2012 CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEERING AWARDS INTRODUCTION: Innovation and Sustainable Development

CHAIR’S COMMENTS

Innovation and Sustainable Development

It was a great honour for me to chair the 44th annual Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards jury, assisted by a panel of volunteer judges, many of whom are known for their outstanding engineering achievements.

As a jury, we found our work very exciting, even though the task of selecting 13 winners from among the 77 excellent projects submitted was far from easy.

What excited us was that these projects helped us appreciate the capacity of Canadian engineering to innovate and integrate the concepts of sustainable development in designs of very high quality. In fact, in a world where innovation is the principal driver of wealth creation and where it is impossible to ignore the environmental and community aspects of a project, these aspects are precisely where engineers can and must make a difference.

As creators and innovators, engineers contribute every day to helping society progress because they have ideas and are able to devise concrete solutions for bringing them to life. As members of society, engineers also have a responsibility for ensuring sustainable development.

As we can see, our award-winners do not take their professional responsibilities lightly.

WHAT THE AWARDS
ARE ALL ABOUT

44th Year

This is the 44th year of the Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards. They
recognize outstanding work on projects of all types completed by
Canadian consulting engineers.

The judging criteria include: (i) originality or innovation in the use of new
technology or a new application of existing technology; (ii) complexity,
(iii) environmental impact, (iv) social and economic benefits; and
(v) fulfilling the owner’s or client’s needs.

The awards are a joint program of the Association of Consulting
Engineering Companies – Canada (ACEC)/l’Association des firmes d’ingénieurs-conseils – Canada (AFIC) and

Canadian Consulting Engineer  magazine.

 Celebration!

The 2012 winning projects were presented at a Gala dinner event held
at the Ottawa Convention Centre on October 23.

 Showcase of Engineering Excellence

To see entered projects of 2011 and 2012, viewable in full as PDF files,
visit the Awards Showcase https://www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/awards/showcaseOfEntries.aspx

Information On-Line

For more detailed information about the awards’ history, past winners and
judging criteria, visit www.canadianconsultingengineer.com/awards

2012 CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEERING AWARDS JURY PANEL

CHAIR

Maud Cohen, ing., is immediate Past-President of the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) the professional engineering association of Quebec with over 60,000 members. A graduate in industrial engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal, she also has an MBA, was recently honoured with a Fellowship from Engineers Canada, and was named one of 100 Future Women Leaders by Entreprendre magazine in 2011. She is a director with the CGI Group in Montreal.

 JURORS

Wieslaw M. Chojnacki, P.Eng., is Head, Civil and Utilities in the Transit Expansion Department, Toronto Transit Commission. A civil engineering graduate from the Warsaw University of Technology, Poland, he has international experience in public transit facilities design and construction. He is currently involved in the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown Light Rail Transit project in Toronto.

 Ronald De Vries, P.Eng.,recently retired as Senior Vice-President of Operations with Defence Construction Canada in Ottawa after 29 years with the organization. A civil engineer, he has been a member of many boards and committees involved in advancing procurement standards and innovative practices within the consulting and construction industry. He remains active in his own consulting company and as a member of the Construction Documents Committee.

Antonio De Santiago is Executive Vice President, AFP (alternative financing and procurement) and Major Projects, with Infrastructure Ontario in Toronto. A civil engineer with an executive MBA from the University of Navarra, Spain, he has led large construction projects in North America and Europe, acting for public-private partnerships and international companies such as CINTRA, Construcciones Hogarsur and Agroman.

Claude Faubert  is Vice President, Collections and Research with the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation in Ottawa. He is responsible for the research and acquisitions activities of three national museums and is much involved in developing plans for a new museum of science and technology.

Pierre Léger, Ph.D, ing., is Professor of Civil Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal. Previously he taught structural engineering from 1986 to 1992 at McGill University. His research focuses on the structural behaviour and safety of concrete dams and hydraulic structures. He is the author of more than 175 journal and conference papers.

 Alistair D. MacKenzie, P.Eng., is a Professor Emeritus at Ryerson University. Previously he was chief engineer at George Wimpey Canada in Toronto, also working for that company in the U.K. on building, civil and oil and gas projects. He is a past president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering and chaired its National History Committee for several years. He is the author of scores of conference papers and magazine articles.

Alfred B. Maurer, P.Eng., was City Manager of Edmonton from 2000 to 2010, where he led a senior management team heading 10,000 employees and oversaw a budget of over $2 billion. His previous positions include city engineer for asset management and public works, and city engineer in the transportation department.

Donald S. Mavinic, Ph.D., P.Eng., is Associate Head, Department of Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia, where he has been a professor since 1983. A specialist in wastewater treatment and biosolids management, he has published over 250 papers and won many awards. He is a special advisor to the U.S. Government and EU, and advisor to the Nunavut Territorial Government and Government of Peru.

Brenda McCabe, Ph.D, P.Eng., is Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto, where her previous positions include Vice Dean Graduate Studies. With industry experience in both construction and land surveying, she focuses her research on areas like risk analysis, the contractor selection processes, benchmarking and probabilistic modeling.

Sheena Sharp, OAA, MRAIC, is president of the Ontario Association of Architects. As such, she
is involved in advising governments on regulations in the field of building energy use and collaborates regularly with the engineering professions. She is also a principal at Coolearth Architecture in Toronto, which specializes in sustainable design.

Mitchel W. Simpler, PE,  is Managing Partner at Jaros, Baum & Bolles in New York, NY where he has been project manager of diverse building projects. He is also Chairman Elect of the American Council for Engineering Companies of New York. A graduate of Lehigh University in mechanical engineering, he has written papers on the design of special HVAC systems and is a member of the New York City International Building Code Rewrite Committee.

Record number of entries in 2012

77

entries this year — a new record. (Last year 63)

Entries per category:

Buildings

 23

 Transportation

 11

 Water Resources

 14

 Environmental Remediation

 4

 Natural Resources, Mining,
Industry and Power

 4

 Special Projects

 9

 Project Management

 2

 International

 6

 In-House Initiatives and Community Outreach:

 4

 Note: awards are given according to merit; not assigned as one
per category.

Province of entering firms

British Columbia 15

Alberta

15

Saskatchewan

1

Manitoba

4

Ontario

24

Quebec

15

New Brunswick

3