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2017

The 2017 IEEE Vancouver Section’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala event was held on March 25th 2017. The event set a record for attendance and was well represented by sponsor representatives, professionals from industry, academics and students, totaling 128 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. The host was Section Vice-chair Guillaume Boisset. Section Chair Rama Vinnakota reported on the activities of the Section in 2016 and the plans for 2017. Section Treasurer Steven McClain reported on the Section’s 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 Guillaume Boisset

Section Awards

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

  1. Outstanding Student Branch: BCIT — Kevin Shu
  2. Outstanding Small Technical Chapter: Tied
    1. Joint Power Electronics — Martin Ordonez
    2. Circuits & Systems — Ljiljana Trajkovic
  3. Outstanding Affinity Group – Young Professionals – Sean Garrity
  4. Outstanding Volunteer – Sanjeet Sanghera
  5. Service award – Past Chair – Lee Vishloff

Vancouver Section Student Scholarship Awards

  1. Thurb Cushing Scholarship Award – Scott Peverelle
  2. John Deane Scholarship Award – Parham Pashaei
  3. Hector J. MacLeod Scholarship Award – Zeyad Tamimi

Student Poster Competition

A student poster competition was organized. Four finalist student posters were exhibited in the Foyer for all AGM attendees to view and discuss. The Student Poster competition winners were:

  • 1st Prize: “Advance Weather Station” by Kristopher Ho, Jonathan Wang, Johnson Huang from BCIT
  • 2nd Prize: “A Phishing Filter to Address Workplace Cybersecurity Threats” by Stephanie Pappas and Robert Roskell of KPU
  • 3rd Prize: “Sayter Management and Communication Systems” by Edwin Tanu, Zhen Hong Li and Carson Yuen of KPU

Picture of the winning poster (Advanced Weather Station)

Poster competition winning team (Kristopher Ho, Jonathan Wang, Johnson Huang from BCIT) receiving their prize from Rama Vinnakota

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 Bonnie Gray was appointed. The names of Section Auditors for the coming year are:

  1. Jeff Bloemink
  2. Rodney Vaughan
  3. Bonnie Gray

The executive committee wishes to thank the outgoing auditor, Jose Marti, for his support during the past three years.

Presentation by Witold Kinsner, IEEE Canada President

The attendees very much appreciated that Mr. Kinsner flew in to Vancouver expressly for this event and gave a very interesting overview of IEEE Canada 7 activities and opportunities.

Mr. Witold Kinsner, IEEE Canada President

Keynote Speech: Mr. Philippe Guillemette, Sierra Wireless CTO

Mr. Philippe Guillemette, The CTO of Sierra Wireless, delivered a Keynote Speech on LPWA and 5G. Mr. Guillemette gave a very interesting overview of upcoming issues and challenges in the Internet of Things and related topics. The presentation was well applauded by attendees.

Plaque of Recognition being presented to AGM Key Note Speaker Mr. Philippe Guillemette (left) given by Mr. Guillaume Boisset (right)

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 of Attendees – 2017 AGM Galla

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 many sponsors supporting our AGM, representing professional, city, and 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 2017 sponsors:

Platinum Sponsors
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratoriessel_logo_290x113
Tourism Vancouver

Gold Sponsors
APEGBC
University of British Columbia, ECE Departmentubc_ece_logo
BC Hydro
Creation Technologies

Silver Sponsors
Kwantlen Polytechnic Universitynew-kpu-logo-443x156