Alumni Elected to APEGA Council
Engineering alumna Connie Parenteau, '80 BSc(ElecEng), was sworn in as president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta in April. Other newly elected alumni are president-elect Steve Hrudey, '70 BSc(MechEng), '12 DSc(Honorary), and councillors Art Washuta, '73 BSc(CivEng), John Rhind, '84 BSc(Spec), and Jeff DiBattista, '95 MSc, '00 PhD.
APEGA Summit Awards
'74 Douglas LaValley, BSc(CivEng), Anastasia Elias, '02 BSc(EngPhys), '07 PhD, and Pierre Mertiny, '05 PhD, were honoured at the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta's Summit Awards, which honour significant achievements by individuals and organizations in professional engineering and geoscience across the province.
Calling all 1980 Medicine Alumni
Alumni of the U of A's 1980 medicine class are invited to join a 35-year class reunion Oct. 9-12, 2015, at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna, B.C. For details on the event, please contact Brian Guspie, '78 BMedSc, '80 MD, at bgus@shaw.ca.
Spiritual Arts Collective
Four U of A alumni have come together to work on a new project that sprouted from Robertson-Wesley United Church. The Spiritual Arts Collective provides an empowering and safe place for community participants to share their spiritual journey through the arts, including visual arts, drama, dance, music, writing, community initiatives or political commentaries. The program is the brainchild of Robertson-Wesley minister Karen Bridges, '94 BA; music director Tammy-Jo Mortensen, '92 BMus, '14 MMus; and program curator Casey Edmunds, '08 BA. In June 2013, the group workshopped ideas with professors and other church groups from all over North America at Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music project. Theirs is the only Canadian congregation chosen for Yale's prestigious program. Brooke Leifso, '09 BA, joined the collective as the arts co-ordinator in 2014. The Robertson-Wesley Spiritual Arts Collective has hosted nine artists-in-residence over the past two years, and those artists have engaged the public in artistic practices and projects. They launch their upcoming Spiritual Arts Collective season in September 2015 with four new artists and some wonderful new projects. The wider community is invited to participate. No artistic experience in any particular discipline is necessary. Visit rwuc.org/sac.html for more information.
Robert Kaul, '90 BSc, Anthony Kaul, '95 BCom, and Joel Yatscoff, '03 BDes, have created a modern-day "tricorder" (of Star Trek fame) as part of a team competing for $10 million in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize. Robert is co-founder and CEO of Cloud Diagnostics, one of only seven finalists and the only Canadian company in the international competition. Anthony is chief operating officer for Cloud DX. Joel is a product designer on the project, working for Cortex Design in Toronto. Called the Vitaliti, the team's wearable device monitors five vital signs, including oxygen saturation, blood pressure and heart electrical activity, and can diagnose 16 medical conditions. Joel writes that the team delivered its prototypes just under the wire after a mad scramble of 18-hour days for more than a week, adding, "I thought it might be nice to reach out to the institution where three members of this team were educated, shaped and influenced." Cloud DX is up against some big players - Scanadu in the U.S. and HTC in Taiwan - and three teams have already dropped out. The top three winners will be announced in January 2016.
Read more about the Vitaliti in July's Thought Box article.
Alberta Order of Excellence
Three alumni were recently named to the Alberta Order of Excellence: Fil Fraser, '08 DLitt (Honorary), Jacob Masliyah, '13 DSc (Honorary), and Frits Pannekoek, '69 BA(Hons), '70 MA. The order is the province's highest honour, awarded to Albertans who have made an outstanding provincial, national or international impact. The official investiture ceremony will take place Oct. 14, in Edmonton.
Order of Canada
Albert Bandura, '10 LLD (Honorary) was named an officer of the Order of Canada "for his foundational contributions to social psychology, notably for uncovering the influence of observation on human learning and aggression."