One of my favorite parts about volunteering with WISE are the great outreach activities that we organize. They are a great way to share your love of science and engineering and are a nice break away from lectures and assignments. PLUS! The school age girls that we invite are always so much fun to interact with!
In May, CU-WISE has not one but TWO great outreach activities lined up that we are going to need a lot of help with. On Saturday May 11 we will be inviting Girl Guides and Pathfinders from the Ottawa area for our second Girl Guide Engineering Badge Day and on Friday May 17 we will be hosting the CU-WISE Amazing Race! Both events will be running from 8 am to 4 pm and will be taking place at Carleton. If you want to get involved please sign up to be a volunteer below.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
A Take Away From Engineers Without Borders 2013 National Conference
Dayna blogged about her experience at the conference she attended as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.
As I find myself with mere months away from graduating from Civil Engineering, I find my place in Engineers Without Borders Carleton ending, but my need to maintain the social values and desire for change greater. In these last months of university I grapple with questions such as: How can I incorporate social change and interest in International Development in the workplace? What can I do when I graduate that contributes to the upward climb of diminishing poverty? How can I maintain my social values in a corporate workplace that doesn't generally think about social or responsibilities at the top of its priorities? These questions are kept at the forefront of my mind as I enter the Engineers Without Borders National Conference. This blog post is the result of my experience.
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit organization that looks at systemic solutions to decrease and ultimately diminish poverty. EWB doesn't build schools or bore-holes for wells, and we don’t give away free shoes or T-Shirts to the poor children in Africa. Why? Because it simply doesn't work. Building things for people or giving them free things doesn't diminish poverty! When a village doesn't have access to clean water, what solution do you think will last? Building them a well or nurturing someone from the area to create their own water maintenance business that builds wells, maintains them, and trains a workforce in that can carry on the business after the owner moves on? (if you haven’t guessed, it’s the second option). Engineers Without Borders tries to look at the root causes of poverty rather than the symptoms to determine the best venture that works WITH the people in these communities rather than FOR them.
Going into the conference, being in my last year with the Carleton Chapter, I wanted to know what can I do after I graduate that will still contribute to the goals that I've learned from EWB. Many engineering companies will demolish wetlands and other ecosystems to create buildings, or have mines in impoverished countries that have no sense of social practice and exploit the locals in their labor and resources. How can I get job in civil engineering that not only doesn't go against my morals, but also makes social change a priority? Of all the sessions I went to and keynote speakers I heard, one in particular sticks out: Pamela Rogalski and her talk about the Engineering Leadership Council.
Pamela Rogalski talked about making a change in the engineering profession from the inside. She talked about nurturing today’s leaders to go into the workforce and demand change. During my time with Engineers Without Borders I learned about being a Global Engineer, but going into the workforce there are going to be rules about scope, schedules and costs. How do I work around or with these concepts to bring Global Engineering into the workforce? The Engineering Leadership Council, , is a learning community of industry leaders sharing, and discussing how to live that dream. During Pamela Rogalski’s workshop, she discussed how our employers are actually interested in hearing what we have to say and expressing ideas of how we can make the most of a social license to operate. This was the first time I’ve heard of this concept: Social License to Operate.
A Social License to Operate is when a project maintains approval from a local community. The main objective is to positively cater to the local communities in which a project develops these licenses are most commonly seen in counties outside of where the company was founded. A company must look at beliefs, perceptions and opinions held by the local community and the license is granted by the community. What’s great is that the social license is not permanent. The License must be maintained because the beliefs of the community can change as new information is attained.
Although issues may arise when regulators of civil law oversee the “license” since they view the concept as a formal permissions which they hold the right to granting the “license” over the community as a whole. The concept of the social license is greatly beneficial in working in places such as Africa and Central America. Too often in the past, Canadian mining companies have gone into developing countries, have made agreements with the government, and displeased the locals in their presence. There must be social, economical and environmental positive impacts for companies to be present in new communities and this standard should be held everywhere. In both the developing counties and our own we should be hiring local, sourcing local, boosting the economies in where a project is performed and be continually working to minimize the effects of the project on the environment. This holds us accountable to more than just our employers and public safety. A Social License to Operate holds us accountable to our local impacts beyond safety and into a positive social change and expectation. So using our power as the driving force in these companies to embrace and expand ideas such as the social license and engaging with the Engineering Leadership Council is key to seeing the social change that we want to see both in Canada and abroad.
- Dayna Peloquin
Engineers Without Borders is a non-profit organization that looks at systemic solutions to decrease and ultimately diminish poverty. EWB doesn't build schools or bore-holes for wells, and we don’t give away free shoes or T-Shirts to the poor children in Africa. Why? Because it simply doesn't work. Building things for people or giving them free things doesn't diminish poverty! When a village doesn't have access to clean water, what solution do you think will last? Building them a well or nurturing someone from the area to create their own water maintenance business that builds wells, maintains them, and trains a workforce in that can carry on the business after the owner moves on? (if you haven’t guessed, it’s the second option). Engineers Without Borders tries to look at the root causes of poverty rather than the symptoms to determine the best venture that works WITH the people in these communities rather than FOR them.
Going into the conference, being in my last year with the Carleton Chapter, I wanted to know what can I do after I graduate that will still contribute to the goals that I've learned from EWB. Many engineering companies will demolish wetlands and other ecosystems to create buildings, or have mines in impoverished countries that have no sense of social practice and exploit the locals in their labor and resources. How can I get job in civil engineering that not only doesn't go against my morals, but also makes social change a priority? Of all the sessions I went to and keynote speakers I heard, one in particular sticks out: Pamela Rogalski and her talk about the Engineering Leadership Council.
Pamela Rogalski talked about making a change in the engineering profession from the inside. She talked about nurturing today’s leaders to go into the workforce and demand change. During my time with Engineers Without Borders I learned about being a Global Engineer, but going into the workforce there are going to be rules about scope, schedules and costs. How do I work around or with these concepts to bring Global Engineering into the workforce? The Engineering Leadership Council, , is a learning community of industry leaders sharing, and discussing how to live that dream. During Pamela Rogalski’s workshop, she discussed how our employers are actually interested in hearing what we have to say and expressing ideas of how we can make the most of a social license to operate. This was the first time I’ve heard of this concept: Social License to Operate.
A Social License to Operate is when a project maintains approval from a local community. The main objective is to positively cater to the local communities in which a project develops these licenses are most commonly seen in counties outside of where the company was founded. A company must look at beliefs, perceptions and opinions held by the local community and the license is granted by the community. What’s great is that the social license is not permanent. The License must be maintained because the beliefs of the community can change as new information is attained.
Although issues may arise when regulators of civil law oversee the “license” since they view the concept as a formal permissions which they hold the right to granting the “license” over the community as a whole. The concept of the social license is greatly beneficial in working in places such as Africa and Central America. Too often in the past, Canadian mining companies have gone into developing countries, have made agreements with the government, and displeased the locals in their presence. There must be social, economical and environmental positive impacts for companies to be present in new communities and this standard should be held everywhere. In both the developing counties and our own we should be hiring local, sourcing local, boosting the economies in where a project is performed and be continually working to minimize the effects of the project on the environment. This holds us accountable to more than just our employers and public safety. A Social License to Operate holds us accountable to our local impacts beyond safety and into a positive social change and expectation. So using our power as the driving force in these companies to embrace and expand ideas such as the social license and engaging with the Engineering Leadership Council is key to seeing the social change that we want to see both in Canada and abroad.
- Dayna Peloquin
Sunday, January 20, 2013
One student's experience at CUSEC 2013
SYSTEM.OUT - My Experience at CUSEC 2013
On
January 17th, I attended CUSEC 2013 (Canadian University Software
Engineering Conference) in Montreal. Initially, I was interested in
going to hear a talk given by my friend and mentor, Gail Carmichael–
not to mention the chance to meet notable people in the software
industry.
Delegates, organizers, and presenters
The
unofficial theme of the first day seemed to be "visualizing data." One of the speakers I was most excited about was Ben Fry, one of the
co-founders of the Processing language. I've used Processing before,
and Fry used several live examples of Processing programs being used
to visualize information. Perhaps a description from the processing website tells it best:
"Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to create images, animations, and interactions. Initially developed to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context."
Me and Gail, waiting for the next talk
Continuing
the theme of visualizing data, the next talk was from the San
Francisco-based company Palantir. Their mission is to simplify the
process of analysing large or complex data sets, by using tools to
visualize it in a more human-readable way. In the hour-long software
demonstration, a live demonstration of Palanir's software was used to
map E. Coli outbreaks across the United States. By
adding data to the map, the user was able to locate the specific
meat-distribution plant that was the source of the outbreak. It
should be evident that this method is both faster and potentially
more accurate that other means of tracking the outbreak.
Overall,
it was a great conference, and introduced me to the cool things that
people are building with software. I had a great time and learned
quite a bit - from the speakers, representatives from software
companies, and students from other Canadian university. I hope to
volunteer with planning CUSEC 2014, and would recommend the
experience to other computer science or software eng students.
-
Liz Allen
@liz_codes
Liz blogged about her experience at the conference she attended as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.
Liz blogged about her experience at the conference she attended as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Navigating Career Success
The Ottawa Chapter of WISE is proud to present an excellent event for young scientists and engineers that are going into the job market. The 2013 Event Series: Navigating Career Success is a discussion of four professional women who will share their advice and experiences as well as take questions from the audience to help them as they enter the job market. The event is Thursday January 17 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. and I highly recommend it!
Panel Speakers:
Margaret McKay, M.Sc., LL.B., National Research Council of Canada
Josephine Davidson, Environment Canada
Mia Batchelor, Environment Canada
Michelle Illing, Ph. D., Canadian Food Inspection Agency
Date and Time: January 17, 2013; 5:30 – 7:30 PM
Location: Boardroom MC 2014, Minto Building, Carleton University Campus.
RSVP: Please RSVP to banu_ormeci@carleton.ca.
There is no admission fee!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Unmanned Systems Canada Conference Review
Amy is blogging about her experience as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.
The Unmanned Systems industry is a small, tight-knit community. However, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) community goes beyond tight-knit – it is more like a family. The few hundred people who attended the Unmanned Systems Canada (USC) Conference this year span pretty much all of Canada’s UAV specialists. That’s it. A few hundred researchers and companies making up an entire nation’s worth of knowledge on autonomous systems. They know each other very well – perhaps too well.
The Unmanned Systems industry is a small, tight-knit community. However, the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) community goes beyond tight-knit – it is more like a family. The few hundred people who attended the Unmanned Systems Canada (USC) Conference this year span pretty much all of Canada’s UAV specialists. That’s it. A few hundred researchers and companies making up an entire nation’s worth of knowledge on autonomous systems. They know each other very well – perhaps too well.
Walking into the conference,
I knew I was an outsider. Having
worked in the UAV industry for just a single year – and as a co-op student no
less – I had been introduced to many of the other players in the UAV field, but
never like this, never all of them together. I was intimidated.
I have been intimidated
before. As one of five female aerospace engineering students in my year at
Carleton, I was typically made aware of being different from the rest of the
crowd. But this was not like that. Here the questioning faces weren’t
asking “why is she here?” they were
just asking how I fit into the UAV family.
It was amazing. One of those moments where you realize
you are being judged on the knowledge and experiences you bring to the table
and not the fact that you are female.
I love that feeling. I live
for that moment when I can get behind the radar and fit in and share and learn. No judgments. The USC Conference was like that for four whole days.
Despite the fact that I
counted less than 20 women at the conference, the atmosphere told me that it
wasn’t the men who were stopping women from joining their inner circle. They are ready for us. We just need the guts to admit we are
interested and the confidence to share what we know. At USC I struck a power pose (see video),
then walked up and joined the conversation. I hope conferences will give you the opportunity to do the
same.
The Future of Research in the Alberta Oil Sands - International Oil Sands Tailings Conference Review
Lisa is blogging about her experience as part of the CU-WISE initiative Blog To Attend A Conference Fund. Check out our Opportunities page for more details.
The International Oil Sands Tailings Conference (IOSTC) is a bi-annual meeting for presenting research aimed at developing innovative means of addressing tailings related issues associated with the development of the Alberta Oil Sands. The conference was held from December 2-5, 2012 in Edmonton, Alberta at the Mayfield Inn and Conference Center. The conference brought together 360 experts, and interested individuals, to address tailings technology and management. Speakers addressed challenging issues such as oil sands tailings management, the required research efforts to overcome these challenges and, how the industry is responding. Papers were presented under the following themes: Tailings Containment, Soft Tailings and Stabilization, Tailings Dewatering, Reclamation, Chemical Interactions, New Tailings Management Concepts, and Water and Heat Considerations. A full list of presenters and abstracts can be found at https://uofa-cee.gobigevent.com:443/prothos/onware.x/conference/web/index.p?!=public=13549203058167=41=25697969&Conference=10293
Keynote speakers addressed future goals and areas of future concern while stressing the importance of reclamation studies. It appears that reclaiming and monitoring reclamation is the new main industry challenge. The talk I presented was the only one that addressed ecological reclamation. The talk titled ‘The use of benthic microorganisms (thecamoebians) to assess ecological response to tailings pond water quality changes and define endpoints to remediation efforts’ introduced a means of monitoring ecosystem development with reclamation efforts. This research is currently being conducted here at Carleton University in the Earth Science department.
Upon the completion of my Ph.D. I intend to work in Alberta in relation to the oil sands industry. The general public consensus is that finding work in Alberta is easy but if you actually talk to those looking, finding a career that fits your skillset is rather difficult. The oil companies have relationships with universities in Alberta and positions are typically filled from that pool of candidates. For me attendance at the conference was vital to finding a job. Business people and company researchers mainly attended the conference so the venue was an excellent opportunity for networking. I was one of only two students from outside of Alberta in attendance so I am thankful for the funding assistance that allowed me this opportunity.
The International Oil Sands Tailings Conference (IOSTC) is a bi-annual meeting for presenting research aimed at developing innovative means of addressing tailings related issues associated with the development of the Alberta Oil Sands. The conference was held from December 2-5, 2012 in Edmonton, Alberta at the Mayfield Inn and Conference Center. The conference brought together 360 experts, and interested individuals, to address tailings technology and management. Speakers addressed challenging issues such as oil sands tailings management, the required research efforts to overcome these challenges and, how the industry is responding. Papers were presented under the following themes: Tailings Containment, Soft Tailings and Stabilization, Tailings Dewatering, Reclamation, Chemical Interactions, New Tailings Management Concepts, and Water and Heat Considerations. A full list of presenters and abstracts can be found at https://uofa-cee.gobigevent.com:443/prothos/onware.x/conference/web/index.p?!=public=13549203058167=41=25697969&Conference=10293
Keynote speakers addressed future goals and areas of future concern while stressing the importance of reclamation studies. It appears that reclaiming and monitoring reclamation is the new main industry challenge. The talk I presented was the only one that addressed ecological reclamation. The talk titled ‘The use of benthic microorganisms (thecamoebians) to assess ecological response to tailings pond water quality changes and define endpoints to remediation efforts’ introduced a means of monitoring ecosystem development with reclamation efforts. This research is currently being conducted here at Carleton University in the Earth Science department.
Upon the completion of my Ph.D. I intend to work in Alberta in relation to the oil sands industry. The general public consensus is that finding work in Alberta is easy but if you actually talk to those looking, finding a career that fits your skillset is rather difficult. The oil companies have relationships with universities in Alberta and positions are typically filled from that pool of candidates. For me attendance at the conference was vital to finding a job. Business people and company researchers mainly attended the conference so the venue was an excellent opportunity for networking. I was one of only two students from outside of Alberta in attendance so I am thankful for the funding assistance that allowed me this opportunity.
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