Dr. Adil Usman is currently working as an R&D Tech Lead at Varroc Engineering Limited, Pune, India. Before moving to India, Adil was a postdoctoral researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), United States from 2022-2023 and a research employee at University of California Santa Cruz from 2021-2022. Dr. Usman holds PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. His research areas of interest include design and diagnosis of electrical machines & power electronic converters, Battery Management System (BMS) in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and State of Health (SOH) estimation for all electric transportation systems. He has more than 50 reputed research publications, more than 20 invited talks and several technical awards and recognitions to his name.
Dr. Usman is a Senior Member of IEEE and is currently serving as a Member of IEEE MGA SAC in the capacity of Chair for Student professional Awareness (SPAx) program. He is also serving on the Editorial-Reviewer Board of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (IA), Industrial Electronics (IE), Transportation and Electrification (TE) and Power Electronics (PEL). Dr. Usman is the recipient of two Best PhD Thesis Awards conferred by IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) in 2021; and a recipient of Outstanding Student Branch Chapter Chair; awarded by IEEE IAS in 2019 for his continued services and leadership in IEEE.
Ana Laura Gonzalez Rios is a Customer Support Specialist at Dimonoff Inc. She received her B.S. degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico, and her M.Sc. degree in Applied Science from Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her research interests include machine learning algorithms for detecting intrusions and anomalies in communication networks as well as virtual network embedding algorithms.
Ana is the Chair of IEEE Canada Membership Development Committee. She has served in the Vancouver Section as IEEE Women in Engineering (2017) and IEEE Young Professionals Chair (2018 – 2020), and in IEEE Canada as Young Professionals Vice-Chair (2020) and Committee Member (2021). She was Committee Chair for the 2018 IEEE Young Professionals Pacific Northwest Leadership Summit; one of the Conference Committee Members for the 2018 IEEE Women in Engineering Tech-W Workshop Powered by Women; Local Chair for the 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics; and Junior Co-Chair for the IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics 2020.
Carl graduated from University of British Columbia with an Electrical Engineering degree, 1959. His connection with IEEE started as Treasurer for UBC’s local AIEE and IRE which became the IEEE in 1963.
While in Massachusetts he completed the MBA degree at the Northeastern University, Boston.
Early September 2019 Carl had arranged a class reunion for the 60th UBC Anniversary. Three days before this event his arrangements were cancelled. He contacted the President of IEEE Vancouver Section stating the importance of this particular reunion. On September 19, 2019 this reunion was appropriately held. In appreciation Carl was became the IEEE Vancouver Section Chair LMAG in November 2019.
After graduation, Carl worked for Northern Electric Company in Montreal, Quebec. He designed and tested 120 KV cable systems and supervised installations.
Carl moved to Massachusetts in 1962 and worked in the USA for 10 years. As a Research Engineer at Ion Physics Corporation, he performed high voltage studies in the development of an Ion Engine for space propulsion. Carl supervised an installation of a megavolt system that pulsed radiation testing the integrity of missile systems.
He moved to Avco Corporation as Group leader in a Minuteman Missile project covering the transition from one warhead to multiple warheads. The task was to design penetration aids. The group fitted out one Minuteman Missile as a test unit. The test was successful.
Carl became a Program Manager in 1968 at Atkins & Merrill, a company that specialized in commercial aircraft simulators; namely, Boeing 747, Lockheed L1011, and McDonnell Douglas DC10.
Carl returned to Canada in 1972 accepting a management position at Westinghouse Canada. His primary task was to introduce into Canada LV switchgear that was developed in the USA. Meeting CSA specifications was required. The manufacturing site was St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec. On completion of this project, he accepted the position of Product Manager.
In 1980 Carl was hired to the position Vice President and General Manager of Ferranti-Packard, St. Catharine, ON. He managed the Division’s four plants located in two countries and in two languages. Ferranti-Packard was sold to a European company in 1984. Senior executives were replaced.
Heading west, Carl joined SED Systems in Saskatoon Saskatchewan as Vice President; and President of Caelum Technologies. He managed the company’s satellite communication equipment. A key success was the completion of an inter-provincial satellite phone system.
Carl started his own consulting business in Saskatoon. He applied information from his book Advancing Production Management with Standard Cost and Operational Analysis ©, 1990. One project took Carl to Japan for three months. After six years in consulting, he joined the Alberta Research Council, Calgary.
In 1997, Carl joined the International Benchmarking Institute as its General Manger.
Industry Canada required recorded data comparing metrics in Mexico, USA and Canada for small to mid-size enterprises (SMEs). Carl presented benchmarking results at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Tokyo sponsored by the Japan Small Business Corporation.
In 1998, he joined Western Star Trucks’ in Kelowna, BC as Manager, Engineering Process. He coordinated the department’s business planning and reporting. Carl retired in 2001.
Carl provided technical support to the Business Development Bank of Canada for clients requiring productivity improvements.
Carl was an instructor at the Okanagan College, Kelowna, BC from 2002-2014. He applied a Situational Leadership© series.
Carl is active member of the West Kelowna Community Policing.
He volunteers to projects as a member of the Patient Voices Network (PVN).
Note:
Sea Cadet Settimo Carl Zanon, representing British Columbia, attended the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. The Canadian Contingent of twelve Sea Cadets sailed from Halifax on the aircraft carrier HMCS Magnificent.
While at UBC he served in the University Naval Training Division at HMCS Discovery, Vancouver, BC. He was commissioned 1958 and retired in 1960 for a career in industry.
Cosme Loi is an active IEEE volunteer who has been contributing to the IEEE North Saskatchewan Section since 2014. He played a significant role in revitalizing the Young Professionals group and currently serves as the North Saskatchewan Section Chair, as well as vtools Coordinator for Region 7, where his focus is on promoting tools created by volunteers to enhance IEEE activities.
With a strong commitment to community building and professional development, Cosme’s efforts have been instrumental in fostering engagement and collaboration within the engineering community. His approachable and inclusive leadership style has made him a respected figure in the IEEE, both locally and beyond.
Cosme’s passion for photography complements his IEEE involvement, allowing him to creatively capture and share the spirit of the organization through a unique lens.
David is President and Board Chair of the IEEE Canadian Foundation, the philanthropic partner of IEEE in Canada. Starting as an IEEE Student Member at the University of Toronto studying electronics and communications, later followed by business courses also at the University of Toronto, David has enjoyed holding several technical and management positions in the Canadian telecommunications industry. At the IEEE Canadian Foundation, he supports a team of up to thirty-five volunteer Members/Directors of the Foundation. All work to inspire donors, provide solid financial management and impactfully offer scholarships, grants and awards which enhance IEEE fields of interest in Canada, particular involving students.
David is a Life Senior Member of IEEE, recipient of the IEEE Canada M.B. Broughton Central Canada Service Award and a Professional Engineer in Ontario.
Murray MacDonald has over 30 years of experience in design and engineering management with several multinational companies. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. (EE) degrees from Queen’s University, is a registered member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario, and is an active Senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Murray spent his career in the area of in power electronics and DC and AC power systems for telecommunications including safety agency approvals. He has held numerous roles in the IEEE London Section and with IEEE Canada (Region 7). He is currently the Region 7 Treasurer.
Nancy Ostin, Director of IEEE-HKN (Eta Kappa Nu), the honor society of IEEE, joined IEEE in 2012. She has worked to grow HKN to 279 Chapters worldwide. In cooperation with the Board of Governors, she has established programs and services to increase the value of membership and to strengthen Chapters. She also has worked to establish a culture of philanthropy with HKN alumni.
IEEE-HKN has over 200,000 members and inducts over 3,000 students each year. Signature programs include the Annual Student Leadership Conference, Pathways to Industry and TechX Virtual conferences, HKN Grad Lab webinar series, Graduate Mentoring Program, Career Conversations and HKN Connection podcasts, THE BRIDGE magazine, and HKN Awards & Scholarship Program.
Nancy is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, MA, and the University of Aix-Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence, France. She has over 30 years of association management experience and received her Certified Association Executive (CAE) in 2008. She completed the US Chamber of Commerce Institute of Organization Management in 2011. She has held positions with the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the Society for Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals, The Girl Scouts and served as President of the Middlesex County (NJ, USA) Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Nima Javanbakht (Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, in 2013 and 2016, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, in 2021.
Nima is a senior RF engineer with Sanmina corporation and adjunct professor at Carleton university since 2021. He was a Research Intern with the National Research Council Canada and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Electronics, Carleton University, in 2020 and 2021, respectively. He has authored more than 60 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include the analysis and design of leaky-wave antennas, reconfigurable antennas, system-in-package, scalable phased array antennas, embedded RF module, sidelobe suppression, compact microwave sensors, and 5/6G mm-wave communication devices.
Dr. Rashed Nekvi is an Assistant Professor in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Brandon University, Manitoba. He also worked as an instructor teaching Software Engineering courses at the Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto and the Fanshawe College, London. Dr. Nekvi completed his bachelors in Computer Science and Information Technology from the Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh before pursuing his PhD and MSc in Computer Science from the Western University, London, ON, respectively, in 2016 and 2010. As a post-doctoral fellow at the Western University under the MITACS accelerate program, he was actively involved in several research projects including an industrial research project partnered with Juniper Networks, Canada. His area of research includes software engineering, requirements engineering, artificial intelligence, systems compliance, privacy, computer networks, and IoT security."
Ruben Barrera-Michel is the CEO of HMSM, company dedicated to provide logistic services to American Airlines, United Airlines and Copa Airlines at Guadalajara’s Airport, he is a consultant of these companies too.
Ruben received his Bachelor degree from Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (2004) and he had a Master Degree in Industrial Engineering (2007). He has been speaker in many conferences such as Leadership, Professional Development, Job Search, Interpersonal Skills, Self-Confidence, Retention & Recruitment in private and public universities.
In 2009 he was recognized as an outstanding engineer by the Governor of Jalisco State and Jalisco Engineer’s Chamber, and received in 2015 the Professional Outstanding Graduated Award from the Universidad del Valle de Atemajac for their work and commitment to society, for the exercise of values in their professional career. In 2021 he was appointed as Alumni Reference for his outstanding professional performance with a positive impact on society.
Ruben is in his 24th year of volunteer in IEEE. He started as a student member and volunteer. Since 2001 he has been involved in a large list of activities including conferences, networking and strategic planning. He has served in MGA Boards such as Section Congress Program Chair 2023, Admission and Advancement Chair, Training Committee Chair, Students Committee Chair and Member Benefits & Portfolio Assessment Committee Chair. In 2015, as Section Chair, Guadalajara city was selected by IEEE Future Direction Committee for the Smart Cities kick off. IEEE FDC invested about 450,000USD, to run this project and, in conjunction with my Section, we supported and supervised the Smart Cities project where local universities, Government and Industries were involved. It was also signed an MoU, with Ciudad Creativa. My roll was not only supervising the work as Section Chair but also as Financial Chair for the First IEEE Smart Cities Conference held in Guadalajara as a result of that pilot program. As Chair of A&A MGA Committee, in 2018, we achieved the goal of elevations by almost 500, and in 2019 with the online model passed our goal by 1200 elevations. In 2019 staff and myself implemented the online review process to avoid to print hundreds of applications that were used to be shipped the panels locations, saving a lot of economic resources to IEEE. He was elevated to Senior Member Grade in 2010.
As Chair of MGA Training Committee, we achieved our goal of providing 65 VoLT leaders each year. We received more than 350 applications in 2020. Also in 2020 we implemented the renewed VoLT program and renewed the IEEE 101 courses. I worked to renew all the content at CLE site with the SC2020 recommendations (as part of a request to have them available in on site) and SC Virtual Training online presentations.
Terry Branch is the Principal and Manager at PDR Technologies Inc. in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. PDR Technologies offers electrical engineering and risk management services to industrial operations. Terry is a licensed professional engineer with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He has led teams in project design, construction and commissioning of electrical power distribution systems in diverse industries including power plants, Pulp & Paper, mining and food processing operations. He is an industry strategist with a passion for discovering innovative ways to manage risks in electrical systems; highlighting opportunities for improvement in safety, equipment reliability, plant process effectiveness and overall operations optimization for sustainability. Terry is past Chairman of the Pulp & Paper Technical Association of Canada (PAPTAC) Electrical & Instrumentation committee and holds the Vice President position in Oakville Community Association (OCA). He actively contributes to technical standards committees at both the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He has presented technical papers at the IEEE, PAPTAC & Technical University of Nova Scotia conferences. Terry dedicates time to mentoring youth and providing project and career guidance to first-year engineering students in the Engineering Strategies & Practice (ESP) program at the University of Toronto. By sharing his industry knowledge and experiences, Terry helps shape the next generation of engineers.
Trina Semenchuk is currently a mechanical design engineer, a masters of science student in Biosystems Engineering, and the founder of Little Greenhouse That Could. Her research involves energy modelling of vertical farms, and her vision for her business is to turn Winnipeg into the vertical farming city of the world. She does this by providing consulting services to people and organizations, as well as selling indoor growing systems.
Vahid Ayan, P.Eng, MBA, PhD, is a dynamic strategist, accomplished engineer, and dedicated community builder with over two decades of experience in both the private and public sectors. Known for his visionary leadership, adept people management skills, and a strong track record of success, Vahid has led transformative community projects, managed high-performing teams, and consistently delivered tangible results through strategic initiatives.
His passion for fostering engineering has driven him to actively contribute and volunteer with APEGA in various roles since 2015.
Dr. Wahab Almuhtadi has over 33 years of industry experience, and in parallel, over26 years in academia. He’s a Professor and Coordinator of "Optical Systems and Sensors" Program at Algonquin College/Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He serves as a Research Council Member for Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Previously, he worked as Senior System Engineer at Nortel's Optical Solutions R&D. He played a key role in securing $10.5M fund for Applied Research & Innovations, leading to Algonquin College's transformation into a Polytechnic Institution. He founded $6M cutting-edge Optophotonics Lab/Optical Communications Network 200Gbps, the only lab of its kind in any educational institution. He co-founded $65M Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks-CENGN. His expertise in photonics, optical systems, and communications has earned him numerous awards, e.g. Laurent Isabelle Teaching Excellenc-2009e, the Canadian Pacific Railway Engineering Medal-2015. He’s a Professional Engineer, Senior IEEE Member, and of the Engineering Institute of Canada Fellow.
Dr. Almuhtadi is actively involved in IEEE for over 30-years serving in many executive level posts across IEEE (IEEE TAB/MGA, Society, Region, Section, Chapter, Committee, Student Branch). Just to name a few, he is currently 2024-2025 IEEE Canada President-Elect/ R7 Director-Elect, MGA. He’s 2022-2024 Chair, IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Technology Award Committee, and 2022-present Member, IEEE Service Awards Committee. He served as 2019-2022 President and BoG Chair of IEEE Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc), 2019-2020 ComSoc BoG Member/Director, ComSoc North American Region. He is a Director, IEEE Canadian Foundation and ICF Section Liaison Committee Chari. He’s ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer. He has organized and chaired 35+ international conferences (e.g. IEEE ICC’12, ICC’21, and currently ICC’25).
Wolfram Lunscher is a retired spacecraft instrumentation engineer with a B.Sc. in physics (’74) from the University of Toronto, and a B.A.Sc (’80) and M.A.Sc. (’83) in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia. He first joined the Canadian space industry in 1987 pursuing a diverse range of projects with companies such as Com Dev, EMS Technologies and Canadian Astronautics Ltd. These include data communication hardware flying on the International Space Station, a patented tracking algorithm developed for optical satellite communication that has been adapted to control the James Webb Space Telescope, and a radio science instrument aboard Canada's CASSIOPE spacecraft.
He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a Life Senior Member of the IEEE, and currently a lead engineer/mentor for the Carleton University CuSat fire-detection satellite capstone project.