Engineering Newsletter – December 2020

• University of Toronto professor Molly Shoichet has won Canada’s top science prize of $1 million for her work designing gels that act as human tissue.
• Nanotechnology engineer Holden Beggs and a team of students from the University of Waterloo have created a zoom lens for smartphone cameras that doesn’t reduce photo quality, winning them an international award.

This month we’re looking back at some of the most successful Kickstarter projects of all time.

• Self Made is a reusable bracket that allows you to customize and build your own furniture with readily-available materials and almost no tools.
• Bird Buddy is a smart bird feeder that sends you a notification when birds arrive and takes and stores photos of them automatically.

• Sharp is a portable knife sharpener made from recycled plastic by engineers to reduce waste.

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 normal stuff (elections, new appointments), I'll try to list them below. During certain parts of the year (e.g. Summer, X-Mas), the news tends to slow down.

1. APEGA News - The new authentication standard is being enforced and came into effect on November 1, 2020.
2. APEGNB News
3. APEGS News
4. APEY News
5. ASET News
6. EGBC News
7. Engineers Nova Scotia News
8. Engineers PEI News
9. NAPEG News - Online climate change and infrastructure risk assessment course
10. OACETT News
11. PEGNL News
12. PEO News

• Engineers Canada - Canadian environment experience competencies now live in CBA system
• December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women.  Take a moment to reflect on Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique massacre.  Then, I encourage you to do your part each and every day by speaking up against harmful behaviour towards women, girls, LGBTQ2 (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two spirit) and gender diverse individuals. 

Being business-oriented and really knowing the firm you work for can help you get ahead. Read more early career advice for engineers here.

Head over to our recruitment page where you can send us your resume and enter our select candidate pool. We'll get in touch if your resume closely matches one of our client's open jobs.

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Read 7 habits of the most innovative engineers.

• How to decarbonize the grid and electrify everything: Climate policy expert Hal Harvey and engineer John Doerr explain why it’s now cheaper to save the earth than destroy it and why actions need to be taken on a global scale to decarbonize the earth.
• How game design can help with schooling: Caitlin Holman, education researcher, explains how school systems can co-op game design strategies that are engineered to keep players motivated.

“Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.”

–Dr. AR Dykes