Dr. Elizabeth Croft a Nominee for the YWCA Women of Distinction

Dr. Elizabeth Croft, Professor and Associate Head in Mechanical Engineering, has been accepted as a Nominee for the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards, in the category of Technology, Science & Industry.

From the YWCA Website:
"A dedicated engineer, scholar, teacher and mentor, Elizabeth is passionately devoted to supporting and promoting the participation of women in engineering. As an expert in robotics and industrial automation, her work enables robots to work productively and safely in human environments – from factories to hospitals to homes. As a teacher, she has developed visionary and award-winning educational programs, as well as extra-curricular programs to support her students’ development outside the classroom. An energetic motivational speaker, she also encourages young girls to consider engineering as a career."

Dr. Croft is one of six accepted Nominees in her area. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at an Awards Reception and Dinner at the Westin Bayshore.

"Motorized Neck Brace System" project by MECH students wins "Award of Distinction"

Building on last year's award-winning "Dynamic Neck Brace" project in MECH 457 (2007-2008), the ALS Society of British Columbia increased its support for neck brace design projects this past academic year (2008-2009), as well as for other projects at UBC, SFU, UVic and BCIT that promote the well-being of persons with ALS. A total of 12 student projects were submitted this April for consideration of the Design Award, 4 from UBC.

The "Principal Award" ($5,000), went to Samuel Chua of UBC's EECE Dept.
for the "Automated Speech Recognition and Intelligibility Enhancement System for PALS with BiPAP Assisted Breathing" project.

The "Award of Distinction"($2,500) went to the "Motorized ALS Neck Brace" project, an interdisciplinary collaboration between supervisor Dr. Van der Loos and students Eric Wen, Brad Neels, Anmy Ho, Sassan Nawabi Shirazi, Varun Rana Singh, Jay Liu, and Jayson Rupert, from UBC's MECH 451/2 mechatronics capstone design class and in the Industrial Design program of Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

The "Motorized ALS Neck Brace" project is recommended for its group’s achievement in support and mobility of the head, incorporating motorized assistance. The UBC Mechanical Engineering Team collaborated with an Emily Carr student on this impressively designed project, which the PALS Panel members actually trialed on themselves.

Parisa Bastani receives the Outstanding Future Alumnus Award

Mechanical Engineering student Parisa Bastani receives the Outstanding Future Alumnus Award.

This award recognizes a UBC student who has demonstrated ambassador-like qualities on behalf of UBC and who has excelled in one or a number of the following: leadership, academic success, community service, university service, athletic or artistic achievement, faculty recognition or other areas worthy of recognition.

Congratulations Parisa on such a great achievement!

Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow

The Department of Mechanical Engineering is pleased to announce that Professor Thomas Oxland has been made an American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Fellow. The Fellow Grade recognizes significant engineering achievements and contributions to the engineering profession.

Professor Oxland's principal areas of research and development contribution include the biomechanical aspects of the spine, spinal injury, orthopaedic implants and surgical techniques. The scope of the work includes bioengineering research studies and medical product development.

Specifically, he and his colleagues have characterized various aspects of the normal, diseased, and injured human spine and documented novel surgical approaches to treating these potentially devastating conditions. Overall, his 120 journal publications have been cited over 2,200 times (Web of Science). Furthermore, he was the main research and development engineer for novel spinal implants that remain in clinical use today, more than ten years after the initial surgeries.

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.