Moving Image

Power systems engineer Willy Kotiuga describes his latest endeavour – enrolling in a Master of Fine Arts program at Kings College Halifax – primarily to prevent his untold stories from getting lost. The intention is to educate the next generation, allowing them to learn primarily from his mistakes. He was surprised, after authoring many reports and documents, by how his Creative Nonfiction Writing course changed his outlook. He realized that, drawing material from his collection of 40 notebooks, he was creating a document that would not get buried and forgotten on a shelf but would instead inform his family, his colleagues. He realized that he needed primarily to describe himself – what drives his decisions.

Mechanical engineer Madiha Kotb describes her calling as "engineers do fix things". Life-saving equipment found in hospitals is designed and maintained by engineers. Society takes engineering achievements for granted, even though they are essential and everywhere in every-day life: from plumbing fixtures to electricity to the buildings that we live in. "Unfortunately", she says, "engineers did not used to be good communicators" – though initiatives like the oral history project are changing this.

Metallurgical engineer Ken Putt describes his role overseeing the building of the Strathcona Refinery at Edmonton, then the biggest project that his employer, Imperial Oil, had ever done. The new refinery replaced existing refineries in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg, and its product was pipelined to Vancouver, Winnipeg, and points between. He was the owner's representative on the design team, and learned chemical engineering "by doing". When the design was finished, he was sent to Edmonton to do the start-up planning. Eventually he was in charge of start-up operations for half the plant.

Nuclear engineer Fred Dermarkar describes the importance of humility in complimenting teamwork. "If you want to get things done, you really need to view everyone as your equal and everyone as someone you can learn from." He reflects on the successful application of this philosophy to a team of thousands that complete a very challenging response to a major nuclear accident.

Biomedical engineer Dr. Monique Frize describes her "best project", a system for intensive care of infants – a software program that provides physicians and parents with decision assistance. It provides the physician with relevant data, predicts mortality, potential complications, duration of ventilation, and duration of stay. It provides parents with definitions of common medical terms and decision support should a change of treatment be needed. It was successfully piloted at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. "It took 25 years to get there – and about 35 theses"

Environmental engineer Dr. Suzelle Barrington offers suggestions on changing the engineering workplace to encourage diversity. Government policies and programs to encourage the employment of workers with diverse backgrounds are a start. Bosses should be able to use human resources personnel to improve workplace environments. But there are subconscious biases still out there, some consulting firms still give the big jobs to the guys, for example. It is necessary to reminde people that such subconscious biases exist.

Civil transportation engineer Dr. Chan Wirasinghe describes the basis of his analytical models to optimize the geometric design of airports. In particular, selecting the number of "pier fingers" and the number of departure/arrival gates at each finger, defines the average time it will take a passenger to walk to the gates. Other airports have "satellites", so the analysis can determine the optimal number, size and location of the satellites. He has worked with airport authorities in Hong Kong, Soeul, and Pittsburgh.

Agricultural engineer and public servant Christine MacKinnon describes her first engineering job, designing farm buildings in Nova Scotia. She and her boss travelled to a lot of farms, where she was frequently told "you don't look like the last engineer that we had out here!" She quickly recognized techniques necessary to earn the trust of farmers. She also recalls, as a woman starting in the profession, "a lot of old attitudes". There were incidents that would be described today as "extremely sexist", that she would resolve with humour. She attributes the reluctance of individuals to work with her to her inexperience and not her gender – but she has also worked to encourage young women to pursue engineering careers.

Civil engineer Emily Cheung describes changes to her field of engineering since she started practice. She highlights the more holistic approach to designing structures like bridges – now the designer has to think about the environmental aspects, the fluid mechanics and impact on fish if it is a river crossing, the consideration of cultural aspects and social impacts. It is no longer just about getting the structure right or getting the hydraulics right – or what is the cheapest structure!

Civil and environmental engineer Sarah Devereaux describes one of her projects, the "Million Dollar Hole". Her company was retained to work on the decommissioning of the United States naval base in Argentia, Newfoundland. A number of environmental "situations" were left, including the "Million Dollar Hole", a large repository for "everything you can think of, like tanks, trucks". She oversaw digging up the hole, recycling material whenever possible, over a two-year period.