Here is your monthly dose of my Canadian engineering news created for licensed and aspiring engineers, geoscientists and technicians in Canada.
- PEO congratulates Jennifer Quaglietta, its CEO/Registrar, for being recognized as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by Women’s Executive Network. Jennifer is among 103 women celebrated by WXN for making a transformative impact in their fields, notably in underrepresented areas. The BMO STEM Award acknowledges her leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, where she challenges norms and empowers women, contributing to better representation and progress in these vital sectors.
- Queen's University receives a historic $100 million donation from former student Stephen J.R. Smith, renaming the engineering faculty to the Stephen J.R. Smith Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. Described as Canada's largest gift to an engineering faculty, the funds aim to enhance the program by hiring staff, expanding interdisciplinary studies, and acquiring new equipment, marking a significant step in changing engineering education.
- The Supreme Award for Structural Engineering Excellence was granted to StructureCraft's Nancy Pauw Bridge in Banff, Alberta, by the Institution of Structural Engineers. Connecting Central Park to Banff Recreation Grounds, the bridge offers a unique experience of the Bow River and Rocky Mountain views. With an 80m clear span, the shallow, pure arch structure was designed with stepped Glulam girders and weathering steel haunches to minimize impact on the river's ecosystem and harmonize with the natural environment.
Water Walker & Spa's aquatic treadmill, the Water Walker, combines fitness and spa features. Priced at around $89,000 and up, it provides a high-tech solution for a joint-friendly cardio workout. This futuristic vessel serves as both a treadmill and a hydrotherapy spa, offering users a unique and luxurious exercise experience.
Meet NANO1, the world's smallest astronomy camera designed to bring the wonders of the night sky to you effortlessly. With its lightweight and user-friendly design, NANO1 simplifies the astronomy imaging experience, eliminating the need for bulky DSLR cameras or heavy tripods. Explore the cosmos with your perfect companion for astronomy capture and discovery.
What technology or gadget are you currently enjoying and would recommend to other aspiring and licensed engineers? Let us know in the comments below.
Here are the news links to every Canadian Association. If there is anything beyond the standard stuff (elections, new appointments), I'll try to list them below. The news tends to slow down during certain parts of the year (e.g. Summer, X-Mas).
- APEGA News-Court Dismisses Application Regarding Job Postings
- APEGS News-Act and Bylaw Review
- APEY News
- ASET News
- EGBC News
- Engineers Nova Scotia News-The Province of Alberta Court Canadian Council of Innovators position to exempt the term software engineer from regulation
- Engineers PEI News
- NAPEG News
- PEGNL News
- PEO News
Engineering interviews are pivotal for assessing technical skills, communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. Success in these interviews is crucial in a competitive job market. This article guides you to tackle challenging questions, emphasizing understanding, logical structuring, and relevant examples to present your best self and secure your dream engineering job.
Head over to our recruitment page where you can send us your resume and enter our select candidate pool. We'll contact you if your resume matches one of our client's open jobs.
Search all 300k eng. jobs | Use my three career-hunting tips for better success.
Engineers regularly confront the task of articulating intricate technical details to diverse audiences, be it colleagues, clients, or stakeholders. This blog highlights five strategies for engineers to enhance communication skills
- Bran Ferren's transformative experience at the Pantheon in Rome at the age of 9 sparked a lifelong exploration of the intersection of science, engineering, art, design, and beauty. In his TED Talk, he shares this journey and concludes with an unexpected proposal for a contemporary masterpiece.
- In her TED Talk at the BIF Innovation Summit, Cat Laine uses the myth of Tantalus to illustrate the challenges of developing countries. She proposes ingeniously engineered solutions to empower human-rich but resource-poor communities, highlighting the potential for positive transformation.
"Engineering is not only study of 45 subjects but it is moral studies of intellectual life."
-Prakhar Srivastav
Thanks for reading, and have a great month!
Gavin Simone, P.Eng. (AB), LEED AP
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Thank you for reading this month. For this post, please answer one (or both) questions:
Q1. How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work?
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering licence journey?
Q2: One thing that has surprised me about the engineering license journey, is actually the amount of people who chose NOT to before a professional. I find that a large portion of my schooling peers did not choose to pursue professional engineering , but rather chose to follow designer based roles.
Q1. How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work?
Ans. Cybersecurity breach can potentially halt our operations, and most likely will expose our customer’s information. Not acceptable at all!
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering licence journey?
Ans. The extensiveness of the CBA component. The validator’s involvement with each competency. It was a long journey.
Q1. How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work?
As a manufacturing unit, there are confidential designs that needs to be protected. The computers can also be a target for phishing. Cybersecurity keeps all malicious attack in check and also helps in purging affected systems. Also, if a system is infected, the person operating on that system cannot do any work until its been cleared. In which case, job that needs to be done is delayed, which is a loss for the company.
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering license journey?
The only surprise (in a good way) for me was that the ethics exam was made online multiple choice questions when I was asked to take during the COVID period. The rest of the process was expected, straightforward and outlined at the PEO website.
1) we had a ransomware attach at work once that stopped work for about 2 days.
2) The amount of law knowledge required.
Q1. How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work? Nowadays, company were using cloud base and cybersecurity would have a significant impact on engineering data.
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering licence journey? Took my FE exam passed first take. I was surprised NPPE was much harder to pass than FE. That’s my experience when I didn’t focus on the review, but thanks to PracticePPEexams course got passed.
I am probably most surprised by the number of engineering grads who don’t follow through to obtain their P.Eng license.
For international engineering graduates, there are a lot of surprises in comparison to the local ones.
1. Cybersecurity is extremely important to engineering work today, with regular trainings mandated by the company and while communicating with external vendors, it is very important to be mindful of the proprietary information we share.
2. The fees to get and remain licensed.
To answer these two questions:
Q1. How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work? Lot of training we have in our company to protect us from the cyber attacks specially during the vacations periods.
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering licence journey? I appreciated your help during my license journey.
2. The biggest surprise was how long it took me to be motivated to get my license. I met all the requirements, just never took the test until 7 years into my engineering career.
Q2. What was one thing that surprised you about the engineering licence journey?
Lots of fees.
How does cybersecurity impact your engineering work?
I am surprised when preparing client proposals for large mining projects, that although the client did not include cybersecurity, when we add it to the proposal the client is happy to include that item in the scope of work as its usually an area they have forgotten, understanding its value added.
It’s become a no-brainer in our company to promote this now as we have a whole multi-person division totally committed to cyber-security projects.
Q2.
How expensive and time-consuming it is!
Q1 how does cyber security impact my engineering work?
One of the ways in which it impacts my engineering work is that every time I have to update or download a new software on my work computer or even if I have to clear some space from the local disk of a remote desktop, I have to get temporary credentials from my IT department which slows down my work sometimes.
Q1: Two companies I worked for got attacked. One lost lots of engineering files, could only rely on hard copies for a while. The other one, the email system got unfunctional for a week.
Q2: Expensive
Q1 In the Oil and gas industry, cyber security is important as control of our systems could mean control of our physical assets in the field!
95% of my engineering work is done and saved on a computer either on the company’s server or locally. As time goes on I’ve noticed our IT manager having to upgrade our cybersecurity measures to help protect our work.
A1 – Cybersecurity is extremely important in my engineering work involving crucial data, as it ensures protection against cyber attacks that can damage the system or compromise sensitive information.
A2. Lack of knowledge transfer sessions from retiring professionals.