Announcements
-
Publication Update
We’d like to extend our sincere thanks to our readers for your patience and continued support over the past few months. We apologize for the recent interruption in our publication schedule and appreciate your understanding during this time.
While there was a brief pause, we’re now back with renewed focus and are committed to bringing you timely updates, news, and stories from across the IEEE Canada community each month. As always, we welcome your feedback and contributions.
We’re also pleased to welcome Sulaiman Aburakhia as the new Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Canada Newsletter. Please welcome him in his new position. If you have news, events, or articles you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to reach out to him at s.aburakhia@ieee.org.
Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to hearing from you.
-
In Loving Memory of Dr. Witold Kinsner
The IEEE Canada Newsletter Team is deeply saddened to announce the recent passing of Dr. Witold Kinsner. A brilliant leader within IEEE and a highly accomplished academic, he was also an exemplary mentor, role model, friend, and colleague to all who had the privilege of working with him or being one of his many students.
In a distinguished academic career spanning more than five decades, Dr. Kinsner received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McMaster University in 1974 and had been a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Manitoba since 1978. Over the course of his career, he made significant contributions to the fields of cognitive systems and computational intelligence, microelectronics, signal processing, fractal and chaos theory, engineering education, and more.
Dr. Kinsner had been an active leader in IEEE since 1971 at all levels, including leading multiple committees, organizing conferences, and serving in various advisory roles. As a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers among others, he was also elected IEEE Canada President-Elect in 2014–15, and from 2016–17 served as President of IEEE Canada. He authored or co-authored over 760 publications and received numerous awards.
Dr. Kinsner's legacy will live on through his research, his students, and his decades of service to the engineering community.
-
2025 IEEE Canada Awards and Winners
Each year, IEEE Canada recognizes outstanding individuals whose contributions have advanced technology, research, and service within the engineering community. We are proud to announce the recipients of the following IEEE Canada Awards. Congratulations to all the awardees for their remarkable achievements and dedication.
Award Name AGL McNaughton Award Srikanta MN Swamy C.C. Gotlieb Tiago Henrique Falk J.M. Ham Jason Anderson Outstanding Engineer Pavel Cheben P.D. Ziogas Electric Power Silver Yan-Fei Liu R.A. Fessenden Wei Yu R.H. Tanner Vinay Sharma M.B. Broughton Ahmed Refaey Hussein E.F. Glass Kin-Choong Yow J.J. Archambault Amir Andaliby Joghataie W.S. Read Winnie Ye
IEEE Canadian Foundation
-
Giving at Dues Renewal
Your gifts at IEEE dues renewal pass fully to the IEEE Canadian Foundation, in support of our programs in Canada, with Canadian charitable tax receipt to follow early in the new year. Every gift has impact. This year, the Foundation celebrates thirty years of charitable support to IEEE fields of interest in Canada. Thanks to all who make a difference.
When renewing membership or confirming your Life Member status, look for the Payment/Donations tab, click view donation options, select IEEE Canadian Foundation.
Events
-
NUCLEAR PRESENTATION SERIES - "Nuclear Propulsion for Merchant Shipping" (June 4th)
The seventh presentation in the series will feature Dr. Jan Emblemsvåg. Dr. Emblemsvåg has served since 2020 as a professor at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Ålesund. Since 2004 he has held several top management positions in industry, including companies such as Ulstein, Vard, Rolls-Royce Marine and NOV and adjunct positions in academia including BI and NTNU. He holds board positions and does some consulting. He publishes regularly about energy, nuclear power, risk and project management in books, journal papers and in non-academic outlets.
Dr. Emblemsvåg will discuss why we must develop nuclear propulsion for merchant shipping, which criteria have been used to select the most promising reactor types, which reactor technologies have been selected, and what the current status is.
Additionally, he will provide an update on the current status of nuclear propulsion in the maritime industry, including ongoing research, regulatory considerations, and the challenges that lie ahead. This webinar is a must-attend for industry professionals, researchers, and anyone interested in the future of sustainable shipping.
For more information, and registration for the June 4th presentation, please visit the Vtools event page for this presentation: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/483798
Date: Wed. June 4th, 2025
Time: 09:00 PDT 12:00 EDT 16:00 UTC
Location: Online (Zoom)Admission is free. Registration is required. All registrants will receive an email (IEEE Enotice), shortly before the presentation, containing the Zoom URL for this presentation.
We encourage you to register soon.
-
NUCLEAR PRESENTATION SERIES - "Micro-Nuclear Energy: A National Strategic Technology Imperative to Secure Canada's Arctic Sovereignty" (June 18th)
The eighth presentation in the series will feature Mr. Peter Lang. Mr. Lang is the President and founder, Dunedin Energy Systems Ltd. Peter Lang spent 40 years in aviation as a high-arctic pilot, RCAF fighter pilot, and now retired airline captain. During his years in the arctic Peter experienced first-hand the difficulty and expense of providing power and heat to the remote arctic communities. In 2008 he founded Dunedin Energy Systems and began leading the development of the Canadian Thermal BatteryTM, a micro-nuclear energy system designed and engineered specifically to meet the unique, and growing electricity and heating needs of Canada’s Northern and Arctic communities and military facilities.
This presentation will address the increasing threat to the sovereignty of Canada’s arctic borders, the new Canadian Defence policy “Our North – Strong and Free”, and examine the critical role that energy plays in actioning sovereignty enhancing measures. The modernization of the North Warning System will place untenable energy demands on the expensive, logistically complex and environmentally problematic diesel energy model that currently dominates in Northern and Arctic Canada.
This presentation will describe current micro-reactor technology developments, and their proposed specific applications in Northern and Arctic Canada.
Micro-nuclear energy plants are capable of reliably producing electricity and high-grade heat, 24/7, independent of wind, weather, water levels, or insolation. They offer an enduring, zero-emissions energy solution to meet the unique energy requirements of our Arctic military and civilian communities for decades to come.
For more information, and registration for the June 18th presentation, please visit the Vtools event page for this presentation: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/483802
Date: Wed. June 18th, 2025
Time: 09:00 PDT 12:00 EDT 16:00 UTC
Location: Online (Zoom)Admission is free. Registration is required. All registrants will receive an email (IEEE Enotice), shortly before the presentation, containing the Zoom URL for this presentation.
We encourage you to register soon.
-
Talk by Dr. Nael Abu-Ghazaleh
Talk Abstract: AR/VR devices promise a new era of immersive computing, where our everyday experience is augmented with helpful information (Augmented Reality), or where we are immersed in fully virtual worlds (Virtual Reality). These systems fuse the physical world, and the virtual world, through computing resources to provide these immersive experiences rendered on the user's headset. As a result, it allows new opportunities for attackers to compromise the security and privacy of users that are not well understood. Towards understanding the security and privacy challenges in these systems, this talk presents a number of recent attacks we developed on AR/VR systems. One threat model exploits the shared computing resources used by multiple applications on a headset to extract information through side channels; we show attacks that spy on user activity or compromise privacy. Another threat model exploits the shared state among multiple users in a multi-user application, allowing malicious users to inject compromised information or to recover information they are not allowed to access. Other threat models include those that interfere with applications and cause the virtual model to become out of sync with the physical world, causing user motion sickness or bypassing safety guardrails. I will conclude with discussion of potential defenses and ways to build more security AR/VR experiences.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Nael Abu-Ghazaleh is a Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering as well as the Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments at the University of California, Riverside. His research is in architecture and system security, high-performance computing, and systems and security for Machine Learning. He has published over 250 papers in these areas, several of which have been recognized with best paper awards or nominations. His offensive security research has resulted in the discovery of several new attacks on CPUs and GPUs that have been disclosed to companies including Intel, AMD, ARM, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia, and resulted in patches and modifications to products, and coverage from technical news outlets. He is a member of the Micro Hall of Fame, an ACM distinguished member, and an IEEE distinguished speaker.
Date: Thurs. June 19, 2025
Time: 8PM – 9PM EDT
Location: Online
Registration: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/485331Notes: This is an IEEE Montreal CS/CIS Chapter event. All are welcome. Consider becoming an IEEE member if such similar events are of professional/academic interest to you. Also if you have a topic or person in mind - which should be shared - do let the organizers know.
-
NUCLEAR PRESENTATION SERIES - "Radioactive Waste Disposal in Canada and around the Globe" (July 2nd)
The ninth presentation in the series will feature Dr. IurII Shybetskyi, Principal Scientist, Radioenvironmental Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Dr. Iurii Shybetskyi has served as Principal Scientist at the state institution "Radioenvironmental Centre of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" (REC NASU) since 2004. He is a member of the National Commission for Radiation Protection of Ukraine.
The presentation covers the issues of radioactive waste management that arise at various stages of the nuclear fuel cycle in the production of electricity, and in the use of nuclear energy in industry, science and medicine. The main attention is paid to the final solution to the problem of radioactive waste management - their safe disposal.
The current state, prospects, and potential challenges of radioactive waste management in Canada are considered.
A brief overview of international best practices in waste disposal is provided.
For more information, and registration, please visit the Vtools event page: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/486366
Date: Wed. July 2nd, 2025
Time: 09:00 PDT 12:00 EDT 16:00 UTC
Location: Online (Zoom)
Registration: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/480824Admission is free. Registration is required. All registrants will receive an email (IEEE Enotice), shortly before the presentation, containing the Zoom URL for this presentation.
