CELEBRATE NAIT`s ANNIversAry

Transcription

techlife
people technology innovation
v 6.1 2012
$4.95
techlifemag.ca
Celebrate NAIT’s Anniversary
Bernie Fedderly • Clifford Giese • Victor Gillman • James McPherson • Jack Menduk • Bob Morgan • Ray Rajotte • Archie Roberts • Stewart Roth
Fred Atiq • Gil Cardinal • Nolan Crouse • Roger Dootson • David Dorward • Marleen Irwin • Andrew Lee • Shirley Long • Holger Petersen • Brian
Straub • Guy Turcotte • James Ahnassay • Naseem Bashir • Carol Blake • Dave Buchaski • James Cumming • Kees Cusveller • Randy Eresman • G
Korbutt • Kevin Martin • Daryl McIntyre • Mark McNeill • Mark Ohe • George Rogers • Tracey Scarlett • Julie M. Shaw • Bruce Woloshyn • Sand
Yakimchuk • Daniel Wai Yuk Yeung • Michael Anderson • Mark Hamblin • Andrew Hore • Chris Kourouniotis • Ashif Mawji Corbin Tomaszeski •
Dean Turgeon • Stephani Carter • Don Oborowsky • Jules Owchar • Javier Salazar • Marlon Wilson • Bernie Fedderly • Clifford Giese • Victor
Gillman • James McPherson • Jack Menduk • Bob Morgan • Ray Rajotte • Archie Roberts • Stewart Roth • Fred Atiq • Gil Cardinal • Nolan Crouse
Roger Dootson • David Dorward • Marleen Irwin • Andrew Lee • Shirley Long • Holger Petersen • Brian Straub • Guy Turcotte • James Ahnassay •
Naseem Bashir • Carol Blake • Dave Buchaski • James Cumming • Kees Cusveller • Randy Eresman • Greg Korbutt • Kevin Martin • Daryl McInty
Mark McNeill • Mark Ohe • George Rogers • Tracey Scarlett • Julie M. Shaw • Bruce Woloshyn • Sandy Yakimchuk • Daniel Wai Yuk Yeung •
Michael Anderson • Mark Hamblin • Andrew Hore • Chris Kourouniotis • Ashif Mawji • Corbin Tomaszeski • Dean Turgeon Stephani Carter • Do
Oborowsky • Jules Owchar • Javier Salazar • Marlon Wilson • Bernie Fedderly • Clifford Giese • Victor Gillman • James McPherson • Jack Mendu
Bob Morgan • Ray Rajotte • Archie Roberts • Stewart Roth • Fred Atiq • Gil Cardinal • Nolan Crouse • Roger Dootson • David Dorward • Marleen
Irwin • Andrew Lee • Shirley Long • Holger Petersen • Brian Straub • Guy Turcotte • James Ahnassay • Naseem Bashir • Carol Blake • Dave Bucha
James Cumming • Kees Cusveller • Randy Eresman • Greg Korbutt • Kevin Martin • Daryl McIntyre • Mark McNeill • Mark Ohe • George Rogers
Tracey Scarlett • Julie M. Shaw • Bruce Woloshyn • Sandy Yakimchuk • Daniel Wai Yuk Yeung • Michael Anderson • Mark Hamblin • Andrew Hor
Chris Kourouniotis • Ashif Mawji • Corbin Tomaszeski • Dean Turgeon • Stephani Carter • Don Oborowsky • Jules Owchar • Javier Salazar • Marl
Wilson • Bernie Fedderly • Clifford Giese • Victor Gillman • James McPherson • Jack Menduk • Bob Morgan • Ray Rajotte • Archie Roberts • Stew
Roth • Fred Atiq • Gil Cardinal • Nolan Crouse • Roger Dootson • David Dorward • Marleen Irwin • Andrew Lee • Shirley Long • Holger Petersen •
Brian Straub • Guy Turcotte • James Ahnassay • Naseem Bashir • Carol Blake • Dave Buchaski • James Cumming • Kees Cusveller • Randy Eresm
Greg Korbutt • Kevin Martin • Daryl McIntyre • Mark McNeill • Mark Ohe • George Rogers • Tracey Scarlett • Julie M. Shaw • Bruce Woloshyn •
Sandy Yakimchuk • Daniel Wai Yuk Yeung • Michael Anderson • Mark Hamblin • Andrew Hore • Chris Kourouniotis • Ashif Mawji • Corbin
Tomaszeski • Dean Turgeon • Stephani Carter • Don Oborowsky • Jules Owchar • Javier Salazar • Marlon Wilson • Bernie Fedderly • Clifford Gies
JAR I
JOURNAL OF APPLIED
RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
INTRODUCING A SHOWCASE FOR IDEAS AND
INSPIRATION IN APPLIED RESEARCH
The Journal of Applied Research and Innovation (JARI) is a new, peer-reviewed,
online journal that presents fresh approaches and innovative solutions to
real-world challenges. Launched as part of NAIT’s 50th anniversary, JARI’s
vision is to become international in scope and content providing a forum for
researchers, administrators and industry partners from diverse sectors to
highlight their applied research experiences.
Articles, papers and case studies are welcome for peer review. Topics may
include technological innovations, prototype and product development, proof
of concept, testing and other data-driven solutions, or insight into the direct
value of applied research.
Are you or your team addressing the practical problems of industry,
government or the community in a unique or innovative way?
Let JARI showcase your process and ﬁndings!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Dr. David Carpenter, JARI Editor
www.nait.ca/jari
Email: JARI@nait.ca
The Future is in your hands.
Develop your skills through Modern Machining
Techniques at the NAIT Sandvik Coromant Centre
for Machinist Technology.
Throughout Sandvik’s first 150 years, the combination of development
and change has been the driving force behind our success. In partnership with
NAIT celebrating 50 years the journey into the future continues!
table of contents
techlife > contents
82
36
22
on the cover
innovate
PEOPLE
CULINAIT
36 Celebrate NAIT’s
22
36 Top 50 Alumni
73
technofile
17
Status Update
After 10 issues, we revisit five
stories of innovators and their
projects. As it turns out, you
win some, you lose some – but
you always learn along the way
From the Ground Up
In the early 1960s, few
knew a technician from a
technologist, even if industry
needed them more than ever.
That’s when NAIT arrived
with the answer
Anniversary
27
A First Time for Everything
What was NAIT’s first
building? Degree? Tweet? A
list of 50 points of origin
32
The Futurists
A view of the world of
tomorrow, courtesy of our
staff and alumni
34 NAITology
How well do you know NAIT?
Find out by taking our quiz
6
techlifemag.ca
Find out why these grads
made the grade
64 Ooks Through the Ages
We may not be bowling or
canoeing anymore, but over
the years our teams have still
been known by rivals to “kick
their pants”
67 The Meaning of Ookpik NAIT’s search for its missing
mascot turns up more
than just a cute and cuddly
Canadian icon
The Fine Art of Food
A history in five courses
76 Recipe
What does the suave,
sophisticated ook reach for
during the cocktail hour? A NAITini, of course
departments
8
Contributors
11 Editor’s Note
12
Feedback
13 Connections with the
President
15 Newsbytes Recent news from the
institute
17
76
What’s New at techlifemag.ca
62 Contest Sign up for the techlifemag.ca
e-newsletter and win a limited
edition T-shirt!
79 5 Ways to Get Involved
With NAIT
81
Acclaim Award-winning grads, staff
and friends
82 Rewind A piece of NAIT history comes
home – thanks to an alum and
his garden shed
Between biannual issues of techlife, we publish stories online.
Here’s a selection from recent months.
Cuisine by Capra Why Hokanson Chef in Residence
Massimo Capra trains cooks, not chefs
techlifemag.ca/capra-hokanson-chef-
Taking it to the Streets Chef Nathan McLaughlin’s new
food truck makes a stop at Food
Network’s Eat Street
in-residence.htm
techlifemag.ca/the-act-on-eat-street.
htm
Get Your Motor Running Hockey Heroes
Want to tour, cruise or travel at
shocking speeds? Here’s how to
pick the right motorcycle
The undefeated ’84-’85 Ooks enter
the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame
techlifemag.ca/motorcycle-buyingguide.htm
Canadian Content
Photographer Heather Paul rescues
national treasures from the dustbins
of time (and Winnipeg)
techlifemag.ca/photo-restoration.htm
techlifemag.ca/ooks-hockey-perfectseason.htm
Sense and Sustainability
Three alumni turn a troubled
residential corner into a model of
green design and construction
techlifemag.ca/belgravia-green-netzero.htm
Scan this QR code to
connect to techlifemag.ca.
Accompanying some of this
issue’s stories are QR codes
that connect you to our online
content. All you need is a
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use it to scan the codes found
throughout the magazine.
v6.1 2012 7
contributors
techlife
v6.1 2012
PAGE f 45, 50, 55 & 57
As a communications specialist, Fiona Bensler loves the
opportunity to work with staff from across NAIT. She
enjoys learning from that – and definitely learned a thing
or two from the four top 50 alumni she interviewed for
this issue. Their passion, drive, dedication and desire
to give back are valuable takeaways. Besides writing for
techlife, Bensler edits NAIT’s weekly staff newsletter and
is managing editor for A Report on Giving (included in this
issue), which highlights donors to the institute. She is also
a frequent contributor to techlifemag.ca.
people technology innovation
editor
techlifemag.ca
Sherri Krastel
managing and online editor
Scott Messenger
associate editors
Kristen Vernon, Heather Gray
art director
Derek Lue
associate art director
PAGE f 22 & 64
John Book (Photographic Technology ’87) is an avid
birdwatcher, fly-fisher and, of course, photographer. “Not
very many individuals have the option to work every day
at what they consider their hobby, but I do,” he says. Book
has been busy with his hobby for 22 years at NAIT, where
he produces images to support curriculum and promote
the institute. In searching out archival photos for several
stories in this issue, Book selected from over 200,000
digital files and more than 60 binders of negatives to help
capture the institute’s 50-year history.
Andrea Yury
designers
Sandy Brown, Dru Davids, Trina Koscielnuk, Jennifer Lubrin,
Sheena Riener
copy editor
Kathy Frazer
circulation manager
Nicole Rose (Marketing ’08)
advertising manager
Lynn Ryan
contributing writers
Eliza Barlow, Fiona Bensler, Ruth Juliebo, Frank Landry,
Kim MacDonald, Cheryl Mahaffy, Nancy McGuire, Lindsey
Norris, Lisa Ricciotti, Sandy Robertson, Don Trembath
contributing photographers
John Book (Photographic Technology ’87), Leigh
Frey (Photographic Technology ’01), Jeanette Janzen
(Photographic Technology ’10), Blaise van Malsen
PAGE f 39
PAGE f 73
Heather Gray likes the challenge a new opportunity
brings. Proof of this came recently when she moved from
health-care education administration to communications.
She performed a similar move, but in the opposite
direction, 30 years ago when she traded her newspaper
writing and editing career for an education in medical
laboratory science. A few months ago, when given the
opportunity to join NAIT’s communications team, it was
a full-circle moment she couldn’t resist. For her, working
as a writer and editor on this issue, which focuses on
celebrating NAIT’s history, reinforced the notion that our
past experiences shape us.
Since graduating from Photographic Technology in
2010, Jeanette Janzen has travelled the world in search
of curious, marvellous and unexpected things that
make up its cultures. Thinking she would spend her life
as a photographer overseas, she surprised everyone –
including herself – when she landed back at NAIT. As
a student, her favourite subject matter was food and
beverages, so helping to photograph this issue’s CuliNAIT
feature, in particular the NAITini, felt like catching up
with an old friend over drinks. But no matter what she’s
shooting, she still loves the rush she gets from one of her
favourite hobbies: developing black and white film.
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Techlife magazine is published twice a year by NAIT
Marketing and Communications. Online features are
published regularly at techlifemag.ca. Opinions expressed
are not necessarily those of NAIT or the editorial team.
Techlife is a proud member of the Alberta Magazine
Publishers Association, abiding by the national magazine
advertising/editorial guidelines (albertamagazines.com).
a report on giving
managing editor
Fiona Bensler
contributing writer
Nancy McGuire
contributing photographer
Blaise van Malsen
8
techlifemag.ca
As NAIT celebrates its 50th anniversary, we recognize
the institute for helping develop the skilled workforce
Canada needs to prosper.
encana.com
EDITOR’S NOTE
“this
institute
fulfills
one of the
greatest
needs
in our
society.”
Photo by blaise van malsen
– Ernest Manning
Premier of Alberta, 1943-68
“this institute fulfills one of the greatest needs in our society,” said
Ernest Manning at NAIT’s official opening ceremony in the spring of 1963.
The late premier’s remarks remain as true today as they did nearly five
decades ago, when technical education was undefined and NAIT’s future
yet to be written.
In this commemorative issue of techlife, we celebrate NAIT’s golden
anniversary, and the more than 170,000 students and thousands of
staff and faculty whose lives have been enriched by the school. We’ve
attempted to provide a snapshot of what has transpired at NAIT over
the last five decades, but it is by no means complete.
People and programs have come and gone, athletics championships
have been won and lost, and facilities have been demolished and built.
What has remained is Alberta’s need, and the growing demand, for the
unique brand of education served up in the classrooms and labs, by
experienced, passionate faculty and staff.
That became evident during the process of compiling our Top
50 Alumni list (p. 36). From inventors to innovators, from artists to
philanthropists, from CEOs of the largest companies to owners of small
businesses, NAIT graduates solve problems, create wealth and improve
lives every day – not only in Alberta, but across the country and around the world. Many of the 162 nominations we received were familiar to the 11
of us tasked with evaluating them – after all, NAIT has produced its
share of interesting personalities, many of whom we have covered in
the pages of techlife and its predecessor Alumnait. Many nominations,
however, were for individuals who have avoided the spotlight but whose accomplishments were as impressive as any. We honour them all.
We’re also taking advantage of this opportunity for a second
look at some of the stories we’ve covered in the last five years (p. 17) and, to keep it interesting, we’ve asked some of our experts
to weigh in on the future of several fields, including oil sands,
food production, education and alternative energy (p. 32) – their
predictions may surprise you. We hope you enjoy reading this special issue and would love
to hear from you about this and previous issues. You can do so in
less than 10 minutes by taking our readership survey (p. 12).
And, although much has changed since first student Bill Riches
arrived early in a cab on that October morning in 1962 (p. 22),
some things do remain the same – our students are as eager, the
Ookpik as cherished and Manning’s proclamation as relevant as it was 50 years ago.
Here’s to the next 50!
Sherri Krastel Editor
editor@techlifemag.ca
v6.1 2012 11
FEEDBACK
We want to hear from you
Tell us what you think about the
stories you read in the magazine
or at techlifemag.ca.
Here’s what you think about us
7
the building in the aerial photo at the
top of Plenty of Parking (p. 66, V5.2) was
a two-storey structure converted from a
department store into new digs for the
entire NAIT Architectural Technology
program in 1977. It is currently called the
Engineering Technologies Annex. The
focus of the story, M Building, wasn’t
even in the photo!
one of our announcers brought
your interview with Holger Petersen
(techlifemag.ca/holger-petersentalking-music.htm) to our attention.
Thanks for a great article about a
great man.
• Email: editor@techlifemag.ca
•techlifemag.ca (comment online by
logging in through Facebook)
• Twitter: @NAIT
• Facebook: www.nait.ca/facebook
• Mail: Sherri Krastel
Editor, techlife magazine
11762 – 106 St. N.W.
Edmonton, AB T5G 2R1
Karen Howell
Web Editor, CKUA
Respectfully,
Bruce Benjamin
Architectural Technology ’78
Published comments may be edited for length, grammar and clarity.
reader response
We asked about these six stories in our latest
readership survey. Below, the percentage of
respondents who read the stories in their entirety.
1 Backing Big Oil (p. 28): 22%
MOST-read
stories
from v5.2
2 Moveable Feasts (p. 52): 22%
3 3 Questions: The Labour Shortage (p. 15): 21%
4 Ask an Expert: Brew the Perfect Cup of Joe (p. 48): 17%
5 Northern Composure (p. 38): 11% 6 Reading Room: Sci-Fi Masterpieces (p. 13): 7%
7 22
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21
Scan this QR code to take
our readership survey or visit
following each issue of techlife, we survey
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what you want to read. We ask what content
you prefer and how much time you spent
reading the stories.
We have learned that half of you
regularly read most of the magazine, and
that more than 80 per cent spend between
CONNECTIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT
50 great years
nait at 50! What a marvellous time to serve as president and CEO of this
outstanding institution. I am amazed by what NAIT has achieved, humbled
by what we are accomplishing and inspired by our plans for the future.
Our remarkable successes during the past five decades are
testimony to the dedication and innovation of former staff and students.
NAIT has consistently built on our foundation as a relevant and
responsive polytechnic. We continue to deliver hands-on, technologybased skills education in science, technology and the environment,
health, trades and business. Our motto – to learn, to do, to succeed – is as relevant today as at NAIT’s founding. We are central to Alberta’s future.
Partnerships with industry, government and other donor agencies,
together with contributions from individuals, many of whom are NAIT
alumni, have allowed NAIT to meet Alberta’s and Canada’s needs for
outstanding skilled workers. For this support, we are eternally grateful.
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we have embarked on a new
vision. NAIT 2021 is our roadmap to the future and is critically important
for Alberta in developing a highly qualified workforce. It is our pathway
to becoming the most relevant and responsive polytechnic in Canada.
Embedded in the NAIT 2021 vision are promises. This is our promise
to Alberta: NAIT’s primary focus is on meeting the current and emerging
needs for polytechnic education and research in Alberta. NAIT is
relevant and responsive to the province, providing outstanding technical
education. While serving the needs of Alberta, NAIT is globally
competitive and recognized.
To industry, we promise to work as full partners as we create an
exceptional skilled workforce.
We promise students an education that prepares them for success
in meaningful careers in their chosen field, enabling them to have an
immediate impact.
To staff, we promise to make NAIT one of Canada’s most outstanding
places to work, focusing on values we define as the NAIT Way.
Glenn Feltham, PhD
President and CEO
glennf@nait.ca
v6.1 2012 13
newsbytes
At work for the Boreal Research Institute in the Peace River region.
ooks
go
mobile
this spring, the athletics
department struck a first for
Alberta college- or universitylevel sports with a new app
dedicated entirely to its teams.
Available as a free download
for iPhone, iPad and Android
users, the app delivers Ooks
news, schedules, results and
more, as well as offers contests,
rewards for attendance and
event reminders. The idea
and product came from Lyle
Mozak (Electronics Engineering
Technology ’68), CEO of
Appsdeveloper.ca Inc., who
presented it as a marketing tool
to increase the Ooks’ fan base.
“As an alumnus, I thought, ‘Let’s
see how a mobile app can fix
that,’” he says.
— Scott Messenger
funding BOOST
environmental studies and Alberta’s high-tech
sector will benefit from over $5.6 million in federal
grants awarded to NAIT.
The funding will bolster ongoing research into
reducing the environmental impact of the oil sands
through the institute’s Boreal Research Institute and
its Centre for Green Chemistry and Engineering.
Funding will also fuel a project to support members
championship
curling
canada’s best collegiate-level curlers will
converge in Edmonton this spring, when
NAIT hosts the 2013 Canadian Collegiate
Athletic Association (CCAA) Curling National
Championship.
It’s fitting the institute was selected as the
site, says Linda Henderson, director of athletics
and recreation. The institute has a rich history in
the sport: the women’s curling team won bronze
at the 2012 CCAA championship, and world-class
curlers Kevin Martin and Adam Enright honed
their craft as NAIT students.
The four-day, round-robin tournament
takes place March 20-23 at the nearby Avonair
Curling Club. It will feature eight men’s and eight
women’s teams.
of the province’s burgeoning nanotechnology
industry, particularly in the areas of prototyping and product development.
Awarded in May, the grants include $4.05
million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada and $1.6 million from
the Canadian Foundation for Innovation.
— Frank Landry
the stars
align
dr. glenn feltham says when he started as
president and CEO in 2011, “I heard loud and
clear that sustainability is important to our staff.”
As part of his response, the institute obtained
its first rating from the Sustainability Tracking
Assessment and Rating System (STARS). STARS
is a self-reporting tool for educational institutes
to measure economic, environmental and social
performance. NAIT registered a bronze rating – a benchmark, says Feltham, by which NAIT can
measure its progress.
— S.M.
— F.L.
v6.1 2012 15
thank you for inspiring the next generation to
DREAM BIG
Finning Canada is proud to support the Northern Alberta Institute
of Technology. Congratulations on 50 years.
TECHNOFILE
Status
Stories By
kristen vernon Photos by
Update
blaise van malsen
People, technology and innovation are at the heart of the stories
we feature in techlife. After 10 issues, we decided it was time
for an update on ideas, projects and business ventures we’ve
covered over the years. Here’s where a few of them stand today.
The hawk has landed
From Batteries Included, Vol. 2.1
if it’s above 6 c and not raining,
Nap Pepin can be found commuting
to work in his almost entirely hand-
built, two-seater electric trike–
described in a recent St. Albert
Gazette article “as something out of NASA or Blade Runner.”
Pepin started building the
$26,000-Lithium Hawk two years
ago, after making room in his
garage by donating his first electric
vehicle (EV) – the Lithium BugE – to the Reynolds-Alberta Museum.
His intention was to learn
Above, Nap Pepin in his homemade
electric vehicle.
The EV
advantage
Range:
210 kilometres per charge
what he could from the BugE, built
since August 2011, spent last
partly with a kit, and apply that to
winter designing a sophisticated
a new EV built from the ground up. battery management system (he
The Hawk addresses many of the
made more than 23,000 spot
BugE’s shortcomings. “It’s just a lot welds to link 1,976 cells) and
more robust,” says the Electronics
is now refining the front-end
Engineering Technology grad
suspension and adding power
(class of ’85). It’s heavier, has a
assist to the steering.
longer range, better suspension,
As for whether there’s another
is almost completely silent and
EV in his future, Pepin isn’t sure.
will perform just as well on a low
“All the manufacturers are coming
battery as when fully charged.
out with electric vehicles,” he says.
Pepin, who has put more than “So unless I can do something
5,000 kilometres on the Hawk
unique or better – why?”
Equivalent fuel economy:
maximum 0.81 litres/100
kilometres (348 miles/gallon)
Top speed: 170 kilometres per hour, though
Pepin has never travelled past
115 (“It can be pretty scary trying
to test [a hand-built] vehicle for
higher speeds.”)
Acceleration: 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in
approximately six seconds
v6.1 2012 17
TECHNOFILE
Above, Since 2009, revenues
for Davis McGregor’s Mobile
Data Technologies have
grown more than 50-fold.
Opposite, top, outsourcing
elements of production has
allowed Tanya and Ryan
Clarke of Dr. Scientist
Sounds to keep working
from home and meet
booming demand.
Opposite, bottom, after a
few hard years, Innovequity’s
Mark Holtom (left) and
Ben Bertrand have leads
for their automated
homebuilding technology.
web extra
Read the original stories and
get updates on other previously
featured innovations by visiting techlifemag.ca/updatesfall-2012.htm.
18 techlifemag.ca
Dollars for data
From Firestarter, Vol. 3.2
few entrepreneurs opt to keep
bootstrapping when investors
come to the table. Yet the four
engineers behind Mobile Data
Technologies, which designs
and sells sensor monitoring and
recording units for the oil and
gas industry, decided that it
wasn’t the right time for external
investment – despite a successful
pitch to the angel investors of the VentureAlberta Forum in
early 2010.
Less than a year later,
however, it was a different story.
In early 2010, Mobile Data
Technologies was selling about
three units a month. In August,
it sold seven. In November, it
sold 11 in a single day – and 16
that month. By late 2010, the
former novaNAIT incubator client
needed a cash infusion to keep
pace. Mobile Data Technologies
got the investment needed and
moved into a 560-square-metre
(6,000-square-foot) shop in
Acheson, a few minutes west of
Edmonton. The company also
started hiring, expanding from
five employees to its current
24. Today, the product line has
grown considerably, and demand has been so high that
eager customers have bought
the prototypes for systems still
in development.
As its 2011-12 fiscal year
closes, the company is exactly
where president and CEO Davis
McGregor predicted in his initial
pitch to the VentureAlberta
investors. Back then, he forecast
sales to grow from $114,000
in 2009 to $5.8 million in 2012.
With sales for the year closing
in on $6 million, “We’re right on
track,” he says. “We’re actually
ahead of that curve.”
Mobile Data Technologies has
since expanded from Western
Canada into the United States,
and sales south of the border will
be the company’s focus for the
coming year. By 2015, McGregor
expects the focus to shift even
further afield. In the meantime,
the company’s engineers are
working on a prototype for a new
product – a prototype they had
not intended to sell. Demand,
however, proved too great. “Once
again, the customer stepped up
and said this is what we need
now,” McGregor says.
Pedal power
From Frazz Dazzler and the Sunny Day Delay, Vol. 1.2
when ryan and tanya clarke returned from their wedding in Tofino
in the fall of 2009, the duo behind Dr. Scientist Sounds needed to find a way to up production of their boutique guitar effects pedals.
After all, they were almost a year behind filling store orders.
Ryan (Electronics Engineering Technology ’05), who engineers
the pedals, now outsources the build of the circuit boards for two of their four pedals. Tanya (Graphic Sign Arts ’02), whose designs
give the pedals their unique look, no longer applies finishes, but
instead has her designs printed and applied by a company in the
United States.
As a result, they’ve largely eliminated the backlog (at most
they’re a month behind these days). And they are able to produce
more than twice as many pedals, shipping about 120 a month to 35
stores around the world. “We’re just in a lot better control of how it
all goes down now,” Ryan says.
The long-term goal is “to keep growing at a rate that we find
comfortable,” Tanya says. After all, she adds, they do this for the
lifestyle of working together at home.
Building equity
From On the Brink of Big, Vol. 2.1
things haven’t gone as planned for Ben Bertrand and Mark Holtom. By now, they’d hoped to have revolutionized the construction
industry with their Geometric Construction System (GCS), which can
automatically build floors and walls, complete with wiring, plumbing
and finishing coverings. “We would have loved to have been selling our
machine a couple years ago,” says Holtom, CEO of Innovequity, a former
novaNAIT incubator client.
Building the $1.4-million prototype of the GCS was, at times, a
frustratingly slow process. But in summer 2010 the machine built its
first floor, complete with plumbing, electrical and HVAC lines. Since
then, Bertrand, Innovequity’s chief technology officer and inventor
of the GCS, has finished a beta prototype for building walls (minus
insulation, a capability soon to follow).
Without a first client, cash flow is currently the largest challenge; at
times, it has the company struggling to keep its Drayton Valley factory
open. But 2013 could be the year Innovequity’s fortunes change. The
company hopes to break ground on two projects. One involves building
rental office and sleeper trailers for industrial use. The other is a
residential development tied to a major refinery project now underway.
The GCS would be used to build a four-storey, 20-unit apartment block
in Bon Accord, 30 kilometres north of Edmonton.
v6.1 2012 19
TECHNOFILE
What wood have been
From No Car, No Furnace, No Problem, Vol. 2.2
the home of Conrad Nobert and
Rechel Amores was designed
to be net zero, producing at
least as much energy as it
consumes over the course of a
year. Three years after the NAIT
staffers moved their family of
four into the 200-square-metre
(2,200-square-foot) house, it
has yet to reach that goal. But
it’s come close – and Nobert
wouldn’t change a thing. “I think
it’s probably harder than we
The Nobert-Amores family
home didn’t qualify as
net zero, but it still uses
a fraction of the energy
consumed by an average
Edmonton house.
The zero
effect
By incorporating the following
features into their home, Conrad
Nobert and Rechel Amores
almost achieved net zero status:
• 40-centimetre walls filled
with cellulose fibre insulation
• large south-facing windows
• interior concrete floors that
absorb heat during the day
and then release it during
the evening
• a six-kilowatt solar
electric system fed by 32
photovoltaic modules
• solar hot water
20 techlifemag.ca
thought to build a net zero house
in Edmonton,” he says.
Nobert and Amores
(Computer Systems Technology
’99) opted for baseboard heaters
and a high-efficiency woodburning stove to shore up their
insulation and passive solar
heating. But because the energy
from burning wood can’t be
accounted for on the electricity
meter, when they stopped using
the stove to test if the house
could reach net zero, they fell
short of their goal. Had they
installed a geothermal system –
which can be accounted for on
the electricity meter – Nobert
has no doubt they’d have met
their goal. “We learned that it’s
possible, but we didn’t quite
make it,” he says.
The fact remains: the energy
savings are remarkable. Net electricity use over a 12-month
period for this home is between
1,600 and 2,600 kilowatt-hours
(again, without burning wood,
which can’t be counted by the
power meter). The average
Edmonton home, in contrast, uses
40,000 kilowatt-hours (with
natural gas consumption converted
to its electric equivalent) over the
same period. INNOVATE
from the
ground
Fifty years ago, Alberta wondered how it
would keep pace with a booming economy.
Then NAIT came along.
Story By
Don Trembath
Photos
archival
main campus
22 techlifemag.ca
, circa medical laboratory technology
19 6 4
, circa 19 66
circa spring 19 63 . photo supplied by dr
. K rishan approving building plans
K amra
, circa 196 0
library
, 196
9
architectural technology
, 19 69
I
n 1962, bill riches was a 26-year-old communication
electrician with Alberta Government Telephones
(AGT) in Edmonton. He knew the position well,
having come to it from a job at Canadian Telephone
Supplies in Vancouver. So when he and his colleagues
were sent to NAIT to begin an apprenticeship program
for the job he was already doing, he was a bit miffed.
Previously, the company had been conducting
a four-year apprenticeship program on its own for
employees. “That’s what I thought I was doing,” he says.
“I didn’t know what I had to go to school for.”
The change had actually been set in motion years
earlier. In 1959, the Government of Alberta announced
plans to build a new vocational training institute in
Edmonton. The timing was perfect: the province’s
prosperity was growing with the development and
export of its natural resources, Edmonton’s population
was on track to nearly double over the decade, and new
construction was transforming the capital’s skyline from brick walk-ups to the cosmopolitan look of a city with a busy future in store.
With this growth came soaring demands for
more technically educated workers than companies
themselves could produce – a labour gap NAIT aimed to fill. At that point, the only two technical training
centres in Canada were the Ryerson Institute of
Technology in Toronto and the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now SAIT) in Calgary. Taking
advantage of a $400-million federal fund introduced to stimulate the development of such training
institutions, a team of visionaries led by NAIT’s first
principal, Jack Mitchell, began the daunting task of building a post-secondary institute from the
ground up.
In 1962, after choosing 10.5 hectares (26 acres)
near Edmonton’s municipal airport as the site of the
$16-million school, the group began assembling staff
to coordinate programming and schedules, and to
find qualified instructors. One of the first hired was
Dr. Krishan Kamra. As department head of Laboratory
Sciences, he could see the challenge ahead. “There was
tremendous pent-up demand from industry for Canada
to create a new workforce,” he says. Particularly for
northern Alberta, “NAIT was put in charge of inventing
a person who had not existed before.”
Even defining technician proved to be a challenge.
“At my job interview, [personnel officer] Bill Hobden
asked me, ‘What is a technician?’” says Kamra, who was appointed NAIT’s first director of instruction in
1966. “I flubbed the answer. I didn’t know.”
The industries driving Alberta’s burgeoning
economy knew what they were looking for, however.
Hospitals needed a proper training ground for their
medical laboratory technologists and dentists wanted
“NAIT was put
in charge
of inventing
a person
who had
not existed
before.”
– dr. Krishan Kamra
first director of instruction
v6.1 2012 23
INNOVATE
registrar
’s office ,
19 69
), bill riches
)
,
(P rovincial director of vocational education
(assistant director of apprenticeship
, J.P. Mitchell ) and f. whittle , 19 62 . From left
(shop director
), otto kingsep FIrst day of classes
(principal
al saunders , 196 9
medical x-ray technology
“We gave the
kids who came
here a future
they didn’t
have before.”
– B ob Busse retired instructor
– B ill Riches Communication Electrician ’63
24 techlifemag.ca
“I was the first student to ever attend NAIT.
I lived on 124 Street. To take a bus around the
entire airport would take one hour, if I caught all my
connections. I didn’t want to be late my first day, so
I called a cab. I arrived quite early. A photographer
from the Edmonton Journal took my picture. That
was my 15 minutes of fame right there.”
dental assisting
, circa N A IT S
taff,
, left, helps , 19 65
principal al saunders
’s first maple leaf
raise nait
19 6 2 . supplied by dr
. K rishan someone other than themselves to train dental
technicians and dental mechanics (known today as
denturists). Communications companies AGT and EdTel
demanded a local apprenticeship program. And industry
leaders from fields such as engineering, building
construction, banking, business communications and
photography worked alongside NAIT’s administrators to
ensure classroom curriculum aligned with the needs of
the workplace.
The challenge ultimately fell to the instructors, few
of whom had formal training as teachers and little or no
curriculum developed. But they did have knowledge and
experience that went far beyond words in a textbook.
“We had exceptionally good instructors,” says Kamra.
“Most of them were in their 30s, had supervisory or
similar attributes, and were competitive in their fields.”
And they were able to figure out the role as they went,
he adds. “There was a lot of learning by doing.”
Bob Busse, an early instructor in the apprenticeship
program, sums up his classroom experience as
extremely rewarding. “We gave the kids who came here
a future they didn’t have before.”
Combining that teaching talent with state-of-theart equipment, NAIT attracted students from across
K amra
, front row
, fifth from left
.
Western Canada and, by 1965, was already expanding
to include the $2.5-million Tower Building. Early
projections of 10,000 students and 300 instructors
before the end of the decade seemed realistic.
“This institute fulfills one of the greatest needs in our
society,” said Premier Ernest Manning at NAIT’s official
opening. “There have been complaints that technology
is taking away jobs. It is not technology [that causes the
problem], but the failure of society to keep pace with
the training necessary to prepare young people to fulfill
useful functions.”
Then, as now, NAIT’s relevance to the economy put
it at the top of Canada’s polytechnic institutes. “The
reason we were created has remained our raison d’être,”
says current president and CEO Dr. Glenn Feltham. “We
are providing skilled workers. We have been absolutely
true to ourselves.”
Eventually, Bill Riches figured out for himself the
value of NAIT. After graduating as a communication
electrician, he worked in the field for eight years.
Later, he returned to NAIT – to become a baker. “It was
a good experience. Very good,” he says. “The difference
for me was, before I went to NAIT, I knew how to do all
the things for my job. After I went, I knew why. I knew
the theory.” web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/NAIT50th-anniversary-video.htm
or scan the QR code with your
mobile device to see more of the
story of NAIT’s development.
Don’t have a QR code reader?
See p. 7.
v6.1 2012 25
19 65
Congratulations to NAIT
on your 50th anniversary
Investing
in education
There are few investments
more important today than
with
a focus on
math, science
& technology
promoting the skills and
abilities of our young
people. At Imperial Oil,
we sponsor a wide
range of educational
programs designed
to spark Canadian
students interest
students’
in science,
- one of the
ways we’re
contributing
to Canada’s
future
www.imperialoil.ca/giving
mathematics and
technology – skills
essential to our
country’s prosperity.
INNOVATE
A first time
for everything
Five decades have passed since we admitted our first students and began
construction on our first buildings. More than 172,000 graduates later,
we have celebrated many milestones on our journey to becoming one of
the top polytechnics in the country. Here’s a look at 50 firsts – the people
and the events – that together, tell the NAIT story.
— Sherri Krastel
1962
1
Building
1964
5
Mortar Trades, completed in April
2
6
1963
Illustration by jennifer lubrin
Chosen by the NAIT Students’
Association. “We all need an Ookpik,
it will help you pass, it will make
you happy, it will make you great,”
declared The Nugget
NAIT Students’
Association (NAITSA)
president
9
Yearbook
The Northern Torch published
10
Awards Day
William Miles, elected in April
Minister of Education R. H. McKinnon
spoke on the need for higher
education at the Oct. 28 event
1965
1966
Full-time students
The Technology Division offered 18
programs to 580 students and the
Business and Vocational Division
offered six courses to 498 students (the Apprenticeship Division, meanwhile,
offered 19 trades programs to 2,506
students and four pre-employment
courses to 49 students)
4
mascot
Open House
20,000 visitors attended from March 11-13
7
3
8
Published Jan. 1
class
29 Communication Electrician
apprentices, including first student
Bill Riches, registered and began
training Oct. 1
Issue of the
student newspaper,
The Nugget
11
Convocation
Honoured 326 graduates of diploma
and certificate programs
12
Provincial
championship
Won by the badminton team
Full-time tuition
Started at $40 for one year (Student Association fee: $17)
v6.1 2012 27
INNOVATE
1974
1967
13
Plastics
COurse
17
Introduction of this manufacturing-focused course was unique to North America. Last offered in 2003-04
14
Featured more than 35 courses
Respiratory Therapy
program Based
at an educational
institute in Canada
The program was accredited in 1969,
allowing the graduates (then called
Inhalation Therapists) to challenge
the national certification exams
Continuing
Education spring/
summer session
calendar
1980
18
1987
Athletes of the Year
Curler Steve Pelech and runner Julie McDonald
21
NAIT Foundation
fundraiser
A Corvette was raffled off
1968
15
Shinerama
1982
19
NAIT students have since raised
more than $530,000 for the cystic fibrosis fundraiser
22
Alumni magazine
Alumnait, first published as a two-page newsletter
national
championship
Won by the men’s hockey team
1988
1985
1970
16
President
William A. B. Saunders (he held the title of principal from 1962-70; Jack Mitchell was the first principal
of the proposed Edmonton vocational
school, appointed in January 1960)
28 techlifemag.ca
20
23
Themed “Achieving Together.” Held May 28
Distinguished Friend
of the Institute
Dolliver Frederick (Business
Administration ’65), a member of the first full-time graduating class and the first alumnus to speak at Convocation
Homecoming
24
Time capsule
Placed in the wall of the student
lounge, The Nest, at its official opening
(the time capsule is scheduled to be
opened on May 28, 2013)
1989
25
28
fantasy cruise
fundraiser
26
The SS Benefit NAIT sailed to Jamaica
on Feb. 24, starting a tradition that
continued for 20 more years
Went on air at 8 a.m. on Oct. 23 and could be heard in the main lobby, hairstyling, pool and arena
1994
1997
World Culinary
Cup gold medals
32
1995
1999
33
Voice mail
34
30
applied degree
Offered in collaboration with SAIT;
two years later, 26 NAIT students
graduated with a Bachelor of Applied
Information Systems Technology
31
Honorary diplomas
Henry Gusse, founder and chairman
of the Edmonton Exchanger Group of
Companies, and Madeleine Mercier,
chartered financial planner
Added to all phones on Main Campus
(at the time, only 30 per cent of
callers were successful in reaching
the desired party on the first attempt)
1996
Alumni Award
of Distinction
Guy Turcotte (Gas Technology ’72)
Culinary students participated on Team Alberta
29
NR92 Broadcast
Instructional
Excellence Awards
Given to David Burry, Biomedical
Engineering Technology; Everett
Hale, Sheet Metal/Aircraft Skin
and Structure Repair; Angela Bork,
Biological Sciences; and Joe Acker,
EMT-Paramedic
27
Capital fundraising
campaign
Partners for Tomorrow raised $5.4 million 2000
35
personal $1-million
donation
Gifted by Duncan and Verda McNeill
2002
36 animal
blood bank
Established by the NAIT Animal
Health Technology program, it remains the only animal blood bank that makes canine blood products available across Canada
2005
37 Alumni
Council
president
Wayne Land (Business
Administration – Management ’70)
Public lecture in
the newly opened
Shaw Theatre
Delivered by journalist David Frum
v6.1 2012 29
INNOVATE
2009
2007
38
baccalaureate
degree
44
Bachelor of Technology in Technology Management
39
techlife magazine
Published in October
2008
40
Full-time coaches
46
The six coaches hired were a first in the Canadian Collegiate
Athletic Association 41
VentureAlberta Forum president Randy Thompson
2010
2012
Nanotechnology
Systems diploma
49
2011
Facebook post
Business
incubator
NovaNAIT, NAIT’s centre for applied research and technology
transfer, established to foster applied research and provide budding entrepreneurs office space,
expert advice and support services
30 techlifemag.ca
48
Presidential
installation
Held May 5, when Dr. Glenn Feltham was installed as NAIT’s sixth president
Polytechnics
Canada member to
get a rating from
the Sustainability
Tracking Assessment
& Rating System
(STARS)
NAIT received a bronze from STARS,
a self-reporting tool that allows
educational institutes to measure
their performance within the three
pillars of sustainability: economic,
environmental and social
Applied
Research chair
Dr. Haneef Mian named Ledcor
Group Applied Research Chair in Oil
Sands Environmental Sustainability.
Chairs in the JR Shaw School of
Business and the Encana Centre
for Power Engineering Technology
followed, giving NAIT the most
applied research chairs of any
Canadian college or polytechnic
On Feb. 19: “Support ecoNAIT
http://www.facebook.com/group.
php?gid=6612490807 http://www.nait.ca/econait”
entrepreneur
in residence
Celebrity chef Rob Feenie (In addition to Feenie, top chefs David Adjey, Susur Lee and Massimo Capra have
since spent three to five days mentoring
students and engaging with the local
culinary community at NAIT’s Hokanson
Centre for Culinary Arts)
Tweet
47
43
45
A Canadian first
On Jan. 19: “Getting ready for Info Week (Feb. 4-7, 2008) www.nait.ca/infoweek.htm”
42
Hokanson Chef
in Residence
50
Season in which
each Ooks team made
provincial playoffs
That led to these national medals:
gold in men’s soccer, silver in women’s soccer, bronze in women’s curling and two golds in badminton
INNOVATE
Health Care
wireless Communications
In 20 years, health care will be much more personalized. Prevention and
treatment of disease will be customized to align with a person’s DNA.
The current focus on chronic illness will shift to prevention. Technology
will make diagnosis, treatment and personal health tracking much more
sophisticated. Rather than blasting a person with chemo, we will target
only the cancer cells. You will be able to get replacement body parts
beyond a hip or a knee – toes, for example. In 50 years, people will live
20 years longer. We’ll be healthier.
In terms of wireless communication systems, consumers are driving
this industry. And it’s more than just personal communications and
smartphones. Oil and gas, business and health care all use wireless
systems to transmit voice, video and data in countless applications.
Since demand is ever increasing, the future will focus on overcoming the
challenge of limited bandwidth and vast geographical coverage areas.
There will always be applications better served by wired and optical
technologies, but, even now, our kids will use wired technology only
when absolutely necessary.
Ellen Hughes
Dean, School of Health Sciences
Colin Polanski (Communication Electrician ’87)
Associate Chair, Wireless Systems Engineering Technology
NAIT Campus
Oil Sands
In 50 years, we will be twice as large: one dynamic, pedestrian-friendly
campus interlinked with a vibrant community of 30,000 located on
the former City Centre Airport. NAIT retail services – meat store,
bakery, Ernest’s Dining Room – will be showcased at the front of this
community. The next 10 to 15 years will bring new residences, academic
buildings and a wellness centre. We will continue to minimize energy
used in our heating and cooling systems and increase water and waste
recycling. In the short term, the arrival of the LRT on campus in 2014 is a game changer.
There is currently no cost-effective technology to deal with tailings.
Over the next five to 10 years, we’ll see full commercialization of
that. Once we create reclaimable deposits, we’ll be hit with another
challenge: dealing with the water, which contains pollutants. Technology
for that will follow. The next stage will come as some of the mines close
in 30 to 50 years. In some cases, the intent is to fill the pits with water
to create lake ecosystems. So you’re going from tailings to water to
reclamation. They go hand in hand.
John Engleder
Associate Vice President, Capital Projects and Facilities Operations
Dr. Haneef Mian
Ledcor Group Applied Research Chair in Oil Sands
Environmental Sustainability
THE FUTURISTS
As much as it’s an opportunity
to celebrate how far we’ve come,
an anniversary is the perfect time
to imagine where we’re headed.
What will the world look like five,
10, 50 years out? We asked staff
and alumni to tell us what they
see in the cards.
32 techlifemag.ca
Education
People will become more self-sustaining. Greenhouses attached to
homes and schools will become standard, as will rooftop gardens.
Culinary students will become more familiar with the entire lifecycle
of food, including planting seeds and butchering meat. Dietary issues
will decline as we get back to organics and whole grains and eschew
genetically modified foods. Restaurants will become more sustainable,
using edible cutlery and tableware – your glass could be made of ice. In
50 years, we will have eliminated food waste.
In 50 years, students will design their own education by mixing formal
learning with experience. Students will choose NAIT as a partner to
help them connect with careers and growth opportunities. Educational
institutions will be seamlessly integrated with workplaces and
credentials will be seen as nothing more than artificial barriers to fully
contributing to society. In their place, employers will lay out the skills
required, placing the onus on career-hunters to demonstrate that they
have the qualifications to do the job.
Blair Lebsack (Cook ’98)
Instructor, Culinary Arts
Dr. Paula Burns
Provost and Vice President Academic
Automobiles
Homebuilding
Most of what we’ll see in the next five years is already on the market.
The focus will be on advancing the technology – all with the goal of
helping drivers keep their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.
We’ll see advances in automated parking technologies, voice command,
mapping systems and heads-up displays. As for propulsion systems,
expect to see extended range for fully electric vehicles with zero
emissions.
Building high energy-efficient homes is still in its infancy. Obviously
there’s now more public awareness of environmental issues and climate
change, but to see a real mindset shift in the market takes a while. That
said, the generation coming out of university is all into this. My feeling is
that towards 10 years, we’re going to see a new buyer who will demand
more of these kinds of homes as an option. And from there things are
going to progress more dramatically.
Ron Lavigne
Instructor, Automotive Service Technician
Dale Rott (Carpenter ’96)
Managing Partner, Effect Home Builders
personal Computing
Financial Planning
To get a computer to do anything, you once had to know codes. Now
there’s software – click this and something happens. The evolution
of that is the natural-user interface: dragging with your fingers, for
example, like on an iPad. From there it goes to the all-voice command –
like asking Siri to do things on an iPhone. Having computers interact
with you is what we’re headed towards.
Thirty years from now, financial planning will be seen as a profession
at the same level as accountancy. It will require advisers to be less
focused on product sales and more focused on process and advice. It
will be much more holistic than it is now. The adviser of the future will
not just talk about financial assets, but will be a career adviser as people
continue to work after 65.
Steve Chattargoon
Chair, Digital Media and IT
Hardeep Gill
Associate Chair, Bachelor of Applied Business – Finance
Alternative Energy
We’re starting to see integrated systems really emerge in the industry.
And this is probably the next big achievement for alternative energy
systems. We’ve been looking at individual systems, but a lot of the
economics and the gains can be realized by hybridizing technologies in a sensible way, such as using one system to supply both heat and
power. Probably within a decade, these hybridizations will become quite significant.
Dr. Jim Sandercock
Chair, Alternative Energy Technology
Web Extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/alternativeenergy-future.htm for Dr. Jim
Photo by leigh frey
Photo by leigh frey
Food Production
Sandercock’s predictions about the
future of a variety of alternative
energy technologies.
v6.1 2012 33
INNOVATE
NAITology
Test your knowledge of NAIT with our quiz. If you get stumped, just flip through the
magazine – all the answers are in these pages. Then tally your score, counting a
point for every correct answer. If you place low on the scale, don’t despair – every
good Ook started out as an egg.
Questions:
Scoring:
1.
What was our first apprenticeship program?
2.
In what school year did the men’s hockey team complete a perfect season?
3.
What is the name of our current president?
4. What year did we hold our first convocation?
5.
What was the name of our old yearbook?
0 – 5 correct answers
Egg
6. Which NAIT Students’ Association president received our original Ookpik
mascot from the federal government in 1964?
7.
What is our on-campus bar called?
8. Who coached renowned curler Kevin Martin at NAIT and continues to do so?
9.
In what year was the first issue of techlife magazine published?
10. What is the name of our first baccalaureate degree?
11. What is our student newspaper called?
Hatchling
12. What year did NR92, our radio station, start broadcasting?
13. How much was NAIT’s first full-time tuition in 1963?
14. In what sport did we win our first provincial championship in 1966?
15. Who was our very first student?
16. How much did it cost to build NAIT?
17. Which premier officially opened NAIT?
18. Which school kidnapped our Ookpik mascot in 1966?
19. What was the name of our old alumni magazine?
20. What is the name of our on-campus fine dining restaurant?
The Nest
7.
William Miles
6.
The Northern Torch
5.
1965
4.
Dr. Glenn Feltham
3.
1984-85
2.
1.
Communication Electrician
13.
12.
11.
Started at $40
1989
The Nugget
Technology Management
10.
9.
8.
Bachelor of Technology in
2007
Jules Owchar
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
14.
Ernest’s
Alumnait
SAIT
Ernest Manning
$16 million
Bill Riches
Badminton
Answers:
34 techlifemag.ca
Full-fledged Ook
Illustration by derek lue and Trina koscielnuk
Fledgling
I (WE) BUILT THIS
Founded in 1947, the Ledcor Group of Companies is diversified, privately held,
employee-owned collection of construction companies, specializing in building,
civil, infrastructure, industrial and telecommunication projects.
Ledcor is proud to be in partnership with the Northern Alberta Institute of
Technology. Through the Ledcor Group Applied Research Chair in Oil Sands
Environmental Sustainability as well as numerous student scholarships, Ledcor
continues to see the value in NAIT’s programs and services that meet the needs
of the market.
Congratulations to NAIT on your 50th Anniversary!
BUILDING
|
CIVIL
|
INDUSTRIAL
|
MAINTENANCE
|
MINING
| TELECOM
cover story
people
39 Victor Gillman
The 1970s
45 Shirley Long
39 James McPherson
42 Fred Atiq
46 Holger Petersen
39 Jack Menduk
42 Gil Cardinal
46 Brian Straub
40 Bob Morgan
43 Nolan Crouse
47 Guy Turcotte
40 Ray Rajotte
43 Roger Dootson
38 Bernie Fedderly
41
Archie Roberts
44 David Dorward
The 1980s
38 Clifford Giese
41
Stewart Roth
44 Marleen Irwin
Photos by
Blaise van malsen and nait staff photographers
CONTENTS
The 1960s
45 Andrew Lee
36 techlifemag.ca
48 James Ahnassay
49 Naseem Bashir
It’s almost impossible to
go a day without encountering
the achievements of NAIT grads.
They’re mainstays on TV and radio, and
cultural mavens and tastemakers. They’re
captains of industry, and government and community
leaders. They’re winning Olympic medals and setting
sporting records, and making breakthroughs in science
and medicine. They’re leading-edge designers at
work in your neighbourhood – if, in fact, they didn’t
actually build your neighbourhood. And, overall, their
contributions are too numerous to mention. Here,
we celebrate 50, chosen for the difference they
make in our communities, and for inspiring
future generations of alumni to do
the same.
CONTENTS
49
Carol Blake
49
Dave Buchaski
The
1960s
50
38
50
38
51
39
51
39
51
39
52
James Cumming
Bernie Fedderly
Kees Cusveller
Clifford Giese
Randy Eresman
Victor Gillman
Greg Korbutt
James McPherson
Kevin Martin
Jack Menduk
Daryl McIntyre
40
52
40
53
Bob
MarkMorgan
McNeill
Ray Rajotte
Mark
Ohe
The 1990s
43
Nolan
Crouse
The
2000s
56 Michael Anderson
41
53
41
54
Archie Roberts
George
Rogers
Stewart
Roth
Tracey Scarlett
56 Mark Hamblin
43
60
44
60
Roger
Dootson
Stephani
Carter
David
Dorward
Don Oborowsky
44
61 45
61
Marleen
Irwin
Jules Owchar
Andrew Lee
Javier Salazar
54
Julie M. Shaw
The
1970s
55
42
55
42
55
Bruce Woloshyn
Fred Atiq
Sandy Yakimchuk
Gil Cardinal
Daniel Wai Yuk Yeung
57
Andrew Hore
57
Chris Kourouniotis
58 Ashif Mawji
45
61 Shirley Lo
Marlon Wilson
58 Corbin Tomaszeski
58 Dean Turgeon
v6.1 2012 37
1960s
PEOPLE • Cover story
How we
chose
Last year, we put out a call for NAIT grads or
retirees who have made significant contributions
in the categories of service, leadership,
innovation and role model. We received 162
nominations. A committee representing alumni,
retired staff, instructors, students and NAIT’s
departments of Advancement and Marketing
and Communications then had the tough job of
whittling the list down to 50.
the Top
web extra
Visit www.nait.ca/nait-50th-anniversaryvideos or scan the QR code for 50th anniversary
photo by brandon baker
videos, including top 50 alumni Ray Rajotte, Daryl McIntyre and Kevin Martin. Need a QR code reader? See p. 7.
Bernie Fedderly
Motor Mechanics ’67
compared to most people
who find themselves spinning
their wheels, veteran crew
chief Bernie Fedderly made
his name doing just that.
For more than four decades,
the Canadian Motorsport
Hall of Famer has set lofty
standards in the art of motor
maintenance – and a few
records on the pro hot rod
circuit. After honing his skills
on tracks around Alberta, the
one-time milk truck mechanic
worked his way to the big
leagues, where he helped turn
John Force Racing into one of
the most successful teams in
National Hot Rod Association
history. Now 70, Fedderly is
considering retirement. Slowing
down, however, may not be
easy. These 8,000-horsepower
cars – and the sights, sounds,
even smells of the race track –
still fascinate him. “I’m in awe
of them,” he says, “even after
all this time.”
— Scott Messenger
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/bernie-fedderly.htm to see
what it takes to be a crew chief on the professional
auto racing circuit.
38 techlifemag.ca
Clifford Giese
Marketing ‘68
clifford giese was a young
Edmonton stockbroker when he
took his dad for lunch and dreamed
up an idea that spawned an
industry.
The elder Giese had taken his
car for an oil change that morning
and at lunchtime, it still wasn’t
ready. The minor annoyance stuck
with Giese, in particular because
self-serve gas stations were arriving
on the scene – a shift he figured
would spell the demise of the full
service garage.
So how about a new kind of
place, he thought, with oil changes
while you wait?
With his dad, he opened the
first Mr. Lube in 1976 and, within a
decade, there were 47 stores across
Canada. In 1987, the chain expanded
into the United States after Giese
secured a partnership with oil giant
Exxon. In business, Giese explains,
you must take calculated risks, and
be prepared to lose. “To me, the
thrill is to play the game.”
Sometimes, the stakes are
higher, as when Giese’s wife, Robin
(Secretarial Technology ’68), was
stricken with multiple sclerosis.
When her health stabilized after she
started taking an experimental drug
being developed at the University
of Alberta, Giese founded BioMS
Medical (now called Medwell
Capital Corp.). He and his team
raised $270 million and took the
drug as far as a worldwide trial. The
results weren’t good enough to
bring the drug to market, but Giese
continues to dedicate his life to
finding a better treatment for MS.
Though essentially retired, he’ll
still give a tempting opportunity
his signature 360-degree look. “It’s
better to have played and lost than
never to have played at all.”
— Eliza Barlow
Victor Gillman
Biological Sciences Technology ’69
Alumni Award of Distinction ’06
fuelled by a lifelong passion
for conservation, Victor Gillman
helped make Canadian history
in the 1980s when he was
part of a team that negotiated
and implemented the first
comprehensive land claim north of
the 60th parallel. Signed in 1984,
the Inuvialuit Final Agreement
protects the rights of the Inuvialuit,
while protecting and preserving
local wildlife in an area of the
high western Arctic that includes
parts of Northwest Territories and
Yukon.
“There were no other examples
to work from. We were on new
ground,” says Gillman, who was
working for the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans (DFO)
and contributed expertise in the
area of fisheries management.
“Twenty-eight years later, this is
still one of the most successful
land claim structures in Canada.”
He notes the agreement has
functioned with little to no
litigation, unlike a lot of other land
claims, and the parties involved
continue to operate with a sense
of commonality and trust.
Gillman spent nearly four
decades in fish and wildlife
management, retiring in 2006 as
a DFO regional director. Today,
he still dedicates much of his
time to conservation in the North
as chairman of a co-operative
committee that helps to manage
the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.
— Frank Landry
James McPherson
Distributive Technology ’69
back in 1968, james mcpherson
had no idea the fundraiser he
helped organize would go on to
raise more than $530,000. Fortyfour years after NAIT joined the
annual national Cystic Fibrosis
Canada fundraiser, Shinerama is
still going strong. “That’s incredible,”
says McPherson, who forged a
successful insurance career, with a
hiatus from 1982 to 1986 to serve
as the MLA for Red Deer. Shining
shoes – lots of them – is a memory
that remains with McPherson. All
told, 114 NAIT students raised
$2,503.39 in the first Shinerama.
That experience – coupled
with the values instilled by his
parents – helped set McPherson
on a lifelong path of giving back,
whether volunteering with the
Special Olympics, United Way or
a number of other organizations.
It was for this type of work
that McPherson was named Red
Deer Citizen of the Year for 2012.
Jack Menduk
nait’s centre for sustainable energy technology, opened in 2011,
features banks of tall windows and high ceilings. That sense of
openness mirrors the design principles of Jack Menduk, the retired
associate vice president of NAIT Capital Projects and Facilities
Operations, who led the project to build the state-of-the-art facility.
A strong belief in open communication and fairness lies at the
root of Menduk’s successful 25-year career. From small renovations
to new building developments, he ensured everyone affected
remained part of discussions from planning to completion. “I always tried to see everything through their eyes,” he says. That
extended to industry partners, too: “We wanted to be the owner
of choice for contractors and consultants.” Looking back, those
relationships are a point of pride for Menduk; they enabled him and his team to repeatedly deliver on time and on budget.
What’s more, they allowed him to highlight NAIT’s strengths,
project by project. Menduk’s ability to communicate his vision and
have others share it has influenced everything from his first project
renovating NAIT’s Distribution Centre to the plans for the proposed
Centre for Applied Technologies. “We took out the brick walls and put in glass,” he says. “We opened up the spaces, brightened
them to celebrate the teaching spaces – celebrate what NAIT was all about.”
Next time you’re at NAIT, take a close look at the imprint
Menduk left on the school where his post-secondary education
began. The quality of the facilities proves that strong relationships
lead to great spaces.
— Heather Gray
— F.L.
v6.1 2012 39
1960s
bob morgan
Baker ’66
apprentice bakers across
Canada have Bob Morgan
to thank, at least in part, for
helping to define the skill sets
they should possess.
An instructor in NAIT’s
Baker program from 1969 to
2000, Morgan participated
in establishing Skills Canada
Alberta and the Red Seal exam
for apprentice bakers, both of
which encourage excellence in
the baking trade. “To encourage
the trades also encourages the
growth of our country,” says
Morgan. “Canada was built by
tradespeople.”
As a volunteer in the early
days of Skills Canada – the
not-for-profit organization
that promotes careers in
the skilled trades – Morgan
helped develop the high-
level provincial and national
competitions. “The biggest
impact was for the person
[competing] to realize he had
become the best of the best,”
says Morgan.
Morgan was also part of
a group of instructors and
industry leaders who crafted the
questions posed to bakers taking
the Red Seal exam, which is the
inter-provincial standards exam
that confirms journeymen have
achieved a nationally recognized
level of competency. Prior to
the establishment of this exam,
there weren’t national standards.
Essentially, it was up to industry–
the individual bakeries – to
decide whether to recognize a
journeyman ticket, Morgan says.
Today, a Red Seal endorsement
qualifies a journeyman to seek
work in other provinces.
— Frank Landry
We wanted your help remembering NAIT
over the past five decades. We share your
stories throughout this feature.
“
I joined NAIT in July 1962 as head of Drafting
Technology (later Engineering Design and
Drafting Technology) and remained in that
position for almost my entire career, which ended
in June 1986. My son Greg attended Architectural
Technology (class of ’78). He joined NAIT in
December of the same year and left NAIT in 2011.
Between Greg and me, we covered 49 of NAIT’s
50 years. Too bad he retired last year!
40 techlifemag.ca
Ray Rajotte
Medical X-Ray Technology ’65
Alumni Award of Excellence ’01
islet cells play a vital role in
regulating blood sugars. Should
they fail, the result is Type 1
diabetes. Luckily, for the roughly
one million Canadians living
with this disease, Dr. Ray Rajotte
has spent more than 40 years
investigating a treatment.
An Alberta Order of
Excellence recipient for his work,
Rajotte established the group
that performed Canada’s first
islet cell transplant in 1989 –
leading to the Edmonton Protocol.
This procedure allows 100 per
cent of transplant recipients to
become insulin independent for
varying periods of time.
Issues may remain, but
Rajotte is optimistic. He and
his colleagues have made many
promising advances to ensure
the long-term success of the
Edmonton Protocol, including
improved anti-rejection drugs.
Success, however, also relies on a large supply of islet cells, which
the team hopes to make available
through the development of
genetically designed pigs that
produce islets compatible with
humans.
Rajotte’s commitment is
clear: “An islet can perform this
vast function of regulating the
blood sugars that sustain life; this
is miraculous and fundamental to
the survival of so many people.”
— Sandy Robertson
Greg’s son Kyle has spent a couple of summers
on grounds maintenance. My second son, Doug,
enrolled in Chemical Technology (class of ’80) and
finally there was Bruce, who was employed at NAIT
for a number of months before enrolling in Computer
Systems Technology (class of ’88). When you
consider that Doug’s wife, Janette, also spent four
years at NAIT, first in med lab technology and later
in computer systems, I think that the Appelts have
had a considerable connection with NAIT.
– Felix Appelt, hired 1962 – retired 1986 as Head of Engineering Design and Drafting Technology
“
They had a ceremony when they opened the
institute. Premier Manning came down. It
was conducted in the heavy duty shop. They
set a platform right in the middle of A101.
In the heavy duty shop, there’s a great big
transverse crane. It’ll pick up diesel engines.
So to be rather dramatic, they brought this
crane over to the centre of the stage and they
had a big velvet curtain or a canopy rigged up
over this thing. I can remember the premier
pushed the button and it lifted the curtain
and all the dignitaries were there.
– Graham Johnson, Dean of the Industrial Division (1962–96),
on the institute’s official opening on May 27, 1963
Stewart ROTH
Chemical Technology ’69
Archie roberts
Distinguished Friend of the
Institute ’96
Board of Directors 1991-94
a leadership coach with a
passion for building things, Archie
Roberts is paying forward the
mentorship that began in his
grandfather’s workshop and
continued with his first boss in
the construction industry. Proving
a quick study, Roberts launched
Intex Construction in 1983, which
thrived through the recession,
earned him a nod as Edmonton’s
Small Businessman of the Year in
1985, and was eventually sold to
Ledcor Industries. Later reviving
the Intex name, Roberts launched
a construction management
consulting practice that merged
in 2006 with Pivotal Projects
Inc., gaining national reach. Still
actively guiding up-and-comers
through the World President’s
Organization, in his own family
and at Pivotal as a senior adviser,
Roberts’ passion for building
clearly extends to people as well.
“It keeps me young, vital, thinking,”
he says.
—
Cheryl Mahaffy
as president and ceo of guardian chemicals, Stewart Roth is an
advocate and supporter of responsible economic development in
Alberta. In the 30 years since he teamed up with fellow alum Wilf
Nikolaj (Accounting ’80) to become shareholders and eventually
purchase Guardian, the company has grown into one of the
nation’s largest specialty chemical suppliers. Guardian products are
proprietary industrial process chemicals used in a variety of settings:
mining, pulp and paper mills, transportation, oil and gas, water
treatment, printing, firefighting and more.
By focusing on continuous improvement through research
and development, the company has moved to the front end of the
innovation curve – and into international markets. As a result, Roth
heads a growing crop of chemical companies spanning the United
States, Egypt, Ecuador, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and
China. A few, such as the U.S. oil and gas supplier Sierra Chemicals,
have been sold to local managers. “We practice intrapreneurship,”
Roth says. “The ideas and technology come from within our
company, but we encourage employees to take it to the next level
and become involved financially.”
Roth also puts energy into growing community, whether the
subject is education or ingenuity. Believing that success in business,
as in community, depends on quality people, Guardian funds
scholarships at NAIT and the University of Alberta, expanding the
talent needed to continue diversifying Alberta’s economy.
— C.M.
v6.1 2012 41
1970s
when film director gil cardinal started out, an aboriginal making
films about the aboriginal community was relatively rare. Now, after
30 years in television and film, the award-winning director of Métis
descent is a role model in the field.
Cardinal made films on various topics in his early career, but
a project about children and child welfare began to focus his
attention on telling aboriginal stories. “Before I asked anyone else
to bare their soul, I thought I should do that myself,” he says. The
result was Foster Child, his story of the search for his birth family.
Today, Cardinal continues to create aboriginal programming,
most recently as a writer on APTN’s Blackstone, a dramatic series
set on a fictional reserve.
— Kim MacDonald
FRED Atiq
Mechanical Engineering Technology ’72
Alumni Award of Honour ’06
Fiberex Glass in Leduc, stands
having added three
among Canada’s top 100 fastest
successful enterprises to
growing companies despite
Alberta’s manufacturing
serious competition from the
industry, Fred Atiq is fortifying likes of Owens Corning USA, a
the sector through Next
major concern in the field of
Equities, a fund to boost
extruded fibreglass. Still serving
fledgling companies. Since
as Fiberex president and CEO,
arriving from India as a teen
Atiq takes pleasure in putting
and training at NAIT, Atiq
the family’s hard-earned cash has brought to the province
to work through Next Equities.
vinyl window and extruded
“If I can put one guy into
vinyl product manufacturing
business a year,” he says, through two companies
“I’m a happy man.” (since sold and still going
— Cheryl Mahaffy
strong). His third venture,
“
gil Cardinal
Radio and Television Arts ’71
Honorary Diploma ’00
During my first year of Civil Tech, I helped set
for that trophy. We made a plywood model that
up the display for Open House and thought that
showed how a curved roadway was built. We even
our display was very mundane and ordinary.
added a landscape ‘architect’ component by using
Our ‘rivals’ were Architectural Technology and,
green floor sweeping compound granules for the
of course, they had some very artistic and nice
landscaping of the finished roadway. I used my
looking models, so they won the Open House
calligraphy skills to produce a scroll titled The Role
trophy for best display for the third year in a row.
of a Civil Technologist. Needless to say, we won
In my second year, I decided that I would
and the Architectural Technology students were
organize the Open House display and compete
disappointed.
– Henry Vanderpyl, Civil Technology ’72
42 techlifemag.ca
“
One of our very first memories was watching
the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series. We
skipped classes to see Canada win the final
game. I still remember jumping up and down
in our living room hugging each other as Paul
Henderson scored that memorable goal.
– Ed Toupin, Electronics Engineering Technology ’73
Chemical Technology ’73
nolan crouse, st. albert’s
second-term mayor, owes much of
his success to a healthy appetite
for knowledge and risk. Take his
transition to the big city and NAIT
as a 17-year-old farm boy looking
for life skills and a technical
education. “I knew nothing about
anything,” he says, but eventually
an MBA followed his diploma,
as well as a lengthy career, split
between industrial management,
entrepreneurship and coaching
hockey. But when politics occurred
to him as a way to build on his
love of community service, he
decided to take another chance
on a learning curve. “I didn’t have
any knowledge of politics per se,”
Crouse admits, but he had what
he needed. “You end up using all
the skills you have but … in an
entirely different realm.” Today,
he sees the job as a way to make
a positive impact – and, judging
by his experience, as achievable
for others. “People who want to
contribute in a broader sense can
get involved, make change and
build their community.” Photo supplied by ed toupin
Nolan Crouse
From left, Ed Toupin (Electronics Engineering Technology), Nolan
Crouse (Chemical Technology) and Laren Giacomuzzi (Electronics
Engineering Technology) in June 2012. All graduates from 1973,
they trace their 40-year friendship to campus and the year they
roomed together in an apartment on 109 Street and 107 Avenue.
— Scott Messenger
roger dootson
Carpentry ’77
in 1971, a 17-year-old farm boy from Irma, Alta., got his first big-city
construction job loading concrete blocks onto a scaffold and making
sure the bricklayers had enough mortar. His name was Roger Dootson,
and the small but vital role on the site of the Dominion Bottling
warehouse in Edmonton’s west end had him instantly hooked.
He graduated from NAIT and eventually joined PCL, where he
became a respected executive and leader on many high-profile
projects, including the southeast leg of the Anthony Henday and the
terminal expansion at the Edmonton International Airport. “I just
love being part of building things,” he says. “To go back and see the
finished product, even years later, is very satisfying.”
Dootson is a builder not just of buildings, but of the construction
industry itself, having served on several boards to advocate for the
industry, such as the Merit Contractors Association and the Alberta
and Canadian construction associations.
During Alberta’s last boom, which hit as baby boomers began
to retire, Dootson foresaw a potential leadership vacuum at PCL just
when good leaders would be crucial. In response, he led teams to
Germany and the United Kingdom to recruit seasoned construction
managers “to help us through the high tide.” Everyone hired on those
recruiting trips remains in Alberta today, he says.
Dootson retired from PCL last year and now devotes much
of his time to his Roger Dootson Charitable Foundation, helping
young Albertans follow their dreams of a career in the trades and
professions. It’s just his way of making sure tomorrow’s bricklayers
have enough mortar. — Eliza Barlow
v6.1 2012 43
1970s
Patricia Campus might not have been part of the
institute for long if it hadn’t been for Thomas
Harding. The stock keeper showed up to work
his usual half-hour before everyone else, when
he smelled acetylene – a gas used in welding –
coming from the autobody shop. He slowly
opened the door to the shop, careful not to make
any sparks. “The sparks would have blown the
place up,” says Harding, who worked at NAIT
from 1962 to 1994. He aired out the shop and
was eventually able to find the acetylene tank
that hadn’t been turned off. The gas and the risk
were mitigated before staff and students arrived.
david Dorward
Accounting ’73
by his own admission, david dorward wasn’t made for basketball – not as a player, anyway. A tad short at the end of
high school but still drawn to the game, he took to refereeing
instead. Given where that led, however, perhaps that slight
remove allowed him to better see the impact the game can have
on players’ lives.
During that time and the years following as a coach, Dorward
saw basketball as a way to reach less-privileged young people. “I
used the game to encourage kids to stay in school and do well,” he
says, “and hopefully make the next team as they go through life.”
To that end, he boosted access to the sport by founding the
Saville Community Sports Centre (Go Centre). The multi-function
south Edmonton facility features as many as 12 hardwood courts
and is home to local heroes kids might emulate: the players of the
International Basketball League’s Edmonton Energy.
Recently, Dorward has had to step back from his beloved
game. Elected April 23, he’s now in his first term as MLA for
Edmonton-Gold Bar, a neighbourhood he has lived in for more
than half a century. Unlike point guard, politician is a position
for which he’s perfectly suited. From building his chartered
accountancy firm, he’s got a solid understanding of complex
finances. He’s energetic to the point of making social activism
look like athleticism. Most importantly, he feels as personally
invested in the role as he did courtside. “To be able to serve the
people in the area you grew up in is a real thrill,” he says. — Scott Messenger
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/edmonton-energy.htm to read
more about David Dorward’s passion for basketball.
44 techlifemag.ca
Marleen irwin
Respiratory Therapy ’75
there’s nothing half-hearted
about Marleen Irwin’s career as a
certified cardiac device specialist.
Her contributions to combatting
heart disease, one of Canada’s
leading causes of death, include
whittling the in-hospital stay for
pacemaker surgery from seven
days to day surgery and bringing
in a crucial competency exam in
cardiac pacing for allied healthcare professionals and physicians.
A clinical researcher with the
University of Alberta’s Heart
Failure Etiology and Analysis
Research Team, which is seeking
improved heart disease therapies,
she has earned accolades and
awards for raising the bar in
research, clinical care, teaching
and management. For her, every
day is an opportunity to improve
patient care, and she predicts that
will never change.
— Cheryl Mahaffy
andrew lee
Survey Technology ’73
in 1970, a young andrew lee
came to Canada from Hong Kong
with $500 and a desire to study
and look for new opportunities.
Soon after, he enrolled in the
Survey Technology program. To
get through, Lee shared a cramped
room in a bad part of town
and, when not studying, waited
tables and washed dishes. But
the experience taught him the
importance of hard work – a
value he applied to starting Amar
Surveys with his wife in 1982. Now,
Lee is transferring the company to
his son, giving him an advantage
he never had. “I won’t tell anyone
‘If I can do it, you can do it’,” says
Lee. “It’s hard work with some luck
involved, and you just have to keep going.”
— Fiona Bensler
“
Bread, amongst other goodies, was sold to
customers in the bakery sales area to recover
part of the cost of instruction. It so happened
that flour prices took a hike in the mid-’70s. The
bakery program head went to the front office
to ask to increase the price of a loaf of bread.
Bread at NAIT was 10 cents. We needed to
increase the cost to 12 or 13 cents to bring us
near the break-even point. The answer came
back from the vice president: there would be no
increase because students and staff needed a
break wherever they could find one.
– Bob Morgan, Baker ’66; hired 1969 – retired 2000
as Baking Program Head
Shirley long
Medical X-Ray Technology ’71
while helping train students in their clinical practicum, Shirley
Long discovered that, while radiologists and physicians had texts
explaining how to use mammogram images for diagnosis, there
was nothing about how to get those images in the first place. “If you
don’t have the right pictures or the right kind of pictures, the doctors
can’t diagnose,” she says.
To fill the gap, she created the Handbook of Mammography (now
in its fifth edition), the first textbook specifically for technologists.
Combined with high-quality digital imaging, the positioning skills
outlined in the handbook enable technologists to show minute
changes in breast tissue years before they can be felt. “That’s such a
wonderful place to be: that you’ve caught it so early that the woman
has a 95 per cent chance of 20-year survival,” says Long. — Kim MacDonald
v6.1 2012 45
1970s
holger petersen
it’s a long way from commiserating around the coal tipple with
the farmers of central Alberta to rubbing shoulders with the sultan
of Brunei. But for Brian Straub, the value of both gatherings was the
same: to establish relationships with people, and respect their point
of view.
Straub grew up near Alix, Alta., where his father owned a strip
coal mine. When farmers came to buy coal, they’d sit around the
coal-burning stove, telling stories while the young Straub listened.
“It gave me the ability to understand people,” says Straub, and it was
a skill he’d use time and again over the course of an international
career in oil and gas.
After graduating from NAIT, Straub was hired by Shell, which in
its various entities would employ him for the next 32 years. In 1993,
he got his first overseas assignment in Oman, where he ran up to
28 drilling rigs and managed an annual budget over $400 million.
He was posted in several more countries including Brunei, where he
and his wife got to know the sultan and his two wives.
Companies that want to break into overseas markets need a
thorough understanding of the region and the culture, says Straub.
They also need to embrace the country’s workforce and steer clear
of corruption.
Even in the age of videoconferencing, he says it’s still essential
to occasionally meet people face-to-face – a lesson he learned at
his father’s coal mine all those years ago.
Straub, who in his retirement sits on the boards of energy
companies Molopo and Ridgeline, finished his career as president
and Canada country chairman for Royal Dutch Shell. “I returned, in some ways, to being a miner.”
— Eliza Barlow
what holger petersen talks about when he talks about music
is, essentially, a lifelong love affair. Following graduation, he
began his efforts to elevate roots and blues by hosting CBC’s
Saturday Night Blues and CKUA’s Natch’l Blues, the latter a
fixture on Canadian radio for more than 40 years. Petersen
also founded Stony Plain Records, promoting new artists and
legends, including Steve Earl and Ian Tyson. In the process, the
DJ has become a cultural icon himself, inducted as a member
into the Order of Canada in 2003. Today, his devotion to
music continues unabated. Picking up from his days as a music
journalist for The Nugget, NAIT’s student newspaper, Petersen
recently published Talking Music, a book that documents
the history of roots and blues through interviews with the
musicians themselves. For Petersen, it’s just another labour of love: “We shouldn’t forget these great people.” — Scott Messenger
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/holger-petersen-ckua.htm
to read about Holger Petersen’s 40 years as host of
CKUA’s Natch’l Blues, and techlifemag.ca/holgerpetersen-talking-music.htm to learn about his first book, Talking Music.
46 techlifemag.ca
brian straub
Hydrocarbon Engineering Technology ‘75
photo by D’Angelo Photography
Alumni Award of Distinction ‘04
“
My tuition in 1976 was about $180. Beyond the
cost of books, there was the recommendation
to own a good scientific calculator. I bought
a Texas Instrument one from the NAIT
bookstore for around $265, more than the
rest of the supplies needed for the entire year.
It was one serious purchase at the time for a
poor student. Fast forward to today. My wife
and I were on the road to buy some building
supplies the other day when we realized we
forgot to bring along a calculator. I pulled into
the nearest dollar store and I selected one for
$2. In the queue to pay, it occurred to me that
the $2 calculator in my hand was every bit as
good as the one I bought at the NAIT store 36
years earlier for, hmm, let’s see: 265/2 = about
132.5 times more, not including inflation!
Guy Turcotte
– Bruce Benjamin, Architectural Technology ’78
guy turcotte’s foresight for economic opportunities is guided by
his respect for the environment and the value he places on people.
Turcotte’s connection to nature has its origins on the Chauvin
family farm, where he milked cows from age eight and could spend
10 hours a day on the tractor as a teenager. That connection has
remained with him thoughout his career as an oil and gas executive,
financier and property developer. As president and chairman of Stone Creek Resorts, Turcotte’s
approach to developments at Canmore and Invermere, B.C. reveres
what nature has to offer, creating world-class destinations where
visitors find tranquility, great golfing and magnificent views. He
founded three successful public companies – Chauvco Resources,
Fort Chicago Energy Partners (now Veresen) and Western Oil Sands –
never losing sight of employees while managing these multi-billiondollar enterprises. “Creating excellent careers, opportunities and
wealth for employees, that’s what’s important.”
His passion for clean energy is exemplified in Western Hydrogen
Limited. “This is potentially the biggest thing I’ve done,” he says of
the private company founded in 2006. With a pilot project scheduled
to commence operations this year near Fort Saskatchewan, Turcotte
envisions huge global opportunities from commercial rights to
a leading-edge technology using sodium salts as the catalyst to
manufacture hydrogen. The technology has far-reaching implications
for fuel cell power, hydrogen costs and greenhouse gas emissions –
good for people and the environment.
photo supplied by garry nolan (Forest Technology ’78)
Gas Technology ‘72
When an April 1977 snowstorm cancelled field classes at Kidney
Lake camp, Forest Technology students built a 3.6-metre timber
cruiser snowman (but only after a snowball fight).
— Nancy McGuire
v6.1 2012 47
1980s
james ahnassay
this summer, wildfires roared within 17 kilometres of Meander
River, one of three communities of the Dene Tha’ First Nation
in northwestern Alberta. As a blanket of smoke drifted in, Chief
James Ahnassay and his council ordered an evacuation, sending
nearly 400 people to High Level, nearly 75 kilometres south. The air quality became bad enough to aggravate Ahnassay’s mild case of asthma.
“For people who have more severe conditions,” he says, “I can’t imagine what it must have been like.”
During four terms, that kind of focus on the well-being of
others has defined Ahnassay’s approach to leadership. And it
extends far beyond health and safety. Since taking office in 1993,
he has promoted education as a path to personal success as well
as a way to improve local services. He also remains dedicated
to economic diversification in the region, including ecotourism
possibilities in surrounding wetlands – which has meant
advocating for the conservation of these and other parts of Dene Tha’ territory of interest to the oil and gas industry.
The remoteness of the Dene Tha’ communities, home to
roughly 1,800 people, will always present logistical challenges. But Ahnassay, now thinking over a campaign for re-election next
fall, sees progress. Employment and education are on the rise,
budgets are balanced and, as with the recent wildfire, they’ve
proven themselves capable of overcoming extreme adversity.
“We’re making improvements,” he says, “slowly but surely.” — Scott Messenger
Civil Engineering Technology ’88
“
In fall 1980, I enrolled in Business
Administration. Coming from smalltown Alberta and a high school that
had a graduating class of 12, I found
adjusting to a larger, busier educational
environment a bit challenging. By
early December, I felt I might become
a ‘Christmas Graduate,’ as I was
considering withdrawing. A few days
before the end of term, I was in one
of the student lounges, looking a bit
Paul Saville, came along. Although he
was on his way to teach a class, he took
the time to talk with me and convinced
me to stick it out. That turned out to
be the best coaching advice I ever
received! The caring and compassion
demonstrated by that instructor is just
one of the qualities that makes NAIT
the first-class educational institution
that it is. Thanks for setting me up for
lifelong success!
distraught, when my English instructor,
– Marcel Ulliac, Business Administration ’82
48 techlifemag.ca
photo by Michelle Lazette
carol blake
Dental Laboratory Technology ’84
naseem bashir
Electrical Engineering Technology ’88
naseem bashir knows the difficulties of managing a mid-sized
company in Western Canada today. Competitors from outside the
province, even country, are showing up hungry for work, and that
demands creative leadership from the president and CEO of Williams
Engineering Canada. Talent, brand and sustainability are constant
priorities, as they would be for any savvy executive.
What sets Bashir apart, however, is his ability to hold a company
together despite disaster.
That was tested five years ago. In October 2007, a company plane
piloted by CEO and founder Allen Williams crashed, killing him and
the CFO. Five months later, another plane flown by Allen’s son Reagan –
his successor as CEO – also went down, claiming his life and those of
two other top executives and two contract employees.
Called up to Edmonton from his Calgary post as vice president,
Bashir postponed grieving to focus on the company’s viability. “There’s
no map to tell you what you should be doing,” at a time like that, he
says. “All you can do is rely on your own basic instincts and principles.”
He admits to thinking it would be easier to let someone else step
in. Calgary was home; he’d be uprooting his family and leaving friends.
But that risk had to be weighed against that faced by the company.
The future of every employee, him included, lay in the balance.
Today, the company is ready and eager to grow. A regional firm
with a reputation for reliability, environmentally friendly designs and
community-mindedness, Williams Engineering is eyeing the possibility
of going international. The current economic climate – involving more
clouds than sunshine – may delay those ambitions, but Bashir seems
satisfied with progress under his leadership. Looking back, as hard as
the decision to lead the company may have once seemed, “I think I
made the right choice.”
— S.M.
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/naseem-bashir.htm for
Naseem Bashir’s take on the challenge of running a
professional services firm in the current economy.
carol blake’s decision to join
the Canadian military in the late
1970s set her on a path to become
a dedicated community-builder.
“I learned so many valuable
lessons in the military, but the
most important is that it’s not
all about you,” says Blake, who
trained in a unit that delivers
supplies and equipment to front
line troops. Since then, that
philosophy and skill set have
motivated her to lead fundraising
efforts amounting to more than
$250,000 for schools in her
hometown of Kincardine, Ont., on
the shores of Lake Huron. It has
also influenced her professional
life. Just like in her military days,
Blake keeps on the move, this
time through nearby countryside
with her mobile dental technician
business, serving the dentists and
denturists responsible for rural
communities. As resourceful as
she is conscientious, Blake also
uses the route to spread the word
about programs she supports that
encourage health and fitness and
environmental conservation.
— Sandy Robertson
Dave Buchaski
Electronics Engineering Technology ’84
diagnostic medical sonography
students benefit every day from
the impact Dave Buchaski has on
campus. A long-time electronics
aficionado, Buchaski now teaches,
mentors, funds and promotes NAIT
ultrasound students – helping
to prepare them for roles in
Alberta’s vital allied health-care
sector. (Because of his efforts, his
employer, Philips Healthcare, also
pitches in with resources, including
state-of-the-art sonography
equipment.) Buchaski also keeps
NAIT instructors current by
arranging seminars and bringing
in stellar speakers. For him, the
key is to not just promote reliable,
upgradeable equipment, but to
ensure it is understood by staff–
and so by the grads that NAIT
produces. “No matter how good
the technology is,” he says, “it’s
no use unless we empower the
people who use it.”
— Cheryl Mahaffy
v6.1 2012 49
1980s
the construction industry
can’t afford to stand still, says
Kees Cusveller, vice president
of business development and
pre-construction services with
the Graham Group. “We need
to be able to compete with the
international firms that are starting
to move in.” To him, that means
evolving in every aspect of the
business, including productivity,
safety, and environmental and
social responsibility. Cusveller’s
own successful career gives that
point of view credibility. After
holding increasingly challenging
positions at PCL Construction,
he led Graham Group’s Calgary
expansion, growing its annual
revenues in the city from less than
$30 million to $275 million in a
decade. Now, he also applies that
same lead-the-charge mentality
to a passion for volunteering
(which, incidentally, has roots in
his 1979-80 tenure as president of
the NAIT Students’ Association)
with construction associations
and to developing building-related
programming in post-secondary
education.
— Cheryl Mahaffy
james cumming
Construction Engineering Technology ’81
Board of Governors 2004 - present
when something is important to James Cumming he gives it his
full attention. In 1998, not long after his son Garrett had to start
using a wheelchair due to muscular dystrophy, Cumming joined
the Muscular Dystrophy Canada board, serving as its national
chair from 2001 to 2003. After that, he continued to contribute
by helping to raise $1.61 million to establish the Friends of Garrett
Cumming Research Chair in Muscle Disorder at the University of
Alberta to pursue cures for debilitating neuromuscular disorders.
After his intense work with that board, Cumming stepped
back to change the focus of his community involvement to
education. NAIT was an obvious point of focus. Currently the CEO of Creative Door Services, Cumming credits his NAIT
training as the foundation of his lengthy career as owner and
leader of construction and development businesses. In 2004,
he returned to his alma mater as a member of the Board of
Governors. In October 2010, he became its chair.
Going forward, Cumming is excited about NAIT’s future. Right now, amongst other priorities, he’s devoting himself to
planning for the proposed Centre for Applied Technologies, which
will boost simulation-based training and applied research on Main
Campus. As an industry insider, he has an intimate understanding
of the need for skilled workers. “We’ve got a marketplace that’s
busy and begging for more trained individuals,” says Cumming.
“Our challenge is to make sure that we’re in front of that demand,
not behind it.” — Fiona Bensler
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/james-cumming.htm for a
conversation with NAIT’s current chair of the Board
of Governors.
50 techlifemag.ca
kees Cusveller
Building Construction Engineering Technology ’80
“
I got my first job as a secretary two months
before I actually finished my coursework. I was
hired by an engineering firm because NAIT
was the only place that was using magnetic
media storage (electronic typewriters with
mag cards) and they wanted someone who
could use a word processor!
– Sharlene Millang-Borst, Secretarial Technology ’81
photo by colin way
randy Eresman
in a natural gas market that can only be described as a decadelong roller coaster ride, Randy Eresman’s grip on his company is as
firm as ever.
Eresman took the helm of Encana – one of the world’s largest
natural gas producers – as president and CEO in 2006, 26 years
after he joined Alberta Energy Company, an Encana predecessor.
Before that, the Medicine Hat native was the company’s chief
operating officer from 2002 to 2006.
Despite a prolonged plunge in natural gas prices over the last
few years, Encana has remained strong under Eresman’s leadership.
It beat analysts’ predictions in the first quarter of 2012 in cash
flow and earnings and has plans to weather the storm, including
continuing to lead the way in a variety of oil and natural gas plays.
Going forward, Eresman is buckled in and ready for the ups and downs.
“I remember seeing high natural gas prices, and then those drop
like a rock, and I remember seeing high oil prices, and then those drop like a rock,” he told the Financial Post in February. “Easy money,
hard money – this is the business.”
— Eliza Barlow
Petroleum Engineering Technology ’80
kevin Martin
greg korbutt
Biological Sciences Technology ’82
dr. greg korbutt is a worldrenowned diabetes researcher on
the verge of a major breakthrough.
But from 1978 to 1980, he drove
a Coca-Cola truck with no idea
where the road of life would
take him. Even when he applied
to NAIT it was to five areas;
eventually, he settled on science.
Discovering latent talents in lab
research, Korbutt worked with
Dr. Ray Rajotte (Medical X-ray
Technology ’65) and his Edmonton
Protocol team to pioneer
transplants of insulin-producing
islet cells for severe diabetics.
Petroleum Engineering Technology ’87
Honorary Bachelor of Technology in Technology Management ’10
Then he began experimenting with
neonatal pigs as a source of islets.
Now he’s ready to move that to
clinical trials, a North American
first. To do so, he’s secured $26
million to build in Edmonton the
first Western Canadian facility to
meet Health Canada and the Food
and Drug Administration’s strict
regulations for stem cell research.
“It’s not the ultimate cure for
diabetes,” says Korbutt. “But it’s
a good stop-gap solution, which
will increase the availability of islet
cells for transplantation.”
— Lisa Ricciotti
as an 18-year-old from Lougheed, at the rink. “I was there for the
education,” says Martin, “but … I
Alta., Kevin Martin faced a tough
was living at the Avonair [Curling
choice: play collegiate hockey in
Club] the whole time.” Today,
Red Deer or Medicine Hat, or curl
Martin has yet to work in his field
at NAIT. Luckily for Canadian
of study. Instead, he earned rockcurling, he chose to go with who
star status as a curler, winning
he calls “Canada’s best curling
coach,” NAIT’s Jules Owchar – who Olympic silver and gold, four
Briers and numerous tournaments
likened Martin to a young Gretzky.
Martin’s instructors also recognized on the world curling circuit. “It was
a good decision made in the fall of
his potential on the ice and teased
him about how much time he spent ’84,” says Martin with a chuckle.
— Ruth Juliebo
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/kevin-martin-jules-owchar.htm
for the story of the most successful player-coach
relationship in the history of curling.
v6.1 2012 51
1980s
daryl mcintyre
ctv’s daryl mcintyre has been
an evening news anchor longer
than anyone in Edmonton. He
credits that to a willingness to
embrace change. During his
26 years with the station, he’s
witnessed seismic shifts in
the media landscape: mergers,
declining advertising revenue
and the explosion of social
media.
For him, the beauty
of social media, including
Facebook, Twitter and blogging,
is how they increase the
connection with viewers. That
power became evident with
the Maddox Flynn story. In 2010,
McIntyre accompanied the
two-year-old, born with a severe
facial deformity, and his family to
New York for surgery. Combined
with his traditional reporting, the
journalist’s blog, Twitter and
Facebook posts allowed people to
stay fully engaged with the story,
which saw the generation of nearly $300,000 in donations
to help the family cover costs.
“When people decide to
mobilize it’s an extraordinary
thing to watch,” he says. — Eliza Barlow
— Ruth Juliebo
For Scott Matheson (Building Construction Engineering
Technology ‘83), “Crushing the competition in the bridge
building challenge without getting wet,” was a highlight of
the 1981-82 school year. Matheson, team captain, came
up with the winning design pictured here.
52 techlifemag.ca
he’s spent 33 years growing his family’s Edmonton-based
manufacturing business into a global export powerhouse – but the last thing Mark McNeill wants to do is keep the secrets of his success
to himself.
McNeill is president and CEO of Stream-Flo Industries, founded in
1962 by his father Duncan McNeill (Distinguished Friend of the Institute
’03), and Master Flo Valve, which they acquired in 1982.
“As the experienced crowd, we need to educate and pass on our life’s
learning – and learn from the new generation – to make sure we service
our customers and our industry as best we can,” he says.
To that end, the McNeill family has a passion for sharing their
expertise with up-and-coming businesses. NAIT’s Duncan McNeill
Centre for Innovation provides early stage businesses and entrepreneurs
with office space and advice from NAIT experts.
And McNeill knows a thing or two about building a business. He
joined Stream-Flo in 1979, sweeping floors and building wellheads, then
put his aversion to losing and competitive nature to use with a shift to
inside sales. He estimates he spent 40 per cent of his time on the road,
living in most parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
But he really cut his teeth in 1986, when he started a five-and-ahalf year stint in Indonesia, opening up Southeast Asia to the company,
whose leadership in manufacturing wellheads, valves, chokes and
other equipment for both the offshore and surface oil and gas industry
has seen its products installed in at least 50 countries across four
continents.
Doing business overseas means managing cultural differences
and time zones, but McNeill says building and nurturing personal
relationships with customers is a universal imperative.
His words of advice? “Be open-minded. And expect to work very hard.” Mark mcneill
Business Administration – Marketing ’82
“
When NAIT was first automating the Executive
Office (sometime in the ’80s), we had a challenge
with a certain academic VP who had no interest
in joining in on the fantastic opportunity. We
replaced the unused computer in his office with
a cardboard replica and he loved it! Today, our
executive all use the latest technology – what
a change!
– Helen Wladyka, hired 1972 – currently Chief Information Officer, NAIT Information Services
mark ohe
Air Conditioning Engineering Technology ’81
Board of Governors 2010 - present
just as mark ohe was taking a
lead role in the family mechanical
business in 1991, a backfiring
airplane propeller smashed his leg.
Less than four years later, he ran
a marathon and raised $10,000
for the Rainbow Society of Alberta
to help grant the wishes of kids
with chronic illnesses. Ohe’s blend
of grit and generosity has also
served environmental, social and
health-care groups. He traces
his attitude back to his father,
Gateway Mechanical Services
founder Bill Ohe, who always told
his kids, “Giving needs to be part
of your life,” recalls Ohe. “Not just
money, but your time and energy.”
Now one of Western Canada’s
leading mechanical service
companies, Gateway’s corporate
generosity helped build the NAIT
Gateway Mechanical Services
Centre for Building Environment
Technology, which is teaching the
next generation how to optimize
building environments. — Cheryl Mahaffy
“
Oh, the Ronald McDonald Cups. It started when the
[University of Alberta Golden] Bears were ranked
No. 1 in the country in their conference and we [the
Ooks] were ranked No. 1 in the country in ours. And
all of a sudden the talk shows started saying: ‘Who
is the No. 1 college team in the country?’ and it just
mushroomed from there. It was exciting. And that’s
when we really felt the school was behind us. I think
there were 15,000 people [at the game at Northlands
Coliseum]. We lost that game. It was 5-4. Exciting
game. Lots of hits. The crowd was going nuts. It was
a really good experience.
– Ron Amyotte, Respiratory Technology ’87; Member
of the Ooks men’s hockey team from 1984 to 1987
george ROGERS
Business Administration – Accounting ’80
born in a jamaican village, George Rogers knows what it is to go
without. So it’s a point of pride that as an elected official, first for the
City of Leduc and now as MLA for Leduc-Beaumont, he has helped
lay the groundwork for communities to enjoy improved quality of
life. Trained as an accountant, Rogers turned to real estate, and then
public office, to work more closely with people. Attracting recordsetting vote tallies, he served as Leduc alderman then mayor while
active in the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities. “I grew up in Leduc, and back
then we had to go to Edmonton for almost everything,” he recalls.
“Today it’s all available right here, and a lot of the decisions I’ve been
a part of led to that successful growth.” — C.M.
v6.1 2012 53
1980s
Tracey Scarlett
Medical Laboratory Technology ’87
nine to five? no thanks, says tracey scarlett, who prefers to
control her own destiny – and loves to help others do the same.
The CEO of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs, a non-profit
organization that assists women with business ventures,
Scarlett cut her entrepreneurial teeth raising 4-H calves on the
family farm near Sexsmith, Alta., an environment she credits
for teaching her to blaze her own trail. “Growing up on a farm
teaches you a lot of independence and self-sufficiency, and
how to handle things you can’t anticipate.”
After graduating from NAIT, she went from managing
labs for small companies, to running an electrical contracting
business, to starting a consulting practice working with
scientists on market research.
KMT Hepatech, which had developed a technology
involved with Hepatitis C testing, became a huge industry
success in two years with Scarlett as its chief operating officer.
When the opportunity came along to head Alberta Women
Entrepreneurs, Scarlett jumped at the chance to help other
women work for themselves, which contributes $117 billion a
year to the Canadian economy.
“Seeing businesses come to life on a daily basis, creating
jobs, creating wealth – these are tangible outcomes that I find
really rewarding.”
Many women who come to her are dealing with young
families or aging parents, but the need for flexibility isn’t what’s
driving them from the corporate world, says Scarlett. “They
don’t want to be passive about their lot in life. They want to
create their futures.”
Just as Scarlett continues to create her own. julie m. shaw was working her first job at Nelson Lumber in
Edmonton when a young couple came in, house plans in hand, to
buy the materials they needed to build their new two-storey home.
She immediately noticed a glaring omission. “I said, ‘You know
you don’t have a staircase in these plans.’ They just kind of looked
at each other.”
Three decades later, Shaw applies the same matter-of-factness
to her role as vice president facilities, design and management with
Shaw Communications. Founded in 1966 by her father, JR Shaw
(Distinguished Friend of the Institute ’97, Honorary Diploma in
Business Administration ’07), the company has grown to become
Canada’s leading communications provider. She also serves as vice
chair of Corus Entertainment.
Shaw has always had a keen interest in the mechanics of how
buildings come together. After she completed her education, she
landed an interior design job with Vancouver firm Hopping Kovach Grinnell while “moonlighting” for the family business back in Alberta.
“When your family asks you to do something, it’s always, ‘It won’t take long,’” she says with a chuckle. “My dad or brother
would ask, ‘Could you just do this? Could you just do that?’ You feel compelled.”
Today, she and her team run all of Shaw’s sites across Canada,
managing everything from building improvement and design to
parking. She’s overseeing the construction of a 25,200-squaremetre (280,000-square-foot) data centre in Calgary, due to open
around 2015, and a new Global TV studio in Halifax. “We want to make sure it’s a creative environment that’s exciting and motivating [for the company’s more than 14,000 employees].”
One thing’s for sure: she’ll never miss a staircase. — E.B.
julie M. shaw
— Eliza Barlow
54 techlifemag.ca
“
I almost burned the school down. I was making a
photo by john Cairns
music video…. We were shooting in the bigger of
bruce Woloshyn
people don’t think of vancouver
as frontier territory. But in 1995,
when Bruce Woloshyn joined
visual effects startup Rainmaker
Digital Pictures, it was. At least as
far as Hollywood was concerned.
“We had to do things to show
we could be taken seriously and
that the industry could grow
and thrive in Canada,” says
Woloshyn. Thanks to those early
efforts, Vancouver is now one of
the largest production centres
for visual effects in the world.
Woloshyn was instrumental in
helping to establish the Visual
Effects Society, an international
entertainment industry
professional group, in Vancouver,
and, in 2007, hosted the voting
for Special Visual Effects for the
Emmy Awards at Rainmaker – the
first time it was held outside the
United States. The award-winning
visual effects supervisor, who now
works for Method Studios, has
also been charting new courses on
the big and little screens, where
his many credits include Stargate
SG-1, The Twilight Saga movies
and Night at the Museum. “Almost
every project demands that we
do something we’ve never done
before. And I really thrive on that.”
the two studios in the RTA building. One of the
things was to have a Valentine’s card on fire drop
to the floor. It caught the bed on fire on the set
and everybody started flipping out. There was a
fire extinguisher right at the door. I grabbed it and
put the fire out. And then everybody was thinking,
‘You’re going to be in a pile of trouble when they
find out you discharged the fire extinguisher.’ And
I thought, ‘Yeah, but I’m going to be in a lot less
trouble than if I burned the studio down.’
– Bruce Woloshyn, Radio and Television Arts ’84
— Kristen Vernon
Daniel Wai Yuk yeung
sandy Yakimchuk
Dental Laboratory Technology ’81
Electronics Engineering Technology ’85
after nait, sandy yakimchuk
worked with electronic control
systems on oil rigs around the
world, travelling all continents
except Antarctica, a life-changing
experience he believes wouldn’t
have happened without his
education. Now owner and operator
of Control Freaks Automation,
an Edmonton-based firm that
specializes in designing electronic
controls, Yakimchuk volunteered
nearly 500 hours to build 13 custom
programmable logic controllers
(PLC) for NAIT’s electronics
engineering and nanotechnology
programs, and also helped
write an accompanying course.
Students will learn about
applications for PLCs in different
Alberta industries and how to
write the software they use to
control machines and equipment–
broadening their career options
upon graduation. “This is a favour
back to NAIT for allowing me
to have such a lot of fun in my
career,” he says.
as the youngest of 14 siblings, daniel yeung learned that
collaboration is the only way to get things done. “I am lucky to have
learned these lessons, because I continue to apply them to my work,”
he says. Once, it saved his career. After Yeung got his first job as
a dental technician in 1981, a downturn led to layoffs. “I was saved
because one of our clients said they wouldn’t work with anyone but
me.” Since becoming president of Universal Dental Laboratories, a
provider of dental services and products, he continues to put people
first. Yeung is known as a student mentor and adviser, and as a
tireless community volunteer. As the only dental technician in the
Edmonton and District Dental Society (most members are dentists),
he contributes to the Shine for Dentistry Program, which offers dental
care to Edmonton’s less-fortunate youth.
— Sandy Robertson
— Fiona Bensler
v6.1 2012 55
1990s
whatever environment Mark
Hamblin chooses to inhabit, he’ll
find ways to make it better. As
a teen, he designed inventory
control software for his favourite
motorcycle shops. At NAIT, and
later at Matrikon, he created
more software to streamline
manufacturing processes. Still in
pursuit of productivity fixes, in
2008 Hamblin launched Dynamic
Manufacturing Solutions to help
improve business operations –
efforts that have earned accolades
for innovation and rapid growth
from Profit and Alberta Venture
magazines. In addition, he
regularly mentors and hires
NAIT students, and organizes
an annual industry event at the
NAIT Shell Manufacturing Centre
to showcase technologies and
practices manufacturers can use
to excel. “The manufacturing
industry in Alberta is definitely
behind the times compared
to other jurisdictions in North
America,” he says. “They need us
and they need NAIT to help move
them forward.” — C.M.
Michael Anderson
Business Administration – Management ’99
mike anderson brought a
whole new buzz to campus
life, creating events that
became the stuff of memories.
As a student, his zany antics
made him top choice as Ook
mascot; Ookfest, which he
launched as a NAIT Students’
Association (NAITSA) vice
president, grew into one of
North America’s top campus
parties during his nine years
as NAITSA entertainment
and marketing manager. “I
love entertaining people,” he says.
Anderson parlayed that
passion into a career with the
launch of Trixstar Productions.
Quickly becoming a go-to firm
for celebrity events, its list of
big snags has included UFC’s
Forrest Griffin and William
Shatner of Star Trek. The Little
Brother Anderson mentored for
a decade now wants to follow
in his footsteps, and no wonder.
Not every little brother enjoys
backstage access to the likes of
Ookfest veterans Nickelback. — Cheryl Mahaffy
“
I loved being the Ook. It was an outlet for me to
have a lot of fun…. One time I was dancing in the
bleachers and I jumped down and cracked my
heel. I’d do a figure skating show after the game.
I’d spin around and fall on my face. I was still
determined to put on my show. I laced up and
Mark Hamblin
Computer Engineering Technology ’95
“
I would play for the NAIT staff hockey team
because we had such a rivalry with SAIT and there
was a lot of pressure for me to play. One time
we went down … and about the second period or
halfway through the third, I got a puck in the ear.
And they took me to the hospital and they said,
went out there. It took me about an hour to get
‘Boy, are you lucky. We happen to have a plastic
my skate off after.
surgeon here.’ Thirty-four stitches later … I even
– Mike Anderson, Business Administration – Marketing ’98,
Business Administration – Management ’99; Ook mascot ’96
56 techlifemag.ca
bled for NAIT.
– Stan Souch, NAIT President 1980-97
“
“
During my time at NAIT, my father was a welding
instructor. He loved his breads and visited the
NAIT bakery almost daily. Sitting in the study hall,
I could often catch a glimpse of my dad off to the
bakery to check the daily goods during his breaks.
Dad is now long retired but still remembers his
fulfilling years at NAIT.
– David Robinson, Electronic Service Technician ’85,
Business Administration ’91
My husband Rory and I met in 1996 while both
andrew hore
when andrew hore attended NAIT’s hockey camp in 1986 at 10
years old, the powerhouse men’s hockey team made it the place to
play. But during his own time as a student and Ooks forward from
1996 to 1999, the facilities and equipment had seen better days. So
in fall 1999, Hore co-founded the Ooks Hockey Alumni Association
to help improve the program. Last year, it gave $200,000 – its
largest donation ever – to cover scholarships, maintain equipment
and send kids to NAIT hockey camps. Today, Hore, currently
corporate partnerships director for the Edmonton Oilers, thinks
NAIT hockey is ready to match its glory days. “In my mind,” he says,
“it’s one of the top college hockey programs in Canada.” attending NAIT. He was in the Architectural
Technology program (class of ’98), and I was in
Civil Engineering Technology (class of ’98). We
both played basketball for the Ooks. We met
one night at a social after one of the games and
realized that we both attend classes in the same
building. We dated all through college and were
married on June 2, 2001.
– Stephanie Koska, Civil Engineering Technology ’98;
Civil Engineering Technology Instructor 2001 – present
— Fiona Bensler
chris Kourouniotis
with restaurateurs for parents,
Chris Kourouniotis grew up with
an insider’s view of the hospitality
business. But it wasn’t food that
influenced his career path, it was
the dining experience – and the
special role a designer plays in
that. “We’re creating a two-hour
holiday,” says Kourouniotis,
principal of CKDesign Associates,
an Edmonton-based firm
responsible for hundreds of
restaurant and office interiors
across Alberta and, through
franchised clients, as far afield
as India and Pakistan. Today,
Kourouniotis seeks to inspire
up-and-comers like his younger
self by acting as an adviser to
NAIT’s Interior Design Technology
program and mentoring its
students. “It’s my opportunity to steal someone every year,” he says, and that way continue to transform common Alberta dining experiences into meals to remember. — Scott Messenger
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/nestrenovation.htm to see Chris
Kourouniotis’s recent redesign of The Nest, NAIT’s campus bar and grill.
Interior Design Technology ’94
v6.1 2012 57
1990s
corbin Tomaszeski
Cook ’92
ASHIF MAWJI
Computer Systems Technology ’92
Board of Governors 2004-10
as the former president and ceo of upside software, Ashif Mawji remembers the first time the company bought new
chairs for the office.
“That was a big deal – everyone was really excited.”
Formed 12 years ago, just as the dot-com bubble burst, the
contract management software company had to be frugal to
weather the shattered market. “We got a lot of things from eBay,”
he recalls.
Mawji learned the value of self-sufficiency while growing up in
Kenya, where, from the age of 12, he sold watches on consignment
to make pocket money.
And he’s long had a keen sense of the smartest uses for his
money, one that would help his future business survive and thrive
through market ups and downs. On a family trip to the United
Kingdom, he bought a computer to sell at a profit back in Kenya.
After he immigrated to Canada, Mawji used that same
entrepreneurial savvy to start two companies, including Upside.
Its first client was Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and, a
couple of months later, Hewlett Packard signed on. From there,
the deals kept coming.
In time, so did offers to purchase the company. This August,
he finally accepted one, freeing him up to focus on volunteer
efforts with charities including the Kids Kottage Foundation and
the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
It has also allowed him to look toward new ventures. Among
them: a software-as-a-service venture to help non-profits become
more efficient and, just as he learned to do, survive and thrive.
— Eliza Barlow
58 techlifemag.ca
corbin tomaszeski is an ideal
role model for students cooking
up plans to become celebrity
chefs – mostly because the host
of Food Network TV shows Crash
My Kitchen, Restaurant Makeover
and Dinner Party Wars never
expected his success. A realist
raised on a central Alberta farm,
“I thought I would work at a few
restaurants, be a chef at my
own and that would be it,” says
Tomaszeski. By focusing on his
craft – and on a philosophy that
great food has the power to bring
people together – he rose to the
rank of executive chef at Toronto’s
Holt’s Café. Only then did a
producer notice his talent (and
his congeniality and quick wit).
Since then, life under the bright
lights has galvanized his resolve
to remain realistic – and authentic.
“The person you see on TV is
the one I am in real life,” says
Tomaszeski. “I want to be genuine.
If I lose sight of that, I have to
think about doing something else.” — Scott Messenger
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/chickendumpling-soup.htm to watch Corbin
Tomaszeski make soup with his mom,
and techlifemag.ca/chef-corbintomaszeski.htm for his views on what
makes good food television.
dean turgeon
Engineering Design and Drafting Technology ’90
dean turgeon has never stopped
asking, Why? After graduating
from NAIT at 20, this habit caused
clashes when he worked for
construction firms as a surveyor,
drafter and design technician. “I
never wanted to follow the norm
if there was a better process
to improve efficiencies,” says
Turgeon. But when he discovered
an emerging green building
philosophy in the early 2000s
called Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED), his
big question became, Why follow
when you can LEED? So in 2003 he started his own
company, Vital Engineering, with
a focus on educating clients about
the benefits of design options
including geothermal, solar and
passive energy sources. Turgeon
has become a leader in his own
right, too. He regularly shares
his expertise with industry and
government associations, and
helped develop NAIT’s Alternative
Energy Technology program, for
which he continues to serve as an
advisory board member.
— Lisa Ricciotti
WEAR IT… READ IT… WRITE IT –
NAIT IS
!
MARK NAIT’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY WITH FUN MERCHANDISE FROM THE NAIT BOOKSTORE
T-SHIRT, $19.95
HOODIE, $59.95
BALL CAP, $24.95
NAIT@50 on back neck.
Full zip in retro-looking charcoal.
Navy with NAIT@50 logo.
five decades of great memories
1962 – 2012
MULTI-USE POCKET TOOL, $49.95
APRONS, $20.95 ea.
7 sassy styles feature NAIT@50
logo on neck tie.
So handy!
COMMEMORATIVE
COFFEE TABLE BOOK
Oversize 84-page format
features photos and memories
marking 50 years of life at NAIT
and notable happenings in the
city, the country and the world.
WRIST BAND, $9.95
With 4GB USB flash drive.
COFFEE TABLE BOOK, $50.00
FLOAT PEN, $6.95
Remember them?
We make shopping easy:
Online: onlinestore.nait.ca | Phone: 780.491.3104 | Email: mailorders@nait.ca
Visit the NAIT Bookstore: Room X114, 11762 106 Street, Edmonton, AB
AN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY COMMITTED TO STUDENT SUCCESS | www.nait.ca
2000s
in 2006, stephani carter turned
(LEED) professional and helped
her private war on waste and
start Alberta’s LEED chapter. As
toxins into her profession, taking
her expertise and experience have
on the challenge of greening the
grown, she’s blossomed from
construction industry by founding “that green girl” to a professional
EcoAmmo Sustainable Consulting whose insight is sought after
in Edmonton. Despite that artillery at conferences and by industry
allusion, Carter’s only weapon is
members keen to go green.
eco-knowledge. To her pleasant
EcoAmmo, in the meantime,
surprise, industry colleagues have
has grown to three partners and
willingly joined the campaign. “Our consulted on everything from net
society is demonstrating a strong
zero housing to commercial projects
social desire for more sustainable
for clients, including Walmart
living; that’s now influencing the
Canada and Second Cup, as well
building industry,” says Carter.
as international firms. Regardless
She traces her path back to
of the frontiers the company
her first interior design position,
will conquer next, Carter hasn’t
where she realized she was more
forgotten her roots, and gives back
concerned with paints that weren’t by guest lecturing on sustainable
poisonous rather than the perfect
building products and materials
shade. So she partnered with
to NAIT design and architecture
the provincial government and
students, and by serving on its
Climate Change Central to create
interior design advisory committee. Green Alberta, an online database — Lisa Ricciotti
of green building materials.
Since then, her progress
has been, well, organic, with
web extra
one project seeding another.
Visit techlifemag.ca/green-buildingAlong the way she became an
products to watch Stephani Carter’s
tutorial on building with environmentally
accredited Leadership in Energy
friendly materials.
and Environmental Design
don Oborowsky
Carpenter ’07
Honorary Bachelor of Technology ’09
Board of Governors 2002-08
60 techlifemag.ca
Stephani carter
Interior Design Technology ’01
“tradespeople with certificates are not born, they’re made.”
So says Don Oborowsky, who has dedicated much of his career to advancing the trades and apprenticeship training in Alberta.
As president, CEO and co-founder of Edmonton-based
Waiward Steel Fabricators, Oborowsky says that at any given time, 20 per cent of his 500-plus employees are apprentices.
Qualified tradespeople, he says, require less supervision on
the job, increase productivity and help make workplaces safer. “The whole apprentice program is important, not only to me but to the whole industry. It plays a very important role in our whole economy.”
The need for more spaces to train apprentices to sustain the economy led Oborowsky to make a significant investment in establishing the NAIT Waiward Centre for Steel Technologies.
The world-class facility opened in 2006, boosting NAIT’s steel
trades training capacity by 60 per cent.
Interestingly, Oborowsky – already a successful businessman –
returned to NAIT four decades after starting his Carpenter
apprenticeship to complete his own training in 2007. He says he
always felt “a little bit of guilt” about not completing his training. “I finished it because I wanted to finish it.”
— Frank Landry
it’s like an episode of Cheers: Jules Owchar walks into a curling
rink in northern Alberta and everyone knows his name. He’s had
his fair share of media attention for coaching curling’s golden boy,
Kevin Martin, for the past 27 years, but that’s not the only reason
for his celebrity status. He’s also coached hundreds of junior and
professional curlers from around the world.
“I just fell into coaching,” says Owchar. In 1969, he began at
NAIT as a physical education instructor. Throughout the decades
of mentoring young athletes, “the kids,” as he fondly calls them,
have gone on to win more than 40 provincial and national
championships (some of those were in golf – Owchar is an expert
instructor in that other Scottish sport as well).
“There’s such a satisfaction if you can give something to the
kids,” he says, “and watch them climb.”
Arguably, none have climbed higher than Kevin Martin, a gold
medallist at the 2010 Winter Olympics. “Jules has an eye for seeing
the mechanics of a curling delivery,” says Martin. Over the years,
the two have developed a working relationship that continues to
produce positive results. “We understand each other,” Martin adds.
Although Owchar officially retired from NAIT in 2003, he
continues to coach the men’s and women’s curling and golf teams.
With his rare, natural talent for spotting a winner, there’s no better
scout for curling’s next star. — Ruth Juliebo
Javier Salazar
Photographic Technology ’09
javier salazar inspires confidence
in others – whether it’s the high
school students he mentors or the
low-income Edmontonians he photographs.
Salazar, who emigrated from
Mexico to attend NAIT, has been
organizing Edmonton’s HelpPortrait since 2009, offering those
in need a professional portrait as a
way of boosting their self-esteem.
“You don’t really understand the
value of a portrait until you give
marlon wilson
jules Owchar
if marlon wilson – musician,
marketer, mentor, producer, radio
DJ, philanthropist and ambassador–
had an alias for each of his
successful endeavours, we’d never
know his real name. Wilson’s better
known as Arlo Maverick, onequarter of the successful Edmonton
hip-hop group Politic Live. As
co-founder of Music for Mavericks
Entertainment, an acclaimed
it to a person who hasn’t ever
had a professional portrait
taken – who receives that
portrait and cries in front of you,”
says the owner of Javier Salazar
Photography.
By day, Salazar works for
Junior Achievement of Northern
Alberta, where he mentors high
school students. “The way we
empower kids, that’s what’s kept
me there for so long,” he says.
— F.L.
independent urban music
record label, he also nurtures
local musicians. That’s just one
example of how he gives back.
For 13 years he has volunteered
as a radio host at CJSR. He’s
been a member of several highprofile arts boards and continues
to serve on the Juno Awards’ rap
advisory committee. And beyond
music, he supports his larger
community through fundraisers
including his annual Hip-Hop
for Hunger event, which has
aided the Edmonton Food Bank
since 2002. Call him Marlon or
Arlo Maverick, his is a name to
watch. — L.R.
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/marlonwilson.htm to learn why some call
him the father of Edmonton’s urban
music scene.
Athletics Wall of Fame ’03
v6.1 2012 61
GENERATION
OOKS
a limited-edition
Ook T-shirt!
Did you hear about Nathan McLaughlin, the
Edmonton food truck chef soon to appear on Eat Street?
Did you know Olympic gold-medallist Shannon
Szabados plays net for the men’s Ooks hockey team?
Have you downloaded DinerInspect, a free app
that rates restaurants by health inspection reports?
Did you improve your personal bottom line with our
tax, savings and budgeting tips?
Have you tried our students’ award-winning recipes
for pear desserts?
If not, now is the time to sign up for the
techlifemag.ca e-newsletter. Eight times a year, we send
our subscribers the latest from techlifemag.ca, our online
technology lifestyle magazine where you’ll find the
stories listed above and many more.
Subscribing is easy. Just visit techlifemag.ca, click
Subscribe and fill in the appropriate fields (or scan the
QR code on this page with your mobile device; see p. 7
if you don’t have a code reader). Do so before Nov. 30,
2012 and we’ll enter your name to win one of 25 limitededition Ook T-shirts. If you’re already a subscriber, just
send your name to contests@techlifemag.ca. Use T-shirt
as the subject.
Good luck! See you online.
techlifemag.ca
62 techlifemag.ca
FRONT
people
Ooks
“The SAIT Trojans
better beware for next year – we shall kick their pants for them!”
- the nugget
through
the ages
nait’s entry into intercollegiate athletics – at least on the basketball
court – was tentative at best, if a 63–28 drubbing of the men by a
veteran SAIT squad on March 6, 1964 is any indication. Judging from
The Nugget that week, all that mattered was that NAIT had entered the
fray: “The SAIT Trojans better beware for next year – we shall kick their
pants for them!”
Since then, NAIT has indeed kicked some pants (some years more
than others). Consider this the highlight reel: the records set, the
dogged development, the major players and the big wins. This is the
story of the Ooks through the years – champions, win or lose.
— Scott Messenger
too cute to cut it
adopted in 1964, the Ookpik
remains the perfect sports
mascot for a northerly
polytechnic: also known as a
snowy owl, it’s a Canadian icon
and an adept hunter. Its only
drawback is that it can look a
bit cute – hence the most recent
redesign initiated by athletics
director Linda Henderson. “The previous one looked too
much like a caricature,” she says. “We wanted it to look a
little bit more intimidating.”
The instigator
The Perfect Season
Nix on the Chicks
immortalized on the Athletics
Wall of Fame, first dean of
Student Services Gary Meadus
set balls rolling, pucks sliding
and all manner of sports
paraphernalia in motion by
establishing the institute’s
athletics programs and joining
the Western Intercollege
Conference in 1964, now
the Alberta Colleges Athletic
Conference.
the 1984-85 Ooks men’s hockey
season ended in a statistical
improbability: 25 wins, no losses.
That perfect season carried into
the playoffs, as the men swept
the provincial and national
championships. In recognition
of this history-making feat, the
squad was inducted this June
into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame.
the 1989-90 season represents
a slam dunk for gender equality
in NAIT athletics. That season,
women’s basketball finally
traded the Chicks moniker (they
were even the Ookpikettes at
one point) for Ooks, the name
emblazoned on the men’s jerseys.
bygone teams
The Ooks once made their mark in these discontinued sports:
Alpine skiing
Fencing
Bowling
Racquet sports
Canoeing
Swimming
Cross-country skiing
Wrestling
64 techlifemag.ca
186 23
Total Alberta Colleges
Athletic Conference
championship titles
(various sports)
Total Canadian Collegiate
Athletic Association
championship titles
(various sports)
Photos by NAIT STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
Clockwise from left, the Chicks basketball team, the 1984-85 Ooks men’s hockey team,
the most recent version of the Ooks logo.
Full-time commitment
The contenders
shortly after henderson took over as director of athletics
and recreation in 2008, she
floated the idea of full-time
coaches – a first for Canadian
colleges. She asked for 12, got
six (men’s and women’s hockey,
basketball and volleyball), and set the standard high, hiring and
firing like the pro leagues. The result: stronger internal
support of athletics, increased
post-season representation and
more provincial and national
banners. “Other schools didn’t
really believe it would be
successful or sustainable,” says
Henderson. “When it became
both, I just smiled.”
until the 2011-12 season, never
had all women’s and men’s
teams advanced to the postseason. Last year, studentathletes competed for provincial
championship titles in soccer,
volleyball, curling, hockey, golf,
basketball, badminton and
cross-country running. They won
national gold in men’s soccer
and men’s singles and women’s
doubles badminton.
Just one of the guys
shannon szabados joining the
men’s hockey program as its first
female goalie qualifies as another
victory in athletics gender issues.
It was also an obvious choice.
When not tending the Ooks
net, the Personal Fitness Trainer
student backstops Team Canada.
“She’s the best female goalie in
the world,” says Kyle Johnson,
captain during Szabados’ first
year in 2011-12. “And we have her
on our team.”
“She’s the best female
goalie in the world,
and we have her on
our team.”
- Kyle Johnson
Captain, 2011-12 ooks men’s hockey team
the future
more championship banners are an obvious goal, says
Henderson. Providing full
scholarships for every studentathlete in every sport is another.
But for her, the way forward is
defined by much bigger thinking:
“We need a new facility.” With it,
NAIT could host more national
championships, attract more
student-athletes and, she adds,
continue to give the institute
plenty of opportunities to gather
and celebrate by cheering on its Ooks.
web extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/ookshistory.htm for features on Linda
Henderson’s efforts to rebuild NAIT
athletics, Shannon Szabados as the
men’s hockey team’s first female
goalie, the 1984-85 men’s hockey
perfect season, and the full results of the historic 2011-12 season.
v6.1 2012 65
PEOPLE
The Meaning of
Ookpik
Story By
Ruth Juliebo
Photos by
NAIT STAFF
photographers
What happens when the search for a cherished,
iconic artifact turns up empty? Sometimes you
reconsider what it is you’re looking for.
v6.1 2012 67
PEOPLE
Top left, first NAITSA president William Miles received NAIT’s first Ook mascot in 1964. Bottom left, the mascot-napping went both ways
between Alberta’s polytechnics; in 1964, NAIT students captured SAIT’s. Above, right and below, though the stuffed version of Ookpik has
remained nearly unchanged throughout the years, other depictions of the mascot have gone through several incarnations.
W
hen it comes to picking a school mascot,
powerful creatures like eagles, tigers and
bulldogs reign supreme. But in 1964,
NAIT made a different choice. The NAIT Students’
Association (NAITSA) chose a 20-centimetre-tall Inuit handicraft: a snowy owl – known in Inuktitut as an ookpik.
“At that time, ookpik was a big pop icon in Canada.
There was even a song about it,” recalls William Miles,
NAITSA’s first president. On Oct. 28, 1964, Miles
was presented with an authentic ookpik by an official
from the Department of Northern Affairs and National
Resources at NAIT’s first awards day. “Being the most
northerly institute of its kind in Canada, we thought it
was a perfect fit,” he says.
Although adorable, NAIT’s Ookpik represents a
creature that was no less ferocious and strong than the
mascot of any other school of the day. The snowy owl,
which can be found as far north as the Arctic Circle, is
one of North America’s biggest owls at approximately
half a metre tall and with a wingspan of about a metre
68 techlifemag.ca
and a half. The powerful birds are keen hunters and have
few natural predators.
Naturally, NAIT athletics teams took the name
in 1964 (shortening it over time to Ooks) and several
incarnations of a full-size mascot followed over the next
five decades. Going forward, the Ookpik became firmly
embedded in NAIT’s identity, providing a positive image
for the institute and helping to build community and
camaraderie amongst students.
But over NAIT’s 50-year history, most people
haven’t had the chance to see that original Ookpik. No
one knows where it went – a situation that has caused
quite a stir on campus.
That said, Ookpik has always had that effect on
the staff and students of NAIT – not to mention those
of other institutes. Soon after its arrival, word of its
importance to the institute made it south to the office of
SAIT’s student newspaper, The Emery Weal. In 1966, its
editor decided to act. “We drove to Edmonton, rented a
motel room and liberated Ookpik,” says Dan Lind.
The students broke the glass on the display case
holding Ookpik (which they later had to pay $50 to
replace), and took it to Calgary – making it wear a white
Stampede hat. It was eventually sent back to NAIT in a
black shoebox resembling a coffin.
The incident was part of a friendly tradition of
mascot-napping between Alberta’s polytechnics. In
fact, the hijinks got so heated that NAITSA had a replica
Ookpik made and placed in a display cabinet for wouldbe thieves. The real deal was safely hidden away.
In the meantime, Ookpik fever spread across
campus. The bookstore was named the Ookshop. The
student pub was called The Nest. In 1977, Frosh Week
(held in September to welcome new students) was
renamed Ook Week.
Even classes and labs were inspired by Ookpik.
In 1967, the electrical and electronics departments
combined their talents to build an electric ookpik more
than a metre tall. Sitting on four castors and completely
covered in sealskin, the robot was manoeuvrable with
wire-controlled brakes and steering.
It seemed that nothing happened at NAIT without
Ookpik.
In light of that, as preparations began for NAIT’s
50th anniversary celebrations, it was only natural to
want to include the missing mascot.
“We started an intense search all over campus,”
says Erin Kuebler, advancement relations officer. “There
was an amazing response from our staff. It didn’t
matter which program or department you were in – the
Ookpik represented the whole of NAIT and it was a way
we could express our affinity and appreciation for NAIT.”
NAIT offered a five-course meal for six at Ernest’s,
NAIT’s on-campus fine dining restaurant, as a reward
for the tip that would lead to Ookpik’s return. But not
even national media coverage, broadcasting the story
to some five million Canadians in every province and
territory, produced a viable lead. Instead, NAIT got other
ookpiks – donations of about a dozen dolls from staff
and friends of the institute.
But none came quite as close to the real thing as
the one from Peggy Richardson. Upon hearing about the
“the Ookpik
represented
the whole
of NAIT and
it was a way
we could
express our
affinity and
appreciation
for NAIT.”
– E rin Kuebler advancement relations officer
v6.1 2012 69
PEOPLE
Left, new Ooks under construction. Right, Inuit elder Peggy Richardson (centre) presents newly made Ookpiks
to Dr. Glenn Feltham and NAITSA president Teagan Gahler.
“We are recapturing our past. As we think
about where we’ve come from, restoring
this symbol is absolutely priceless.”
– Dr. gleNn Feltham, president and ceo
Web extra
Visit www.nait.ca/nait50th-anniversary-videos
to watch a video of NAIT
Inuit elder Peggy Richardson
making Ookpiks, or scan the
QR code. Need a QR code scanner?
See p. 7.
70 techlifemag.ca
predicament, the NAIT Inuit elder was inspired to create
two replicas of the original Ookpik. She was up for the
task. Richardson grew up in the 1960s in the community
of Hall Beach in what’s now Nunavut, and had a special
affinity for the bird: “The ookpik is very special to the
Inuit,” she says. “They are our protectors.”
As well, her father worked along the Distant Early
Warning line, a system of Arctic radar stations set up
to detect Soviet bombers. He took orders from other
workers for hundreds of souvenir ookpiks to be made by
his daughter. She used the money to purchase clothes
from the Sears catalogue – clothes she would later wear
to attend NAIT.
Richardson presented one Ookpik to NAIT’s
president and CEO, Dr. Glenn Feltham, and the other to
NAITSA president Teagan Gahler. “It’s very important
that students have something to identify with when
they’re here on our campus,” says Gahler, “and [also]
when they become alumni.”
“We are recapturing our past,” says Feltham. “As
we think about where we’ve come from, restoring this
symbol is absolutely priceless.”
NAIT never did find its original mascot. But the
quest to locate it undoubtedly brought all of NAIT closer
to Ookpik and its true meaning to us as an institute.
Ookpik is NAIT’s symbol of tradition and strength.
More importantly, it continues to unify five decades of
students, staff and alumni. And it will continue to do so
for decades to come. What more could you ask from a
school mascot? CULINAIT
Story by
Lindsey Norris
Photos by
Blaise van malsen
Jeanette janzen
the fine
art of
food
when the first students enrolled in NAIT’s culinary program in 1963,
they embarked on “cook’s training” and served food in the aptly, if
unremarkably, named Dining Hall. Today, students study culinary arts
on the path to becoming chefs – or food writers, stylists, photographers,
even researchers.
Program chair Stanley Townsend describes the modern chef as a
culinary artist producing an “evolving art.” The shift from cook to chef to
artist speaks to the growth of the program, but also to the changing way
we look at food: no longer is it just sustenance on a plate.
In recognition of five decades of culinary training at NAIT, we asked
the faculty to identify some of the most dramatic food trends of the past
half-century. While some have proven to be a flash in the pan, others
have laid the groundwork for the way we eat today.
A period of conflict
the 1960s doesn’t often get a lot of respect on the culinary timescale. It was a conflicted period in the kitchen. While technology was bringing more
processed, convenience foods to market, it was also,
through mass media, making it easier for home cooks
to learn traditional techniques.
It was the decade that saw the sale of the first
countertop microwave and the creation of Cool Whip,
the “non-dairy” spread (developed by a chemist,
not a chef). But in the same decade, Julia Child
and company published Mastering the Art of French
Cooking. Soon after, Child’s TV show aired, and people
could watch her spend an afternoon preparing beef
bourguignon or roast chicken with port wine. For the first time, home cooks were encouraged on a mass scale to produce classic, restaurant-worthy
food in their own kitchens.
It doesn’t get much more classically
French than this: foie gras terrine
paired with apricot chutney.
v6.1 2012 73
CULINAIT
The centre of attention
by the ’70s, chefs and home cooks alike recognized
that food was an opportunity for theatre. While
cooking may once have been done in small, closedoff kitchens, roasts carved tableside and elaborate
productions involving brandy and flame brought
technique into the dining room.
“It was the start of the open kitchen that you see
more often in restaurants today,” says Teja Atkinson,
a chef and instructor’s assistant with the Culinary
Arts program. “Food was made right before your eyes,
and it was a way to put on the best show, to get the
aromas, and even for chefs to one-up each other.”
While few home cooks today are regularly setting fire
to the dessert, the original concept has taken hold in
the open-concept kitchen, which literally brings food
to the centre of the home.
Dishes like flambé cherries jubilee
brought the action to the dining table.
A tall order
if you had to distil 1980s style into one word, you
might use big – or, more accurately, tall: tall hair, tall
shoulder pads and equally stylized cuisine, which
often placed structure and presentation ahead of
flavour. Elaborate presentation was a must, and
a truly spectacular dish might resemble a Jenga
tower on a plate. By the latter half of the decade,
flavour was beginning to catch up to presentation in
importance. California cooking, or Tex-Mex, marked
a continuing march away from classical preparations
to a more contemporary approach in the kitchen.
“People started veering away from the old masters,
and started to invent lighter fare, much stronger in
presentation and bolder in flavours,” says Stanley
Townsend, Culinary Arts chair. “They were still using
the classical methodologies, but they were using nontraditional ingredients.”
With its strong lines and abundant
avocado, the Cobb salad combines
both the stacked structure and fresh
ingredients common in the ’80s.
74 techlifemag.ca
The world is your oyster
by the 1990s, globalization and the Internet helped
contribute to a shrinking world. It became increasingly
easy to travel and experience international cuisines,
as well as ship and import foods. People began to
experiment: fusion was big, and Canadian chef Susur
Lee (NAIT’s third Hokanson Chef in Residence)
earned international recognition for his interpretation
of Asian and French fusion, or “Nouvelle Chinoise.”
Meanwhile, growing health consciousness was
pushing butter- and cream-laden classics further
to the back burner. (Interestingly, in the 1996 book
Culinary Artistry, 32 celebrity chefs were asked which
10 ingredients they would take with them to a desert
island. Only three listed butter; half listed olive oil.)
Fast transportation networks
brought more seafood to Alberta.
Here, a grilled salmon steak is
flavoured with low-calorie lemon
and fresh dill.
v6.1 2012 75
CULINAIT
Back to basics
farm to fork. Nose to tail. Slow food. Is it a
coincidence that modern food trends can be
condensed to such simple phrases? Elevated cooking
today is remarkable for what it isn’t: complicated,
over-seasoned, elaborate. It’s taken a few years, but today a bottle of locally produced cold-pressed
canola oil can respectfully take its place on the
counter alongside the imported Greek olive oil.
In 2005, NAIT’s newly renovated Hokanson
Centre for Culinary Arts began training students on
some of the highest-tech equipment available in the
food realm, though it’s used to produce some very
old-school concepts. “Right now, we’re focusing on
seasonal ingredients and nose-to-tail books, so more
utilization of what may not be considered prime cuts
of meat,” explains Atkinson.
How to combine local, seasonal
cuisine into one soup bowl?
Try French onion soup, a recipe
that has stood the test of time.
The future
what’s next for food? Atkinson and Townsend believe many trends that exist today will continue.
Townsend also predicts that people will become more
health conscious and move away from big portions.
They’ll become more concerned with sustainable products and cleaner flavours that highlight the ingredient.
People will eat seasonally and locally more often, and
make more sustainable choices. If he’s right, it’s quite
possible that what we eat for dinner 50 years from now
will bear more resemblance to food from the 1860s than
from the 1960s – though with a lot less butter. Shaken or stirred?
NAIT Food Services has turned one of the quintessential before-dinner drinks into a commemorative cocktail to celebrate the institute’s golden anniversary.
Whether you prefer your martini shaken or stirred, this one is perfect for your next dinner party, or better yet – class reunion.
The NAITini
15 ml (½ oz) blueberry juice
45 ml (1½ oz) vodka
15 ml (½ oz) triple sec
15 ml (½ oz) lime juice
Pour the ingredients into a cocktail
shaker filled with ice cubes. Shake Web Extra
Visit techlifemag.ca/food-trends.htm
for the recipes for each of these dishes.
76 techlifemag.ca
for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled
cocktail glass. Garnish with floating
blueberries or a lime wedge.
www.waiward.com
5 WAYS
get involved with nait
1
TIME CAPSULE
As part of the NAIT@50 celebrations, we’re asking alumni, staff,
students, friends and supporters to help produce a time capsule that
will be opened on NAIT’s 100th anniversary. The capsule will represent
our first half-century of success as well as this milestone year.
Contact Erin Kuebler at 780.471.8499 or
ekuebler@nait.ca if you have something to
contribute. For more information,
visit www.nait.ca/nait50.
3
50th anniversary
merchandise
Show your Ook pride by getting
50th anniversary gear. Gadgets,
office supplies and clothing can
be purchased at the Bookstore
on Main Campus or online at
www.nait.ca/onlinestore.
5
2
STAY CONNECTED
4
To ensure you don’t miss out on
the latest benefits and events, keep
your contact information current.
To make updates, visit www.nait.ca/alumniconnection or email alumni@nait.ca.
Alumni
recognition
awards
Celebrate 50 years of student
success by nominating a deserving
alumnus for an alumni recognition
award. Application deadline is Dec. 31, 2012. For more information,
visit www.nait.ca/alumniawards.
GIVE BACK
Show your appreciation of NAIT by making a $50 donation
during our 50th anniversary year. Donations can be
designated for programs, emergency bursaries, athletics or
new equipment. Donate online at www.nait.ca/donate.
v6.1 2012 79
85
careers.slb.com
yearsof
innovation
Proud to support the
50th anniversary of NAIT
Who are we?
Wearetheworld’slargestoilfieldservices
company 1.Workingglobally—ofteninremote
andchallenginglocations—weinvent,design,
engineer,andapplytechnologytohelpour
customersfindandproduceoilandgassafely.
Who are we looking for?
Weneedmorethan5,000graduatestobegin
dynamiccareersinthefollowingdomains:
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What will you be?
1BasedonForbesLeadingCompaniesReport2011.
Copyright©2012Schlumberger.Allrightsreserved.12-RC-0007
ACCLAIM
and the award goes to...
Grads, staff, students and friends of the institute continue to amass awards and accolades
in everything from industry to innovation to athletics. Here are a few recent winners.
Financial futures
Brawny and
brainy
When it comes to economic forecasting, NAIT faculty members are
among the best. This January, max varela and hardeep gill, JR Shaw
School of Business finance instructors, won two of six awards given by
the Edmonton Chartered Financial Analyst Society for best forecasts.
Varela won for the Canadian Equity Index, while Gill most accurately
pegged the U.S./Canada exchange rate. ellen wilson, chair of business
in the Department of Continuing Education, was runner-up for the
overall best forecast award. Participants were asked to forecast oil
prices, exchange rates, bond yields and other key economic indicators
for the coming year.
The Shoe Fits
Continuing Education business
student huseyin mullaoglu won
first place in the Business Strategy
Game. Over the past year, 43,000
post-secondary students in 50
countries operated virtual athletic
footwear companies in the
online competition. Participants
in the simulation assessed and
responded to a variety of market
conditions in a quest to have
the most successful business.
Mullaoglu won with the overall
best-performing company.
Business
Booster
For promoting entrepreneurship,
sandra spencer received the 2012
HSBC Woman Leader of Tomorrow
Award for Western Canada in
March. As former president of
NAIT’s Students in Free Enterprise
team, she started the Hatch
business competition, which has awarded three winners $20,000
each in seed funding and incubation space at NAIT. A Bachelor of
Business Administration student, Spencer is also a business manager
at novaNAIT – NAIT’s home of applied research and enterprise
development.
from Sea to
Summit
Mr. Fix-it
Photos by NAIT STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS
Tying with Red Deer College,
NAIT led the nation with 10
Academic All-Canadian Awards
from the Canadian Collegiate
Athletic Association. This
prestigious designation is
awarded to student-athletes who not only demonstrate
outstanding athletic achievement
but also attain honours in their
academic programs.
The Association of Science and Engineering Technology Professionals
of Alberta awarded rj oil sands its Technical Excellence Award. The
honour recognizes the ingenuity of the company’s phase separator,
which scrubs hydrocarbons from water (see p. 28, V5.2), invented by wade bozak (Civil Engineering Technology ’93). The RJ Oil Sands vice president hopes to see the technology put to use remediating
tailings ponds.
marl technologies’ subsea
drill (p. 26, V5.2) received the
Project Achievement Award at
the Association of Professional
Engineers and Geoscientists
of Alberta 2012 Summit
Awards. Led by production
manager mark gurnett
(Machinist ’01, Mechanical
Engineering Technology ’03),
the project was recognized
both for its engineering and for
its contributions to technical
progress and the betterment of society.
Flour Power
Culinary Arts grads mallory
bowes and elizabeth dowdell
(class of ‘11) won the provincial
Mission ImPULSEible food
development competition in
March for their celiac-friendly
angel food cake recipe. Made with
garbanzo and fava bean flours,
the dry cake mix – called BE Lite
(BE for Bowes and Elizabeth) –
is free of gluten, wheat, nuts
and dairy. In June, Bowes and
Dowdell were runners-up at the
national Mission ImPULSEible
competition.
v6.1 2012 81
besides its 50th, nait is celebrating another anniversary this year –
and, technically, it’s just as cool.
Thirty years ago in Calgary, the men’s Ooks hockey team skated
to its first of seven national championship titles, beating Toronto’s
Seneca College 3 – 0. To help mark the milestone, Brian Stein (Radio
and Television Arts ’82, Computer Systems Technology ’88) recently
gave the institute an athletics relic: the Ooks sign that hung in the SAIT
arena the day of that historic win.
At the time, Stein – an inductee into NAIT’s Wall of Fame – was
handling announcing and PR duties for the team, a job for which he
was recruited by legendary coach Peary Pearn. Still working with the
team in the 1990s when SAIT renovated its rink, Stein saw the sign had
come down and asked Trojans’ coaching staff for it. “We brought it back
on the team bus,” he says. From there, the four-by-eight plywood sign
went carefully into his garden shed.
“I just wanted to save it,” he says. The sentimental value appealed
to him: the “flying” NAIT logo, the Big Bird-like mascot, even the name
Ookpiks, long since shortened to Ooks.
But the sign also stood for a remarkable stretch of athletic
achievement, Stein points out. Following that first national win, the
Ooks entered their most storied decade, winning four national titles
and posting a perfect 1984-85 season during a run that included four
Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championships back to back,
from ’84 to ’87.
That was no small feat, says Stein. The league may have been
smaller then, he adds, but the other schools weren’t pushovers. “They
rose above the competition,” he says of the NAIT squads. They had
leaders on ice and off, talented recruits and spirited determination.
And, apparently, they had a good luck charm made out of threequarter-inch fir – now rightfully home.
— Scott Messenger
82 techlifemag.ca
Photo by BLAISE VAN MALSEN
Rewind
Investing in
tomorrow’s
big ideas.
At Cenovus, we support programs that help passionate people come up with
new ideas and new approaches for the development of energy resources.
Cenovus Energy. A Canadian oil company.
Congratulations NAIT on your 50th anniversary.
cenovus.com
New ideas. New approaches.
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