Three members of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science received excellence awards from the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists Newfoundland and Labrador (PEGNL) association at its annual awards event recently.
The association recognized 10 members during the event.
Dr. Weimin Huang
Dr. Weimin Huang received the Teaching Award for his exemplary contributions in engineering education. The award not only recognizes exemplary teaching but also personal teaching effectiveness, leadership and outreach and continuing education activities.
While courses that Dr. Huang teaches involve complex theory and mathematics that are generally not favoured by students, students report that they highly regard his delivery of the material. In fact, some of his students have indicated they would like to have Dr. Huang instruct all their courses.
Dr. Huang is known to spend many hours making himself available to his students, including evening office hours prior to exams.
“The award is encouragement and stimulus to enhance my enthusiasm and improve my methodology in teaching.”
One of Dr. Huang’s teaching techniques is to prepare extensive sets of gapped course notes, which the students complete during class lectures. He believes this technique reduces the note-taking load on the students and enables effective and dynamic interaction in the classroom.
In addition to his classroom teaching, Dr. Huang has supervised several capstone projects for the senior students, which attests to the fact that he is highly committed to establishing the faculty’s reputation for a commitment to undergraduate education.
“I am honoured to receive this prestigious award,” said Dr. Huang. “The award is encouragement and stimulus to enhance my enthusiasm and improve my methodology in teaching. I appreciate the support from the students, colleagues and PEGNL.”
Dr. Dennis Peters
Dr. Dennis Peters received the Award for Service for his service to the profession and his substantial contributions to PEGNL.
Dr. Peters is a highly respected member of the engineering community and has made a significant impact to the profession across Canada. His research involves techniques for design and verification of software and computer systems with a particular focus on high-performance computing, real-time applications and parallel or distributed processing.
He is an active volunteer in both the professional engineering community and the broader community. He is a former chair of PEGNL and is the immediate past chair of the Qualification Board of Engineers Canada where he has been integral in transforming the delivery of services and quality to regulatory bodies. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
“It is a great honour to be recognized by my professional colleagues for my service to the profession in various roles,” said Dr. Peters. “I value very much the opportunities to work with so many dedicated and thoughtful colleagues in these roles. I feel that I gain so much more personally than I give.”
Dr. Glyn George
Dr. Glyn George was recognized with the Honorary Membership Award. It is an award the PEGNL board confers upon any person who, through his/her own initiative and leadership, has rendered eminent service to the profession which improves society through the development of new material, equipment, techniques, philosophy or management related to engineering or geoscience.
In addition to Dr. George’s professional work as a university professor, he has volunteered with the K-12 education system as a board member and elected officer, web master and community representative. Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. George has received numerous awards for his teaching, including the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Dean’s Award for teaching Excellence and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Academic Service.
“The faculty has been very good to me over the past 30 years, allowing me to concentrate on my strengths in teaching and academic service,” he said.
“I have found the teaching experience here to be the best of my career. My own educational background has prevented me from joining [the engineering] profession. As someone who has been an instructor for well over 4,000 engineering students, I feel an affinity with PEGNL. This honour is one I shall treasure forever.”
All three individuals are in the faculty’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Alumni recognition
Two engineering alumni also received awards. Kim Keating received the Community Service Award and Earl Ludlow received the Award of Merit.
PEGNL is an organization whose mandate is to regulate the practice of engineering and geoscience in the public interest. PEGNL exists so that there will be competent and ethical practice of engineering and geoscience in Newfoundland and Labrador and to ensure public confidence in sustainability and stewardship of the professions.
With files from PEGNL.
