WiE Panel at EPEC 2020
Date: November 12th, 2020 12:30 – 14.00 MST
Purpose
Round-table discussion of the challenges, opportunities, and impact of diversity in the engineering.
Session Outline
| Moderator: Prof. Ivan Fair, University of Alberta | |
| Opening Remarks | |
| 5 min | Prof. Ivan Fair, University of Alberta |
| Panel Presentations | |
| Speakers Discussion & Moderated Questions from Audience 85 min | Panelists Lianne Lefsrud, Assistant Professor and Director Outreach, at Chemical and Materials Engineering Dept, University of Alberta Terri-Lynn Duque, Director, Strategic Innovation at Enmax Monique Soboren, Sr. Standards and Projects Engineer at FortisAlberta Jeanie Chin, Manager Centre of Grid Innovation at NAIT Raymond Matthias, Strategic Advisor to Associate Dean (Outreach) at University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering |
Speakers
Dr. Lianne Lefsrud, P.Eng. is an Assistant Professor, Engineering Safety and Risk Management, University of Alberta. She uses various methods to examine hazard identification, risk management and evaluation, and technology adoption. Specifically, she has used topic/sentiment analysis on media discussions about resource development, network analysis to understand online climate change debate, and machine learning to analyze incident reports, predict mining industrial incidents accidents, and fracking impacts in China, and bibilometrics to examine the creation/flow of knowledge networks. She has authored over 80 articles, chapters, reports, and practice standards. She has also been a longstanding advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion and co-chaired CCWESTT2018, which hosted 579 attendees. For more, see W: liannelefsrud.com and T: @lefsrud.
Jeanie Chin, P.Eng, is the Manager for Grid Innovation at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. Jeanie has over 14 years of engineering and project management experience in the Albertan power utility sector, specifically on building and maintaining transmission and distribution infrastructure. In her current role with NAIT, Jeanie is leading applied research to advance innovation in the distributed electricity sector by utilizing a novel plug and play microgrid platform
Monique Schluff Soboren, P. Eng., is an electrical engineer who has worked in electrical and telecommunication utilities for 29 years. Her experience includes power, radio, and fibre optic networks. She is currently involved in distributed generation and working on the interconnection of generation projects up to 25 MW. Her main area of focus over the years has been developing the standards that technologists and power line technicians use for project design and construction. Monique is especially interested in how effective leadership can mobilize large teams of people to implement new work methods, and she is passionate about sharing knowledge and strategies that can lead teams through change.
Terri-Lynn Duque is the Director of Strategic Innovation at ENMAX Power, the distribution and transmission subsidiary of ENMAX, headquartered in Calgary. TL and her team have created a platform for innovative ideas and new technologies to transform the utility. The team delivers pilot projects, advises on distributed energy resource (DER) integration, and champions new business models to deliver value to ENMAX’s customers. Her recent accomplishments include launching a pilot program to test out a regulated utility role for electric vehicle charging in Alberta, and being named a 2019 Young Women in Energy Award winner.
When she’s not dreaming about the future of the Alberta electricity sector, she spends her time exploring the Rocky Mountains with her family and dreaming about building a bed and breakfast in the foothills of Bragg Creek.
Raymond Matthias is currently the Strategic Advisor to the Assistant Dean, Outreach, for the Faculty of Engineering. His previous campus experience includes international student advising, a secondment to the Office of the Registrar (Student Connect), and serving as the Manager, Student Services for Engineering at Alberta. Having supported students over the entire arc of their academic journey, starting even before the point of application, and continuing well beyond convocation, Raymond considers himself a “professional layman”, and tries to highlight areas of engineering which may not be well-understood by the general public. The Outreach team aims to connect with High School students and their mentors through sharing inspiring stories that challenge stereotypes of what it means to be an engineer.