THE CAE 5-YEAR PLAN ANNUAL REPORT : YEAR 1
THE WILL TO INVENT OUR FUTURE
Prepared for CAE Annual General Meeting by Morrel P. Bachynski, FCAE 3 June 2005
Canadian Academy of Engineering 180 Elgin Street Suite 1100 Ottawa ON K2P 2K3
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The Canadian Academy of Engineering Mission Statement
The Canadian Academy of Engineering is an independent, self-governing and non-profit organization established in 1987 to serve the nation in matters of engineering concern. The Fellows of the Academy are professional engineers from all disciplines and are elected on the basis of their distinguished service and contribution to society, to the country and to the profession. The Academy is self-financing and does not receive grants from government although it may carry out studies and surveys on a contract basis. The Fellows of the Academy can therefore bring into corporate activity, in a completely independent manner, the wide experience and expert knowledge which they have acquired as practicing members within the engineering profession of Canada, a profession with 160,000 members currently. The mission of the Canadian Academy of Engineering is to enhance, through the application and adaptation of science and engineering principles, the promotion of wellbeing and the creation of wealth in Canada. The Academy fulfills this mission by: • • • • • • promoting increased awareness of the role of engineering in society, recognizing excellence in engineering contributions to the Canadian economy, advising on engineering education, research, development and innovation, promoting industrial competitiveness while preserving the environment in Canada and abroad, speaking out on issues relevant to engineering in Canada and abroad, developing and maintaining effective relations with other professional engineering organizations, academies and learned societies in Canada, and abroad.
CAE 5-YEAR PLAN – ANNUAL REPORT : YEAR 1 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING JUNE 3, 2005 Morrel P. Bachynski
1. BACKGROUND The CAE 5 Year Plan was launched at the 2004 Annual General Meeting of the Academy in Toronto on June 9, under the theme “THE WILL TO INVENT OUR FUTURE”. The Plan outlined a series of initiatives to be undertaken in order to earn the Academy the status as “the recognized leader and senior statesman of Engineering in Canada”. This goal had been set by the Board of Directors after an extensive study of the Academy’s past accomplishments, the activities of sister Engineering Academies around the world, and the perceived national need and potential of the Academy. These activities were designed so that under the initiative of its members, the Academy could obtain its objectives without the aid of major government grants or other subsidies. Should these subsidies be available, they would augment and accelerate the progress of the Academy. Although, in general, it is more difficult to start new activities than to build on existing ones, the progress over the first year has been remarkable in a number of initiatives. Noteworthy is that fact that over the last year, no less than 56 members of the Academy participated in the 5 Year Plan activities. This compares to a number of 18 the previous year before any Plan existed – an increase by a factor of 3! The active participation of the Fellows is approaching 20% of the membership. The next section presents some of the highlights of progress made during the year followed by summary comments regarding the future. A list of the Chairpersons and composition of the various Task Forces and Standing Committees is also attached. Additional information for the membership comprised of one-page summaries of the activities of each Task Forces/Standing Committee together with the Terms of Reference for these initiatives is available in a separate document. 2. HIGHLIGHTS TASK FORCE ON CAE IMAGE The Task Force identified four separate publications/documents which is and will be required by the CAE as it moves forward. These include: a summary paragraph describing “what is the CAE?”, a one-page “backgrounder” which captures the essence of the CAE, a Power Point Presentation which can be used
by the President and others in various “marketing” efforts of the CAE and a glossy brochure as a longer term image builder for the CAE. Draft copies of the summary paragraph and “one pager” are attached to the one page Report of the Image Task Force, [mentioned above], for review and feedback from the Fellows. TASK FORCE ON ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE PRESIDENT OF CAE This is the only Task Force for which a suitable Chairperson has, so far, not been found. However, discussions with the Engineering Academies of both Sweden and Finland have shown the very strong involvement of industry in the Academies of these two countries which indicates the necessity of our Academy to become better known by Canadian industries and the need for an on-going dialog with the industrial sector. CAE is, therefore, on the right track and this Task Force must be implemented in the coming year. TASK FORCE ON MAJOR DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE After reviewing major related studies, The Task Force has examined [a] the nature and direction of engineering, [b] selected emerging engineering themes both by economic sector and emerging technologies and [c] the interface between engineering and the broader community , in terms of issues such as competitiveness, technical literacy, innovation, public policy priorities, etc. A website has been constructed to house the materials collected and to ease communications amongst the Task Force members. A draft document on engineering issues and trends has been prepared and discussions on the potential role of CAE and on the continuing role and direction of the Task Force are on-going. CAE FELLOWSHIPS STANDING COMMITTEE The Fellowships Committee met on Nov.30/04 to consider 38 nominations which had been submitted for consideration. Assessment of the candidates led to 30 being recommended for Fellowship. Of the recommended candidates, 14 were from industry and 16 from the academic world. These were submitted for election by the membership. In addition, guidelines are being prepared for submission to the Board addressing the issue of negative votes registered during the voting process. CAE HONOURS STANDING COMMITTEE The Honours Committee considers that the first focus is to develop one premier award, to be given annually, to recognize achievements in any field of engineering which has clearly demonstrated beneficial impact on Canadian society. The desired level of the award is of the order of $100,000. The challenge for the forthcoming year is to find a sponsor or sponsoring organizations in order to establish an endowment to fund the award.
CAE EVENTS STANDING COMMITTEE CAE events are being organized along regional areas with local participation in most of the key centres of Canada. Discussions with the Deans of Engineering have been held at most of the universities with favorable expressions of interest. Concentration is now on the regional events led by local Fellows which will be suitable for such recognition. In many instances, endorsement by senior university administrations has been enthusiastic. In addition, sister Engineering organizations [e.g. Associations of Professional Engineers] are publicizing the achievement of their members in the Academy. ENGINEERING EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE No report is available. NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ISSUES STANDING COMMITTTEE [formerly D & I Committee] No report is available INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES STANDING COMMITTEE The Academy is now playing a greater international role in the activities of CAETS [the international engineering “Academy of Academies”] with a speaker and chairperson for the forthcoming assembly in Australia in July 2005. Planning is underway in regard to the 2009 meeting of CAETS which will be held in Canada. Potential themes are being reviewed with a draft document scheduled for discussion by the Board this autumn. In addition, exploration has been initiated with the Indian National Academy of Engineering on possible exchange programs and other mutual activities. NATIONAL AFFAIRS STANDING COMMITTEE The major effort has been associated with the implementation of the Canadian Academy of the Sciences [CAS]. This is a joint effort with the Royal Society of Canada and with the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. The main goal of this entity is to provide expert panel assessments of national issues and to foster international inter-academy collaboration. A government grant to provide funding for 10 years of operation is included in the 2005 federal budget, which passed second reading on May 19. Other activities included exploring with sister engineering organizations, a vision for the future of engineering and the respective roles of each organization. ***** TASK FORCE ON ENGINEERING FOR CANADIAN CLIMATES In addition to the activities in the 5 Year Plan, the CAE is always open to initiatives from its Fellows in areas which may be of future benefit to the country and the Academy. One such possibility is for CAE to have in place a series of
Task Forces in selected nationally important areas. This would put CAE in a position to offer its expertise in these areas and to react quickly to possible calls from government [as could come from the Canadian Academies of Science] or to potential collaborative efforts with sister societies. The first of these expert Task Forces, came from an initiative from Professor Ladanyi in the area of “Engineering for Canadian Climates”. Professor Ladanyi has succeeded in setting up a renown expert panel which is available to offer advice in this important Canadian Engineering field. 3. FUTURE After just one year, major progress has been achieved towards meeting the goals of the 5 Year Plan. The involvement of more than three times the number of CAE Fellows in the activities of the Academy compared to their involvement in the prior year is impressive indeed. In addition, a number of Fellows are coming forward with suggestions on how they can become more active, some with major topics which they desire to pursue. The Academy welcomes this and encourages more and more Fellows to have a role shaping the future of the Academy. We can already see the need to transform the Annual General Meeting into a 2 day program which will not only encompass the technical program and the Fellow induction but also time to discuss the different CAE activities and directions for the future. There is no looking back. The enormous talents within the Academy are beginning to be harnessed for the betterment of the country and the engineering profession. It is clearly evident that the FELLOWS OF CAE CAN INDEED INVENT ITS FUTURE.
CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING 5-YEAR PLAN MEMBERSHIP – TASK FORCES/STANDING COMMITTEES TASK FORCES [NEW] IMAGE CHAIR PERSON Garry Lindberg MEMBERS Gordon Slemon, Morrel Bachynski, Camille Gagnon, Martin Fournier, Peter Kaiser, André Bazergui
ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO CAE PRESIDENT MAJOR DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE
TBD John McLaughlin Axel Meisen, Micheline Bouchard, Toby Gilsig, Allan Winter, John Leggat, Doug Barber
STANDING COMMITTEES
CHAIRPERSON
MEMBERS
1. VISIBILITY OF ENGINEERING A. FELLOWSHIPS [ON-GOING] B. CAE HONOURS [NEW] André Bazergui Ron Nolan, Kathleen Sendall John McLaughlin (all ex officio) Peter Frise, Fred Otto, Indira Samarasekera Pierre Bélanger, John Dinsmore, Michael Avedesian, Normand Morin, Martha Salcudean, Toby Gilsig Gordon MacNabb Maritimes: Mohamed El-Hawary Québec: Richard Marceau, John Gruzleski Ontario: Mamdouh Shoukri, Anastasios Venetsanopoulos, Gilles Delisle Nicolas Georganas
Ron Crotogino
C. CAE EVENTS [NEW]
John McDougall Ravi Ravindran
2. ENGINEERING EDUCATION [NEW] David Lynch 3. NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ISSUES [ON-GOING] Carolyn Hansson
Arthur Heidebrecht, Adel Sedra
(D&I) Ron Nolan, Kathy Sendall, Morrel Bachynski, Clem Bowman, Ron Crotogino, Gilbert Drouin, James Kinley, Richard Marceau Ron McCullough, Ravi Ravindran Gordon Slemon, George Zarzycki Ravi Ravindran, Saeed Mirza, Maureen Lofthouse, Moyra McDill (Exec. Cttee.) Kathleen Sendall, John McLaughlin, Morrel Bachynski
4. INTERNATIONAL Claude Lajeunesse ACTIVITIES [ON-GOING] 5. NATIONAL AFFAIRS [ON-GOING] Ron Nolan
6. ADVISORY COMMITTEE composition to be determined from TO CAE PRESIDENT results of Task Force on Advisory [NEW] Committee to President of CAE STANDING TASK FORCE ON ENGINEERING FOR CANADIAN CLIMATES Branko Ladanyi Jack Clark, Lorne Gold, Ralph Haas, Don Hayley, Ed McRoberts, Kerry Rowe, Daniel Smith