Provincial Engineering & Geoscience Week

W I N N I P E G F R E E P R E S S A S a l u t e t o P r o f e ss i o n a l E n g i n e e r s & G e o s c i e n t i s t s ! | 9 Canadian Arctic has much to offer challengeseeking engineers By Jennifer McFee for the Free Press Arctic engineering is not for the faint of heart. To address the issue, Drysdale���s company developed a permafrost drainage system, which is used in locations throughout Nunavut. ���It actually saved a few buildings,��� he said. ���Their ut it can be the perfect path for professionals foundations were in distress and this has stabiwho love a good challenge. Ken Drysdale is the president and CEO of lized��them.��� Arctic engineers also need to consider the aerodyWinnipeg���s Accutech Engineering Inc., a company namics of a building, since snowdrifts can blow over that specializes in engineering in the Far North. ���It���s one of the most challenging places on earth to rooftops in a single storm, often putting the building construct in a number of different ways. There���s no above ground on stilts to allow winds to scour snow roads or railways or anything going into the Arctic. As out around buildings. Another consideration is the short construction seaa matter of fact, there���s no connection even between communities within the Arctic,��� Drysdale said. ���The son, since snow is on the ground from late September only way to get materials in there for construction is until June or July. ���It���s much colder. The snow is very different. It���s aleither on an airplane or in the summertime by seagoing barge. That���s a huge consideration, especially most like talcum powder and it gets into everything, when you���re doing the planning. Construction costs so the building itself has to be more secure,��� Drysdale are roughly two-and-a-half to three-times more than said. ���They have to be more robust because these buildings take quite a beating environmentally. They get what they are (in southern Canada).��� beat up by unrelentDespite the challenge, business is ing winds all winter. booming for Arctic engineers. The buildings have ���In the Arctic, there���s a bit of to be designed usa renaissance with the developing materials that are ment of infrastructure and buildrobust but can be reings. There���s 26 communities in paired by local mainNunavut, and most of them have tenance people.��� significant needs for various pubFinding the mainlic buildings,��� said Drysdale, who tenance people can is also the president of the Assoalso be tricky, since ciation of Consulting Engineering skilled workers are Companies Manitoba. arctic engineering sometimes scarce. ���There���s a lot of infrastructure Photos courtesy of Accutech Engineering Inc. In spite of the obstawork going on. A lot of it has to do cles, Arctic engineers with the population growth there, and a lot of it has to do with the influx of activity due reap the rewards of bringing positive change. ���One of the great satisfactions is when you build a to natural resource development,��� he said. In recent projects, Drysdale and his team have cre- building or a community centre or an arena or a school, ated community centres, schools, airport additions, it���s the only one they have. That really makes a huge hospital renovations and a new state-of-the-art correc- impact on their community,��� Drysdale said. For Drysdale, the work is worthwhile to transform tion centre. No matter what building they���re working on, they need to consider different design elements to a town. ���When I build a community centre in a place like withstand the harsh northern environment. ���Permafrost is an obvious issue. You have to build Whale Cove, Nunavut, that���s the first time these peothe foundation of a building so it first can support the ple can get together in a comfortable place where they can have their social events and their cultural events,��� loads of the building on the permafrost,��� he said. ���But it also has to isolate the building from the per- he said. ���That���s a first. They���ve never had that before. mafrost so that it doesn���t cause the permafrost to melt That makes a significant improvement in a commuand damage the environment and the building over nity, and you���re having a part in that.��� time. That���s a huge challenge.��� B Engineering options abound at U of M By Jennifer McFee for the Free Press Engineers are in demand. W ith the oldest engineering school in Western Canada, the University of Manitoba is on the forefront of preparing the next generation of professional engineers. Launched in 1907, the U of M���s engineering engin-dean-Beddoes program now has nearly 1,500 undergrads submitted and over 400 graduate students. The studentto-staff ratio is one of the best of any engineering program in Canada, thanks to 83 academic experts and another 60 support staff. As dean of engineering, Jonathan Beddoes has a few words of wisdom for prospective engineering students. ���Work as hard as you can in high school and get the best marks you can. Whether they believe it or not, everything they���re learning in high school they���ll need to know when they get here to study engineering,��� Beddoes said. ���So it���s not just the marks that they���ll have to concentrate on, it���s actually learning the material because they will need to know it all.��� At the undergraduate level, the U of M offers five engineering programs: biosystems, computer, electrical, civil and mechanical engineering. Within those five programs, students can specialize through 29 different pathways to graduation. For graduate students, the same degree options are available, plus a new master���s and PhD program in biomedical engineering. ���An engineering education sets you up for outstanding career opportunities in a wide range of fields,��� Beddoes said. ���There is a very strong demand for engineering graduates in Manitoba.��� Through its Engineering Access program, the U of M encourages students of aboriginal ancestry to further their studies. ���We have graduated more Aboriginal engineers from the U of M than all of the other engineering programs in Canada put together,��� Beddoes said. ���We���re quite proud of our Engineering Access program, which provides a lot of additional academic and social supports.��� The faculty of engineering also aims to increase the percentage of women in its programs. ���Right now, we are just over 18 per cent female participation, which has increased over the past few years,��� Beddoes said. ���We would like to see it increase quite a bit more. Engineers Canada has made a target of having 30 per cent of the engineering workforce in Canada be female by the year 2030. We would like to do everything we can to help achieve that target.��� The university also offers opportunities for engineers from other countries through its Internationally Educated Engineers Qualification program. Now in its 10th year, the program offers a blend of course work and co-op work experience. As well, students receive language and communication support, cultural orientation and professional networking opportunities. ���It allows recent Canadians with foreign engineering credentials to ensure that those credentials meet Canadian standards in a very timely and efficient manner. This allows them to move into the workforce very promptly,��� said��Beddoes. For Beddoes, the most gratifying aspect of an engineering career is the ability to make a positive impact on society. Those efforts are evident in the ongoing research at the U of M. Research areas include biomedical studies, flood control, alternative energy, infrastructure issues, remote communities and industrial sectors in Manitoba. ���We have a very good connection with the engineering community. That translates into very strong and very applied undergraduate engineering programs, as well as research programs at both the master���s and PhD levels,��� Beddoes said.

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