MacEngineer
The
VOLUME 28
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
NUMBER 1
MCMASTER UNIVERSITY
Innovation and
Entrepreneurship
See page 5
APRIL 2003
A message from the Dean
Creating a new school for
Engineering Practice
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s part of McMaster University’s
culture of innovation and discovery, and building on the Faculty of
Engineering’s interdisciplinary approaches
and on its ability to develop collaborative
partnerships with industry, business and
government we are about to embark on a
number of new programs. Engineering
researchers play an important role in the
Canadian economy. They are increasingly
being asked to create new technologies to
help Canadian industries remain competitive in a global marketplace. At the same
time, there is a growing demand for policyfocused research to ensure that new technologies benefit society. To continue to
attract the best and brightest students, we
need to continuously upgrade and introduce
new and relevant educational and research
programs that meet societal needs.
inside this issue
Alumni Profiles .......................4
Walter Booth ..........................5
Golf Tournament ..................16
Alumni Weekend ..................20
Hey Alumni! Have you got something to
say, or any other news? We would like to hear
from you. Contact Carm Vespi:
Tel: (905) 525-9140 ext. 24906
Fax: (905) 546-5492
e-mail: vespi@mcmaster.ca
website: www.eng.mcmaster.ca
To meet these needs, the Faculty is creating the School for Engineering Practice, as
a focal point for its professional graduate
programs. The new school will be comprised of three new research centres offering various professional degree programs.
A leadership gift was received from alumnus Walter G. Booth to create the first
endowed chair in the Centre of Engineering
Entrepreneurship and Innovation – The
Walter G. Booth Chair in Engineering
Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The Chair
will focus on a new Master’s program that
will provide graduate students with the
opportunity to study/develop innovative
approaches for the transfer of engineering
ideas into new business enterprises. The
other two centres are the Centre for
Engineering and Public Policy and the
Centre for Engineering Design.
In addition, the Faculty is also creating a
new and innovative Biomedical Engineering
program. The initial focus will be in
Electrical and Biomedical Engineering. The
proposed program will lead to a 5-year
combined Master’s (M.Eng.), 4-year
Bachelor (B.Eng.) degree in Electrical and
Biomedical Engineering, or after the 3-year
qualification for a premed program. These
programs and research centres build on
McMaster’s interdisciplinary strengths and
will position McMaster at the forefront of a
new era in engineering.
Mo Elbestawi,
Dean of Engineering
To create the infrastructure needed for
the new research centres and education programs, the Faculty is embarking on a major
initiative to fund a new engineering building that will have state-of-the art facilities
for students, faculty and researchers. The
design of the building will promote interdisciplinary, across department, education
and research in the areas described earlier.
The design of the building will incorporate
environmental considerations.
There are many opportunities for your
involvement in this historic project. Please
visit our website at www.eng.mcmaster.ca.
Mo Elbestawi
The MacEngineer welcomes
your comments...
Send your news and views to the editor
at vespi@mcmaster.ca
The MacEngineer is published by the Engineering
Faculty for its alumni. Distribution assistance is
provided by the Alumni Office.
On the cover…
Publication Number 40063416
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Walter Booth poses in front of the John Hodgins Engineering Bulding. Photo by Ron Scheffler
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A message from the Associate Dean
Making way for the double cohort
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his year, there will be two high
school classes graduating at the
same time because of the abolition
of the former Grade 13. The consequences
of this Double Cohort have been widely
reported in the media lately. Many of our
alumni have children who are part of this
group and are justifiably concerned about
their chances of being admitted to university. I would therefore like to take this
opportunity to describe some of the steps
that we have taken and our plans for this
year’s admission process.
A record total of 101,668 students
applied to the Ontario Universities
Application Centre by the deadline, an
increase of 46.7% over January 2002.
McMaster University has seen an increase
in applications of over 95% from last year.
First choice applicants are up 51%, second
choices are up by 59%, and third-choices
are up by 52%. These numbers exceed the
projections by the Ontario government, and
negotiations are under way to find ways of
increasing the capacity of Ontario universities for this year.
Within the Faculty of Engineering, we
have been preparing for the Double Cohort
for some years. Many of you will recall the
days, not so long ago, when Level 1 enrol-
ment was about 400 students. In response to
the ever increasing demand for our programmes, in addition to the need to prepare
for the Double Cohort students, we have
gradually increased the number of students
admitted into Level 1 to 750. As a result,
the number of students in the Faculty has
grown from about 1,300 to over 2,500. It
should be noted that this increase in enrolment has not been at the expense of minimum admission standards, which have gone
up in each of the past five years.
To accommodate these students, we have
had to increase the number of sections
offered in many courses, we have increased
the class size in others, we have expanded
our laboratory facilities, we have renovated
and occupied the old Teacher’s College (now
the Information Technology Building), and
we have hired a large number of new faculty
members and staff. We are now essentially at
full capacity, and are unable to increase
enrolment further without compromising the
quality of our programmes.
This will make admission decisions particularly difficult this year. As you probably
know, the number of offers of admission
that we make to applicants in the spring of
every year is based on the expectation that a
certain percentage of the offers will be
Dr. Peter Smith,
Associate Dean of Engineering
accepted. This year’s circumstances, however, put into question the validity of any
prior statistics, and projections on acceptances rates will be subject to considerable
uncertainty.
The next few months will therefore be
challenging times, both for us and for our
future students. You can be assured, however, that throughout the admissions
process, we will do our utmost to ensure
that every applicant is treated fairly.
New Associate Dean No Stranger to McMaster
The Faculty of Engineering appointed
Peter Smith to the Office of Associate
Dean, effective Dec. 1, 2002. He replaces
Philip Wood who accepted the position of
associate vice-president, Student Affairs
at McMaster. Smith has been acting associate dean in the Faculty since Wood’s
departure on July 1.
McMaster has been Smith’s home for
the past 25 years. Originally from Brazil,
he was in the first class to receive the
B.Eng.Mgt. degree in computer engineering and management, in 1983. He stayed
at McMaster to complete his M.Eng. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering, in
1985 and 1988, respectively. In 1987 he
joined the University’s Department of
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Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Smith brings to the office a broad perspective and interest on issues that affect
undergraduate students in engineering. He
was director of Engineering 1 at
McMaster between 1996 and 1999, during a period of rapid expansion to the
undergraduate engineering program. He
was the student activities chair for the
Canadian Region of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE) between 1995 and 1997, and has
participated in numerous other studentfocus programs and activities.
“Dr. Smith is truly an exceptional educator and scholar who has gained the
respect of the engineering student body,”
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said Mo Elbestawi, Dean of Engineering.
“He is extremely qualified to provide the
necessary leadership for our undergraduate engineering program.”
Smith is one of the leading experts
worldwide on surface acoustic wave
(SAW) devices, a subject on which he has
co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed
publications and for which he was awarded
the R. A. Ross Medal by the Engineering
Institute of Canada. He has provided leadership as head of the Microwave Acoustics
Laboratory at McMaster since 1989. He is
a senior member of the IEEE and a member of the Association of Professional
Engineers of Ontario.
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Alumni profiles
Successful Grad Combines Roles
of Mom and Senior Management
S
ince graduating from McMaster with a
B.Eng Mgmt (Comp.Eng.& Management, ’83) and an MBA (Marketing,
’86), Cheryl Giblon has led a busy life.
Academically, she went on to obtain a
Ph.D. in marketing at York University (’95),
and has taught marketing and MIS courses
part-time at both the University of Toronto
and York University.
Cheryl’s professional career has included
work as systems analyst, but her main focus
has been on sales and marketing. She has
held positions in both Canadian and
American firms including Garrett Canada
(now Honeywell), Weidmuller Limited,
Bell Sygma, Compaq Canada and ATI
Technologies Inc. Prior to her current position, she was Vice President of Marketing
for Canada and the Director of Marketing
for the Americas Region for Borland
Software.
Today, she is Executive Vice President,
Marketing, Engineering and Operations for
Stetron International Inc, having been promoted in 2002 from her position as Vice
President, Marketing. Stetron is a provider of
electronic components and solutions specializing in loudspeakers, thermistors, varistors
and relays for the telecom, multimedia, automotive and industrial control sectors. Cheryl
works out of the company’s Markham,
Ontario office and lives in Thornhill.
But work is not all office time! “On
August 30, 2002, I appeared on CTV
National News, in a business segment on
Stetron’s growth in a down market. The clip
is at www.stetron.com.”
Rebecca, on the left, and sister Melissa, sharing a hug.
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On the personal side, she and husband
Andrew celebrated their tenth anniversary
in July 2002. They have three children:
Rebecca (5), Melissa (3) and Joel (14
months). In addition to the typical family
responsibilities, Cheryl is taking piano lessons along with Rebecca and very much
enjoying it. “I remember when I was a kid
I used to try to avoid practicing and now
that I am an adult, I can’t find enough time
to do it!” The girl’s other activities – ballet,
sportball and swimming lessons – tend to
keep this family on the run.
Cheryl Giblon (left) with husband Andrew and
their son Joel.
As for Joel: “He is already saying a few
words (and the word “more” seems to be a
favorite!), has just started to walk, and has
a great laugh.”
Al-Riaz Adatia – entrepreneur,
inventor & humanitarian
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lumnus Al-Riaz Adatia, Computer
’93, might be forgiven for thinking
that his engineering degree was his
ticket to fame and fortune. No matter how
you look at it, he has definitely led an
interesting – and successful – life.
One of Canada’s current young business
leaders, Al-Riaz built his professional
career in California’s Silicon Valley working at such prestigious companies as Octel,
ST Microelectronics (SGS Thompson) and
Microsoft. His computer engineering background has led him to many cutting edge
and consumer-focused projects including
development of drivers at ST
Microelectronics for use on set top boxes,
sound drivers for Microsoft’s Pocket PC
reference platform, an AC-3 decoder
shipped with Windows NT Soft DVD, and
USB drivers for Fingerprint recognition
Al-Riaz’s expertise eventually led him
into teaching. At 24, he was the youngest
teacher in the University of California Santa
Cruz Extension program, and the following
year he was not only able to have the
course accredited for certification, but he
was also able to start teaching his courses at
UC Berkeley. During this time, he founded
Ustad, a teaching and consulting practice.
Ustad developed and presented private
courses for companies such as Microsoft,
SGI, Apple and HAL. Most courses
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required a prerequisite of 10 years of
engineering experience, and were considered the most
sought after courses
in the Valley.
The young entrepreneur has also
been involved with
multiple startups
Al-Riaz Adatia
including Flash Of
Lightening (a Commandsoft and Microsoft
joint venture), Rhetorex and, in 1998,
Mediascience. He was one of three
founders of Mediascience, the company
which developed the much-acclaimed MP3
player Sonique. Al-Riaz led the team as
CEO, CTO and most notably as “Chief
Evangelist”, speaking at industry conferences in both the technical arena (SDMI)
and in the music field along side Chuck D
(Public Enemy), Prince and other musicians. At its peak, Sonique was the second
most popular MP3 player on the Internet,
was in the top 5 of all downloads on CNET
in 1999, and was voted the number one
player by WebNoize. The product generated three patent applications, of which AlRiaz is co-inventor of two.
In 1999, he led Mediascience through its
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New research chair fosters
innovation & entrepreneurship
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cMaster alumnus and Woodstock
businessman Walter G. Booth has
made a donation of $1 million
to support the creation of a new research
chair in the Faculty of Engineering. The
Walter G. Booth Chair in Engineering
Entrepreneurship and Innovation is part of
the proposed Centre for Engineering
Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The
Centre will focus on methods of commercializing new engineering ideas and technical expertise.
Engineering Dean Mo Elbestawi said
Booth’s generosity will help the Faculty to
continue building on its strengths as a student-centred and research-intensive institution, as well as its commitment to taking an
innovative approach to engineering.
“The chair will have a managerial focus
that emphasizes the creation of new business
through innovative, opportunity-oriented
management,” said Elbestawi. “This is generally recognized as a major driving force
for growth in the Canadian economy.”
Booth is Chairman and CEO of the
Timberland Group, a group of three companies that specialize in winching and hoisting products that are sold around the world.
He graduated from McMaster with
a bachelor of engineering in mechanical
engineering in 1962 and obtained his
master’s in engineering in 1965.
He noted that the gift is his way of say-
Booth did not have his Grade 13. When he
decided to obtain a university education,
only McMaster, under the guidance of
Dean Hodgins, agreed to accept him.
“(Hodgins) took a chance on me at the
time when it was pretty important to me,”
he said.
Booth kept in touch with Professor
Siddall after he graduated with his bachelor’s degree and it was Siddall who encouraged him to apply for a Ford Foundation
Scholarship and return to McMaster to
study for his master’s degree in engineering.
“I studied for a year under Jim Siddall
and he was a great mentor who guided me
through the master ’s degree program. He
instilled in me a love of engineering and its
application to industry.”
McMaster University President Peter
George lauded the establishment of the
endowed chair as a generous investment in
the future of outstanding teaching and
research in the engineering faculty.
“Mr. Booth’s generosity and vision
allows the University to pursue an exciting
area in engineering studies,” said President
George. “It contributes in a significant way
to McMaster’s ability to deliver exceptional
educational opportunities and research in
the area of engineering entrepreneurship
and ensures our students continue to be in
the forefront of teaching and scholarship in
this vitally important area.”
Walter G. Booth
ing thanks to two McMaster professors,
former engineering dean Jack Hodgins and
Jim Siddall. Both, he said, were instrumental in his academic life.
“Both men took a chance on me at crucial times in my life, and entrepreneurship
and innovation are about taking chances
and taking risks. I see the need in our own
organization and in Canada for this type of
engineering person who has an entrepreneurial bent and strength.”
Although a graduate of Ryerson’s threeyear mechanical technology program,
Dan Olsen – working for change
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ourth-year civil engineering and management student Dan Olsen is not only
working towards his degree. He’s
working on helping to change the world for
the better.
It was during his second year at McMaster
that he became interested in international
work. “I was looking for more from school
than money and a job or career.” His thoughts
focused on the problems of the world and
what he might be able to do about them.
Olsen joined Engineers Without Borders
(EWB), an organization that focuses on
improving the quality of life of people in
developing nations and communities by helping find appropriate technical solutions to
their challenges.
Currently, Olsen is working through EWB
with a rural development agency in India to
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design a rainwater
harvesting system in
the Nilgiris district.
The project is also
his fourth-year independent study work.
He explains that the
stream that supplies
water to the 22 families in the village of
Tamal Nadu runs
Dan Olsen
dry several months
of the year. The challenge is to ensure there
is water all year round. One solution might
be to harvest the rainwater from the straw
and adobe rooftops of the villagers’ homes.
Another is to build a rock and earth dam. To
help find a viable solution to the water shortage, Olsen plans to apply to the Canadian
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International Development Agency (CIDA)
for a grant to enable a EWB member to
work in India on the project.
The president of McMaster’s student
Civil Engineering Society ,Olsen, 23, is no
stranger to such problems. He has travelled to Bolivia, Nicaragua and Mexico for
the past three summers to help the underprivileged in orphanages and assist in the
building of new homes. His first experience was with an organization called
Global Youth Network. He spent a summer
working in an orphanage in Bolivia as part
of a group of students under the leadership
of Leslie Williams, a McMaster nursing
student. The experience transformed him.
The following summer, Olsen and
Williams took a group of youths from
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Engineering Alumnus Finds Success in
DotCom Company
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eter Della-Nebbia (Civil, 1984) is
justly proud of The Learning
Continuum Company Ltd., an on-line
enterprise he co-founded in 1997. “We are a
dot com survivor,” he says, in reference to
the many Internet-based businesses that have
not experienced staying power over the last
few years.
The Learning Continuum (www.tlcc.com)
offers training in computer programming.
Courses on Java, JavaScript, LotusScript
and WebSphere are marketed on-line and
purchased by those interested via credit
card over the Internet. The “student” downloads the course and works through it at his
own pace.
“It’s an interesting business,” company
president Della-Nebbia muses. Almost
everything – from marketing to providing
answers to student queries – is done
through the Internet. “Our course developers are from all over: Hawaii, India,
England, the United States and Canada.
And my partner lives in Florida.” He works
out of his home in Hamilton, Ontario.
Offering computer programming courses
to the world seems a bit removed from the
civil engineering skills he developed while at
McMaster. An aptitude for math and sciences
propelled him towards the engineering programme in the first place, and Della-Nebbia
now says it was the right choice.
“Engineering gave me the ability to learn and
to learn quickly” – an asset in today’s fastpaced, ever-changing IT industry, he adds.
When he graduated, he was offered two
job opportunities – each with quite different
possibilities. He could use his engineering
skills at Petro Canada, designing and building stations, or he could join IBM and
become immersed in the growing information technology industry. The IBM offer
appealed as more exciting and appeared to
offer a good future, so he took the chance.
If he has one regret about McMaster
engineering, it’s the fact that he did not take
the engineering and management program.
“It would have been a help to me, especially in establishing my IBM career.”
His eight years at IBM reinforced
another lesson gleaned from university –
learning is a life-long venture. “Learning is
continuous. It doesn’t end with the degree
and graduation.”
Della-Nebbia has many fond memories of
his time at McMaster, from the events dur-
Peter Della-Nebbia (far right) with his family
(left to right) Lance age 17, wife Kathy, Kayla
age 5 and Tyler age 8.
ing Orientation Week to the writings found
in The Plumbline. The best, however, was
the football games he helped organize on
the lawn in front of the Engineering building between mechanical and civil engineering students. “I really liked those football
games … civil engineers usually won!”
Married with three children, Della-Nebbia
and the family enjoy travel and camping –
two activities he hopes to do more often, just
as soon as he can get into some high-tech
mobile technology capabilities.
Dan Priljeva – an emerging entrepreneur
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inancial analyst Dan Priljeva strikes
you as a person who thinks methodically, plans in detail and acts with
conviction. These are attributes that are
most likely highly regarded by his current
employer, CIBC’s commercial banking
division. However, they also feature in the
story of how and why this mechanical engineering grad (’99) has become an emerging
entrepreneur.
In early January, 2003, Priljeva, along
with partners Dragoslav Culum (EE.&
Mgmt ’00) and Sasa Bosnjak (CompEng
‘99) won a $1,000 start-up award from the
Michael G. DeGroote School of Business
for a business management product developed by their company, Mission84
Networks. Designed to be an advanced
inventory management tool, called the Item
Tracking Network (ITN), the product provides “real time balance and location capabilities, offering 100 per cent inventory
control,” Priljeva explains. It resolves the
capacity and accuracy issues related to
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tracking technologies
currently available, making it particularly useful
in large retail businesses.
Most importantly, “it
doesn’t cannibalize
existing systems, but
works with them to provide high quality data.”
In other words, a comDan Priljeva
pany would not have to
discard an existing system in order to take
advantage of the product’s capabilities.
By winning the Business School’s
Campus Incubator Business Plan
Challenge, the product has been given a
vote of confidence, Priljeva says. “It’s a
confirmation that the judges (who are business people and entrepreneurs) believe in
the proposal, and feel that we have a good
idea and a good team working on it.”
The business advantages are huge.
“Imagine knowing with 100 per cent accuracy the true inventory balance and location
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of every item in a warehouse, and being
able to plan production and sales based on
this knowledge. The efficiencies at hand
create real economic gains and provide visibility across the supply chain.”
Despite his current ease with businessspeak, it was probably inevitable that
Priljeva chose engineering after graduating
from high school. His marks were strongest
in the maths and sciences, and his sister
Michelle (’98) was already enrolled in engineering at McMaster – and liking it! In
addition, it seemed to him that engineering
was “more practical than the pure sciences”.
After completing his engineering degree,
he went straight into the MBA program,
also at McMaster, graduating in 2001. He
doesn’t regret the decision not to take the
combined engineering and management
program, and is pleased with the way
everything has worked out. “At the time I
wanted to concentrate on the pure tech
courses. It was a good foundation.” It was
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Engineering Faculty and Alumni Help
Build Better Homes
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he Threshold School of Building is a
new venture that provides practical
house building education to the general public. With a $29,000 grant from the
Young Fund to do some development work
and a $75,000 pilot grant from the Hamilton
Community Foundation, a group of engineers, designers, carpenters and teachers
group launched the year-long pilot project in
August 2002. The start-up grants are enabling
the group to open the school, provide courses,
and do an affordable housing project.
By having some of the instruction take
place in the context of affordable and sustainable housing in north Hamilton, the ini-
tiative is helping improve Hamilton’s housing situation, says Bob Hudspith, president
of the group and associate professor of
mechanical engineering.
“As people gain the knowledge, skills
and confidence to participate in the design,
construction and maintenance of their own
homes they are in a better position to contribute to a more sustainable community,”
he says. “The affordable housing projects
that form one component of the education
will address a growing need in Hamilton.”
In addition to meeting with local agencies such as Mission Services of Hamilton,
The Good Shepherd Centre, Welcome Inn
and Habitat for Humanity, four of the
members of the group visited Minneapolis
to study The Project for Pride in Living.
Threshold opened its doors to students in
January 2003.
McMaster faculty and alumni involved in
the school include political science professor
Barbara Carroll, who serves as vice-president;
engineering alumni Josh Abush, Graham
Lobban and Kurt Frost; arts and science and
humanities alumnus Andrew Copp, and psychology alumnus Jack Santa Barbara.
For more information or to register for a
course, visit the Threshold Web site at
www.thresholdschool.ca
McMaster Racing Club to compete in Michigan
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s the school year comes to an end,
the McMaster Racing Club gears up
for spring and summer design and
construction. Our chassis division is learning the ropes of finite element analysis so
they can build and test the frame on the
computer, and the engine division has
designed a new throttle valve, and continues
the search for that elusive perfect engine.
During the summer, the team plans to
complete much of the design work and
also begin construction of some components of the car. Also, the team would like
to take part in some driver training programs to be more competitive with drivers
from other schools who have professional
racing experience.
The McMaster Racing Club Formula
SAE Team (MRC) designs and builds an
open-wheel Formula-style race car, which
must conform to stringent specifications,
established by the Society of Automotive
Engineers. Over 150 schools compete in
three annual competitions that are held
around the world: Formula SAE in Pontiac,
Michigan USA, Formula Student in
Leicester, England, and Formula Australasia
in Carrum Downs, Victoria Australia.
The 2002 car can outperform most production cars with 0-100km/h times in the
4-second range, as well as awesome 1.4 g
lateral acceleration. Weighing in around
500 pounds, and outfitted with an 86hp
600cc motorcycle engine this car is a serious performer. For the next car, our aim is
to drop the weight, raise the horsepower
using a turbocharger, and improve on the
already incredible suspension.
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Team Captain Matt Bigger, Mechanical Engineering and Management ’01 competing in Leicester,
England 2002.
If you would like to know more about
the McMaster Racing Club and what we
do, please e-mail team captain Julius Bago
at sae@mcmaster.ca. You can also view our
webpage from its temporary location:
msw.mcmaster.ca/~mrc.
The team is currently seeking sponsorship at all levels. To join this great team
contact sponsorship director Jesse Webster
at websteja@mcmaster.ca.
Engineering Alumni...
Join our Engineering Alumni E-mail Database
http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/engalumni/
just for ENGINEERS!
This is a great opportunity to keep in touch with your fellow classmates.
Check out McMaster Alumni Association’s new
on-line McMaster @lumni Community
http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/
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Successful alumni night
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n February 27th, the Engineerring
Advisory Committee hosted a gettogether in Toronto entitled
“Inspiring Innovation & Discovery”. The
following Committee members were in
attendance to meet and greet attendees:
Pat Stevens, Chemical ’80 (Chair)
Carlos Escalante, Civil ’98
Len King, Civil ’72
Susan Laughton, Chemical ’95
Romeo Palombella, Civil ’73
David Ryan, Social Sciences ’99
Stephen Veldhuis, Mechanical & Mgt. ’90
Appropriately, the event was held at the
Ontario Science Centre in north Toronto.
Following a buffet supper, over 40 area
alumni were welcomed by Pat Stevens,
chair, Engineering Advisory Committee.
University President Dr. Peter George was
also present and brought warm greetings to
the gathered alumni. Keynote Speaker Mo
Elbestawi, Dean, Faculty of Engineering,
gave an inspiring and informative talk on
“Innovation in Engineering Education at
McMaster University”. The evening concluded with ample time for meeting and
mingling with colleagues and old friends.
Many thanks to the following for helping
to “show the Mac spirit in TO”:
Elena Shusterman, Manufacturing ’02
Carlo Odoardi, Electrical ’86
Dave Manning, Computer Eng. &
Management ’00
Mark Stevens, Chemical ’80
Kristie Schweinbenz, Mechanical Eng. &
Mgt. ’98
Robert Wunsche, Metallurgical ’96
Sukhpal Dhillon, Computer ’02
Munish Prasher, Electrical ’02
Vadim Nechadim, Engineering Physics ’01
Nizar Amarsi, Mechanical ’01
Al Pirbhai, Computer Engineering and
Mgt. ’01
Tony Colenbrander, Engineering Physics ’66
John Colenbrander, Mechanical Eng. &
Society ’02
Jim McEwen, Civil Eng. & Mgt. ’78
Mary Byrne, Civil Eng. & Mgt. ’93
David Rogers, M.Eng.(Mechanical) ’93
Mikhail Ali, Mechanical ’93
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Anita Heikkila, Chemical ’80
Bill Heikkila, Chemical & Mgt. ’80
Nino Balbaa, Mechanical ’93
Bret Ida, Mechanical ’93
Brian Jay, Electrical ’94
Randy Showalter, Electrical & Mgt. ’02
Sarah Masih, Mechanical ’01
Michael Delsey, Civil ’74
Suzanne Beale, Civil Eng. & Mgt. ’88
Roy Verstraeta, Chemical ’70
Gary Macro, Civil ’73
Enno Agur, Chemical M.Eng. ’78, Ph.D. ’82
Herve Lacheray, M.Eng. Mechanical ’01
Dave Reeds, Civil Eng. & Mgt. ’81
Sushee Perumal, Computer Eng. & Mgt. ’02
Will McCrae, Civil ’86
Jude Ragel, Manufacturing ’01
Dr. Brian Latto, Emeritus, Mechanical
Engineering
Steve Karan, Commerce ’02
Brian Pho, Chemical Eng. & Society ’02
Bill Holly, Chemical ’88
John Richmond, Chemical Engineering ’74
Mark Ottensmeyer, Mechanical Eng. &
Mgt. ’94
Dr. Peter George, President and ViceChancellor
Dr. Mo Elbestawi, Mechanical M. Eng. ’76,
Ph.D. ’80, Dean of Engineering
Terry Milson, Faculty Advancement
Officer, Humanities ’78
Carm Vespi, Engineering Alumni Officer
Iwona Centurami, Engineering Alumni
Assistant
From left to right: Len King, Susan Laughton, Peter George, Gary Macro, Romeo Palombella and
John Richmond.
Who would have thought …
A
s engineering alumni know, their
degrees can lead to many wonderful
opportunities. For some, however,
the B.Eng has been a catalyst to branch out
in other directions.
Larry Timms,
chemical ’89, always
figured he be a
teacher. First he
obtained a B.Sc. from
Waterloo. Then it was
on to engineering at
McMaster. Following
this, he worked for a
company in the R&D
Larry Timms
department, telling
himself he would stay ten years, then teach.
Long before his self-imposed deadline, the
firm axed the department and he enrolled in
the teacher’s college at the University of
Western Ontario. Today, he’s assistant head
of the math department at Waterdown High
School, just north of Hamilton, Ontario. And,
he also coaches the school’s football team.
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“I love football and played the game at
the high school level,” he says. He is very
proud of his team and their successes. “In
the last 9 years, we have won the city championship 7 times, including the last 3 years.
Last year, we were ranked third in Canada!”
Coaching provides immense satisfaction,
he adds. “The kids get to see a different
side of you. They don’t perceive you simply as a teacher. They respect you for helping them.” This perception, he adds, spills
over into the classroom – which in the end,
benefits both teacher and student.
Richard
Wesolowski,
chemical ’97, provides advice and
skills tips to the girls
basketball team at St.
Mary’s High School
in Hamilton. In
December 2002, the
St. Mary’s team, the
Richard Wesolowski
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Research news
Peng Awarded McMaster Researchers
Awarded CFI Funding
Prestigious
Stieltjes Prize T
Jiming Peng, a member of the
Advanced Optimization Laboratory,
Department of Computing and Software,
is the recipient of the 2001 Stieltjes Prize.
The Thomas Stieltjes Institute for
Mathematics was formed by the universities in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Delft,
Leiden and Rotterdam. The prize is recognized as a prestigious one for young
researchers in the broadly defined area of
mathematical sciences. It is given annually to the author of the best Ph.D.
Thesis. Peng received the award on
Wednesday, February 12th at the annual
meeting of the Stieltjes Institute, at which
time he also delivered his award lecture.
Peng’s thesis, “Self-Regularity: A New
Paradigm for Primal-Dual Interior-Point
Algorithms”, by: J. Peng, C. Roos, and
T. Terlaky, is published by Princeton
University Press under the “Princeton
Series of Applied Mathematics”. (For
details see the publisher’s WEB page:
http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7323.html).
The Stieltjes Prize Committee called
Dr. Peng’s thesis “a mathematically
elegant and profound piece of work.”
The thesis develops a new approach for
the analysis and implementation of primal-dual interior-point methods for linear, conic, quadratic and semi-definite
programming. Peng shows that with
this approach, the complexity of large
update methods can be improved so
much that their complexity may come
arbitrarily close to the complexity of
small-update methods. The thesis narrows the long-standing gap between the
best theoretical results about the complexity of inter-point methods with
small steps and numerical practice
where large steps are used and, as such,
is recognized as an important contribution in the theory of inter-point methods. The thesis also introduces a new
and promising field of research at the
area of convex optimization.
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These three join five other McMaster
researchers who received more than $2 million in research support during CFI’s last
round of New Opportunities Funding in
October 2002. In the Faculty of
Engineering, Chang-Qing Xu, associate
professor of electrical and electronic engineering, was awarded $211,101 for
research on optical waveguide devices
based on lithium niobate substrates. The
other four recipients were: Alex Adronov,
assistant professor of chemistry, awarded
$179,392; Brian King, assistant professor
of physics, awarded $399,851; Karen
Mossman, assistant professor of microbiology, awarded $205,587; David Shore,
assistant professor of psychology, awarded
$173,333.
To date, 55 McMaster research projects
have received a cumulative total of
$9,975,945 in New Opportunities Funds.
The funding is part of more than $17.7
million awarded to 97 of the nation’s
emerging research leaders at 26 Canadian
universities.
wo up-and-coming engineering
researchers are among the latest
McMaster recipients of the Canada
Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) New
Opportunities Funding program.
Paulin Coulibaly, assistant professor
jointly in geography & geology and civil
engineering, was awarded $207,490 to
research high-resolution soil moisture,
through measurement, characterization,
modeling and hydrologic applications.
Yiping Guo, assistant professor of civil
engineering, received $94,239 for field
research for the control of non-point source
water pollution.
In addition, Geoff Werstuck, assistant
professor of medicine in the Faculty of
Health Sciences, was awarded $132,719, to
study molecular mechanisms by which diabetes mellitus promotes the development
and progression of atherogenesis.
The total of $434,448 will provide
world-class labs and facilities for the newly
recruited faculty members to undertake
leading-edge research in their first full-time
academic appointment.
In Memorium:
Professor James N. Siddall
Hamilton. He continued to serve as a
consultant to industry after joining the
faculty at McMaster.
Professor Siddall was one of the first
faculty members in the department to recognize the importance of computers in
teaching and research and he recognized
that the use of personal computers would
fundamentally change the way the collection and analysis of data would be carried
out. He was a innovator in promoting the
importance of design in engineering and
was regarded as a leader in the field of optimization. His areas of research included
probabilistic design which involved the
development of new computer-aided techniques, risk analysis in optimization and
microcomputer applications in mechanical
I
t was with great sadness that the
Department learned of the passing of
Professor James N. Siddall on
December 26th, 2002. Professor Siddall
was one of the most highly respected members of the department and is fondly
remembered by colleagues, students and
staff. Professor Siddall joined the
Department as an Assistant Professor in
1959. Following his promotion to full professor in 1970, he served two terms as
Department Chairman from 1973 to 1979.
Prior to joining McMaster, Professor
Siddall was employed in industry, first as
Project Engineer at the Ford Motor
Company, as a Design Engineer for
Cockshutt Farm Equipment Ltd. and as
a Mechanical Engineer, New Product
Development at National Steel Car in
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New Faculty members
Chemical Engineering
Dr. Lisa Crossley
joined the department as
Assistant Professor in
January, 2003. She will
be a key contributor to
the development of our
bioengineering program.
She comes to us from
Lisa Crossley
Dyax Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, in Cambridge, MA where she was
Product Development Manager. Lisa holds
a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from
Queen’s University, specializing in
Biochemical Engineering, and undergraduate degrees in Anatomy and Cell Biology
(McGill) and Chemical Engineering
(Queen’s). After finishing her Ph.D. she
worked as an NSERC Visiting Scientist at
the NRC’s Biotechnology Research
Institute in Montreal.
Japan working at Tohoku National
Industrial Research Institute (Post Doctoral
Fellow, Researcher) and at Tohoku
University (Researcher, Visiting Scientist).
After joining McMaster University in 1997,
he worked in Professor Gary R. Purdy’s
research group, firstly as a Post Doctoral
Fellow, and then as a Research Associate.
His research areas are computational thermodynamics, thermo-mechanical processing, phase transformations, and numerical
simulation.
The department has appointed Dr. Igor
Zhitomirsky as an Associate Professor.
Veronica Czerneda Staff Award
for Outstanding Service
Joan Zywina, Academic Assistant to the
Associate Dean of Engineering, is the second recipient of the Veronika Czerneda
Staff Award for Outstanding Service. Mo
Elbestawi, Dean of Engineering made the
presentation in December 2002. Joan has
been in her position since 1984. The award
is presented to a staff member who has
made an outstanding contribution beyond
the normal expectations. As well as a
framed citation, Joan receives an award of
$500 from an endowment established as a
result of a fundraising campaign.
The Staff Award was officially launched
in 2001 in memory of Veronika Czerneda,
Administrative Coordinator of the
Department of Materials Science and
Engineering who passed away July 2000.
In her memory, the Faculty of Engineering,
spearheaded a fundraising campaign to
Engineering Physics
Dr. Andy Knights
joined the department of
Engineering Physics in
January, 2003. Dr.
Knights received his
Ph.D. from the
University East Anglia,
UK in 1995 and has
Andy Knights
research interests in the
development of silicon processing. Prior to
his appointment at McMaster he was
employed in the R and D division of the
UK based silicon photonics company,
Bookham Technology.
Materials Science &
Engineering
Dr. Dmitri V.
Malakhov, B.Sc.
Moscow State
University (1983),
joined the department on
January 1, 2003. After
graduation, he worked at
the Institute of Inorganic
Chemistry (Novosibirsk, Dmitri V. Malakhov
Russia) in the field of thermodynamics of
materials for microelectronics. After getting
Ph.D. in 1992, he was awarded by postdoctoral fellowships and spent four years in
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Dr. Zhitomirsky holds a
Ph.D. in physics from
L.Ya. Karpov Research
Institute of Physical
Chemistry (Moscow).
He started his work in
the Department of
Materials Science and
Igor Zhitomirsky
Engineering as a
Research Associate in 1998, and was later
employed as Associate Professor. His
research areas include electrodeposition,
nanostructured materials, ferroelectric and
magnetic materials, biomaterials.
Philip Czerneda, Joan Zywina & Professor
Brian Ives
create an endowment for the creation of a
staff award that would be given in honour
of Veronika’s many years of service. A
total of eighty-four donors (alumni, staff,
family and friends) made a contribution
towards the creation of the fund. The
award is drawn from interest earned on
the $10,000 endowment.
Who would have thought? continued from page 8
Crusaders, won the Ontario Federation of
School Athletic Associations AAAA championship tournament, claiming their fifth
provincial high school championship in 7
years. Wesolowski, who also teaches science and chemistry, has coached the
school’s team to four of these wins.
St. Mary’s happens to be his high
school alma mater, and he fondly recalls
playing on the school’s basketball team.
He also played basketball while attending
Mac.
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Wesolowski did apply his engineering
degree in various positions for Toronto
companies for a couple of years prior to
entering the teaching profession. He enjoys
coaching for a number of reasons. “It’s an
opportunity to give something back to the
kids,” he says. “You spend a lot of time
with them and as a result, get to know them
personally.” He also enjoys teaching and
receives great satisfaction in seeing his students “go on and do well” in their postgraduation years.
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Departmental newsbriefs
Council of INFORMS: the International
Federation of Operations Research and
Management Sciences.
Chemical Engineering
Congratulations to Chen Lu, a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Dr. Robert
Pelton, who placed second in the 2003
Canadian Pulp and Paper Graduate Student
Seminars, qualifying him for a H.I. Bolker
Prize. The seminars were held during the
Pulp & Paper Technical Association of
Canada (PAPTAC) meeting at the Palais des
Congrés on January 30th. Twenty graduate
students presented their research as undertaken at Pulp and Paper Centres in universities across Canada. The title of Lu’s seminar
was: “Poly(ethylene oxide)/ Polypeptide
Cofactor Flocculation Mechanism: Influence
of Poly(ethylene oxide) Molecular Weight”.
Three prizes were created in the name of
Dr. H.I. Bolker. They are aimed at encouraging and recognizing students who achieve
excellence in communication by presenting
their research.
Dr. Robert Pelton and his wife, Helen,
recently attended a dinner at the National
Gallery of Canada in Ottawa with the Right
Honourable Jean Chrétien and his wife
Aline, in honour of his excellency Gèran
Persson, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of
Sweden. Dr. Pelton is very active in research
and production areas of pulp and paper and
has worked with Swedish paper companies.
The Journal of Chemometrics (Issue 1,
Volume 17) was dedicated to Dr. John
MacGregor, the fourth recipient of the
Herman Wold medal. The medal was
awarded by the Swedish Chemometrics
Society at the 7th Scandinavian symposium
on Chemometrics in Denmark, August
2001. It is awarded to a person who contributes significantly to the development
and proliferation of chemometrics both
inside academia and industry, “in the spirit
of Herman Wold”. The editorial to the first
issue of volume 17 details the many contributions that Dr. MacGregor has made to
both industry and academia. It also contains
testimonials to John’s work written by former students, friends, industrial clients and
colleagues.
Computing & Software
Tamás Terlaky has recently been elected
for a two-year term to the Subdivisions
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Science and Technology Inc. Safety and
Environmental Protection Research Institute
in China were at McMaster for three
months from November 2002 to February
2003. During that time they worked with
Dr. J-S. Chang conducting joint research
projects on construction of a pilot plant for
Plasma Pollution Control for Coal Boiler
Flu Gases. From September 2002 to
January 2003, Dr. Na Li, from the School
of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Nanyang Technological University in
Singapore, worked with C-Q Xu on
research in the development of semiconductor lasers.
Engineering Physics
Congratulations are extended to ChangQing Xu on his successful application to
New Opportunity Program through CFI
(Canada Foundation for Innovation), for his
research on optical waveguide devices
based on lithium niobate substrates. He was
also awarded funds through the Ontario
Innovations Trust to support the research
being funded through CFI.
On February 6th, Paul Jessop hosted a
meeting here at McMaster of the Ontario
Photonics Education and Training
Association (OPETA). The participants
were from Ontario universities, colleges,
government and industry groups. OPETA’s
role is to promote photonics education and
foster cooperation among various types of
programs, including university level (both
graduate and undergraduate) college level
and professional re-skilling.
The department welcomed a number of
visitors recently. Drs. Wen-Ming Wang
and Han-fang Hu, from the Wuhang
Tiancheng Environmental Protection
Materials Science &
Engineering
The department extends its heartiest congratulations to Gary Purdy who has been
elected to the US National Academy of
Engineers as a Foreign Associate. He is
being recognized for pioneering theoretical
and experimental studies of chemical and
structural effects on phase transformations
and interfacial diffusion-induced phenomena. There are only 7 Canadian Foreign
Associates, and two of them are in our
department! The other is David Embury.
Dan Olsen profile
Olsen’s church in Scarborough to
Nicaragua where they helped to build a
house (with Habitat for Humanity). This
past summer Olsen travelled to Mexico
with his own group of McMaster students.
“They teach you way more than you
could ever teach them,” he says of the
people he has met and helped. “Everyone
helps each other and is committed to
family. I think sometimes in Canada
and North America we get away from
that, those values of family and helping
others, and focus on other things that
don’t really matter.”
Engineering seems to run in his family.
In addition to his father, Greg, his two
brothers are also in engineering. (Younger
brother Dave is now in his third-year chemical engineering and management at
McMaster. Older brother Geoff graduated
from McMaster’s mechanical engineering
and management program in 2001.)
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However, Olsen admits he’s more interested
in the ‘soft’ skills of engineering rather than
the more technical side.
He spends a good portion of his time now
promoting among fellow students, friends
and peers the opportunities that exist to help
abroad and make a difference at the grassroots level. “I know a lot of engineers who
have approached me about this work and
have asked what it’s all about. Most people
want to do something to bring about positive change in the world.”
Looking ahead, Olsen is hoping for a
career in international work. He’s thinking
about a master’s program and expects his
interest in sustainability, nurtured under the
tutelage of civil engineering professor
Brian Baetz, will guide his future direction.
It is possible to make a difference as
individuals and as a society, he says. “It’s
important we all do our part to be socially
responsible.”
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Plans to Grow
S
everal new major research and educational initiatives are underway in the
Faculty of Engineering. To meet the
needs of students, business, and industry,
the Faculty is creating a new School for
Engineering Practice as well as a new program in Biomedical Engineering. These initiatives build on McMaster’s
interdisciplinary strengths and will position
McMaster at the forefront of a new era in
engineering.
The School for Engineering Practice
will comprise three new research and educational centres.
Centre for
Engineering
Entrepreneurship
and Innovation
(CEEI)
Centre for
Engineering and
Public Policy
(CEPP)
Centre for
Engineering
Design
(CED)
McMaster School for Engineering Practice
(MSEP)
The first major donation towards this
project was received from alumnus Walter
Booth to create an endowed chair in
Engineering, Entrepreneurship and
Innovation. This wonderful gift will allow
the Faculty to recruit a new faculty member
with an expertise in commercializing new
engineering ideas and technical expertise.
To create the infrastructure needed for
the new initiatives McMaster University
plans to construct a new building. A 40,000
square foot stand-alone building will contain approximately 15,000 square feet of
new laboratory space, new classrooms and
will be home to the proposed McMaster
School for Engineering Practice and the
new Biomedical Engineering program.
$6 million in private funding will be
raised for construction of the $8 million
building.
The new building will have state-of-theart facilities for students, faculty and
researchers. The design of the building will
promote outstanding research and act as a
catalyst for discovery and innovation. By
bringing together research and resources,
new alliances will be forged between
research groups, industry and the University.
Annual Giving, the foundation
for Alumni Support
From the steady flow of major gifts
announced during McMaster’s Changing
Tomorrow Today Campaign, one might
suggest that all support for the University
comes in very large contributions. There is,
however, another essential aspect for support from alumni through yearly appeals,
with contributions of all sizes. Annual giving provides crucial resources for departments and programs. In 2002 annual giving
from alumni and friends raised $1.5 million
for the Faculty of Engineering.
Annual donations also builds and sustains
long-term relationships between the Faculty
of Engineering and its alumni. It gives the
Faculty the opportunity to update alumni and
friends on the activities and initiatives in
engineering. With solid support of engineering alumni who contribute annually, they do
their part to sustain and enhance the
Faculty’s world-class reputation.
For more information on how you can
make a contribution, please contact Terry
Milson, at (905) 525-9140 extension 27391,
or e-mail: milsont@mcmaster.ca
Photonics Engineering program a first in Canada
The Department of Engineering
Physics at McMaster University is
pleased to announce the introduction of
a new Bachelor of Engineering program
in Photonics Engineering. Photonics is
that branch of Science and Engineering
that deals with the generation, control,
detection and application of lightwaves,
and it has long been an area of strength
within the Department. In recent years,
Photonics has emerged as an important
new engineering discipline, with applications in areas such as telecommunications, medicine, manufacturing, sensors,
displays and traditional optical
engineering.
McMaster’s new program will be the
first of its kind in Canada, reflecting a
trend that has appeared in other countries.
Like the existing Engineering Physics
program, Photonics Engineering will provide students with a broad background in
basic engineering, mathematics, electronics and semiconductors. However, the new
program will provide students with an
opportunity to focus more intently on
photonics and to have that fact recognized
in the program designation. Following
McMaster’s successful pattern of fiveyear engineering programs, a new B.Eng.
in Photonics Engineering and
Management and another in Photonics
Engineering and Society will be introduced in parallel with the four-year
program. Accreditation of all three new
programs by the Canadian Engineering
Accreditation Board is being sought. The
first students are expected to enter Level II
in September 2003, with the first class
graduating in the spring of 2006.
It is the declared objective of the
Photonics Engineering program to provide world-class, intensive education and
training in photonics, using dedicated
laboratories with advanced facilities and
with the capacity to handle all of the
students in the program. To that end, a
new laboratory course for senior undergraduate students will be established,
made possible through generous donations of state-of-the-art equipment by
JDS-Uniphase. It will focus on light
sources, active devices, passive devices,
and sub-systems in a broad range of
applications from telecommunications to
medicine, to manufacture and to sensing.
Students will acquire hands-on experience in design, characterization and system testing of photonic devices using the
most advanced tools and equipment,
which are not readily available at many
universities in the world. This course
will be linked with a new lecture course,
which covers contents such as laser and
chemical safety, fiber optic communications, integrated optics, light sources,
transmitters, receivers, regenerators and
amplifiers, and passive and active components. Students will also be trained to
use a waveguide simulator donated by
Apollo Photonics to design photonic
devices encountered in lectures and
experiments.
We firmly believe that ultimately, both
industry and research institutes in Canada,
especially those based in Ontario, will
benefit from the highly qualified personnel trained through the new program.
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From an engineer’s point of view
Responsibilities and Challenges Facing
Engineers in our New Economic Landscape
tinue to have the need to try and somehow
address what we perceive to be our planet’s
global environmental problems resulting
from our actions and consumer choices.
In our society, we, as engineers, have
been entrusted with the great responsibility
of safeguarding the public’s health and
safety. We fulfill this critical role by
involvement in various diverse disciplines
and exciting fields of practice. Whether
regulating drinking water standards, managing construction projects, working to
make automobiles safer, setting air emissions standards, or researching and developing new medicines in the pharmaceutical
industry, as engineers, we continually
place the public’s welfare as our highest
responsibility.
But in order to keep up with our environment and the recent challenges that our
society is faced with, we must go beyond
our traditional ways of thinking. We must
think holistically to improve the lives of
the public. In some leading countries, for
example, this includes a wide range of
responsibilities such as: preserving biological diversity, reduction of emissions of hazardous substances, improving indoor air
quality, and reduction of noise pollution in
urban centres.
As a McMaster graduate from the
Water/Environmental Engineering stream
within the Dept. of Civil Engineering, I
look forward to exploring all of these new
possibilities and responsibilities both personally and professionally. Our society is
changing greatly, and we must rise and
address the challenges that face our planet
and its inhabitants. We must not only
ensure our own welfare, but also preserve
the safety of our next generations on earth.
These will be our most important challenges in the coming decades.
by Cam Vatandoust, P.Eng.
T
he single most important contributing
factor to the recent changes witnessed in the global economic landscape has been the development of new
technologies. Our ability to obtain information efficiently has changed our lives forever. New developments have made
previously seemingly impossible tasks,
achievable, creating new economic sectors,
phasing out redundant industries and overall
shifting the planet’s economical forces. This
enormous change, along with availability of
this technology for the use of the masses,
has resulted in new consumer demands and
expectations, which must also be met by
society, reflecting an even greater change in
industrial, economical, commercial, transportation, health, science, social and educational needs of our population.
For instance, although many educational
institutions have long recognized these
changes and patterns, few have adapted
accordingly to meet the new needs of our
society. McMaster University, however, has
made a conscious decision to meet this
challenge head-on by developing The
McMaster School for Engineering Practice
(MSEP) which will address specific needs
by creating a unique learning environment.
The demands that have resulted from our
Cam Vatandoust
new “wireless” lifestyle have also put huge
stresses on our planet and its ecosystems to
provide the necessary natural resources to
sustain our “improved” lifestyle and meet
increasing consumer needs and expectations. There has never been more demand
for raw materials, fuels and electricity.
Our attempts to satisfy the enormous
thirst for resources to keep our massive
economies afloat have resulted in significant changes in the planet’s environment
over recent decades. We have noticed this
more and more in recent years, and con-
Don Priljeva profile
not until later that he developed an interest
in business.
The Campus Incubator Business Plan
Challenge offers a series of awards, of
which the startup prize is the first step.
The second step requires teams to submit a
full business plan. Through a series of free
workshops, participants in the challenge
learn first-hand from legal, accounting,
marketing, patenting, financing and management experts all the aspects of business
planning. Up to $50,000 in cash and services will be awarded to the teams of entrepreneurs whose business plans for new
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ventures show significant business potential.
Priljeva’s team entered the second stage,
making the January 31st deadline. “It
would have been crazy for us not to enter,”
he says. “While the (start-up) award is
helpful in kick-starting the company, it’s
the skills and experience we gain that is
most valuable.”
Priljeva is always looking to network
with like-minded entrepreneurs with ideas
on technical business solutions. If you have
something you would like to discuss, or
just to catch up, feel free to contact him at:
dan.priljeva@sympatico.ca.
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Cam Vatandoust, P.Eng., is a senior engineer
with Ontario Ministry of the Environment in
Toronto, specializing in water and wastewater
standards and infrastructure capital works.
He also is an instructor for Seneca College’s
School of Civil Engineering Technology.
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MES news
Meet 2003-2004 MES President Josh Wong
I
am a student in third year Computer
Engineering and Management, and a
Red Suit. I’ll be serving on the
Orientation Committee to select next year’s
Red Suits for Welcome Week.
I knew I belonged in McMaster
Engineering during Welcome Week when
I was walking down the stairwell in JHE
lined with Red Suits chanting the words to
“Godiva”. Since being elected First Year
Representative, I have been involved with
the MES. I remember some of the Presidents
before me such as Mets Kramer, Braden
Kurczak and Elizabeth Clark, and I hope to
improve on the sturdy foundations they built.
There are many things the MES can do
to serve the students better. Some key ideas
that have surfaced include:
• Improve the image of an Engineer on
and off campus by coordinating and supporting charitable causes
• Open the MES and providing services
everyone can use
• Make the MES reflect and encompass
the interests of more of its members. The
MES should be responsive and listen to
new ideas.
• Prepare our Engineers for life after
University by educating students on career
opportunities outside the classroom, such
as achieving a Professional license
Josh Wong holds a sword engraved with the
message “Created and donated by Steve
Sears, Civ Mgmt 1994”. It bears a metal fireball the size of a dime. On the opposite side of
the blade is a crest of McMaster University.
The words “McMaster” and “Engineering”
are engraved on each side of the hilt.
• Increase Engineering Spirit throughout
the Faculty beyond the Red Suits; our
Engineering spirit is not limited solely to
our Red Suits
• Create a more professional atmosphere
by developing a relationship with sponsors for our teams and in communicating
with other universities
• Support the endeavours of all Engineering
students here at McMaster.
One of the challenges that the MES faces
along with the rest of the University this
year is the incoming double cohort. We
have been preparing for two years and I am
confident that we are ready to introduce
this fall’s First Year Engineering students to
McMaster and make them feel at home,
just as I felt three and a half years ago.
I think by being an ECE student (a
department with traditionally low participation in the MES), I bring a unique perspective to the MES. I can appreciate the
workload that all Engineering students face
day-to-day which makes it difficult to participate in any activity outside of class. But
I firmly believe that a well-rounded education, not just one developed inside the
classroom, is vital to achieving success
after University, and in life in general. I
hope that my work throughout the year will
earn me a place among the strong
Presidents of times past, and I look forward
to working with the new MES council next
year. I sincerely trust that next year will be
exciting and fun as we work together to
achieve great things.
Fireball II All Revved To Go
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team of McMaster engineering students, lead by project leader Claire
Braden, has made some dramatic
changes to the University’s 2001 solar car.
They are hopeful that an improved design
combined with a 20 per cent reduction in
weight will result in a creditable showing in
the 3,700 kilometre American Solar
Challenge this summer.
“Fireball II is lighter, stronger, more efficient and definitely prettier,” says Braden, a
fifth-year mechanical engineering student.
The car is covered with 430 solar cells which
are at least 50 per cent more efficient than
those used to cover the first vehicle. As well,
the lead-acid batteries have been replaced
with lighter, more efficient lithium ion batteries. These changes should help boost the
car’s top speed to 95 km/hr from 70 km/hr.
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An additional change, providing a subtle
boost to moral, has been to replace the original race number of 13 with the number 87
– in honour of the 1887 founding of the
University.
The students have been working within a
projected budget of $124,000, which comes
from corporate and individual sponsors.
Anyone wanting to assist the project financially can check the web site at www.solarcar.mcmcaster.ca or phone 905-525-9140
ext. 27388.
Braden says Fireball II will be ready by
May, giving the team all of June to test and
refine the vehicle before the race.
The American Solar Challenge is the
world’s most well-known solar car race. It
starts on July 17 at Chicago and follows historic Route 66, ending 10 days later in
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(From left to right) Claire Braden (Team
Leader), Greg Jackson, Andrew Bryan, Emad
Fahem are working on the fairing of Fireball
II at Comtek Advanced Structures manufacturing facility.
Claremont, California. It typically attracts
entries from all over North America as well
as Europe, and includes teams from some of
the best engineering schools in the world,
such as MIT, Stanford and Waterloo.
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Students give gift of time
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nstead of the traditional end-of-school
pranks, a group of fifth-year mechanical
engineering students propose to leave a
gift of time as their legacy to McMaster.
A decorative clock, designed and constructed by students Patrick Burton, Braden
Kurczak, Michael Paddags and Peter
Whitred, will be placed in a prominent
position above the doorframe of the north
entrance to the McMaster University
Al-Riaz Adatia
continued from page 4
acquisition by Lycos, worth more than
$70M (USD). He has since gone on to
invest in a portfolio of over 15 companies
and is actively involved with leadership and
engineering ventures.
Of his business development career, he
says: “I invest and offer business and strategic advice to a number of private companies.
These investments range from fund investments to direct hands-on (seed money and
advice).” He adds that investments are not
limited to technology companies.
His success, he says, is due to an ability
to focus on three integrated areas: engineering, teaching, and leadership. “Engineering,
knowledge transfer and leadership all complement each other, making each skill more
valuable.”
Al-Riaz currently travels and works
between Vancouver, BC and Hamilton, ON,
giving back to the wider Canadian community. Activities include fostering entrepreneurial talent and helping new and
innovative companies in Canada reach their
full potential. He continues to fund and
invest in companies “to give support and
faith to the new companies of tomorrow”. In
addition, his financial position is providing
an opportunity to explore humanitarian projects in India and with e-learning companies.
Spare time is spent on two favourite hobbies: cars and traveling. He is a member of
SF VW GROUPPEE, BMW Club of
America, Ferrari Club of America and
Mercedes STAR. “I have designed two cars,
won a number of car awards and had the
cars featured in Magazines.” He is also
involved with racing and spends time on
racetracks around northern California and
Nevada. “In my travels, I like to spend
time scuba diving, motorcycling and
ashram hopping (don’t ask!).”
Although young, Al-Riaz has achieved success beyond his years and is proof that
Canadians can compete on a global scale.
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Student Centre. The timepiece is in fact the
students’ thesis project, under the supervision of Tim Nye, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering.
The clock’s design includes a double
ring that encircles a shield emblazoned
with the McMaster coat of arms. The upper
ring will indicate the hours and the bottom
ring, the minutes. The six-inch high numerals should be visible from across campus.
The aesthetics have been carefully thought
out: all mechanical drives and power transmission systems will be hidden behind the
shield which will appear to be floating in
the centre of the ring.
“We were looking for something interesting that would put together our engineering and management skills,” says Braden
Kurczak. “We expect the clock to be attractive, but also easy to read, accurate and
requiring low maintenance. It is run off the
wall current, not computer controlled, so
should run relatively accurately.”
The ring shape is of course a reference
to the traditional iron ring worn by engineering students on the fifth finger of their
working hand. The iron ring is a symbolic
emblem that reminds the engineers of their
ethical obligations to society. As all graduating engineers know, the symbol evolved
from an incident in Quebec in the 1920’s in
which a steel bridge collapsed killing several people. A group of Canadian engineers
decided that an organization was needed to
emphasize the social significance of the
profession to new engineers. Professor
Haultain from the University of Toronto
wrote for advice to Rudyard Kipling, who
had written about the work of engineers in
some of his poems. Kipling responded
This clock, designed and constructed by students Patrick Burton, Braden Kurczak,
Michael Paddags and Peter Whitred, will be
placed over the north entrace to the MUSC.
enthusiastically devising both a ring ceremony and a statement of obligation called
“The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer.”
In their thesis proposal, the students note
that the project will provide positive publicity to the artistic skills of the McMaster
student body by being one of the few permanent features on campus that is studentdesigned and manufactured.
Kurczak admits that the group first
thought of doing a prank, such as attaching
a clock to the Chimeric Figure (John Ivor
Smith’s regularly vandalized sculpture).
“But this seemed like something more positive. It will be the culmination of our five
years at McMaster.”
The Student Centre has accepted the
design concept, and the students expect to
spend a full year on the construction and
fine-tuning. The cost will be approximately
$10,000. Anyone wishing to help with
“advice, support, wisdom, experience, influence or donations” should contact Braden
Kurczak at kurczaba@mcmaster.ca .
Professor James Siddall
design. He was the author of 3 books published by Marcel Dekker which were
related to his research work and was pursuing research in artificial intelligence up to,
and beyond, his retirement in 1987.
Professor Siddall’s profound influence
as a teacher and innovator was cited by
McMaster alumnus Walter G. Booth
whose $1 million gift will establish an
endowed chair in engineering entrepreneurship and innovation. Mr. Booth stated
in a recent McMaster news release ...“
that his gift to McMaster was his way of
saying thanks to two McMaster professors
– former engineering dean Jack Hodgins
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continued from page 9
and Jim Siddall – and honouring their
willingness to be academic leaders of
innovation. Booth said both men were
instrumental in his academic life and pursuit of a meaningful and successful career
as an entrepreneur.”
Get your MacEngineer
by e-mail!
If you would like to receive your issue
by e-mail (pdf format) please contact
Carm Vespi, vespi@mcmaster.ca
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First Annual McMaster
E ngineering
Golf Tournament
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Tyandaga Municipal Golf Course
1265 Tyandaga Park Drive, Burlington, Ontario
“Shotgun” Start at 1:00 p.m.
Cost per participant: $100
Tournament Includes:
18 hole Tournament – Scramble Format
Shared golf cart
Includes a sausage or hamburger and a drink after the 9th hole
Welcome package
Fabulous prize table
Great contests throughout the course
Closing Dinner Banquet
Please RSVP by May 1,2003 to Carm Vespi, (905) 525-9140, ext. 24906,
e-mail: vespi@mcmaster.ca or register on-line: http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/engalumni/
BOOK EARLY, SPACE IS LIMITED!
If you would like to
donate a prize(s) for the
Golf Tournament
contact Carm Vespi.
If you would like to contact
someone from your class year
and organize a foursome
contact Carm Vespi.
Get a foursome together and
support your Alumni Association!
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Opening doors to a bright future...
A Building for Students and New Ideas
C
onstruction has begun on McMaster’s
Centre for Learning and Discovery,
the University’s 300,000 squarefoot, five-storey expansion to the north side
of the McMaster Health Sciences Centre. It
is scheduled for completion in the summer
of 2004. The new facility will provide
much needed space for teaching, learning
and research.
The first floor will include six classrooms and five lecture theatres for classes
from across all faculties. One 600-seat theatre will be the largest seating space on
campus. Altogether, the first floor will
accommodate more than 1,800 students and
will help McMaster address the needs created by Ontario’s “double cohort”.
The second floor will be connected to
Upcoming Events...
Thurs., May 22, 2003
First Annual Engineering Golf
Tournament, Tyandaga Municipal Golf
Course, Burlington, Ontario
Cost: $100 person
Sat., June 7, 2003
Alumni Weekend Class ’63, ’78, ’83
McMaster University Cost: $35 person
Oct. 3, 4, 5, 2003
Homecoming Weekend
Class Reunion 1988 and 1993
the McMaster University Medical
Centre and will be used by Hamilton
Health Sciences for patient care wards.
Plans are still being finalized, but the
hospital may use the space for intensive care facilities.
The third floor is dedicated to the
needs of the Faculty of Health
Sciences for classrooms, tutorial
rooms, postgraduate offices and laboratories. A rounds room will have
state-of-the-art teleconferencing facilities, allowing students at hospitals
across the city or throughout the
province to join in discussions as if
they were sitting in the room.
The fourth and most of the fifth
floors will showcase the Institute for
Molecular Medicine and Health
(IMMH), which includes the Centre for Artist’s renderings of the Centre for Learning &
Gene Therapeutics. The two floors will Discovery addition to the McMaster Health Sciences
contain a variety of offices, wet labora- Centre
tories and a biotechnology incubator.
The rest of the fifth floor will be used for a
laboratory to the doctor’s office.
research incubator. An interior atrium will
This facility will help ensure McMaster
add a dramatic design statement, flooding
continues to grow as a leading centre in
the top floors with natural light.
gene therapy, says Jack Gauldie, holder of
Established in 1996, the Centre for Gene
the John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular
Therapeutics already has an impressive
Medicine, head of IMMH and chair of the
track record for investigating, creating and
Department of Pathology.
implementing ways to use genes as mediFunds for the construction of the building
cines in infectious diseases, cancer and disare expected from the Canadian Foundation
eases of the lung. The IMMH will promote
for Innovation, the SuperBuild fund of the
“bench to bedside” research that is
Government of Ontario, Hamilton Health
designed to decrease the time it takes medSciences and McMaster University, as well
ical discoveries to move from the research
as private donors.
Mon., Oct. 27, 2003
Change of address card:
5:30-7:00 pm – Reception for McMaster
Chemical Engineering in connection with
the Canadian Chemical Engineering
conference Oct. 26-29. Details at
www.chemeng.mcmaster.ca/
Name:_______________________________________________________________________________
Grad Yr. & Dept.: _____________________________________________________________________
New Address: _________________________________________________________________________
Thurs., Nov. 6, 2003
____________________________________________________________________________________
MACLAB Extravaganza 2003. Keynote
speaker is Vince Smith, President and
CEO Dow Chemical Canada Inc. Details
at www.eng.mcmaster.ca/engalumni/
index.html
Phone: __________________________________ Fax: ________________________________________
Postal Code: __________________ E-mail:_________________________________________________
Comments: (present occupation, recent accomplishments ie: awards, recognitions).
For additional information or to register
for any of the above events, please contact
Carm Vespi, (905) 525-9140, ext. 24906,
or e-mail: vespi@mcmaster.ca,
or register on-line:
http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/engalumni/
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____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Any comments provided will be included in the next issue.
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Alumni Grapevine
Hey Alumni! Have you moved, taken a new job,
got something you would like to say, any other news? We would like to hear from you.
Contact Carm Vespi Tel: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24906, E-Mail vespi@mcmaster.ca
Civil Eng&Mgmt
MacMetEng
MacElEng&Mgmt
Goulding, Ryan ’02: Currently working
for Lafarge Canada Inc. in Concord,
Ontario in the Asphalt and Paving Division.
My management schooling allowed me to
secure a position in the Performance Group
working to develop corporate strategy following a major acquisition. I knew that
Eng. Mgmt. was a valuable program while I
was at Mac however, now that I am working, I can see the full advantage that it has
given me. I feel that I have already made up
for the extra year spent doing the program.
Martin, Glenn, ’74: Lydea and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary in
2002. Our son Joel, a Carleton graduate
engineer working at Telesat, will marry in
June 2003; our daughter Jodi is a psychology major at Ottawa U. Lydea works as
Office Administrator at an elementary
school here in Ottawa where we live, and
I’m still at the Canadian Nuclear Safety
Commission (CNSC). Planning for our
retirement in less than four years!
Grkovic, Sinisa, ’00: Currently working
for Hydro One Networks Inc, a subsidiary
of Hydro One Inc, as a Station Design
Engineer. I work on electrical arrangement
design of high voltage transformer stations.
Participated in the fall Career Fair on
behalf of my company and I have to say –
the new Student Centre looks awesome!
Married and residing in Burlington,
Ontario.
MacChemEng
Vivaldo-Lima, Eduardo. ’98: I joined
the Faculty of Chemistry at the National
Autonomous University as Associate
Professor in October 1998. I am also the
current president of the Mexican Polymer
Society.
MacCivEng
Tamblyn, Dave, ’90: Married to
Giulliana Wong Trelles in August, 2001.
We moved to Hamilton, Ontario in October
2002 and I currently teach civil engineering
at Mohawk College. Friends can contact
me at drtamblyn@yahoo.ca.
MacMechEng
Clutterbuck, Tim, ’80: Married for
21 years in May. We have two kids: Cal is
15 going on 20! He is a very good hockey
player who hopes to get drafted to Major
Junior A in May. Daughter Megan is 12
(almost 13); she dances and plays basketball (I’m the coach – b-ball not dance!)
I work at Etobicoke-based Integris Metals
but live in Welland which is quite a daily
commute. I spent 20 years at a Steel
Mill in Welland and left there a couple
of years ago to work in the distribution
business – et VOILA - here I am!
MacManfgEng&Mgmt
Tourigny, Mark, ’94: Presently working
as Production Manager at Ajax Precision
Manufacturing
MacMechEng & Mgmt.
Cecconi, Mike, ’98: Started working
with Imperial Oil in Toronto, Ontario after
graduation. Married Jennifer Laceby
(Hons. Poli-Sci & History, ’98) in August
2000. Moved to Sarnia, Ontario, where I
currently provide engineering support for
Imperial’s lubricant oil blending and packaging plant. Our twin boys, Ethan and
Connor, were born in September 2002 –
life will never be the same!
MacEngPhys
Li, Marco, ’88: Currently living and
working in Singapore. E-address is
marco.li@hp.com.
Alumni Feedback…
To:
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Sinisa Grkovic, Electrical and
Management, ’00: “I enjoy reading the
MacEngineer and I would like to receive it
in the future. A few months ago I was at
McMaster as a rep for my company during
the Career Fair and I have to admit that the
new Student Center looks awesome!
Definitely great addition to McMaster
University.”
Ms. Carm Vespi
Managing Editor
The MacEngineer
Faculty of Engineering
John Hodgins Building, Room A 201
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L7
Tel: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24906 Fax: (905) 546-5492
E-mail: vespi@mcmaster.ca
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Marco Li, Eng. Physics, ’88: “BTW, Carm,
Thanks for doing all this work for the
alumni.”
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Suzuki Opens Engineering Conference
W
ell-known Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki was the
keynote speaker at the 9th annual
Canadian Society for Civil Engineering
Student Conference that focused on the
theme of sustainability. The two-day gathering of engineering students, held on
January 31 and February 1, 2003 at
McMaster, emphasizes the connections
between civil engineering and environmental issues.
Members of the public, including area
high school students, joined Mac students
and faculty in the Ivor Wynne Centre gymnasium to hear Suzuki’s talk entitled “Web
of Life”. In his address, he made no apologies for his harsh condemnation of our mistreatment of the world around us. And he
challenged engineering students to put the
battered environment ahead of the bottom
line when they assume their careers. The
host of the TV show The Nature of Things
said the world cannot sustain constant
growth spurred on by a penchant for disposable consumer goods.
Suzuki painted a picture of the drastic
environmental changes that have occurred
in his life time such as valuable farmlands
turned into apartment complexes and tap
water that can’t be trusted. “We have forgotten the fundamental realities in Canada,”
he said. “We live in a series of myths and
misconceptions that lead us to environmental degradation.”
Other speakers included McMaster engineering professors Brian Baetz and
Cameron Churchill who spoke about sustainable communities.
The purpose of the conference, which
attracted almost 100 engineering students
from six universities in Ontario, is to
increase students’ awareness of the environmental impacts of civil engineering projects.
“Sustainability is part of engineering and
we are future engineers,” says conference
coordinator Aaron Ward, a fourth-year civil
engineering student.
The Department of Civil Engineering
also used the conference to kickoff an
environmental engineering stream which
will be offered to second-year civil engineering students beginning fall 2003. The
stream is intended to equip graduates with
knowledge of municipal engineering,
water quality engineering, water and
wastewater treatment and environmental
policy and sustainability.
Engineering Better Body Parts
C
hemical engineering professor
Heather Sheardown gave a presentation on The Role of the Engineer in
Health Care on March 4th as one of the
Science in the City lectures sponsored
jointly by McMaster University and the
city newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator.
The presentation focused on the engineering of two very different tissues – blood
vessels and corneas – including the background into the rationale and need for
these tissues, and some recent develop-
Professor Heather Sheardown, Chemical
Engineering, is studying biomaterials, including
the use of polymers to treat cornea blindness.
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ments from her laboratory at McMaster.
“I’ve always been very interested in the
body and the medical aspects of engineering,
understanding the biological system and then
using that. That’s really what engineers do –
understand what’s going on and then translating that into something that can be used.”
Sheardown, who received a BEng in chemical engineering at McMaster in 1989, went
on to pursue interests in biological and medical aspects of engineering, obtaining a PhD
from the University of Toronto (1995) in the
study of blood contacting biomaterials.
In the past 20 years, there have been rapid
advancements in the fields of biology and
biochemistry, she elaborated. Examples
include the mapping of the human genome,
the cloning of a sheep and the discovery of
stem cells that are able to, in theory, become
any cell in the body. “As our understanding of
biology increases, there is a growing need for
engineers who are able to translate these findings into treatments or cures for diseases.”
Biomaterials engineering and tissue engineering are new and exciting fields that
combine biology, biochemistry, chemistry,
immunology with an understanding of the
materials into the development of replacement organs and tissues – off the shelf
hearts, livers, blood vessels, to name a few.
The potential impact of tissue engineering is
enormous. It has been estimated that over
one half trillion dollars are spent on an
annual basis in the United States alone caring for patients suffering from end-stage
organ or tissue failure.
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David Suzuki emphasizes the connections
between civil engineering and environmental
issues.
MacEngineer
The
The MacEngineer is printed and produced by
Managing Editor: Carm Vespi,
Engineering Alumni Officer
Editorial Committee: Dave S. Weaver,
John Preston, Terry Milson, Carm Vespi
Art Direction and Design: Wordsmith
Design and Advertising
Contributing Writers: Administrative
Coordinators, Terry Milson, Trudi
Down, The Daily News, Carm Vespi
and Judy Mair
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You’re invited...
Reunion Classes of
1963
Alumni
Weekend 1978
1983
Saturday June 7, 2003
YOUR REUNION IS FAST APPROACHING!
Come and renew old friendships and get
caught up on all the news. Find out
about kids, cars, careers, etc. See how
the campus and McMaster university
have changed over the years.
For more information contact:
Ms. Carm Vespi
Phone: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24906
Fax: (905) 546-5492
email: vespi@mcmaster.ca
www.eng.mcmaster.ca/engalumni/
Engineering and
Management
classes ’64, ’79
and ’84 are also
welcome to attend