IEEE Canadian Atlantic Section

Our Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) Chapter is teaming up with the Vancouver OES Chapter to co-host an upcoming event held next Thursday, February 25th. The technical talk will be presented by Dr. Vincent Sieben of Dalhousie University and is titled "Chemistry on the High Seas: Are Thousands of Lab-on-Chip Ocean Sensors Plausible?" In the last two years, the Sieben laboratory at Dalhousie University has developed lab-on-chip systems for monitoring nutrients and environmenta...l DNA. This talk will focus on our innovative inlaid material approach to building microfluidic devices and how it can be applied to sensing phosphate. The underpinning research and knowledge presented will be mobilized with industrial partners to deliver 15 phosphate lab-on-chip sensors and 10 eDNA samplers for 2022. This represents one of the largest planned lab-on-chip deployments in the marine sector to date. Dr. Sieben received his doctorate from the University of Alberta in 2009. From 2009 to 2011, he conducted pioneering research on the first lab-on-a-chip nutrient and microbiology sensors for the deep ocean at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, UK. For the next 7 years, Dr. Sieben worked with a talented team on the first commercialization of a lab-on-chip sensor in the oil and gas industry: Schlumberger's Maze SARA analysis. He has actively published in the areas of microfabrication, lab-on-a-chip, optics, and in situ sensors for environmental monitoring, authoring 26 peer-reviewed journal publications, 33 conference publications, 11 granted patents, a book chapter and an ASTM standard. Dr. Sieben started a research group at Dalhousie University 2 years ago that is focusing on lab-on-chip systems for marine environments. For more details, and to register: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/260143

Check out this upcoming event hosted by the Dalhousie Student Branch. A great event for students and recent graduates.

Our PES (Power Engineering Society) chapter is hosting an exciting virtual technical talk next Monday evening on December 14th. Phil Zinck will present his talk titled "Grid Edge Technology: Residential Implementation of the BLOCK Energy Smart Platform." Everyone is welcome to attend. Event registration is available here: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/249203 Technical Talk Summary: The emergence of microgrids with embedded energy sources ("prosumer") to provide increased r...eliability and resiliency in the supply of energy to customers is not a new concept. One of the challenges with these systems - in particular, where the energy source is "behind-the -meter rooftop PV - is the strain it places on the business structure that regulators require utilities to work within as these types of PV systems continue to grow. Additionally, the "typical " microgrid is an extension of the utility AC distribution network when interconnected to the grid (normal configuration) thus prone to the power quality and resiliency issues that come with the AC grid. A novel microgrid concept has been developed that addresses these issues and provides additional benefits by utilizing DC as its distribution network, with all energy sources owned and operated by the utility. Tampa Electric has embarked on a Pilot Project to implement such as system. This presentation will walk through a general overview of this novel microgrid concept with a few of its key features highlighted, the processes and challenges in the creation of this Pilot Project, and some early lessons learned. Speaker Biography: Phil Zinck, M.Sc, P.Eng, Senior Electrical Engineer Phil is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is Incoming Chair for the Cigre Canada Executive Committee. Phil has a progressive career spanning 33 years with demonstrated experience and expertise in industrial and utility power system design, power system analysis, start-up and commissioning with emphasis on Protection and Control systems and schemes. He has successfully filled various major project contract management and Operations roles with power utilities and engineering consultants including engineering technical support, risk and interface management, QA/QC, site construction and commissioning lead. Most recently Phil was the Emera Contract Lead for the ABB HVdc and HVac Stations as part of the 500 MW, +/-200 kV Maritime Link Project. Currently Phil is working for Emera Inc, managing the implementation of the first DC Renewable Microgrid into Tampa Electric's residential distribution network.

We have another technical talk coming up this week. On Thursday evening the OES (Oceanic Engineering) chapter and SP/MTT (Signal Processing/Microwave Theory and Techniques) joint chapter are co-hosting a virtual technical talk titled "Multi-Domain Robot Collaboration Towards Situational Awareness on a Floating Target" with Dr. Mae Seto presenting. The talk will follow with an update on the OCEANS 2024 conference coming to Halifax. Everyone is welcome to attend. Please registe...Continue reading

Our Annual General Meeting is only two days away. You can register to join the event for free here: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/241912 We encourage all of those interested to join the virtual event and learn what IEEE is all about. The evening will contain a keynote presentation, awards ceremony and the Annual General Meeting with all CAS executives. We are always happy to have new volunteers join. Feel free to join in if you have been thinking about becoming a part of the local IEEE community.

Here's a throwback to our Annual General Meeting from 2010. All our volunteers are busy getting down to business. Speaking of the AGM, we have our FREE virtual 2020 AGM coming up this Thursday evening (on November 19th). Prior to the AGM we will have a short networking session, a keynote presentation, and an awards ceremony. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Antonio Moran all the way from Lima, Peru. The presentation will be of special interest for those in the Robotics & Automation / Instrumentation & Measurement joint society, and all are welcome to attend. For more information and registration, check out https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/241912

The Canadian Atlantic Section will be hosting our Annual General Meeting on the evening of Thursday, November 19th. You can join in on this FREE virtual event. The evening will contain a keynote presentation, and awards ceremony, followed by our AGM. To find more details, and to register, follow the link to the vTools event page: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/241912 Registration is free for all attendees. Feel free to contact us for any questions. Do you know someone you ...would like to nominate for an award? We are also currently accepting nominations for section awards. Please check the PDF file on the vTools page for the description of each award listed below. Self-nominations are also accepted. - Murugan Medal - Life Member Lifetime Service Award - Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award - Outstanding Industrial Contribution Award - Outstanding Engineering Education Award - Citation for Distinguished Service Photo credit: Dirk Werle, 2019 CAS chair. Photo taken at 2019 CAS AGM.

Want to learn more about the Canadian Atlantic Section? Check out our website at https://cas.ieee.ca/. From there you can learn more about the history of our section and which volunteers have taken our executive position roles all the way back to 1966 when the section was first formed. Or if you are more interested in the technical side of IEEE, you can learn more about our three society chapters and five joint society chapters (https://cas.ieee.ca/chapters/) to see how we help spread in-depth technical knowledge to our community.

Have you heard of the IEEE Dalhousie Student Branch? They are a group of motivated student volunteers working to grow and push the vision of IEEE into the electrical engineering community at Dalhousie University. This student branch is very active on social media. Check them out on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ieeedalsb) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ieee.dalhousie/) to learn more. The Canadian Atlantic Section actually has three student branches: Dalhousie U...niversity Student Branch, Saint Mary's University Student Branch and Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society (HKN). In fact, our section has one of the first HKN chapters established outside of the USA. There are currently 204 HKN chapters internationally with only 22 chapters outside of USA, and Dalhousie University is the only Canadian university to hold an HKN chapter, which speaks highly of our volunteer engagement within such a relatively small section. See more