IEEE Canadian Foundation

2016 in Review

In Dec. 2016, the ICF Board of Directors (BoD) approved $8.3k for six McNaughton Learning Resource Centre Grants. One grant will be awarded to establish a new Center in Windsor (the 40th to be established across Canada), and five grants to upgrade or expand existing Centres at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University in Ottawa, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and Concordia University in Montreal.

The BoD approved $14.5k in total for eleven Special Grants. They go to the Conestoga College to participate in STEM oriented Skills Canada electronics competition, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières to participate in automated submarine competition, Memorial University to participate in a sailboat competition, Carleton University towards prizes for a hackathon competition, University of Ontario Institute of Technology for a Future WIE high school competition, University of New Brunswick for a high school robotics competition, a Calgary Non-IEEE team for a high school robotics competition, Concordia University towards a UAV drone competition, University of Toronto towards a hackathon competition, University of Victoria towards a rocket building competition and University of Calgary toward a student design competition.

The BoD approved $1.2k for one IEEE Canada Vehicular Technologies Travel Grant.

IEEE PES Scholarship Plus recipients have been announced, 8 of which were Canadian students. On average the award is approximately $2000 for each of 3 years accompanied with work term opportunities.

2016 has been a busy year for the IEEE Canadian Foundation. The following is a list of activities undertaken. The Foundation would like to thank all contributors, participants, and donors for their support. Here is a summary of the grants and awards awarded in 2016.

Dec 2016

ICF Special Grant Report

In Dec. 2015, IEEE Canadian Foundation awarded a one-time Special Grant to the Concordia University Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Team for their participation in the The Unmanned Systems Canada 2016 Student Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Competition. The competition purpose is to promote and develop Canadian expertise, innovation and experience in unmanned systems technologies at the university and college levels. The competition was held in Southport, Manitoba, on Apr. 28 - May 1, 2016. This year, the scenario combined problems encountered by the agriculture sector. The teams had to design, build and use their UAS to identify a local farmer's crops, their location, type and condition, and to map them with an airborne sensor system. The competition had two phases. Eighteen teams competed in the design phase, and fourteen teams competed in the operational phase. The Concordia University UAV Team was awarded the third place in the operational phase. Congratulations to all of the Team members and contributors, consisting of over 40 students from the electrical, mechanical, and software engineering. This experience will serve them well in the further development of their technical and interpersonal skills. In the words of Mark Aruja, the Chairman of Unmanned Systems Canada: "Precision Agriculture is a very rapidly growing industry where we can lead the world in developing new technologies to feed a growing population, respond to climate change and keep our agricultural sector competitive internationally. It is so gratifying to see that our future is in great hands."

Nov 2016

McNaughton Learning Resource Centre (MLRC) Grant

ICF provided an MLRC Grant to the IEEE Student Branch of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec for upgrading their McNaughton Learning Resource Centre in Dec. 2015. The Student Branch reported that, with additional financial assistance from other sources, the upgrade has been successfully implemented. They managed to acquire some additional pieces of equipment and basic materials. This upgrade widens learning opportunities provided by the McNaughton Centre, which is full for most of the week and often open late into the evenings. The projects that the IEEE SB members work on their own are engaging, educational and fun. In their view, the McNaughton Learning Centre is an asset to Concordia. As the University is home to a number of engineering societies and competitions, many of them (notably UAV Concordia, Space Concordia, SAE Concordia, Eng Games) have used the space and services at the McNaughton Learning Centre. This year, IEEE Concordia Student Branch was awarded Society of the Year by the school's Undergraduate Engineering Organization, ECA. Furthermore, the Student Branch was also named Best Student Branch of the Montreal Section. Congratulations to the Concordia Student Branch and its McNaughton Learning Centre users and volunteers!

Dedication of the Famous Burials Plaque in Honour of General A.G.L. McNaughton

General McNaughton (1887 - 1966) holds a prominent place in Canadian history and engineering. IEEE Canada's highest honour, the A.G.L. McNaughton Gold Medal, is named after him as are 39 McNaughton Learning Resource Centres at IEEE Student Branches on university and college campuses across Canada. General McNaughton's bio can be seen at: http://ieeecanadianfoundation.org/EN/general.php.

On October 16, 2016, IEEE Canada and the IEEE Ottawa Section hosted a dedication of the Famous Burials Plaque in Honour of General A.G.L. McNaughton at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa - The National Cemetery of Canada. The event was attended by General McNaughton's family, dignitaries and members of IEEE, IEEE Canadian Foundation (ICF), Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), Canadian Society for Senior Engineers (CSSE), Canadian Forces, and the general public. At the ceremony, speakers included: David Kemp, ICF VP Grants (who led the memorial plaque project on behalf of IEEE/ICF), The Honourable Andrew Leslie, MP, a retired Canadian Forces Lieutenant-General (grandson of General McNaughton), John Swettenham (son of John Swettenham, McNaughton's biographer), Jon Jennekens of CSSE and an Officer of the Order of Canada (who, during his early career in the nuclear sector, got to know General McNaughton), Dr. Witold Kinsner, IEEE Canada President, and Danielle Marchand, University of Ottawa IEEE Student Branch Chair.

Your donations to the IEEE Canadian Foundation allow the new and existing McNaughton centres to support future engineers by providing environments where students can apply the "can do" spirit of McNaughton, and enhance their overall educational experience. At the ceremony, Dr. Kinsner gave an inspired speech on General McNaughton's lasting impact on the society and engineering in Canada, and Danielle Marchand gave an outstanding speech about the role of the McNaughton Learning Resource Centres in inspiring the upcoming generations of engineers, innovators, and leaders.

IEEE Power & Energy Society Scholarship Plus

The goal of the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative is to encourage undergraduate students to pursue careers in power and energy engineering. Canadian recipients for 2016-17, new and returning, are:

Jonathan Anderson, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2017
Lianne de la Salle, University of Ottawa, 2017
Courtney Harnum, Memorial University, 2019
Nick Pant, McGill University, 2018
Alexandre Poersch, University of Manitoba, 2019
William Skinner, University of Calgary, 2017
Lukas Unruh, University of Manitoba, 2018
Yilin Zhao, University of Calgary, 2018 (John W. Estey Outstanding PES Scholar, Schweitzer Meritorious Scholar)

Donations to the IEEE Canadian Foundation support this program in Canada.

Nick Cercone Graduate Scholarship in Computer Science

This new Scholarship, first award expected in 2017, recognizes Dr. Nick Cercone (1946-2105) a well-regarded Canadian educator, researcher and IEEE Fellow. The successful candidate will be a computer science PhD student at a Canadian university who shows exceptional promise in making impactful research contributions that will have real-world applications outside Computer Science. Computer Science is a field of studies of interest to IEEE.

Raymond D. Findlay Annual Undergraduate Scholarship

This new scholarship, first award expected to be 2017, recognizes Dr. Raymond D. Findlay, well known as a leader in IEEE (Past President IEEE), IEEE Canada (Past President IEEE Canada), educator and researcher and IEEE Fellow. Criteria include: citizen or permanent resident of Canada, IEEE Student Member, completing penultimate undergrad year, full time, GPA > 80%, females strongly encouraged to apply, judged on merit. The successful candidate will have submitted an original essay of up to 500 words that provides evidence of leadership, creativity and success under adverse conditions. The enthusiasm about being an IEEE student member becoming a professional engineer should radiate through the writing style.

Oct 2016

IFC Special Grant Reports

In Sep. 2016, ICF awarded a one-time Special Grant to the Selkirk College Team for their West Kootenay/Boundary robotics competition project. This is to support and enhance an annual RoboGames competition (http://robogames.ca/) held in the West Kootenay/Boundary region. They have been holding this competition in collaboration with the Nelson Tech Club (http://www.tech-club.info/) since 2012 and have seen numbers increase every year. It has primarily attracted younger robotics enthusiasts, and the project includes strengthening the participation of secondary school students. IEEE funding will be used to purchase robotics kits, to reach out to secondary schools and to cover the costs of this event. Last year, they launched an online robotics training curriculum so that participants did not need to leave their communities to attend training sessions. Instead, they were able to prepare and learn in their own communities with their own teams prior to the competition. In the past, the training was held in Nelson, so many teams had to drive 2.5 hours or more each week. All teams are going to have an adult mentor who can help them troubleshoot and solve the problems. The participants and organizers are looking forward to the competition with excitement.

Sep 2016

IEEE Canada Student Branch/Women in Engineering/Young Professionals Congress

On September 16-18, 2016, the IEEE Canada Student Branch/WIE/YP Congress and IEEE Canada Executive Meeting were held at Hilton Mississauga Meadowvale Hotel, Mississauga, Ontario. At the Congress, the information about grants is provided by the IEEE Canadian Foundation. The Foundation speaker at the Congress was Luc Matteau, Treasurer.

July 2016

ICF Special Grant Reports

In Dec. 2015, ICF agreed to provide a one-time Special Grant to the Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) Sailbot Project. The goal was for the MUN Engineering program students to collaborate with other disciplines in designing, building and coding an operational robotic sailboat to race in the 2016 International Robotic Sailing Regatta, hosted by Queens University in Kingston Ontario. Through grants provided by ICF and other organizations, the MUN team was able to complete their vessel "Sea++" and travel to Kingston to compete with teams from Canada, Wales, and the United States. The team members honed their engineering skills related to robotics, autonomous control, and machine visiont hrough a real life application and made connections with students of other disciplines, other schools, and other continents.

June 2016

2016 IEEE Canada Women in Engineering Prize

IEEE Canada Women in Engineering Prize for 2016 was awarded to Saida Maaroufi of the IEEE Montreal Section. This prize in the amount of $1,000 is awarded to a female IEEE Canada member who received her first professional degree within the last fifteen years and who is active in IEEE activities and supporting the Women In Engineering programme within IEEE in Canada.

Prix ICF Shoaib A. Khan and Prix ICF Éloi Ngandui

Prix ICF Shoaib A. Khan and Prix ICF Éloi Ngandui, supported by the fund of the IEEE Canadian Foundation to honour the memory of two electrical engineers who were very active and respected members of the IEEE Montreal Section, are annual awards at the Quebec Science Fair to attract high school studends' interest in IEEE's technical areas.

The 2016 Prix de IEEE Canadian Foundation - Shoaib A. Khan was awarded to Marc-Antoine Doyon, Cégep de l'AT - Campus de Rouyn-Noranda.

The 2016 Prix de IEEE Canadian Foundation - Éloi Ngandui was awarded to Sofiya Taver, Collège Français.

May 2016

IEEE Canadian Foundation (ICF) held its 2016 Annual General Meeting on April 13, 2016. The Board supported by the external auditors, recognized 2015 as another good year for philanthropic activities, exemplified by prudent financial management, rigorous review of applications and broadening of development activity.

Special Grants

At the ICF Board of Directors Meeting which followed, the Board approved 11 one-time Special Grants, in the total amount of $8100, to:

• Simon Fraser University for Injury Prevention Monitor project
• Memorial University of Newfoundland for Automated Sailboat project
• University of Ontario Institute of Technology for DIY Showcase 2016
• University of Saskatchewan for Satellite Design Competition
• Debert, NS, Lego Intelligence FLL Robotics Team for Razorback Invitational International Competition
• Fergus, ON, Centre Wellington High School Robotics Team for Skills Ontario Robotics Competition
• University of British Columbia & Simon Fraser University for IEEE Student Branch members' Germany & Switzerland Field Trip
• University of Western Ontario for STEM Outreach
• University of Waterloo for Nanorobotics Competition
• Memorial University for SpaceX Hyperloop Competition
• McGill University for UAV Drone Competition

Scholarships

The ICF Board approved five Scholarships in the amount of $5,000 each (total $25,000) for:

• Megan Lynn Leach of the University of Saskatchewan, nominated by Dr. FrancisBui, Student Branch Counselor (SBC)
• Colin Warkentin of the University of British Columbia Okanagan, nominated by Dr. Jonathan Holzman, SBC
• Kevin Lomothe of the University of Manitoba, nominated by Dr. Witold Kinsner, SBC
• Irusha Vidanamadura of Carleton University, nominated by Dr. Calvin Plett, SBC
• Zuhair Naseem of the University of British Columbia, nominated by Dr. Lukas Chrostowski, SBC

Mar 2016

McNaughton Learning Resource Centre Grant Report

In Dec. 2015, ICF Board of Directors awarded a McNaughton Learning Resource Centre (MLRC) Grant to the IEEE Student Branch (SB) at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, a public college based in Kitchener, Ontario. The purpose of the grant was to continue with the MLRC renovations from last year and to complete the makerspace. The SB was able to purchase a power supply, 2 function generators, and 2 oscilloscopes. This has completed the MLRC workbench area, which is now fully equipped and ready for use. The SB team learned from this experience how to work together as a group in order to achieve their goals. They may consider seeking alternate sources of funds for further purchases of electronic parts and small tools.

ICF Special Grant Report

The Queen's Space Engineering Team (QSET) at Queen's University was awarded the ICF Special Grant to compete in the Mars Society's University Rover Challenge (URC) in Hanksville, Utah from May 28-30, 2015. URC is an international competition which requires teams to build rovers designed to assist astronauts on the surface of Mars. A rover's capabilities are measured by its performance in four tasks: terrain traversing, equipment servicing, astronaut assistance, and sample and return. This project involves undergraduate students from a range of disciplines who are working together on a design project focusing on the creation of automated systems for human assistance.

On the first day of the competition, the rover's power regulators malfunctioned and the team was not able to participate in the first challenge, terrain traversal. Working throughout the night, the team managed to get the rover functional once again, and ultimately placed 11th in the equipment servicing challenge. Using the little spare time was available, the team worked to debug the new software system that was now in use. Later that day, the team achieved a 19th place finish in sample retrieval. The next day, the team finished 14th in the astronaut assistance challenge. Overall, QSET finished the competition in 16th place out of the 44 registered teams. This was a great experience for QSET with lots of room for improvements in the future.

        Group photo of QSET at the Mars Desert Research Station in Hanksville, Utah

Feb 2016

In April 2015, ICF awarded a Special Grant to University of Manitoba T-SAT3 student satellite design and build project. The objective of the University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS) is to promote engagement in space projects for students through participation in the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC). The CSDC challenges universities across the country to compete in building 3U Nanosatellites (10x10x34cm) with selected payloads and a potential for a future launch of their project. UMSATS has selected a biological payload, consisting of a scientific experiment using tardigrades to test their ability to withstand the space environment while metabolized. Since a variety of skills and disciplines are needed, students of biological science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering and computer science participate in this project. The satellite design is being finalized with parts undergoing manufacturing. The team anticipates the integration phase to begin soon and plans to attend environmental testing for the CSDC in late May 2016.

University students participating in the CSDC meet with the                                 UMSATS Team
Canadian Space Agency President, Sylvain Laporte,
in Jerusalem at the International Astronautical Congress

ICF links of interest

IEEE McNaughton Learning Resource Centres by Date of Formation

http://ieeecanadianfoundation.org/EN/cnt_yr.php

IEEE Canadian Foundation Special Grants Awarded by Year

http://ieeecanadianfoundation.org/EN/sp_yr.php

IEEE McNaughton Learning Resource Centre Grants Awarded by Year

http://ieeecanadianfoundation.org/EN/lrc_yr.php

IEEE Student Branches at Canadian Universities and Colleges

http://ieeecanadianfoundation.org/EN/branches.php

You Can Make a Difference - Donations to ICF by IEEE annual membership renewal

The IEEE Canadian Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the IEEE in Canada, is happy to accept your contributions when you renew your IEEE membership in the fall each year.

Just select the IEEE Canadian Foundation as your choice when you complete your annual IEEE membership renewal form (paper or web version).

Please note that this method enables you to make a contribution to the IEEE Canadian Foundation General Fund only. To make a contribution to one or more of our other funds, please consider donating online or donating by mail.

If you are a Canadian IEEE Life Member and wish to participate in our Canadian Life Member Fund "Thank You" program, please view this web page.