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2019

AGM & Gala 2019 - Group Photo IEEE Vancouver Section AGM 2019 – Group Photo     (photo credit: Ron Heaps)

The IEEE Vancouver Section’s 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Gala event was held on March 30th 2019. The event was attended by 104 members, guests, and representatives 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 Mike Paraskake.

Section Chair Bob Gill reported on the activities of the Section in 2018 and the plans for 2019. Steven McClain reported on the Section’s financial results and also presented the auditors’ report. Section members voted to approve these reports and for the appointment of a new section auditor (see details below).

 

Financial Report and Auditors Report

The Section Financial Report and the auditors report were presented by Section Treasurer Steven McClain, and approved by the members present.

The new audit team member Hui Deng was appointed. The names of Section Auditors for the coming year are:

  1. Shail Mahanti
  2. Bonnie Gray
  3. Hui Deng

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

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 and sub-units of the Section for their significant contribution in the preceding year. The Section award winners are:

  1. Outstanding Small Technical Chapter (tie) – Power Electronics (Martin Ordonez)
  2. Outstanding Small Technical Chapter (tie) – Joint Solid State Circuits (Bonnie Gray)
  3. Outstanding Large Technical Chapter – Joint Computing (Mandeep Pannu)
  4. Outstanding Affinity Group – Women In Engineering  (Selyn Chen)
  5. Outstanding Student Branch – UBC Student Branch (Raghul Subramanian)
  6. Outstanding Volunteer – Nico Dreyer Student Activities Chair
  7. Outstanding Student Volunteer – Aeden McClain
  8. Service award – Guillaume Boisset (Past Section Chair)

 

Vancouver Section Student Scholarship Awards

The Vancouver Section Student Scholarships are named in honour of outstanding Vancouver Section members. The scholarship funds accounts are administered on behalf of the Vancouver Section by the IEEE Canadian Foundation. Contributions to these Section Scholarship funds are tax deductible. More information about the Scholarships and the criteria can be found on the Vancouver Section’s Scholarships page. Information about donation methods can be found on the IEEE Canadian Foundation donations page.

  1. Thurb Cushing Scholarship Award – Gabriel Chen (UBC)
  2. John Deane Scholarship Award – Matt Weins (SFU)
  3. Hector J. MacLeod Scholarship Award – Roshanak Zabihi (SFU)

 

Student Poster Competition

A student poster competition was organized. Seven finalist student posters were exhibited in the event ballroom for all AGM attendees to view and discuss.  A panel of independent judges evaluated the posters and cash prizes were awarded to the winners!!

The Student Poster competition winners were:

  • 1st Prize: “An Amateur Radio CubeSat Communications System” – Nicholas Polyzogopoulos, Simon Fraser University
  • 2nd Prize: “2D LiDAR running on ROS” – Derek van Nieuwkoop, University of the Fraser Valley
  • 3rd Prize: “Synthesis and Characterization Novel Lead-Free Ceramic of the (1-x) BiFeO3 – xBaHfO3 Solid Solution” – Cindy Wu, Simon Fraser University

Women In Engineering (WiE) Awards

The Chair of the Vancouver Section’s WiE Affinity Group, Selyn Chen, awarded special plaques to recognize the outstanding contributions of:

Ms. Ana Laura Gonzalez    (Chair IEEE YP Young Professionals)

Dr. Rabab Ward       (Dept of ECE, University of British Columbia)

 

Keynote Address: “Improving our customers’ lives in the age of AI and machine learning”

Mr. Tony Geheran,

President of Broadband Network and Chief Customer Officer,  TELUS

Mr. Geheran spoke about the use of AI and Machine Learning to learn about customer / subscriber needs and behavior.  He described in some detail a new health related mobile application which makes use of Machine Learning techniques applied to large volumes of medical data in order to present ordinary users with useful health information and guidance.  Attendees also appreciated Mr. Geheran’s insights into providing broadband networking services to under-served rural areas.

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 Generous 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 2019 sponsors:

Platinum Sponsors:

TELUS

Tourism Vancouver

BCIT

SFU

 

Gold Sponsors:

 

Silver Sponsors:

BC Hydro

University of the Fraser Valley

UBC

Kwantlen Polytechnic University

 

Please provide feedback: take our AGM Attendee Survey !

All AGM attendees are invited to complete a special survey regarding the various aspects of the AGM, and provide their suggestions for improvement.  The survey can be completed anonymously.  The Vancouver Section executives look forward to receiving feedback from our members and guests!

Please visit: the AGM 2019 survey