English

Dr. David Weaver describes his youthful interest in gasoline-engine powered go-karts, home-built radios, servicing cars, and how this led him to study mechanical engineering. He left his first job with the Ford Motor Company in Oakville to return to university for a Master's degree on satellites for Spar Aerospace and then a PhD in mathematics and physics. He found a university position and began researching nuclear for Ontario Hydro Research and hydroelectric power generation for Nova Scotia Power. He contributed to a model study of flood protection for the City of Venice conducted by the Dutch Hydrodynamics Laboratories in Delft. He worked on a fusion energy project the Joint European Taurus (JET) in England. In retirement, he has worked for the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, and with Babcock and Wilcox, Ontario Power Generation, and Atomic Energy of Canada. He talks of the evolution of computational tools from slide rules to computers and their applications to autonomous vehicles – and the importance of selecting the appropriate tool to max the complexity of a problem.

Aeronautical engineer Dr. Karl Doetsch did an apprenticeship with English Electric, an aeronautic company in the UK, before starting his university studies at Imperial College in London. Within months of starting there he worked on the development of the TSR2 aircraft, which was similar to the Avro Arrow, particularly wind tunnel testing to assess its behaviour at low speeds. He completed his PhD on supersonic aerodynamics, but the British government lost interest in the field so he joined the flight research laboratory at the National Research Council of Canada, specializing in control systems and automated control. He was responsible for the software and simulation aspects in the development of the Canadarm – which was developed between 1975 and 1981 in collaboration with Spar Aerospace, NASA, Rockwell International, and various subcontractors. He describes use of the Canadarm to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and removing a stalactite of waste from the outside of the shuttle. He describes Canada's contribution to the International Space Station program, and the initiation of the Canadian astronaut program, where they whittled down the list of 4500 applicants to 2000, then 75, then 20, and then the final six. Part of the learning experience included addressing the physiological things that happen to people in space. The Space Station project was quite demanding politically as well as technically.

Geotechnical engineer Dr. Denise Leahy describes her post-secondary education at Laval and the Institute for Geotechnique in Trondheim, Norway. Her first engineering job was as a technician at the La Grande hydro-electric dam at Baie James, where, sue to security issues, women could not work outside the laboratory. After completing her PhD, she took a job at Geocon, an affiliate of Lavalin, where she was mentored by Lech Brzezinski, Getahun Haile, Heri Major, Benoît Demers and Les MacPhie. Much of her work involved the inspection, maintenance and restoration of mine tailings dams and she describes initiatives to consider acid mine drainage prevention and seismic loading for these structures. She describes initiatives to improve the quality of geotechnical engineering in Quebec, and her interactions with the Canadian Geotechnical Society and the Canadian Dam Association. She recalls the transition to computer-aided engineering, particularly the switch from manual drafting to AutoCad. She offers advice to high school students considering an engineering career and newly graduated Engineers-in-Training.

Dr. Suzelle Barrington was the first Canadian woman to receive a doctorate in agricultural engineering from Macdonald Campus at McGill University. She grew up on a farm near Moose Creek, a half hour east of Ottawa, and, after a year of science at Carleton University, switched to agricultural engineering at McGill. She was turned down for her first job with the Government of Ontario because she was a woman, but got a job as an agronomist in Howick Quebec. She got a job as an agricultural engineer in 1978 in Huntington, and worked hard to improve the productivity of her team. She returned to Macdonald Campus to do graduate studies, receiving a PhD in 1985, and continued there as a professor. Her doctoral research was on means to seal wastewater in soils. She continued on with odor control, building an Olfactometer to expose individuals to odors in a controlled manner, and so developing standards to quantify acceptable concentrations of odor in waste or factory discharges to the atmosphere. She developed a system for anaerobic digestion of wastewater, sludge, or livestock manure that did not require an expensive digestor. She has also worked extensively to promote engineering to women and generally increase the diversity of engineers, serving as President of the Women in Engineering Committee of the Quebec Order of Engineers. In "retirement", she has just finished writhing the history of subsurface drainage in Quebec, which dates from approximately 1920. She expresses her concerns about the amount of waste, including food waste, generated annually in Canada, and about environmental degradation and its impact on climate change. She closes with advice to a high-school student considering a career in engineering, and to a newly graduated Engineer-in-Training.

Electrical engineer Celia Desmond describes her unusual entry to an engineering career and her subsequent professional achievements. Her first work at Telco involved applying queuing theory to the management of shared data lines and then standardizing equipment that would connect to computer networks. She spent a year in the Human Resources department and then moved into customer support and project management. She then founded her own company, World Class Telecommunications, that primarily trained engineers about telecom network planning and implementation. She briefly describes several projects, including: reclassifying modems as computer accessories to reduce the duty from 17% to 3%; creating secure networks to support government leaders at a T7-type meeting; and, establishing certification for wireless communications engineering companies. She also emphasizes: the need for career transitioning; and the value of business, soft, and communication skills in a technical environment. She describes volunteer roles, primarily with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (Canada), and offers advice to high school students considering careers in engineering and to new engineering graduates. She also describes a personal hobby, making reproductions of antique porcelain dolls.

Electrical Engineer Guy Van Uytven passed an admission exam, just after the end of World War II, to enter the Royal University of Ghent, the top engineering school in Belgium, specializing in "zwakke stroom" or "weak currents", basically electronics. His first job was with the oil services exploration firm Schlumberger, who gave him a ticket to fly to Lisbon the day he was interviewed. He then studied briefly in Paris before a year in the Sahara Desert, Hassi Messaoud, conducting measurements on oil wells. In 1964, he returned to Belgium and was hired by Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a copper cobalt mining company with operations in Katanga, one of the provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, during a civil war. In 1966, the government nationalized the company, and he and his family escaped by car to Zambia and, eventually Cape Town. Arriving in Canada in 1967, he joined Acres Canadian Bechtel to assist with the design of the 735 kV substation and transmission lines for the Churchill Falls hydro-electric project in Labrador. At the time he also completed a Master of Engineering program at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia), developing a compute program that optimizes transmission lines that is still in use. He then joined Monenco, and embarked on an MBA program. He subsequently worked internationally in Afghanistan, Brazil, China, Madagascar, the Ivory Coast. At the time of the interview, he was the President of the Canadian Society of Senior Engineers.

Military engineer Bruce McGibbon describes his experiences as an engineer in, and consultant for, the Canadian Armed Forces. After pursuing military studies at College Militaire Royal de St Jean and Royal Military College, he was posted to One Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in Gagetown, NB. He took graduate courses in Computer Science at UNB and used these to develop programs to guide missile systems with Raytheon in El Paso Texas, and then in Shilo MB. His subsequent projects included: a field trial to determine the effect of hearing protection on artillerymen; the development of low-light rifle sights eventually manufactured by Ernst Leitz Canada Ltd; and the creation of Militia Training and Support Centres at Gagetown, Valcartier, Pembroke, Borden, and Edmonton. He led the project to procure (wheeled) Light Armoured Vehicles that were eventually constructed by the General Motors Diesel Division in London, Ontario. He also developed the program whereby officers are trained at the Department of Applied Military Science at Royal Military College, Kingston, instead of in the United Kingdom. He briefly describes his book "Inside DND – Procurements: The Hidden Story".

Mechanical engineer Dr. Martin Fandrich recalls feeling engineering was the right career when he recognized he could readily visualize cross sections of objects in an undergraduate graphics class. He received a prestigious scholarship to earn his PhD from the University of Cambridge, studying vibrations. He returned to work for Rolls-Royce in Montreal, in particular the conversion of gas turbine engines originally designed for aircraft to become stationary plants for power generation. H returned to the UK to work for five years at Frazer-Nash Consultancy, working on projects "as diverse as a child's tire swing and a nuclear power plant." He subsequently created his own consulting company, Bannerman Consultants in British Columbia, where he enjoys the variety of the projects that he works on. These include: a heated press that applies a glue component to turn cleaned chopsticks into a substantial block; a mechanized boat lift for a marina; and failure analysis work. He stresses the importance of effective communication in engineering and encourages new graduate Engineers-in-Training to be humble so that they can learn from all participating in a project.

Aeronautical engineer Dr. Gary Lindberg demonstrated strong skills in math and science during his childhood in rural Alberta and entered first-year engineering at the University of Alberta at age 15. He then received an Athlone Fellowship to earn his PhD at the University of Cambridge, researching the application of digital computers – then a fledgling technology – to dynamic analysis using the finite element method. He returned to Canada and joined the National Research Council in Ottawa, initially for an 18-month contract in the NRC Structures and Materials laboratory. One of his first projects involved the design and construction of a facility to generate diffuse noise with extremely high intensity of 120 to 130 decibels. In 1974, he became Project Manager for the development of the "Shuttle attached remote manipulator system", now widely known as the Canadarm. Development challenges included: designing the man-machine control aspects; the snare end-effector concept for the gripping mechanism; and lubrication for gears. He was promoted to be Director of the National Aeronautical Establishment and then founding Vice-President of the Canadian Space Agency.

Wind engineer Dr. Nicholas Isyumov chose to study engineering at Western in London, his home town, and became interested – in the days before computers – in the use of physical models. His first job, in 1960, was with the Timber Mechanics Section of the Forest Products Laborator in Ottawa. While testing roof trusses, he had many technical discussions with Bill Schriever, a snow engineering expert with the Division of Building Research at the National Research Council. He took a paid leave of absence to return to Western to start a Masters degree, supervised by Alan G. Davenport, researching snow loads on roofs. After a busy year conducting model tests in a water flume to simulate the effect of wind on snow drifting, he returned to Ottawa to resume full-time work. In 1965, Davenport invited him back to Western to work at the new Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory (BLWTL), and complete his snow research to earn a PhD degree. The BLWTL became a world-renowned facility, developing the science of testing models in turbulent winds to detect potential structural instabilities and dynamic responses. The wind tunnel projects included Toronto's CN Tower, CIBC Commerce Court, the Bank of Montreal, Scotia Bank, Canada Trust Centre. International projects included the Sears Building – now the Willis Tower – and McCormick Place in Chicago, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Canary Wharf structures in London, England. Their clients included Skidmore Owings and Merrill in Chicago, Carruthers and Wallace in Toronto.