News archive for May 2011

Pragasen Pillay, Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and NSERC/Hydro-Québec Senior Chair in Energy Efficiency in Electrical Machines for Small Scale Renewable Energy Production Systems, has been selected as a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Industry Applications Society for 2012-13.

IEEE Distinguished Lecturers are engineering professionals who help lead their fields in new technical developments that shape the global community. These experts specialize in the field of interest of their Society/Council, and travel to various technical and regional groups, such as Society and Technical Council Chapters, to lecture at events.

The IEEE Industry Applications Society aims to be a world leader in the advancement of technology and dissemination of technical information to support professionals engaged in the applications of electrical and electronic engineering to industry.

For more, visit http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/ias/cms/

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) recognized undergraduate achievements with its annual Capstone & Design awards ceremony, held on Friday, May 27, 2011. Department Chair Dr. Bill Lynch served as MC for the event, which saw certificates and awards given out in recognition of the best undergraduate work from the previous academic year.



The first awards presented for the COEN/ELEC 390 "Sumo-Bot" project. Dr. Lynch read out the names of award winners while Dmitry Rozhdestvenskiy, who supervised the projects, handed out certificates. Winners were as follows:

Project "Cheetah"
First place:  Team "Divide by Zero" - Justin Jean-Pierre, Nicholas Sulik, Ka Ki Wong   
Second place: Team " Boss" - Jonathan Chatlani, Francis Gosselin, Shayne Moriello, Eric J. Warcholak   
Third place: Team " Zakkenayo-Mofo" - Nathanael Occenad, Carlos Pinto, Ian Page, Jessica Nguyen   

Project "Gazelle"
First Place:  Team " Hades" - Chien-Lin Lu, Feryal Maleknosrat, Hani Saad, Chien Fong Tseng   

Project: "Street Boy"
First place:  Team  "Asimov" - Razvan Coman, Kevin Searle, Linda Tran, Jeremy Snow   
Second place:  Team "Woo-Di" - Bo Dai, Tong Xin Ji, Xiaoxing Ren, Wei Nan Wang   
Third place:  Team "Hammerhead-i Eagle Thrust (Geoff)" - Kevin Dadoun, Soyeb Dalal, Sothavy Hang, Nicholas Likoray, John Wesley Lie Chin Cheong   

Then it was time to reward the year's most outstanding Capstone projects. On hand to give out the certificates was Dr. Wei-Ping Zhu, who was responsible for overseeing department's capstone projects. Winners were as follows:

First Place Award
Project:  Unicorn Firefighter Rescue System - Sophie Atalla, Marwan Hilmi, Stephen Koskoletos, Pablo Menghini
Supervisors:  A. J. Al Khalili, M. R. Soleymani
            
Second Place Award   
Project:  Low Cost Autonomous Networked Personal Service Robot - Giuseppe Pirrera, Allan Tran, Andrew Wolczak
Supervisor:  N. Kharma

Third Place Award   
Project:  Universal Trip Computer/Car Maintenance Tool - Samuel Fisher, Michael Hasenfratz, Nicolas Vicenzo, Yong Yi Xian
Supervisor:  A. Hamou-Lhadj

Certificate of Honorable Mention to the following:

Project:  Integrated Circuit FM Receiver - Mathieu Dube, Thomas Foerster, Chris Williams
Supervisor:  G. Cowan

Project:  Wireless Smart Camera for Video Surveillance - Vanessa Courville, Justin Horst, Scott Laughlin, Jean-Charles Mercedat
Supverisor:  A. Amer

Congratulations to all award winners!

Professors Rama Bhat and Martin Pugh joined some of Concordia's outstanding faculty members as they were lauded by the University's Provost David Graham on May 18 at the annual Provost's Circle of Distinction ceremony.

Established in 2009, the circle recognizes Concordia faculty members who have received awards of distinction or fellowships from external for their career achievements. This year, six faculty members were inducted for the first time, while two previous circle members were recognized for additional external honours.

From left to right: Louise Dandurand, Martin Pugh, Robin Drew, David Graham
Photo by Concordia University

Martin Pugh the chair of Concordia's Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, was appointed Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) earlier this year. Pugh also won the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2005, the CSME (Concordia student chapter) 2007 Teaching Award, and the President's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011.

Rama Bhat takes the podium

In an unscheduled part of the ceremony, Graham presented Vice-Provost Academic Relations Rama Bhat with an early induction into the circle. University administrators such as deans are exempt from circle membership. Bhat, who will leave his administrative post to return to teaching in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science on June 30, will be formally inducted at next year's ceremony.

To date, 49 faculty members have been added to the circle.

For more on the story, visit the Concordia Now website.

For the 20th year, the Concordia University Alumni Association (CUAA) held a special banquet honouring those who have made significant contributions to campus life and enhanced the university's reputation in the broader community.

Front and center was Gina Cody. The graduate of Concordia's Centre for Building Studies was named this year's Aluma of the Year, a recognition awarded to an alumnus or alumna who has demonstrated professional excellence and community leadership.

Cody earned a BSc in structural engineering at Aryamehr University of Technology in her native Iran in 1978. At Concordia, she completed a master's degree in 1981 and a doctorate in Building Engineering in 1989.

She is currently the president and principal shareholder of Construction Control Inc., a Toronto-based firm of consulting engineers and building scientists. She joined the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in 1986. Shortly afterwards, she became a partner in Construction Control Inc. and was named its president in 2004. In 2010, Profit magazine named Cody one of Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs and cited Construction Control Inc. as the ninth most profitable company in Canada owned by a woman.

She recently won the Ontario Volunteer Service Award, the Certificate of Fellowship from Engineer Canada, the Canadian Standards Association Award of Merit and the 2010 Professional Engineers Ontario Order of Honour at the Officer level.

To read more about the 20th Annual Alumni Awards Banquet and the other award recipients, visit the official website of the CUAA.

Marinella Ermacora has been named Vice President, Business Solutions at Fujitsu Canada.

She has worked in the information technology and communications sectors for 25 years. She previously held the positions of Senior Vice President Human Resources, Leadership and Organizational Development at CGI Group, as well as General Manager at Bell Sygma and Chief Operating Officer at Certen Inc. She holds an MBA
(1986) from McGill/HEC to go along with the Bachelor of Computer Science, which she earned from Concordia in 1982.

Ermacora is a board member of the Montreal Nature Museums Foundation and the Corporation du Collège de Montréal. She is an executive member of the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec, a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal, and a member of the Industrial Advisory Council of Concordia's Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science.

To learn more about her, check out the Alumni Profile from the Fall 2010 edition of the Faculty Quarterly.

The Concordia Chapter of Engineers Without Borders has captured the attention of nonprofit organization, Fairtrade Canada. Last week, the official Fairtrade website featured an article entitled "Concordia Sets Goal to Be Fair Trade Campus," by Camille Jensen.


The article features interviews with Jad Saleh (President of EWB Concordia) and Deborah Dysart-Gale (Chair of the Centre for Engineering in Society).

You can check out the full article here.

Being an Engineering or Computer Science student at Concordia University isn't just about hitting the books: it's also about giving back to the community. Executives from the Engineering and Computer Science Association's Charity Organization (ECAid) recently upheld this belief by joining several other non-profit groups as they banned together with local radio stations in support of Astral Radio's National Day of Caring for Kids Radiothon.


The ECAid members found themselves alongside hundreds of volunteers who answered phones helping to ensure the event's success.  "It's a very rewarding experience," explained Vijeta Patel, who helped coordinate the ECAid's involvement. "Many of the people who call in to donate are people whose children have been treated at the hospital or people who themselves were treated when they were younger."

The heartwarming event raised a grand total of $1,654,215 for The Montreal Children's Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. $10,000 of that came directly from ECAid, which collects money throughout the year from various student-focused events. All funds raised will go towards meeting the most urgent needs of the Hospital, which include medical and surgical equipment and funding for innovative projects.

Donations continue to be accepted online at childrenfoundation.com.

The Concordia chapter of the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) has a proud history of fierce competition when it comes to testing the vehicles it designs and builds. This trend was upheld during the SAE's Collegiate Design Challenge, held April 14-17, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Prior to the competition, Concordia's Mini-Baja group worked tirelessly to design and build an off-road vehicle to compete in the Challenge against teams from across North America. The students put in an incredible amount of hard work and long hours designing and building this year's car from scratch in time for a competition that not only requires vehicles to race around a traditional track, but also to be amphibious and float across a water section on each lap! 

The team faced a number of challenges along the way, including mechanical problems and a 24-hour drive to the race; but the biggest challenge by far was the weather. On April 15, several storms and tornado warnings were called throughout Alabama. Over the course of the day, the team dealt with 5 inches of rain, high wind gusts, and thunder and lighting. The storms got so bad that all the teams were forced to leave the competition site early that day to seek shelter.

Despite the weather, the Concordians placed 27th out of over 80 competitors, including a 5th place finish in the water maneuverability event and a 9th place finish in acceleration. The car used an innovative paddle-wheel water propulsion system that was designed in-house by a capstone team of graduating students. Moreover, this was the first-ever competition for all but two of the participants. The team will be looking to improve on this result when they compete in two more competitions in May and June. "Everyone worked really hard all year to get this car done." Says Jody Arsenault, team leader "In spite of the weather, we competed well. We know that our results will only get better at the coming competitions."

The Concordia Mini-Baja team would like to thank their generous sponsors for helping support this project: Mechtronix, the Engineering and Computer Science Association, the Concordia faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, Usinatech, St-Hubert Machine Shop, Tsubaki, Thermetco, Timken, Castle Metals, The Society of Automotive Engineers, CVTech-IBC, Sticky Grafix, Tuboquip, Gestion Ferique, EM Plastics, Ganotec, Industries Précision Plus Inc., Verdon Andizing Inc., and Barnett Clutches and Cables.