Moving Image

Aeronautical engineer Dr. Karl Doetsch describes his involvement in the Canadarm project. The timeline to build the Canadian government and industry (Spar Aerospace) teams was tight and there were challenges – the prototype could not be tested on earth because the force of gravity was too strong. But it was worth it: the first image from space, of the arm emblazoned with the word "Canada" with the earth as a backdrop, became iconic. And it put Canada on the map in a field that was quite new for Canada.

Dr. David Weaver describes his 16 years of retirement as "travelling around the world solving big problems". Always an avid modeler, one of his first initiatives as a new professor at McMaster University was to build a model of Cape Breton Island control structures for the hydro-electric power stations. He used the model to identify and resolve potential problems converting Megawatts of water power into electricity, and as a tool to design the various components. The work, when published, was used globally to design these control structures.

Dr. Denise Leahy describes her first job, working in a geotechnical laboratory at the massive La Grande hydroelectric project at Baie James. She was very excited to start field work, but was devastated to learn that, due to security issues, women could not work outside the laboratory. She describes being on a work site with 1000 guys and 100 women as "a learning experience". Eventually she and her supervisor realized that, after putting on the required Personal Protective Equipment, no one could determine her gender and she got out on site.

Celia Desmond describes her unusual early career journey – although she loved mathematics as a high-school student, she was counselled to consider a career in nursing or teaching. She became a kindergarten teacher, earning a degree in mathematics by taking night courses. The neighbours in her apartment building were undergraduate engineering students – and she found their homework interesting. When she married and moved, there were no teaching opportunities, so she took a masters degree in systems engineering.

Electrical Engineer Guy Van Uytven describes leaving university at Ghent, Belgium, to start his first job with Schlumberger, an oil services exploration firm. He was given a ticket to fly to Lisbon the same day he was interviewed! He found his way to a hotel and, not knowing Portuguese, managed to order a chicken meal for supper. He was surprised to be served a soup that contained a chicken leg sticking up out of it – but ate it. While in Portugal, he learned to play the classical guitar, and to speak Portuguese – his fourth language.

Bruce McGibbon describes a field trial he conducted with the Canadian Armed Forces in Shilo, Manitoba. One morning, three teams of fifteen men were given hearing tests. One group was given ear muffs and ear plugs, the second only ear plugs, and the third was given no protection and ordered not to cover their ears – the standard protocol of the day. After a four-hour barrage, the men were retested: the first group had no change but two of the fifteen in the third group had permanent hearing loss. The CAF subsequently changed their protocol!

Mechanical engineer Dr. Martin Fandrich describes one of his design-build projects – a boat lift. The lift reaches under the water surface to pick up the boat and rotates it to the left or right for a forklift to take it to dry storage. The owner of a boat that was at the limit of the lift's capacity offered his vessel for a load test. Dr. Fandrich recalls "I am not a mariner – but it was a very expensive-looking boat!" Fortunately, the new lift functioned perfectly

Aeronautical engineer Dr. Gary Lindberg describes his role as Project Manager for the development of the "Shuttle attached remote manipulator system", now widely known as the Canadarm. In accordance with past practices involving joint ventures with the US National Aeronautical and Space Agency (NASA), a Memorandum of Understanding was drafted and signed by the President of the National Research Council and the Chief Administrator of NASA. When External Affairs and the US State Department found out, they said "wait a minute – that's an international treaty" and waded in.

Wind engineer Dr. Nicholas Isyumov talks about his work on the Sears Building – now the Willis Tower – in Chicago during the late '60s. It was to be the tallest building in the world, taller than New York's World Trade Center. The World Trade Center was sensitive to cross-wind dynamic excitations due to vortex shedding. The Sears Building had a more irregular shape – only two of the nine modules extended to the full building height – so vortex shedding was mitigated but significant wind-induced torques were possible. These combined drag, cross-wind, and torsional loadings eventually were codified.

Civil engineer Dr. Susan Tighe describes her work in leading a team from across Canada to develop the Pavement Management Asset Design and Management Guide for the Transportation Association of Canada. The guide represents a "crown jewel", containing the results of many laboratory projects she worked on with various graduate students and many field projects, including over 100 test sections located in Canada and internationally. Sophisticated modeling and life-cycle costing were used to develop the recommended best practices. She also briefly describes some of her 200-odd research projects.