ENGINEERING EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONS

INSIDE Message from the Dean 1

Faculty News Highlights 2

Graduate Student Profile 3 NATHAN CURRY

Undergraduate Student Profile 5 CHARMAINE CHRISTIE-PRIMO AND HENRY CHEN

Engineering Earth-Friendly Solutions 6

Concordia Satellite Set for Lift-Off 9

Faculty Profile 10DR. ALI AKGUNDUZ

Changing Faces 11NEW FACULTY

Alumni Profile 12BOB BAIRD AND MARC-ANDRÉ MOREAU

Concordia Engineering News is published twice a year by the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University.

Fall 2012/Winter 2013Editor: Laurence Miall

Design and Photography: University Communications Services

Submit all editorial and advertising inquiries to:Concordia University

Faculty of Engineering and Computer ScienceCommunications Advisor, Sir George Williams Campus

1515 St. Catherine W., - EV002.280Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3G 2W1

Email your feedback to laurence.miall@concordia.ca Please visit our website: www.encs.concordia.ca

Cover photo features Rashadul Islam Chowdhury, Catherine Mulligan, Mohammad Farshidy, Sanaz Abbasi

T13-11882

Welcome to the new-look Concordia Engineering News. It has been a year

since our last edition, and in that time, there have been some very exciting developments and breakthroughs at our Faculty.

As you will read inside, we have officially launched the new Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. This is the culmination of many years of hard work and the start of an ambitious new era for our Faculty. I’d especially like to recognize Catherine Mulligan, whose tireless efforts made all this possible.

The new Institute will train students to be at the forefront of sustainable development practices. It will also promote research into new systems, technologies and solutions for water, energy and resource conservation. While the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science is the home base of the Institute, under director Catherine Mulligan, its activities will include all of Concordia’s four faculties, while also providing opportunities for collaborations with industry and community agencies. The Institute will welcome its first cohort of students in 2013.

In a year of many firsts, the Faculty is still a-buzz thanks to the victory of Space Concordia in the inaugural Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. Congratulations to the team’s faculty mentor, Scott Gleason, to all the students, and to everyone else who contributed to this remarkable achievement! The satellite will be launched some time in 2013 or early 2014. Its mission is to study the South Atlantic Anomaly, a huge plasma cloud that is known to disrupt the instrumentation of aircraft.

MESSAGE FROM THE DEANCongratulations are also in order for the many other members of our community who have scored big successes in 2012. Space doesn’t permit me to mention them all, but I want to note a few that have far-reaching institutional implications. The inauguration of the nationwide NSERC Smart Net-Zero Energy Buildings Strategic Network under the direction of Andreas Athienitis is testimony to his innovative research and recognized leading role in this field. The official opening of the Solar Simulator-Environmental Chamber is a huge coup for, again, Athienitis, and colleague, Paul Fazio. Also over the last year, Ferhat Khendek became the inaugural chairholder of the NSERC/Ericsson Industrial Research Chair in Model-Based Software Management, and Suong Hoa was named as the first Industrial Research Chair in Automated Composites Manufacturing, which has been generously supported by an aerospace consortium.

A superlative achievement that also merits mention here is the accreditation of all our engineering programs for six years, the maximum possible term awarded by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. This is the result of several years of hard work by the former Associate Dean of Academic Programs, Lata Narayanan.

During this time, I have been fortunate to work with many talented colleagues and to meet with so many supportive members in our extended community – I am thinking especially of our successful Homecoming celebrations in the autumn. It has been a great year and has paved the way for more success in 2013 and beyond.

Robin A.L. Drew, PhD, FCAE, ing Dean and Professor Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Concordia University

22

FACULTY NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

On December 16, 2011, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

(NSERC) announced that the Smart Net-Zero Energy Buildings Strategic Research Network will receive $5 million in funding over five years. Under the direction of Andreas Athienitis, the nationwide network of 29 Canadian researchers from 15 universities is headquartered within the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, and undertakes research initiatives that will increase the use of net-zero energy buildings – buildings that generate as much energy as they consume.

The same day marked the official opening of the new Solar Simulator-Environmental Chamber, a unique laboratory that will revolutionize solar energy applications and building standards. This facility gives a huge boost to the research work of Andreas Athienitis and Paul Fazio.

On January 18, 2012, the NSERC/Ericsson Industrial Research Chair in Model-Based Software Management was awarded to Ferhat Khendek. Representatives from Ericsson will collaborate closely with Khendek to provide relevant training opportunities for graduate students, leading to the dissemination of research results in Canada and abroad. Khendek will receive five years of funding totaling $1.5 million. Khendek’s research also received the attention of the prestigious Canadian Council of Chief Executives. The Council featured his work in its 2012 Annual Report: Innovation, Productivity, Prosperity.

On May 9, 2012, the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Automated Composites Manufacturing was awarded to Suong Hoa. The researcher and his team, supported by NSERC, Concordia and industrial partners, Bombardier

Aerospace, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd., Composites Atlantic, Delastek and Emergia Aerospace, will be able to build on existing strengths in aerospace research while uniting the university with industry leaders.

May 3, 2012 – a group of Concordia engineering students brought home a trophy from the prestigious Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International Aero Design East Competition, held in Marietta, Georgia. Concordia’s team, Stingers, earned second place in the Micro Class category for their lightweight, nimble and very fast aircraft.

In May 2012, the completion of Montreal’s first-ever linear particle accelerator, nicknamed MEGA, was announced. The system was built in the lab of Rolf Wüthrich, professor in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, with the help of undergraduate engineering students. The device impressed audiences far and wide. Featured in The Montreal Gazette and other media, the accelerator wowed a more specialized crowd at the 2012

Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference and was one of the most popular contest entries in the Project of the Year competition organized by Dassault Systèmes.

On May 30, 2012, it was announced that almost a half a million dollars would go to the Power Electronics and Energy Research team led by Pragasen Pillay, and including Sheldon Williamson and Luiz Lopes. The team is working to produce a motor that is less dependent on costly magnets. The funding came from Canada’s automotive research program, the AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence.

June 13, 2012: All engineering programs offered by the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science were granted accreditation status for six years, the maximum possible term awarded by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board.

At a gala dinner in Ottawa on September 29, Space Concordia’s team was declared the winner of the first ever Canadian Satellite Design Challenge. Faculty mentor Scott Gleason as well as graduate students gave winning advice to a team of almost 20 undergraduate students. See the story on page 9.

The Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems became an official new Concordia research unit following Senate approval on November 2, 2012. The inaugural director of the new Institute is Catherine Mulligan. See feature story on page 6.

The Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation celebrated its eleventh birthday at a reception held November 23, 2012.

SUONG HOA

FERHAT KHENDEK

3

GRADUATE STUDENT PROFILENATHAN CURRY: ENERGY NOT WASTED

PhD Student, Nathan Curry, lives in an industrial loft that he renovated with friends on the

border of Montreal’s Mile End and Parc Extension. The loft includes a music studio, electronics workbench, and general project workspace. This unique environment allows him to pursue his interests in electronic music, electrical engineering, and green solutions for energy production.

“Montreal currently is only reclaiming 8 percent of its organic waste,” says Curry. “The goal for 2020 is to reclaim 100% of organic waste, providing an opportunity for new waste treatment and waste-to-energy projects.”

Under supervison of professor Pragasen Pillay, whom he first met at Clarkson University in Potsdam, located in his home state of New York, Curry is attempting to show how anaerobic digestion could be an urban energy solution of the future. Anaerobic digestion involves natural microorganisms breaking down many of the things people throw out or compost, such as tea leaves, vegetable and fruit remnants, and turning them into fertilizer, heat and electricity. It’s a process that has many applications in rural settings but has

seen little implementation in the urban environment, even though it is a mature technology and one of the few constant renewable energy sources.

Curry is currently involved in a project to install an anaerobic digester adjacent to the greenhouse on the roof of Concordia’s Hall Building.

“I like this field,” says Curry. “In order to do renewable energy research, you need to have an understanding of many different disciplines – electrical, mechanical, thermodynamics, physics, the environment in general… and you need to think about big picture things like how food, energy, and water networks function.”

Curry’s diverse interests have even taken him to study biological computing, where an instructor once told him, “The only limit is your imagination.” In this class he learned how the gene networks of bacteria can be modified to write living, computer-like programs. He worked on a project that would enable paramedics to obtain more immediate results from blood samples by placing them in a modified bacteria culture that could sense and report metabolites of different drugs.

When not pursuing his research interests, Curry composes and records music. He is also currently building a modular synthesizer from scratch at his home. While working on his master’s degree, he recorded an album and toured across Canada with a band called Jane Vain and the Dark Matter. Music has been a constant throughout his life and, in fact, it’s the field in which he first contemplated getting a graduate degree. After receiving a bachelor’s in electrical engineering with a minor in math and electronic music composition, he enrolled in the master’s program of music technology at New York University before eventually baulking at the yearly price tag.

During his undergraduate studies, Curry spent an exchange year at McGill University which first introduced him to the charms of Montreal and he hasn’t looked back since his return to the city in 2007. Where would he like to be in ten years? Either dedicated to the business idea he is currently pursuing, teaching engineers about different renewable energy technologies, or working as a consultant on energy renewal projects all over the world. Given his ability to tackle diverse projects, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he succeeds at all three.

4

It’s a long way from the neighbourhood of Little Burgundy in Montreal to the offices of Microsoft in

Dallas, Texas, but Charmaine Christie-Primo’s hard work, self-belief, plus a whole lot of family love and support, gave her everything she needed for the journey. The graduate of Civil Engineering boarded a plane at Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport on July 7, en route for a new job and an exciting new chapter of her life.

“In my head, I was going to be a doctor,” says Charmaine, recalling her earliest aspirations. She was a stellar student right from the get-go at Westmount Park Elementary School, doing everything she could to make her chosen career a reality. She loved and excelled at math and science. Her drive and dedication consistently made her a top student. She won the school’s Book Award every year except for Grade 3 (a temporary setback that she admits made her cry). Then, after passing the grueling entrance exam, she was accepted into Villa Maria High School.

Still determined to eventually enter the field of medicine, she attended Champlain Regional College after graduating from Villa Maria, but a class in organic chemistry threw off her plans. The class demanded a lot of memorization, which did not play to her

strengths. “I’m the kind of person who likes to learn a concept and then apply it,” she says. Engineering, then, proved to be a natural choice.

After entering Concordia’s civil engineering program, Charmaine continued to push herself academically, as well as in extra-curricular activities – no surprise from a self-described “social butterfly.” For two years running she was president of the Concordia chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), one of the largest student-run organizations in the world. During her tenure, the chapter earned “Best Outreach Chapter of the Year” award from the Engineering and Computer Science Association for its work at local high schools and community centres. In 2011, Charmaine became the inaugural chairperson of the newly incorporated NSBE Canada organization. Her portfolio included managing the 11 alumni, university, and high school chapters across Eastern Canada.

The last leg of Charmaine’s journey to Microsoft is perhaps the most unexpected twist. After all, what brings a civil engineering student to a computer company? In October 2011, she attended the career fair at Concordia. She would have walked right on by the Microsoft kiosk had the recruiter not insisted she stop and chat. He persuaded

her to at least leave her CV behind.

“I impressed the recruiter and was sent an email a couple of weeks later asking me to interview for one of four positions,” says Charmaine.

Fast forward several months; for the final interviews she was flown out to Charlotte, North Carolina. She worked hard to prepare for the interviews, which tested her in four main areas: technical, problem-solving, interpersonal and communication.

The story, of course, has a happy ending. Charmaine was offered a job – a rare civil engineer in an environment full of computer and electrical engineering grads – and she could hardly be more enthusiastic about it. She sees no limits to what can be achieved through determination and perseverance.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something because of your background,” she says. “Everyone in the neighbourhood is so proud of me.” She flashes her characteristic kilowatt smile, which is bound to light up Microsoft, just as it has Montreal and Concordia.

CHARMAINE CHRISTIE-PRIMO:

FROM LITTLE BURGUNDY TO MICROSOFT, TEXAS

5

The story of Henry Chen proves Albert Einstein’s words of wisdom that “the measure of intelligence

is the ability to change.” When he was young, Henry was pretty sure he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. He was all set to follow his father’s footsteps and become a machinist. After elementary and secondary school in LaSalle, he earned his technical certificate at a trade school and found work at a machine shop in Pointe-Claire.

Then one day at work he collapsed. His lungs had become clogged. The doctor said that because of his acute allergies, exposure to the dust and smoke in the machine shop was likely to knock many years off his life. Henry had a pretty clear choice: risk his life, or change career. He opted for the latter.

He knew that any job in an industrial environment would be out of the question. So he decided to make his lifelong passion for computers a full-time occupation. He enrolled in LaSalle College and completed a three-year diploma in computer science. He did vocational training with a company that

produced tags containing information such as barcodes and pricing information – products primarily marketed to retail companies.

Then adversity tested his ability to adapt yet again. The Canadian company, Nortel, took a nose dive in the stock market, as did many other companies in the related telecommunications industry. Henry decided that rather than try his luck on the full-time job market he would go to Concordia and upgrade his skills. It was a choice he has never regretted.

“I liked the hands-on experience,” he says. “You actually get to apply what you learn. He also liked what he called the “Concordia lifestyle,” by which he means the large number of activities organized for and by students.

In his final year of studies in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he decided to apply for a job with Microsoft. He was eventually called to an interview in Charlotte, North Carolina. But the journey was not a smooth one. The company had been sending his travel documents to

the wrong email address, a mistake that Henry discovered a mere two days before his departure date. En route to Charlotte, Henry and his girlfriend, Sonia, missed the connecting flight from Atlanta. Fortunately another flight got them to their destination on time.

The interview process was exhaustive, but not without its more humorous moments. One of the interviewers was from Toronto and joked that Henry wouldn’t get the job because of his loyalty to the Montreal Canadiens.

Then there followed several nervous hours of waiting to hear the result. When he found out he was hired, Henry says he wanted to scream out, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” It was time for a celebratory dinner with Sonia at Red Lobster.

“The good thing about Microsoft is they try to make sure you succeed,” says Henry, anticipating his move to Texas. “That makes me even more excited about the job.”

HENRY CHEN: MACHINIST TURNED MICROSOFT ENGINEER

6

ENGINEERING EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONSCONCORDIA INSTITUTE FOR WATER, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS TAKES ROOT

7

It’s a chilly autumn afternoon in Montreal and the rain is beating down hard. Few people would want

to be working on the exposed roof of a downtown office tower on such a day. But that is exactly where Chirag Desai, Ricard Leoto and Ayman Al-Quraan find themselves. They are installing an anemomoter on the Equiterre building. The goal? To measure wind speeds and gauge the building’s capacity to generate its own wind power.

Chirag Desai is a technician at Concordia’s Power Electronics and Energy Research Group (PEER Group) and Ayman Al-Quraan is a doctoral student under the supervision of Peer Group’s director, Pragasen Pillay. Ricard Leoto is a technical advisor for Equiterre, the Montreal-based non-profit organization that advocates for ecologically and socially responsible policy and actions. While Leoto holds a steel rod in place at the edge of the roof, Desai mounts the anemometer on top. The small, plastic contraption starts to turn in the breeze. Meanwhile, Ayman runs a cord from the anemometer inside to a laptop where the results will be downloaded.

From Equiterre to Concordia is not far (about five minutes by taxi), but it’s a big conceptual leap to establish a university research unit that will promote and foster long-term collaborations of this sort – with industry, community groups and other universities. It is the kind of thinking that forms the new Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. Under the direction of Catherine Mulligan, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies for the Faculty of Engineering and Computer

Science, collaborative projects in renewable energy and water and soil pollution, to name just two areas, will significantly increase in scope and number.

“The three challenges that pose the highest risk to human life on this planet are the quality and quantity of water available to us, the availability of energy, and climate change,” says Mulligan. “The new Institute will broaden the knowledge about the systems underlying these challenges and equip students with the theory and skills they need to help provide solutions.”

Several days after the rainy afternoon at Equiterre, there is a return of almost summer-like conditions. It is a perfect day to be at Concordia’s Solar House, nestled in the heart of the Loyola campus. James Bambara, a PhD student of Concordia’s renowned solar energy expert, Andreas Athienitis, is talking about his plan to carry out renovations and integrate a greenhouse and an anaerobic digester, a system that uses natural microorganisms to break down organic waste and create fertilizer, heat and electricity. The digester would be housed inside the greenhouse so that occupants of the Solar House can, in effect, “grow their own food and energy.”

“It’s what I’d call ‘deep concept’ thinking,” says Bambara, “because it forces you to go back to to the basic science that explains the cycle of life, and to think about how you use that science to develop new technologies and integrate systems that have never been used before.”

ENGINEERING EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONSCONCORDIA INSTITUTE FOR WATER, ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS TAKES ROOT

CATHERINE MULLIGAN AND GRADUATE STUDENT MEHDI POURABADEHEI

8

Bambara is particularly concerned about the issue of food production, lamenting that Canada continues to import so much of its food from many thousands of kilometres away. He is excited by the prospect of an integrated system that will show how Canadians can be more self-sufficient.

He points to the slope of the roof, currently covered with solar panels. “I want to extend the line of that roof to build an attached greenhouse, so it gets similar good exposure to the sun.”

Mulligan wants the new Institute to train students like Bambara to be at the forefront of sustainable development practices. While the Institute’s home base will be at the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, its activities will include all of Concordia’s four faculties. There will be opportunities to study in diverse fields – in public policy, commerce and design, to name just a few – in order to broaden the traditional technical training of engineers.

Even before its official launch, Mulligan was delighted to see her proposed Institute receive a major boost. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) gave $1.64 million for the training of graduate

students in the area of sustainable systems. It was the first grant under the CREATE (Collaborative Research and Training Experience) program to ever go to Concordia University and only one of three grants this year to go to a Quebec university.

It is perhaps not surprising that Concordia has attracted such significant funding in this area. For years the University has been building its role as a leader in research and education with a “green” orientation. Mulligan herself is highly regarded for her expertise on water, particularly the treatment of water used by industry, and has worked with companies across Canada on improving their environmental processes.This year, Mulligan’s work was featured in Le Devoir and the Globe and Mail, as well as other mainstream media outlets.

Concordia is also a leader on research into renewable energy. The University is the headquarters of the NSERC Smart Net-Zero Energy Buildings Strategic Research Network, a nationwide research effort that brings together 29 Canadian researchers from 15 universities to develop smart net-zero energy buildings – that is to say, buildings that can generate as much energy as they consume. The Scientific

Director of the Network, Andreas Athienitis, was this year the first Concordian to address the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering, a prestigious committee in Ottawa that brings together MPs, civil servants and scientists.

But perhaps it is in tangible projects rooted in the cement or soil, under the sun or rain, that the new Institute’s potential is most easy for the layman to see. To imagine the Equiterre building one day generating some of its own power from wind turbines is to imagine the kinds of energy solutions that Canada – and indeed, the whole world – will increasingly rely on in the future. To picture a building equipped with a greenhouse and solar panels on its roof, and an integrated-digester producing energy, heat and fertilizer, is to picture the sort of ingenious solutions that will help ordinary citizens confront 21st century problems. The most remarkable part? Many of the Institute’s projects will likely be, like Bambara’s, utterly novel, involving the applications of technologies and systems in ways that have never been tried before.

For those willing to imagine and also build a more sustainable world, the Institute promises to be the perfect fit.

PHD STUDENT, NAREYEH SABORIMANESH, IS STUDYING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF “EARTH-FRIENDLY” NON-CHEMICAL PRODUCTS THAT HELP CLEAN UP WATER AFTER AN OIL SPILL.

9

Two years ago, Scott Gleason, assistant professor in Concordia’s Department of Electrical and

Computer Engineering, pitched to students a daring idea. No Quebec university had ever launched a satellite into space. If the students could enter and win the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge - organized by the space consulting company, Geocentrix - this would be their prize.

From the students’ workspace on the 12th floor of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex, to the gala dinner in Ottawa where the team learned on September 29 that they had placed first, it was a remarkable journey and an unbeatable learning experience.

“I am almost incredulous, thinking of all the hours of work and dedication that our whole team put in, now finally paying off with such an incredible result,” said Nick Sweet, team leader.

The winning teammates are members of Space Concordia, a student-run

astronautical engineering association. The core team members, mainly undergraduates, advised by a handful of graduate students and, of course, Gleason himself, are all thrilled by the feat they have accomplished.

Smaller than a shoebox, and at 2.84 kilograms, well below the maximum allowable competition weight of four kilograms, the students’ winning design, called a CubeSat, is still big enough for a “payload” of sophisticated scientific equipment. When the satellite is launched, it will orbit the earth 36 times per day and relay data back to a ground station that will be set up in the Montreal region.

The CubeSat’s mission is to study the South Atlantic Anomaly, a near-Earth plasma cloud over South America, comprised of high-energy particles that are known to disrupt the instrumentation of spacecraft and aircraft.

For months, the team knew they had a strong satellite concept because of

their strong finish in the design phase of the competition. But then they had to actually build the satellite to specifications that could withstand the close scrutiny of the judges. This rigorous process was conducted by industry experts at the David Florida Laboratory of the Canadian Space Agency in Ottawa, a highly secured facility where commercial and research satellites from the United States and Europe are routinely tested.

From 12 teams that initially entered the competition, Concordia was among only three to go for final testing. No small detail is overlooked at this stage. The machining process on the finished structure must be accurate down to a 10th of a millimetre. It’s also vitally important that the satellite is tough. The Concordia satellite was mounted on what is called the “shake table” and subjected to extreme vibration testing that simulates an actual launch. If no screws have shaken loose, the satellite is in good shape. On the final days of testing, all of the satellite’s functional systems were inspected to ensure

they will be able to do what they were designed to do.

Sweet concluded, “We’ve learned so much from this experience, and this is only the beginning of what we hope to achieve.”

THE WINNERS

The team: Justin Jean-Pierre, Giovanna Franco, Siddhartha Kattoju, Shawn Stoute, Tiago Leao, Mehdi Sabzalian, Alex Potapov, Ivan Ivanov, Stefanos Dermenakis, Andrei Jones, Tyson Boer, Chelsea Pomerontz, Gregory Gibson, Michelle Boyce, Alex Teodor Ionita, Robert Jakobuwicz, Matthias Martineau and Nick Sweet.

Team advisors: Dmitry Rozhdestvenskiy, Dominic Ng, John Salik, Bill Pontikakis and Scott Gleason.

CONCORDIA SATELLITE SET FOR LIFT-OFF

Dr. Ali Akgunduz clearly relishes the new role he has taken on. He talks about the journey

that brought him to this point, starting from when he was an undergraduate student in industrial engineering at Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey, and then moving on to the city of Chicago, where he spent nearly a decade. He holds an MBA in operations management and finance from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a PhD in industrial engineering and operations from the University of Illinois. In addition, he has a huge amount of professional experience.

Talking about his time with the Chicago Board of Trade, he laughs. “Whenever there are numbers released by the government, sometimes things get crazy, especially in ‘the pit.’” He subsequently worked for United Airlines, then, as now, the largest airline in the world. He developed mechanisms for determining air ticket prices. He was with the

company on September 11, 2001, when two of United Airlines’ airplanes were hijacked and crashed. This was one of the most difficult moments in his career.

When the call came from Concordia University, offering him an assistant professorship in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, he was delighted. He made the move to Montreal in 2003 and has never looked back. In the summer of 2012, he became the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Academic Programs. His prior experience and active involvement with many aspects of running a huge Faculty like this – one of Canada’s biggest – gave him an ideal preparation for his new challenges.

Right from the beginning, Akgunduz had a true affinity for Concordia. “The first couple of years are supposed to be the hardest but it was not like that for me,” he says. “The place was like a home from day one.”

Akgunduz has seen huge changes in the Faculty, including the big move from the Hall Building to the new Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex in 2005, and the construction of many new laboratories and instructional spaces, as well as the ongoing growth in the numbers of faculty members. “It has been a very dynamic place,” he says.

In his new position, one of his biggest priorities is to implement a new graduate attribute assessment process. While his main responsibility in the faculty is curriculum improvements, he particularly enjoys working closely with student societies and engineering alumni.

Akgunduz is enthusiastic about the job at hand, and confident that the Faculty will continue to build its reputation for excellence.

10

DR. ALI AKGUNDUZ: ASSOCIATE DEAN, ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

FACULTY PROFILE

Over the past year, Engineering and Computer Science welcomed eight new faculty members.

Md Saifur Rahaman was appointed as an assistant professor in the Environmental Engineering Group in Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering. He previously spent two years as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council-Canada postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Rahaman received his BSc from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, an MASc from Dalhousie University, and a PhD from the University of British Columbia, all in environmental engineering. The focus of his current research is to develop advanced technologies for water and wastewater treatment.

Hua Ge was appointed as an assistant professor in Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, having previously been assistant professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Architecture at Ryerson University. She has received grants from NSERC for her work on the impact of wind-driven rain on building envelopes. She holds a PhD in building studies from Concordia, an MASc in thermal energy and a BS in civil engineering, both from Tianjin University in China.

Peter Rigby joins Computer Science and Software Engineering as an assistant professor. Immediately prior to joining Concordia he was a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Victoria and a BASc in software engineering from the University of Ottawa. His research interests include empirical software engineering, collaboration during software development, Open Source software peer review and development, data mining, software evolution and distributed version control.

Nikolaos Tsantalis moved to Montreal to join Computer Science and Software Engineering as an assistant professor this summer. From January 2011 until May 2012, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta. He received his PhD, MSc and BSc from the Department of Applied Informatics at the University of Macedonia. His research interests include design pattern detection, identification of refactoring opportunities and design evolution analysis.

Matthew Harsh joins the Centre for Engineering in Society as an assistant professor. He completed a MS and PhD in science and technology studies at the University of Edinburgh. He also has a BS in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University. He was a postdoctoral associate at the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, and serves as the mentorship coordinator for the Society for Social Studies of Science. Much of his research is about how new and emerging technologies can improve livelihoods in Africa.

Jelena Trajkovic joins Electrical and Computer Engineering as an assistant professor. She holds a PhD and a MS from the School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California, Irvine. She has also been a post-doctoral researcher at École Polytechnique de Montréal. Her research is concerned with, among other things, the modeling and optimization of heterogeneous 3D MPSoC architectures, focusing on the integration of optical networks-on-chip.

Yan Liu joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an associate professor. She has a PhD in computer science from the School of Information Technologies, University of Sydney, Australia and a BE in computer science from Northeastern University in China. Her research explores novel solutions that can be adopted in software engineering practices, in particular, developing adaptive software components to integrate large scale scientific workflows and smart grids.

Mehdi Hojjati joins Mechanical and Industrial Engineering as an associate professor. He holds a PhD from Concordia in mechanical engineering, specializing in composite materials. He also holds an MSc as well as BSc from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. His expertise and research interests include materials engineering in aerospace, composite manufacturing and design, the testing and evaluation of polymeric composite materials and structure, mechanical behaviour of laminated composted materials, and energy methods in applied mechanics.

CHANGING FACES

ALUMNI PROFILE

“The reason I feel so attached to Concordia is because of the chance it gave me,” says

Bob Baird, Senior Vice President, Downstream, at Husky Energy. In 1982, he graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Engineering, specializing in mechanical, but it had been far from an easy path to get there. His mother passed away when he was young. When he started his post-secondary education at McGill, he was living alone with his father, who subsequently became ill. Baird had to withdraw from his studies to be a caregiver. A few years later, when Baird wanted to resume his education, it was Concordia that was prepared to give credit for the McGill courses he had already completed and set him on the road to eventual career success.

“It was the camaraderie among the students that stood out,” says Baird about his time at Concordia. “Even though I was older than my peers, I wanted to be very involved in student life.”

His aspirations were fulfilled in this regard. He became class valedictorian. Just recently, he managed to find his valedictory address in a dusty box in storage. Rekindling more memories of the past, he chuckles at how, upon graduation, he was determined not to work in an oil refinery as his father and

grandfather had done. His training had focused on aeronautics, and he thought he was headed for a job with Pratt & Whitney. A downturn in the aerospace industry, however, forced a change of plan. He started working for Shell in Montreal, and his career has been in the energy industry ever since.

In his current position, “a typical day revolves around people,” he says. “Making sure they are supported and that they have the resources they need. We work with products under high temperatures and high pressures. Safety is job one.”

Looking to the future, Baird believes water will emerge as the most important of all the world’s natural resources. “We need to have some direction on how we manage this resource,” he says. It is for this reason that he has joined the advisory panel of the Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems. He wants to help support research that can have a practical impact on industry. And he admits he is also scouting for future talent for Husky – Concordia graduates who, like he has done, can flourish and make lasting contributions in their chosen fields.

BOB BAIRD: GIVING BACK TO CONCORDIA

12

HOMECOMING 2012 On Saturday September 29, about 70 alumni came together to renew old acquaintances, to celebrate their shared past and present experiences, and to explore first-hand the many projects that are contributing to the Faculty’s bright future.

“This was a very special time for all those who have a part in our Faculty’s history,” said Dean Robin Drew. “It was wonderful to welcome guests from far and wide and have the chance to share stories and to reflect on the enormous impact our Faculty’s alumni have made in Montreal, Quebec, and the world beyond.”

This year, the Faculty gave special recognition to alumni that graduated in years ending in 2 or 7. Guests to Concordia enjoyed tours of both campuses, enjoyed an exclusive cocktail reception, where they were treated to presentations from Ian Ferguson (top photo), BEng’72, and Vincent D’Arienzo (bottom photo), BEng 1987, and they also took part in the President’s Reunion Gala.

It was another banner year!

Marc-André Moreau just graduated in spring 2012, so to visit him at the company he

jointly owns, Awake Code Consulting, located on Sherbrooke Street in east Montreal, is to bear witness to a career in the fast lane. He made waves in the computing community while still an undergraduate. He participated in a competition organized by ACE (Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship), reaching the finals in Calgary, for his innovative Open Source software called FreeRDP.

“At the beginning it was just for fun,” recalls Moreau. “At the time, the existing software did not support French Canadian keyboards very well.”

Moreau’s FreeRDP software has become an industry standard for clients

MARC-ANDRÉ MOREAU: INNOVATOR IN THE OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY

13

in North America and Europe. It is a tool that allows users to remotely access a computer desktop from different kinds of devices, such as cell phones. FreeRDP also makes it possible to drastically reduce computing costs through the use of what is called a “thin client,” which is barebones hardware – sometimes just a keyboard and screen – that is remotely connected to a server providing the required applications. So rather than having, say, a dozen computers all equipped with their own software, which is costly, a computer lab can be equipped with a dozen inexpensive “thin clients” that are more easily replaced or updated as circumstances require.

“It’s the virtualization of services,” Moreau says. “This has been one of the major changes in computing over the last ten years.”

Moreau had the foresight to ride the crest of this wave of innovation, establishing working relationships with corporate giants, such as Microsoft, in order to make his services indispensable. Moreau has forged these profitable relationships while maintaining a commitment to the Open Source philosophy – the notion that the programming behind software should be available for all to see. The advantage of Open Source has been that it gives Moreau the ability to customize software to the specific needs of his clients.

A family friend, Claude Roy, helped push Moreau from Open Source enthusiast to the true entrepreneur he is today. Thanks to Roy’s coaching, Moreau learned that in competitions such as the one organized by ACE, he wasn’t simply talking about “cool” computer stuff, he was presenting a viable business. Now the respected young entrepreneur gives presentations of his own to other aspiring business leaders, providing testimony to the value of his Concordia roots and to what he learned in the world beyond.

Give towards BIG THINKING

Promote BIG THINKING Designate your gift towards your faculty or some 500 areas of choice. Contact Suzanne Belanger, from Concordia’s Advancement and Alumni Relations, at 514-848-2424, ext. 7024, or suzanne.belanger@concordia.ca

concordia.ca/alumni-giving

A gift to the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science can help members of Space Concordia send their satellite into orbit, provide momentum to a student entrepreneur or nurture academic excellence through scholarships or bursaries.

From left to right: Alex Teodor Ionita, Ivan Ivanov, Stefanos Dermenakis, Robert Jakubowicz, Alex Potapov, Tiago Leao, Nick Sweet, Shawn Stoute and Gregory Gibson

ENCS giving ad_FINAL.indd 1 16/11/2012 2:29:04 PM