Schulich Connects talks climate

In late September, the Schulich School of Engineering invited the public to the latest installment of Schulich Connects. 

The event, subtitled Engineering Innovations to Combat Climate Disasters, focused on climate change intensifying and what is required of engineers to prevent, mitigate and respond to the increasing amount of extreme weather impacting lives. 

The event started with a networking opportunity and breakfast, followed by a panel moderated by Dr. Alex Ramirez-Serrano, PhD, a Schulich professor who is also CEO of 4Front Robotics, a Calgary-based robotics company that develops highly maneuverable drones and custom field unmanned vehicles for deployment in highly confined spaces such as collapsed buildings. 

The topic was particularly close to Ramirez-Serrano, who experienced an earthquake when he was a child in Mexico. “Even though I was little, I saw the need for more assistance, more help not just to first responders, but to lawmakers, insurance companies,” he says. “There's a need, not just in manpower, but also in technology, better understanding, policymakers, there is a big need.”   

The three panelists were Sandy Cummings, BSc (Eng)’ 82, who provides civil engineering advice and assistance to national parks and historic sites; Dr. Shabnam Jabari, PhD, associate professor at the University of New Brunswick whose research involves 3D information-supported urban change detection systems; and Dr. W. Schuyler Hinman, BSc (Eng)'13, PhD'17, a Schulich assistant professor who is working on developing drones to fight forest fires. 

Cummings believes events like this are a wonderful way to break engineers out of their tendency to sometimes work in silos.  

“Civil engineers only work on the civil, the architects only work on the architect, the environmental guys only work on the environmental, and they don't collaborate,” says Cummings. “Hopefully, events like this will promote that, where they start to see that there is benefit to being able to do that (collaborate) and then everybody benefits from when that happens.” 

Jabari says events like Schulich Connects help her to, well, connect with people outside of academia and to learn the concerns they have so she can use those concerns to help inform her research. “I find this kind of activity is really helpful because they bring government, industry, academia all under the same roof and then provide them with the opportunity to discuss about the challenges and then hopefully trigger a few things in their mind and then see how we can collaborate,” says Jabari. 

Schulich Connects is sponsored by TD Insurance and hosts monthly events on various engineering topics. To learn more and register for upcoming events, visit the webpage.