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2018

The 2018 IEEE Vancouver Section’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala event was held on March 24th 2018. The event had great attendance with over 120 people represented from industry and academia.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala is held annually by the Vancouver Section to conduct formal business of the Section after the year-end. 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. The host was Section Vice-Chair Bob Gill. Section Chair Guillaume Boisset reported on the activities of the Section in 2017 and the plans for 2018. 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).

Group Picture from 2018 AGM Gala

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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.

Section Awards

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

  1. Extraordinary Contribution Award  – Nick Keenan (awarded posthumously)
  2. Outstanding Small Technical Chapter – Joint Circuits & Systems, Ljiljana Trajkovic;
  3. Outstanding Small Technical Chapter – Joint Solid State Circuits & Technology, Shahriar Mirabbasi
  4. Outstanding Large Technical Chapter – Joint Power & Energy Society, Dipendra Rai
  5. Outstanding Affinity Group – Young Professionals, Sean Garrity
  6. Outstanding Student Chapter – UBC Student Branch, Nicole Cheang
  7. Outstanding Volunteer – Ana Laura Gonzalez Rios
  8. Best Subsection Award – Okanagan, Youry Khmelevsky
  9. Service award – Rama Vinnakota

Vancouver Section Student Scholarship Awards

  1. Thurb Cushing Scholarship Award – Sanjeet Sanghera
  2. John Deane Scholarship Award – Kevin Shu
  3. Hector J. MacLeod Scholarship Award – Abigail Climacosa

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: “Hacking an IOT Light Bulb” (The University of Fraser Valley) by Derek van Nieuwkoop & Dominic Nickel
  • 2nd Prize: “Project Labyrinth” (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) by Sathya Vimalendiran, Milan Merai, Armaan Raval, Muhammad Bhutta, Binod Marahatta
  • 3rd Prize: “Hacking Auto Drive” (The University of Fraser Valley) by Peng​ Zeyu, MingHunag Chen

Winner of Best Poster Prize: “Hacking an IoT Lightbulb,” by Derek van Nieuwkoop and Dominic Nickel

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.

Keynote: The Last Computing Frontier – Quantum Computing
by Eric Ladizinsky, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, D-Wave Systems

Eric Ladizinsky, Co-Founder of the world’s first quantum computing company, spoke about the current state of quantum computing and the impact these revolutionary systems will have on reshaping the computing landscape. Despite the incredible power of today’s supercomputers, there are many complex and important applications that can’t be addressed by conventional systems. Organizations around the world are in a race to develop quantum technologies unlike anything we have today, with goals of optimizing cancer therapies, discovering new planets, supporting national defense and advancing artificial intelligence.

Eric Ladizinsky, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, D-Wave Systems

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.

AGM Photos and Online Report

Click here to see the full AGM Photo Gallery.

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 2018 sponsors:

Platinum Sponsors




Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors