Stay tuned for another Quantum Leaps event!
Find below more information on Quantum Leaps 2020 (March 5th)
Quantum Leaps is an event to engage young women and those who identify as such in science, engineering and technology post secondary education and/or careers. It’s an inspiring, interactive science and technology event designed for girls in grades 10-12 living in the Kootenay/Boundary region.
4:00 Registration
4:15 – 4:30: Welcome and Orientation
4:30-5:00: Keynote speakers
5:00-5:40: Dinner
5:45 – 6:30 – Workshop/Panel #1
6:35 – 7:20pm – Workshop/Panel #2
7:25 – 8:10 – Workshop/Panel #3
8:15 – 8:25 – Closing
Mary Austin, Director of Business Development, Austin Engineering Ltd. - Moderator
Mary Austin, Director of Business Development, Austin Engineering Ltd
Mary Austin is the Director of Business Development at Austin Engineering, and is responsible for positioning the company as the most responsive and innovative industrial engineering company in the Lower Columbia region. Mary tirelessly volunteers to promote economic development, innovation, and clean energy initiatives in the Columbia Basin and throughout BC. Her volunteer work includes serving as a board member for Columbia Basin Trust’s Impact Investment Fund, chair of the Community Engagement Committee for Community Futures of Greater Trail, vice chair of the Lower Columbia Development Team Society, and chair of Selkirk College’s Engineering Program Advisory Committee. A passionate ambassador for the region, Mary successfully campaigned for Clean Energy BC to host their 2019 spring conference in Trail, which showcased the Basin’s commitment to clean energy and its continuing contribution to long-term economic successes in metallurgy, forestry, mining, and high-tech sectors. Mary also founded the Lower Columbia Women’s Business Club, which fosters business opportunity for women in business, and is a champion for Advancing Women in Engineering and Technology. Her dedication to raising the bar for women in business was recognized with Kootenay Business Magazine’s Influential Woman in Business Award in 2016 – the same year the Trail District Chamber of Commerce honoured her with the Excellence Under 40 Award. Firmly rooted in the Kootenay region, Mary lives in Rossland, BC with her husband Roger and two children, where she enjoys coaching for the Nancy Greene Ski League.
Pilar Portela,President i4C
Pilar Portela,President, i4C Innovation
Pilar is a passionate leader with a long track record of successful management, and extensive knowledge of economic, technological, and business issues at a global level. With over 20 years of experience in business operations and project management in many tech industries, Pilar has worked by translating business ideas into beneficial products and services.
She has a deep understanding of strategic thinking and training with a focus on helping start-ups and minorities in rural areas. Her passion for rural sustainability and technology led her to move to the Kootenays where she has been ensuring her current endeavors thrive and grow as part of her larger vision in global rural economic development. She currently leads i4C and Astra by helping industries like our local mining and forestry operations tap into the power of the Internet of Things (IOT) to improve their environmental stewardship.
Come and listen as she talks about some of the exciting high technology projects that she and her team are paving the future with.
Gabrielle Herle, Safety Coordinator, Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd
Gabrielle Herle, Safety Coordinator, Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd
Gabrielle Herle began her journey on industrial job sites 11 years ago. Her work has taken her all over British Columbia and Alberta for projects large and small. In addition to being a Red Seal carpenter, champion associate of the BC Centre for Women in the Trades, and dedicated advocate for the safety profession, she is a noted speaker on the women in the trades movement. Recent highlights in her career include winning, on behalf of her current employer Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd., the BC Construction Safety Association Builders Code ‘Contractor of the Year 2019’ award, and a personal achievement of the ‘Excellence in Safety and Service’ award from her employer. When she is not working towards the goal of a positive, forward thinking, and sustainable safety culture, she enjoys the outdoors, team sports, and supporting local community events with friends and family.
Menush Akbari, Building Energy Analyst, Harmony Engineering Limited
Menush Akbari, Building Energy Analyst, Harmony Engineering Limited
Menush Akbari is an experienced building performance engineer specializing in building energy modelling, monitoring building energy use, and providing energy efficiency advice on all building system design details such as envelope, mechanical, and electrical details. Ultimately, Menush has a passion for reducing the energy use of buildings, and minimizing everyone’s carbon footprint through energy efficient designs. In the last 11 years, Menush has worked in the buildings sector, assisting architects & engineers improve their designs, and monitor the energy use of buildings to help building owners operate their buildings as intended, for optimal energy savings.
Menush has a degree in engineering within the mechanical discipline from Lakehead University, and holds a professional engineering license in BC and Alberta.
Jasmine Oliver, Production Superintendent, Teck
Jasmine Oliver, Production Superintendent, Teck
I was born and raised in Saskatoon, SK. and graduated from the U of S with a degree in Chemical Engineering. After school, I spent some time traveling abroad before moving to Toronto to start work. I spent two years working for a consulting company in Toronto and enjoying big city life. When potash started to boom, I transferred from Toronto back to Saskatoon for work. After about a year in Saskatoon I was ready for a new adventure and took a job with Teck at their Trail Operations. I am currently living in Rossland and when I am not working, I enjoy spending my time mountain biking or snowboarding with friends, and volunteering with West Kootenay Friends of Refugees and the West Kootenay division of Women in Engineering and Geoscience.
Anne Simonen, Civil Technologist, Kerr Wood Leidal
Anne Simonen, Civil Technologist, Kerr Wood Leidal
Anne Simonen has a diploma in Civil Engineering and a degree in Construction Management, both from BCIT. Currently, she works for Kerr Wood Leidal Associates as a civil engineering technologist. There, she’s involved in projects from watermain and sewer main design and construction, water treatment and wastewater treatment design, and contract administration and project management. In her spare time, she’s a Girl Guide leader, and loves lots of sports that get her outside no matter the season.
Join Gabrielle Herle and other women in the Industrial Trades as you learn about the diversity of career options available, explore the tools of the trade, and debunk some myths about what it’s like to work in the industrial trades.
Gabrielle Herle, Safety Coordinator, Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd
Gabrielle Herle, Safety Coordinator, Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd
Gabrielle Herle began her journey on industrial job sites 11 years ago. Her work has taken her all over British Columbia and Alberta for projects large and small. In addition to being a Red Seal carpenter, champion associate of the BC Centre for Women in the Trades, and dedicated advocate for the safety profession, she is a noted speaker on the women in the trades movement. Recent highlights in her career include winning, on behalf of her current employer Chinook Scaffold Systems Ltd., the BC Construction Safety Association Builders Code ‘Contractor of the Year 2019’ award, and a personal achievement of the ‘Excellence in Safety and Service’ award from her employer. When she is not working towards the goal of a positive, forward thinking, and sustainable safety culture, she enjoys the outdoors, team sports, and supporting local community events with friends and family.
Anne Simonen, Civil Technologist, KERR WOOD LEIDAL
Anne Simonen, Civil Technologist, Kerr Wood Leidal
Anne Simonen has a diploma in Civil Engineering and a degree in Construction Management, both from BCIT. Currently, she works for Kerr Wood Leidal Associates as a civil engineering technologist. There, she’s involved in projects from watermain and sewer main design and construction, water treatment and wastewater treatment design, and contract administration and project management. In her spare time, she’s a Girl Guide leader, and loves lots of sports that get her outside no matter the season.
The workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to learn what the difference is between rocks and minerals and why minerals are absolutely critical to our society, the environment and even their own wellbeing. Hands-on mineral identification will give participants an opportunity to use their observation skills. Anelda will demonstrate the important role that scientists play from discovering mineral deposits to making the final products.
Anelda Van Staden, Senior Process Mineralogist, Teck
Anelda Van Staden, Senior Process Mineralogist, Teck
Anelda has a background in mineralogy and holds a Ph.D. in geology. She has 18 years experience in the mining industry and is currently employed by Teck’s Technical Services in Trail, British Columbia as a Senior Process Mineralogist. She was born and raised in South Africa where her love of rocks started at a young age. She completed her tertiary studies in geology, geography and environmental management and continued with research of rocks from the Kalahari Manganese Field to complete a M.Sc. in this area. With her passion for research, she continued studying ancient glacial-derived sediments from Western Gondwana traveling from the glaciers of Patagonia and the Andes Mountains in Argentina to the deserts of Namibia and the escarpments of Western South Africa.
Anelda began her career as a mineralogist with Anglo American Research Laboratories (Johannesburg, South Africa) in 2003 and gained experience in the application of a variety of different tools that are used to study the smallest building blocks of rocks, minerals, at Anglo’s diverse operations. She joined Teck in 2011 and still helps to transform the mineralogical data and her passion for rocks into knowledge to maximize gains at all levels of the mine life cycle for Teck’s diverse deposits and operations. The mineralogical data is the key that helps to unlock the value of the ore deposits and identify potential risks associated with mining operations so our communities can thrive. She is continually exploring and evaluating new technologies to solve problems, improve efficiencies, and adopt new practices to demonstrate that we care for the communities and environment where we work and live. She has two young daughters, Andonae and Clarissa, and other than her passion for rocks also enjoys playing with them, playing piano, and squash, hiking and snowboarding.
Catherine Carreiro, Senior Research Technologist, Technical Services
Catherine Carreiro, Senior Research Technologist, Technical Services
Catherine is a Senior Research Technologist at Technical Services in Trail, British Columbia. She was born in Oakville, Ontario and moved to Castlegar when she was 19 to complete Selkirk College’s Integrated Environmental Technology Diploma program. She started working at the Ministry of Environment in the Environmental Quality and Environmental Protection branch in Nelson, British Columbia where she would: manage the lab, monitor air quality in the region, enforce fire regulations, check on local snow packs, survey Okanagan lakes and prepare fish from the Flathead River to check Selenium levels. In 2007 she got the call to interview for a technician position at Teck and started with the company in April of that year. Since then, Catherine has been working in the Applied Mineralogy group on many different projects that have come along: preparing samples for MLA and XRD analysis from mill samples to drill core, exploring comminution and lapidary techniques and developing methods to refine our data production abilities. She is a co-chair of the Technical Services Trail Joint Health and Safety Committee and chair of the Inclusion and Diversity committee. In her free time she plans and leads meetings for the Castlegar Brownie group and likes to unwind by knitting, reading and playing video games.
This workshop will be a question and answer session utilizing an app which will display answers from the group in real time on the presentation screen. The questions will be about engineering and the role engineers play in society. Workshop attendees answering multiple choice questions using the app downloaded on their phones. A summary of all the answers from the group will be displayed on the screen as soon as answers are logged. The group answers will facilitate discussion and learning.
Ruth Keyes, Senior Hydrotechnical Engineer, Austin Engineering
Ruth Keyes, Senior Hydrotechnical Engineer, Austin Engineering
Ruth Keyes holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering and specializes in hydrology, hydraulic design, earthworks, and surface and ground water management projects. She has more than 10 years of experience as a consulting engineer with Optimatics, the City of Port Adelaide Enfield in South Australia, and Golder Associates in Calgary, AB. Ruth has worked with Austin Engineering, both full-time and as a consultant, since 2015, and is pleased to be Austin Engineering’s new full-time Senior Hydrotechnical Engineer.
Rachel Moore, Superintendent Process Optimization, Teck Resources Limited
For more information contact glows@kast.com
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