2016

The 2016 IEEE Vancouver Section’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala event was held on 24th March 2016. The event was well represented by sponsor’s representatives, professionals from industry, academics and student community totaling 106 people.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala is held annually by the Vancouver Section to conduct certain formal business of the Section after the year end. Section Chair Lee Vishloff reported on the activities of the Section in 2015 and the plans for 2016. Section Treasurer Steven McCLain reported on the Sections financial results and presented the auditors report. Section members voted to approve these reports and for the appointment of a new section auditor (see details below).

Beyond conducting the official business of the Section, the AGM & Gala provides an opportunity for recognizing and honoring outstanding individuals and groups within the Section. Section awards and Student Scholarships (see the complete list below) were presented.

Conducting the AGM: Section Vice Chair Rama Vinnakota

Section Awards

The IEEE Vancouver Section recognized several volunteers for their significant contribution. The Section award winners are:

Outstanding Student Branch Activities – BCIT – Johnson Huang & John Shin
Outstanding Small Technical Chapter – Okanagan Subsection – Youry Khmelevsky
Outstanding Large Technical Chapter – Power and Energy Society (PES) – Dipendra Rai
Outstanding Affinity Group – Young Professionals – Sean Garrity
Outstanding Volunteer – Youry Khmelevsky
Service award – Past Chair – Balbir (Bob) Gill

Vancouver Section Student Scholarship Awards

Thurb Cushing Scholarship Award – Ilia Kalmansont – UBC
John Deane Scholarship Award – Gordon Ho – SFU
Hector J. MacLeod Scholarship Award – Johnson Huang – BCIT

Student Poster Competition

There was a student poster competition organized and well participated compared to previous years. Four student posters and one special poster + demo were exhibited in the Foyer for all AGM attendees to view and discuss. The Student Poster competition entries were:

Network Sniffing with Practical Analysis on a Test Network
Ben Farrell, KPU
SFU – Fun with Antennas, Propagation, Communications and Signal Processing
Ying Chen, Maryam Rasmhoseini, Abhijit Bhattacharya and Roshanak Zabihi- SFU
Low Cost Human – like Robot Hand- (poster and demo) (First Prize).
Kai Yang, KPU
Wheelchair Accident Alert System- (Second Prize)
Nicolaas Dreyer, Desmond Wong, and Johnny Le, BCIT

Financial Report and Auditors Report

The Section Financial Report and auditors report were presented by Section Treasurer Steven McClain, and approved by the members present. The new audit team member Jeff Bloemink was appointed The names of Section Auditors for the coming year are:

Jeff Bloemink
Rodney Vaughan
Jose Marti

Keynote Speach: Mr. Chris O’Riley, BC Hydro

Mr. Chris O’Riley, The Deputy CEO of BC Hydro delivered a Keynote Speech on The Importance of Infrastructure Investment. Mr. O’Riley discussed Hydro’s plans for several large scale initiatives as well as some of the environmental and regulatory difficulties. The presentation was well applauded by attendees.

Plaque of Recognition being presented to AGM Key Note Speaker Left to Right – Chris O’ Riley of BC Hydro, Section Vice Chair Rama Vinnakota and Section Chair Lee Vishloff

Student Raffle – Draw Prizes

The Section and our AGM sponsors generously provided exciting and desirable gifts. These items were utilized as “student raffle” prizes! Attendees were asked to purchase raffle tickets in order to participate in the draw for prizes. The proceeds of the student raffle are donated to the Vancouver Section Student Scholarship fund.

For additional information concerning the Scholarship Funds, visit the “Students” page on the Vancouver Section website:
http://vancouver.ieee.ca/student-activities

AGM Photos and Online Report

Click here to see the full AGM Photo Gallery.

Group photo of attendees – AGM & Gala 2016

Thanks to our AGM Sponsors

The Vancouver Section also takes the opportunity during the AGM to thank its sponsors and supporters. This year the Section had a record 11 sponsors supporting our AGM, representing academic institutions as well as industry.

These sponsors contributed toward the AGM in many ways – without their support, a high quality event would be not be achievable for the section.

The Vancouver Section gratefully acknowledges the support of our AGM 2016 sponsors:

Platinum Sponsors
Simon Fraser University
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
Tourism Vancouver
GE Grid Solutions
Gold Sponsors
ABB
BBA
Silver Sponsors
University of British Columbia
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
BC Hydro
SNC Lavalin