePsyko headphones at electronics trade showsover the last year. Some are complimentary.But many more doubt that the headsets canlive up to the hype.

Computer engineer Richerd Chan attend-ed a Calgary technology event in late 2008,where the swirling talk was that Hildebrandthad created the “best headphones ever.”

“I was skeptical, but they were exactlywhat he claimed: the best ever. It’s a mar-velous piece of engineering,” says Chan, 24.An avid gamer, Chan spends his days creatingvideo games for Apple’s iPhone.

Chan sees the Psyko headphones poten-tially getting a lot of use at LAN parties,where people bring their own computers andset up a local area network for multiplayercomputer games or tournaments. But he saysit’s too early to say if Psyko’s headsets are thenew “it” gadget.

“It’s one of those things where you don’trealize you want it until you try it,” saysChan. “It’s more of an enabling technology.You don’t know it can be done better untilyou experience it. They are definitely aheadof their time.”

Self-described tech junkie Brendon Cookwas stunned by the difference in sound in2005 when he tried the headphones, “thesefunny looking black things that looked likethey had been pieced together by hand.”Suddenly, his virtual gaming world was trans-formed. With better audio information, hecould create a clearer mental map of otherpeople and threats.

“Serious gamers will appreciate theperipherals to maximize their performance,their kill-to-death ratio and generalizedwins,” says Cook, a geometrics engineer.“You’re able to own the other guy as much aspossible.”

Hildebrandt knows the start of an eco-nomic recession is not the best time to launcha high-tech entertainment product. Not whena large number of gaming enthusiasts haveseen their disposable incomes plummet inrecent months.

Then again, the Wii home video game con-sole was developed at a time when Sony’sPlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox were los-ing money on their console systems and look-ing to software sales to cover their costs. Sinceintroducing the motion-sensing Wii controllersin 2006, Nintendo has soared to the top of thevideo game world with a collection of gamesand activities that have sold 50 million units.

“A tough economy doesn’t change theneed for innovation,” says Hildebrandt.

“People still want entertainment. I’m wellaware of the economic situation, but it only affects the degree of demand. We wantto get into the marketplace and ramp our-selves up. This technology is providing along-term solution.”

Not everyone is sold on the need for high-performance headphones for the generalplayer. After all, gaming headsets can be pur-chased for under $50. But competitive orprofessional gamers may find any edge theygain worth the additional cost.

“Gamers are pushing the technologicalenvelope,” says Hildebrandt. “These peoplewill pay extra to get it. I didn’t know thatinformation about them when I got started.”

Will hard-core enthusiasts provide a largeenough market? Only time will tell. “As agamer, I think these are the coolest thingsever. I’d give it five thumbs up, or even 10,”says Chan. “It’s hard to create hype for aproduct like this because you can’t believe theclaims until you try it.”

Hildebrandt’s longjourney began in 2000, when a friendbemoaned the inability of traditionalheadphones to duplicate the audioexperience of a surround sound system.


Judy Monchuk is an award winning journalist and author living in Calgary.


Frank Gue (Electrical ’51) and Fern, hiswife of 62 years, remain actively involvedin their community. Gue says the Facultyof Engineering was his springboard to arewarding way of life.


n the phone Frank Gue has theeasy-listening storytellingvoice of a charming radio-

announcer, a voice that belieshis 85 years. A talk with him is

embellished with quotes and anecdotesinvolving any number of his favourite sub-jects: engineering, education, philosophy,politics, and aerodynamics, to name a few.

Gue received his formal education in elec-trical engineering at the University of Albertafrom 1947 to 1951, but the real lifelong bene-fit, he believes, is that he learned how to think.

Gue recalls vividly the day one of his lec-turers stood at the front of the class anddrove home the point: “You guys think thatyou’re here to learn how to be an engineer?You’re not here to learn how to be an engi-neer. You can do that later. You’re here tolearn how to think.”

It is a lesson Gue has carried with himthroughout his life, a lesson evident in hisbroad range of undertakings. He says hisfavourite occupation, still, is thinking.

“I owe so much to the university,” saysGue. His heartfelt gratitude for the educationhe received here has translated into a bequest

O

thinkingfuture

to the Faculty of Engineering in his will. It’s a“modest” amount, says Gue, waving awayany hint of a suggestion that he may be doingsomething extraordinarily generous or noble.Call it what you will: the gift will enable astudent who might not otherwise have thefinancial wherewithal to attend university toenroll in the Faculty of Engineering. In fact,Gue has been contributing to the Universityannually since he graduated in 1951.

“I’m happy to give it,” he says. “It’s auto-matic for me. I loved my time at the Universityof Alberta. I had such marvelous teachers.They were dedicated, thorough, patient.”

The professors wanted them to knowthings, and the students—the majority ofthem at that time young men returning fromthe war—were serious and eager to learn. Butthat’s not to say there wasn’t a lot of fun, too.

“In one of my classes an instructor wasexplaining atomic reaction, and he had filled aboard and a half with calculus. He was one ofthese dramatic instructors who was passionateabout things, and he pointed to the bottomright hand corner of the board and said, ‘Seethis? There is one electron missing from theequation!’ Short silence. ‘Where has that elec-

of the

The Faculty of Engineering taught Frank Gue how to think—he has applied the lesson well. BY SUZANNE HARRIS

tron gone?’ Then a hoarse voice came from theback: ‘Don’t nobody leave dis room.’”

Gue speaks affectionately of professorssuch as Dr. E.W. Sheldon, who was conta-giously enthusiastic about his students andmathematics. “He enjoyed young people, heliked lecturing. He always took a freshmancourse. He was terrific. Through his passionin the classroom he was able to bring calcu-lus down to earth for us.” And he caredabout the students.

“I remember he once defended me againsta marker who wrote across my papers ‘use oneside of the paper only.’ I wrote a note back say-ing ‘I’m trying to live on $60 a month, mate,and I don’t spare one side of the paper.’ Themarker I guess turned it over to Dr. Sheldon,and I got a note back from Dr. Sheldon: ‘Quiteright, Mr. Gue, you carry right on.’”

Dr. Sheldon was always looking for ‘infin-ity’ and it became a bit of a running joke.

“When the Rutherford Library was beingbuilt there were huge hills of dirt all around,and students being students, well, they named every one of those mounds. One wasnamed after the professor, and the big sign onit read, ‘Mount Sheldon—from here you cansee infinity.’ ”

The education Gue received in the Facultyof Engineering provided the foundation for along and successful career in his chosen field.

“The companies came in those days andrecruited. I was offered a job by both GE andWestinghouse Canada.” He selectedWestinghouse, where he began as manufac-turing engineer. He stayed with the companyfor 36 years.

Gue’s very first task at Westinghouse wasinstalling a system for insulating huge gener-ator coils, coils that are used in quantities of300 to 500 in huge generators such as the SirAdam Beck Hydroelectric Power Stations inNiagara Falls, Ontario, or the Wabamunpower plant in Alberta.

Working in the industry for as long asGue has makes for some interesting experi-ences from time to time. “Last year I droppedin to the reception office at Sir Adam Beck IIgenerator station, and I was greeted by abright young woman who asked me if Iwould like to see the generator hall. I said, ‘Well, thank you very much, but…nothanks. I know what it looks like; I put thosegenerators in!’”

Gue explains that as manufacturing engi-neer he was responsible for developing andinstalling processes. “So I designed experimentsfor abstruse things such as for drying out 300-tonne power transformers to get all the waterout of them before they were buttoned up andtested,” he says. “At that time we were pushingthe limits of high-vacuum technology. So muchso that our consulting professor fromMcMaster University finally had to tell us thathe’d helped all he could. He said we were onour own, that we’d reached the limit of what heknew. My people ultimately succeeded in get-ting a brand new world-class method of dryingout power transformers, a method we trade-marked as the Vapotherm process.”

Over the years Gue moved away from astrictly technical engineering role and intosupervision and management.

And then one day Gue found his engineer-ing education leading to a surprising ‘aha’moment. “It dawned on me that Kirchhoff’sLaw, an important law in electrical engineer-ing, has a direct applicability in productionmanagement in a factory,” he says. Kirchhoff’sLaw, simply put, says all input must result inoutput. “That doesn’t say useful output, justoutput. In production we bring in steel, cop-per, paper, oil...and all of that goes out eitheras useful saleable product or scrap. If you cantrack and better manage the process, increas-ing the useful output and decreasing waste,you have yourself a valuable production man-agement tool.” He wrote a textbook about it:Increased Profits Through Better Control OfWork In Process. Reston, the textbook arm ofPrentice-Hall, published it, and Gue finishedthe last 10 years of his career at WestinghouseCanada as their internal expert on productionmanagement.

It should be no surprise that someonewho was so inspired by his professors even-

tually would turn toward teaching, too. From1986 to 1993 Gue taught subjects such asfactory management and statistical processcontrol at Mohawk College and McMasterUniversity, inspiring a whole new generationof thinkers.

Since then Gue has been following severalpassions, one of them being aerodynamics, afield in which he is largely self-taught. At age58 he got his pilot’s license. He has been pub-lished on aeronautic subjects. And althoughhe isn’t flying anymore he still has the pas-sion, which he expresses by designing cleverdevices such as his patented hydrofoil take-off device for waterplanes, which eliminatesthe need for pontoons.

But his leading passion is, and always hasbeen, education. “I do not think there is anymore important enterprise that we have thaneducation,” he says. “But the fact is you can’tget into education without getting up to yourneck in politics.”

To that end, Gue is currently serving ascurriculum chair for the Conservative Partyof Ontario’s Education Policy AdvisoryCouncil. When the Conservatives form a gov-ernment again in that province, the work hiscommittee is doing will form the nucleus ofan education policy for any new governmentreform.

Occasionally these days Gue gets con-fronted by people saying, “‘You’re an engi-neer. What do you know about politics?What do you know about education?’”

Gue says, “The answer is, ‘Do you reallythink my education stopped when I got mydegree?’”

Of course not. He’s here to think. Abouteducation, flight, philosophy, the future. Hisgift to the Faculty of Engineering is a gift totomorrow—to the future’s thinkers, dream-ers, and do-ers. Contributions like Gue’s, nomatter how ‘modest,’ testify to that raremagic wherein the output is so much morethan the input.

To learn more about estate gifts, contactNena Jocic-Andrejevic at 780-492-8969 or bye-mail at [email protected] .


Suzanne Harris is a writer, editorand writing coach living inEdmonton.


AGHAYERE, ABI(PhD Civil ’88)

Has been appointedto the position ofAssociate Dean forAcademic Affairs atthe GoodwinCollege of

Professional Studies at DrexelUniversity. Aghayere received hisPhD in civil engineering, major-ing in structures, from the U ofA. Aghayere has published threestructural engineering textbooksand has a fourth in progress.

BACKHOUSE, CHRISPEngA team in Electrical andComputer Engineering led by Dr.Chris Backhouse has beenawarded the Engineers Canada2009 National Award for anEngineering Project for its workdeveloping “lab on a chip” tech-nology. Backhouse has beendeveloping the technology withprofessors Duncan Elliott andJim McMullin—combiningmicrofluidics, microelectronics,microphotonics andnanobiotechnologies to developcompact and inexpensive instru-ments that may have a profoundimpact on public health.

DRIVER, ROBERT(Civil ’83, MSc Civil ’87, PhDStructural ’97) PEng

Has been awardedthe APEGGASummit Award forExcellence inEducation. Afterspending six years

as a structural engineer in indus-try, Driver began teaching atLafayette College in Easton, PA,in 1984. He joined the Facultyof Engineering in 2000 and soonbecame widely recognized as anoutstanding educator.

FINLAY, WARREN(Electrical ’83, MSc Electrical ’84)PEng

Has been awardedthe APEGGACentennialLeadership Awardfor his achieve-ments in research,

teaching and impact on the

profession. Finlay is an interna-tionally recognized educator andresearcher who specializes in thedelivery of aerosolized andinhalable drugs—like thosedelivered by asthma inhalers.His lab has developed a mouth-throat geometry that has beenadopted worldwide by compa-nies testing inhaler prototypes.

FLYNN, PETER(PhD Chemical ’74) PEng

Has been awardedthe APEGGASummit Award forCommunityService. Flynn, whorecently retired as a

professor in the Department ofMechanical Engineering, heldthe Ernest E. and Gertrude PooleChair in Management forEngineers. Flynn is activelyinvolved with Edmonton’sCapital Region HousingCorporation, which operates5,500 housing units for low-income individuals and families;and he was instrumental in thecorporation’s recent initiative toadd 400 new units. Flynn is alsopresident of the NorwoodNeighbourhood Association,spearheading important, enduring improvements to thecommunity.

GOMES, ROBERT(Civil ’78) PEngHas been appointed presidentand CEO of Stantec Inc. Prior tojoining Stantec in 1988, Gomesbegan his career working with aland development engineeringfirm. In 1991, he was appointedprincipal engineer in charge ofthe Edmonton office, and inNovember 1998, he wasappointed vice president ofStantec's Edmonton urban landgroup. In January 1999, he wasappointed vice president ofAlberta North, responsible forall activities in the Edmontonoffice and in northern Alberta.In early 2005, he acquired theadditional responsibilities of thecorporate practice area leaderfor the energy and resourcesgroup and later in the year wasappointed senior vice president.

HETTIARATCHI, PATRICK(PhD Civil ’86) PEngAccepted the Association ofProfessional Engineers,Geologists, and Geophysicists ofAlberta Environment andSustainability Award on behalfof the Calgary Biocell Project.The project began in 2003 whenthe City of Calgary embarked ona collaborative venture withlocal consultants and Dr.Hettiaratchi. The result was abiocell able to break downbiodegradable materials in thecity’s garbage, reducing theamount of waste that ends up ina conventional landfill.

HOLE, JACK(Mechanical ’78) PEngHas been elected president ofDucks Unlimited Canada,Canada’s leading wetlands con-servation organization. Hole hasserved on DUC's volunteer boardsince 2000 and was elected vice-president in 2007. He has servedon the boards of the Associationof Professional Engineers,Geologists, and Geophysicists ofAlberta, the CanadianConstruction Association, andthe B. C. Labour Relations Boardand is a former chair of theConstruction Labour RelationsAssociation of Alberta and theAlberta ConstructionAssociation. In 2002-2003 heserved on Alberta's Commissionon learning.

MCGINNIS, GLEN(MSc Chemical ‘72)Has joined the advisory boardfor Planet Resource Recovery,Inc. a U.S.-based remediationand recovery technologies firm.McGinnis, who serves as CEOof Arizona Clean Fuels Yumaand is director and senior advi-sor to Alberta’s First NationsEnergy Centre, is recognized as aworld expert in refinery design,development and operations.

Send your news of awards, appointments, and other successes to [email protected]

Do you have news to share?

Kudos

ROSE, ROBERT(Electrical ’74) PEngHas been awarded the Association ofProfessional Engineers, Geologists,and Geophysicists of AlbertaOutstanding Mentor Award for pio-neering professional mentorship. Roserecently retired after 35 years fromhis role as Supervising Engineer withATCO Electric where he was a found-ing contributor to ATCO Electric’sEngineers-in-Training program. Hehas also been a mentor in theUniversity of Alberta’s Co-op engi-neering program and an active APEG-GA Outreach Program volunteer.

SANDERS, SEAN(PhD Chemical ’97) PEngHas been awarded the University ofAlberta Provost’s Award for EarlyAchievement in Excellence inUndergraduate Teaching. Sandersearned his PhD at the U of A in1997, and worked with SyncrudeCanada for nine years leading multi-phase flow research projects and aprocess engineering team. Sanders,who teaches in the Department ofChemical and Materials Engineering,holds the NSERC IndustrialResearch Chair in Pipeline TransportProcesses.

SCURTESCU, CRISTIAN(MSc Electrical ’07) PEngHas won the TEC VenturePrize FastGrowth runner’s up award for devel-oping an exhaustive business planfor his company, SmileSonica Inc.SmileSonica is a medical device com-pany focused on commercializing thefirst ultrasonic dental technologywhich heals the natural teeth on site.The company’s product will benefitpatients while generating new rev-

enue opportunities fordentists.

STEIGER, DENNIS(Electrical ’86, MScElectrical ’89) PEngHas been appointed

group vice-president, engineering forShaw Communications Inc. Steiger isresponsible for all engineering activi-ties within Shaw Cable, Star Choice,Shaw Broadcast and Shaw Trackingbusinesses. Steiger has more than 22years of cable and telecommunica-tions experience and has been a keyleader within Shaw's engineeringteam for the past 12 years.

T a k i n g p r i d e i n a c h i e v e m e n t


Postage paid Port payé

Publications Poste-Mail publications

40051128EDMONTON, ALBERTA

Publications Mail Agreement No. 40051128

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:Faculty of Engineering, University of AlbertaE6-050 Engineering Teaching & Learning ComplexEdmonton, AB T6G 2V4

e-mail: [email protected]

02841

Your donation$100 $500 $1,000 $2,500to the U of A

Your tax credit$50.00 $250.00 $500.00 $1,250.00for your gift:

I wish to make a gift of:

$100 $500 $1,000 $2,500 Other $________

Cheque (made payable to the University of Alberta) VISA MasterCard

__________/___________/__________/__________/ expiry date: __________

Name (please print): ________________________________________________

Signature: _______________________________________________________

I have also enclosed:

a corporate matching gift form from my (or my spouse‘s) employer

If you are an Alberta resident on December 31, 2009 and have already given $200 elsewhere, your combined income tax savings will be:

* To best meet Faculty of Engineering’s needs, donations may be directed to endowed funds. Donations made to endowment funds are invested in perpetuity and the investment earnings are used to advance the specified purposes of the fund within the University.

I would like my gift to support:

$ __________ Engineering Student Projects Fund*

$ __________ Areas of greatest need as determined by the Dean.

$ __________ Chemical and Materials Engineering Fund*

$ __________ Civil and Environmental Engineering Fund*

$ __________ Electrical and Computer Engineering Fund*

$ __________ Mechanical Engineering Learning Laboratory Fund*

$ __________ Mining and Petroleum Engineering Fund*

I would like information on how to make a gift of publicly traded securities to support the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A.

I would like information on how to include the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A as part of a will, life insurance, or other planned gift instrument.

I have provided for the Faculty of Engineering at the U of A in a will or trust agreement.

Please return to: Office of the Dean, Faculty of Engineering University of AlbertaE6-050 Engineering Teaching and Learning ComplexEdmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4

The FSAE race team is one example ofan undergraduate student project youcould support as a donor. These projectsprovide students with valuable hands-on experience applying their textbook

education to real-world engineeringdesign problems. The skills acquiredinclude both technical skills—such asengineering design, drafting, and manufacturing—and non-technical skills

such as project management, communication, time management, and problem-solving. Costs of these projects are considerable; project supporters, therefore, become an essen-

tial component of each team’s success.Supporters provide teams not only withmuch-needed financial assistance andmentorship, but also with equipment,technical advice, and public exposure.

Help support student projects

✃

U n i v e r s i t y o f A l b e r t a ENGINEERING

For further information, contact:

Laurie Shinkaruk, Acting Assistant Dean, External RelationsFaculty of Engineering, University of Albertac/o E6-050 Engineering Teaching and Learning ComplexEdmonton, AB T6G 2V4Tel: 403.718.6394E-mail: [email protected]

Documents

ENG MAG fall09 Low res