Engineering Newsletter – July 2016

1. Alexandru Duru, a software engineering graduate from Montreal, Quebec has created his own hoverboard and set new records in this space.

2. Qing Wang, professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State, is developing a safer, more environmentally-friendly way for firefighters to fight fires. His team is creating nanowire material to accomplish this.

1. Fibonacci Clock - Philippe Chrétien from Montreal, Quebec released this nerdy clock back in 2015, which shows the time based on the Fibonacci sequence. Who doesn't love doing math in order to tell the time?

2. BASE - A Vancouver and San Diego company called Wiivv, created an affordable custom orthotics using 3D printing and your smart phone.

3. SmartHalo - A team from Montreal, Quebec develops a device that will turn your bike into a smart bike.

What technology or gadget are you currently enjoying and would recommend to other aspiring and licenced engineers? Let us know in the comments below.

Here are the news links to every Canadian Association. If there is anything beyond the normal stuff (elections, new appointments), I'll try to list them below.

1. APEGA news - Nominate someone for an undergrad bursary
2. APEGBC news - Proper use of EIT or GIT job titles |  New statement of compliance for the construction of pools in BC
3. APEGNB news
4. APEGS news
5. APEY news
6.  ASET news - Enabling foreign trained professionals to work without academic upgrading 
7. EGM news
8. Engineers Nova Scotia news - How to use digital seals and how to get one.
9. Engineers PEI news
10. NAPEG news
11. OACETT news - By-law changes ratified in June.
12. PEGNL news
13. PEO news - PEO disappointed with Ontario Government's decision to not repeal the industrial exception that allows unlicensed individuals to practice engineering work on machinery or equipment.

Did I miss your association? Leave a comment so I can add it next month.

Here are a few jobs that caught my eye across Canada. Most were posted within the last week. 

1. Project Engineer (drainage) - Parsons Corp. - Calgary, AB

2. Mechanical Engineer - VTrac - Toronto, ON

3. Engineering Technician - Tetra Tech - Winnipeg, MB

4. Rail Design Engineer - Mott MacDonald - Vancouver, BC

5. Electrical Engineer - SNC-Lavalin - Halifax, NS

Search all 300k eng. jobs | Use my 3 career hunting tips for better success

Does your LinkedIn headline say "Job Title, Company" or worse "Unemployed and Looking for work"? Read these two posts on how to write a better LinkedIn headline: post 1 | post 2.   

After reading those two posts, I updated my LinkedIn headline from "Owner, Practice PPE Exams" to this:  

As you can see, it now tells the reader much more about my unique ability.

What are you going to update your LinkedIn headline to say?  Let us know in the comments below.  

1. Your kids might live on Mars. Here's how they'll survive - Speaker Stephen Petranek suggests we will send humans to Mars in 11 years. He discussed survival and suggests that engineers will soon be working on Mars-related projects. [watch now]

2. A robot that runs and swims like a salamander - Auke Ijspeert shows us how studying animals and using bio-robotics can help us solve challenging problems.  [watch now]

Have you seen an interesting TED talk lately?  Share it in the comments below.

Recently, APEGBC fully migrated over to a Competency Experience Reporting System for submitting work experience when applying for a licence. So, in order to help those struggling with the new process, I'm developing a new course. But I need your help!

Have you successfully submitted your experience under the APEGBC new reporting system without requiring an interview?  Please contact me so that we can start a discussion about how your submission can help others. I'm collecting up to 5 submissions to use in my online course as excellent examples. Any personal and employer details will be removed to protect your identity and project information. For any submission used in my course, those people will be given a generous Amazon gift card from me.

Are you looking for help with your Competency Experience Reporting System submission?  Leave me your name so that I can contact you once the course has been developed (estimated late summer).

A few Associations (e.g. PEO, APEGBC) rely heavily on interviews as a method of assessing the experience and/or education of an applicant.

Over the past few months, a number of people have asked for help with this process. As a result, I am now helping to pair up people that either want to pay for a mock interview or be paid to be the interviewer (assuming you are licenced).

If you need a mock interview - Contact me with your Name, email, Association you are applying to and engineering background (e.g. mechanical).

If you want to make some money interviewing someone else - Contact me with your Name, email, Association, designation (e.g. P.Eng, P.Geo.), engineering background, requested compensation for 1-hour ($75, $100, $125 or $150) and a paragraph on your professional experience.

Once I have everyone's contact information, I'll start the pairing process.

"Failure is central to engineering. Every single calculation that an engineer makes is a failure calculation. Successful engineering is all about understanding how things break or fail."

--Henry Petroski

How to win a tin of SuraiTea - Leave a meaningful comment below by July 11th related to any of the newsletter topics. I'll pick 5 people and contact you for your mailing address. Bonus points for those that leave a comment early on.

SuraiTea Background:

Kevin Smiley, EIT and full-time MBA student at the University of Ottawa, recently launched a new business from the oPEO/OSPE Engineering Entrepreneurship Ecosystem called SuraiTea Inc.

SuraiTea Inc is a tea packaging business founded with the mission to use the power of the markets to create positive social change for refugees. Its objectives are, through the sale of our premium tea, to create high-value jobs for refugees and establish a sustainable source of corporate donations to the not-for-profits that resettle refugees. SuraiTea is using business as a force for good. Specifically, they hire recently arrived Syrian refugees in Canada to package and help sell premium Jasmine scented green teas which provides the refugees with their first work experience in Canada. In addition, Jasmine is the national flower of Syria so it is also a meaningful first work experience for them as well.

Timeline of the development of the business:

• Idea was conceived by Kevin after wanting to use his skills to do his part on February 20^th, 2016
• SuraiTea was incorporated as a B-Corp on March 14^th, 2016
• SuraiTea ran the first production run of 1000 units on April 4^th, 2016 and
• SuraiTea launched the online store and accepted their first sale on April 16^th

SuraiTea Inc to this point has completed $10,000 in tea sales, created 250 hours of work experience for recently arrived refugees generating $5000 in wages for them and are approximately 1/3 of the way to the sales goal to make the first donation to a not-for-profit that resettles refugees. Help spread the word and purchase their tea because the more tea they can sell, the more positive social change they can create for refugees!

Great work Kevin!

Does your company want to reach over 3,700 licenced and aspiring engineers?  Contact me by July 15th to discuss how your company can become next month's sponsor. The cost is free (for now), you just need to give something away to my awesome readers.