Emily McWalter and Malcolm Shield receive the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award

The UBC Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Emily McWalter and Malcolm Shield have been selected as recipients of the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award. These prestigious awards are given annually in recognition of the valuable role that Teaching Assistants play in UBC undergraduate programs. The award includes both a certificate and a $1,000 prize.

Criteria for the award include the ability to help students actively learn new knowledge, skills and perspectives, the action as a role model, demonstrating high standards, good listening skills and ethical behaviour, and making the university a more humane place. Both Emily and Malcolm have excelled in all these criteria, and are worthy recipients of the 2009 Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Award. Congratulations to Emily and Malcolm.

Troy Adebar, Engineering Co-op Student of the Year

Congratulations to Mechanical Engineering student Troy Adebar, Engineering Co-op Student of the Year!

Troy has been an active member of the UBC Mechanical Engineering Department where he completed his first two of five terms. His third term was with Kraft Canada and his final two terms were in biomedical research with Evasc Medical Systems. Troys Co-op employers commended and venerated his hard work and dedication to the Co-op program.

Alan Steeves to receive the 2009 President's Service Award for Excellence

Alan Owen Steeves, Computer and Electronics Manager, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering is one of five members of the university community to receive the 2009 President's Service Award for Excellence in recognition of his outstanding contributions to campus life and for personal achievements.

Alan has provided nearly 30 years of dedicated IT support to the department from the first department's PDP11 to facilitating the donation of the 2003 Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) in-kind contribution to our department, providing computer software and hardware to the department with a commercial value of approximately $240 million. The in-kind contribution, which consisted of computer-aided design, manufacturing, and engineering software, hardware and training, is the largest in UBC's history. Since then Alan has attracted several more high value PACE donations and in 2008 received the Distinguished PACE Integrator Award for promoting global collaboration among PACE institutions.

Alan is also a founding member of Trout Unlimited British Columbia and is part of the group that helped to resolve the impasse regarding the Pacific Salmon Treaty Commission in 1999. A recognized first nations artist, Alan has donated his works to a number of charitable causes and one of his pieces was presented to the outgoing APSC Dean, Michael Isaacson by our department.

A true, kind, soft spoken gentleman, Alan has always provided our department with the best in IT services with a friendly and helpful manner.