Skip to main content

Emily Cheung Full Interview

Model
Video
Abstract
Emily Cheung took civil engineering at the University of British Columbia because "dams and bridges, that's where I want to be." Her interests evolved from structural engineering to hydrotechnical engineering, and she earned a Master's degree in environmental fluid mechanics. She and her husband decided to leave Vancouver, where the housing market was "unreachable" and the work opportunities "not overly exciting" and found work in Prince George, where the opportunities were numerous and interesting. She designed small resource road and highway bridges and worked in small-scale hydroelectric development, including initial feasibility studies. She designed highway segments to replace segments that had been washed out by river floods. She and her husband spent time in Ecuador assisting with small hydroelectric developments, and continue to work with a Spain-based non-profit organization that does water projects in Africa. She discusses the need for teamwork in engineering practice and how the basis of design is much more holistic than it was when she started practicing. She also volunteered to serve on the Prince George Airport Authority Board, the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board, the council of Engineers and Geoscientists BC, the board of Engineers Canada. She also teaches design engineering at the University of Northern British Columbia and initiated the Prince George Camp of the Seven Wardens, Camp 28, which co-ordinates the local Iron Ring Ceremony.

Christine Mackinnon Full Interview

Model
Video
Abstract
Christine MacKinnon recalls loving math and biology when she finished high school, and so took agricultural engineering, two years at Nova Scotia Agricultural College and then finishing at Macdonald College at McGill. Her first job after graduation was designing farm buildings in Nova Scotia, but she soon moved to Saskatoon to do a Masters degree at the University of Saskatchewan studying ventilation efficiency in small rooms with Professor Ernie Barber. She then took a job in Prince Edward Island designing farm buildings. She joined the PEI Department of Environment in 1988 as an air quality and hazardous material engineer, working on acid rain and trans-boundary pollutants in an intergovernmental environment. She worked part-time while her daughter was little, and took on consulting work as a strategic planner. She returned to full-time work as PEI's Director of Corporate Policy, and was assigned to implement 40 recommendations to improve land use and environmental protection in PEI. She now works as the Director responsible for Municipal Governance. She describes her mentors – her first boss, Larry Honey in Nova Scotia, Ernie Barber, and, later, through her volunteer service on the Canadian Engineering Memorial Foundation, Suzelle Barrington and Elizabeth Cannon. She serves as a Warden of Camp 27, which organizes the Iron Ring Ceremony for UPEI graduates, and is active in WISE, the Women in Science and Engineering group.