Friday, March 13, 1998 The Newspaper of the University of Waterloo Engineering Society

Waterloo Sweeps OEC

BY Ro CHOI
OEC Internal Advertising
I
n the last weekend of February, about
140 competitors from Engineeri ng
school acros the provi nce came to
Waterloo to participate in the Ontario
Engineering Competition (OEC). OEC is
an annual competition whose purpose is to
promote engineering excellence in the
areas of design and communication. The
weekend was filled with presentations,
debates and di plays howcasi ng the tal-
ent and idea of the next generation of
engineering professionals.
The competition began the afternoon
of Friday, February 27th with the opening
ceremonies. Competitors and judges
dined in the South Campus Festival Room,
after the introductory speeches of Amy Lai
and Susan Lee, co-chairs of the Waterloo
OEC organizing committee. AcapellEng
wa also in attendance at the opening cer-
emonie , to perform a few songs for the
guests. From there the participants were
shuttled to DC and SLC, where almost all
of the competition began right away. The
events ran from 7- !o that evening, and
afterward the organizer and volunteers
joined the judges and competitor to spend
the rest of the night at the Bomber.
Bright and early the next morning, the
competitions began again. They ran
almost straight from 8:00am until 4:30pm,
after which the judges deliberated and
picked their winner. The awards were
presented at a banquet at the Waterloo Inn,
where all of the visiting competitors and
judges were staying. After the banquet,
the organizers and participants gathered in
the hospitality suites of the Waterloo Inn
and partied the night away with a good
supply of batch, ending a very successful
competition.
Overall, the Ontario Engineering
A workout and a haLf' Kate Hoye (left) alld Diane Cameron show the Waterloo trend at OEC by
displaying their many amassed awards.
Competition at Waterloo was a great suc-
ces. Amy Lai, Susan Lee, and all of the
directors and volunteers who helped to
organize and run the weekend de erve a
round of applause and a good beer.
The Competition
OEC consists of six events:
Explanatory Communications, Editorial
Communications, Parliamentary Debate,
Corporate Design, Entrepreneurial Design
and Team Design. Each category was
judged by a number of Engineers in indus-
try, and there was some pretty strong com-
petition. All of the competitors performed
excellently, but this year Waterloo had an
amazing showing, winning top honours in
all of the categories, and sweeping the
Editorial Communications category.
Explanatory Communications
In this category, competitors are
required to explain a complicated techni-
cal issue or proce in terms that others
professionals can clearly understand.
Each presentation was a half hour long,
followed by a 15 minute Q&A period. The
explanatory communication category was
the most popular for OEC participant this
year, with about 15 teams competing.
Some of the topics included: data encryp-
(see "OEC. .. ", page 3)
Bus Push Exceeds $5,000 Goal
BY JENN MOTUZ
Bus Push Director
S
ince 1984 the Waterloo Engineering
Society has organized the Bus Pu h
for Big Sisters and over the year we
have rai ed nearly a $100 000 for the Big
Sisters (and had a lot of fun while doing it)
This year's Bus Pu h for Big Sisters wa a
huge ucce bringing out over one hun-
dred people to help pull the bu and collect
donations from the pectators. With a
week left to bring in pledge. we've
already raised over $3000 which, com-
bined with the $2500 rai ed by Big Si ters
for the event urpasses our goal of raising
5000 at the event.
At 9 a.m. on March 7, 100 engineers,
(see "Engineers ... ", page 5)
Volume 22 Issue 4
UW Places
Third inACM
U IVERSITY OF WATERLOO
New Bureau
T
he University of Waterloo's tudent
team fini hed third in the finals of
the world' large t computer pro-
gramming competition held Saturday in
Atlanta.
First place went to Charles Univer ity
of Prague, Czech Republic, which olved
the six programming problems in 919
minutes. Russia's St. Peter burg State
University took second, olving the ix
problems in 1021 minutes. UW solved the
six problems in 1026 minutes for third
spot.
This i the sixth consecutive year that
a UW team has competed in the World
Finals of the Association for Computer
Machinery's International Collegiate
Programming Contest in Atlanta. In 1994,
a UW team won the ACM championship.
UW's team was made up of Derek
Kisman, Chris Hendrie, and David
Kennedy. Kisman, second-year pure
mathematics and computer science, is
from Calgary, while Hendrie, fourth-year
com uter ience, is from Owen Sound,
and Kennedy, fourth-year applied mathe-
matics, is from Seaforth, Ont.
The two other Canadian universities
. in the finals were the University of
Alberta, which placed eighth, and McGill
Univer ity, which placed 17th. The top
American team was the Mas achusett
Institute of Technology, placing fifth.
A total of 54 college and uoiver ily
teams, 'elected from 1,250 around the
world advanced to la t Saturday's ACM
finals after a serie. of regional qualifying
rounds.
In This Issue ...
Canadian Engineering Competition ... 3
To the Point .............. .... ... 4
Beyond Ring Road ................ 5
Interview with Doug Beynon ........ 6
The Crazy Carrot. .... ....... . .... 7
Bog's Canoon ................. 7
Engineering Ans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Humanitarian Award Submissions. 11-13
Executive Reports ........... .. 14-15
Mathematics PlaygroUnd .......... 16
"The best antidote for pseudoscience, I firmly believe, is science" - Carl Sagan
2 News & Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13,1998
Pledge for Continued Excellence
BY BRIAN HILL
48 Electrical
T
he 1998 Plummer's Pledge is about
to begin! It's that time of year again
when representatives from the
Class of '98 will be canvassing graduating
classes for the Plummer's Pledge. All
graduating st udents will be asked to con-
sider making a three
and several important projects have
already been funded from the interest
earnings. Thi s term the Waterloo
Engineering Endowment Funding Council
was able to allocate $110,000 for various
projects.
The Plummer's Pledge plays a criticaJ
role in the Endowment Fund. One of the
most important aspects of this pledge is
the commitment from
year pledge to the
faculty. The first
contribution on that
pledge does not
come due until one
year after gradua-
tion.
"The Class of '98
can make a real
difference to the
future of the F acuity. "
new graduates like
you and me. We see
firsthand the prob-
lems under-funding is
causing and we
should be determi ned
to maintain the quali -
Thi s very
important student initiative is in its 10 year
- the first class to initiate this program and
pledge their support was the Class of '89.
The money, along with donations from the
Voluntary Student Contribution, has been
directed toward the Waterloo Engineering
Endowment Foundation (WEEF). Thi s
student run endowment has grown quickly
ty and reputation of
our degrees. Furthermore, when pledging
our support, it is necessary for us to think
carefully about the level of commitment
we are making and whether we will be
able to fulfill the commitment in one
year's time. Follow through is criticaJ to
the success of the program si nce planning
takes place well in advance.
Participation is the goal for this year' s
program. A Plummer's Pledge director
for the 1998 campaign, I have set a 70%
participation goa\. I encourage all students
to participate in the Plummer' s Pledge at a
level with which they feel comfortable.
With the current economic situation, we
are focusing on the number of people par-
ticipating, not necessarily the amount of
money pledged. Students are encouraged
to pledge what they think they can reason-
ably afford a year from now.
The Class of '98 can make a real dif-
ference to the future of the Faculty. Our
participation makes a strong statement
about our commitment and it will encour-
age others, such as alumni, faculty, staff,
corporations and foundations to support
their faculty. The pledge campaign period
is March 1 toApril 10. Further information
on the Plummer's Pledge is available from
the WEEF Office, from a class rep near
you or you can email me (bahill@novice)
with any questions.
Congratulations to the Class of '98,
let's make it something speciaJ.
Letter to the Editor:
Dear Iron Warrior, side of the engineers. A train carrying a
load of steel overloaded the bridge, and I
guess the rest is hi story. So is that where
our rings come from? I personally asked
the warden at the introductory talks, he
said no. However, on websites located on
Queen's, Toronto and Manitoba, they all
I am currently fini shing my la t term
in engineering. After all these years, I've
always wondered where the Iron Ring
came from. I've heard about a bridge that
collapsed due to poor judgement on the

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talk about the same bridge. Perhaps they
just plagiarized off each others' sites (typ-
ical engineering assignment habits). I am
wondering if the Iron Warrior has any past
articles that it can reprint. Also, the war-
den mentioned that the ring used to be
made of iron, but now it is made of steel.
If the story about the train is true, then per-
haps it was always made of steel. Another
que tion I have is, "Why are we called
plummers?"
Thanks for the ears,
Kenny Fung
Editor's response:
Dear Kenny,
The IW Investigative Reporting Team
hasfoulld out that the iron rings may have
previollsly been made of iron which came
from the bridge. However, this is uncon-
firmed and some say that it is unlikely. In
more recent years, the rings are made of
stainless steel to increase their longevity.
It is doubtful that any material from the
bridge can be found in the rings of today 's
graduates yet the myth lives on. The iron
ring is a symbol which signifies thai the
bearer has attended the Ritual of the
Calling of an Engineer and has voluntari -
ly taken the obligation. Successful com-
pletion of an accredited engineering
program does not automatically qualify
you to receive the ring. You must also
attend the Ritual and make the Obligation.
The Ritual is a sincere and dignified cere-
mony dealing with the philosophical and
practical aspects of the life of the engineer.
As for your other question regarding
why we are called plummers, we will have
to dig a little deeper to find the answer.
What we do know is that the term has been
around for a long time and was once used
to describe engineering officers in the
armed services. Sarah Davies (EngSoc
President) is particularity interested in
your question. She told us she will
research the topic and write an article in
the next issue depending on if she can find
the time.

The Newspaper of the University of
Waterloo Engineering Society
Editor - in - Chief
Pierre Menard
Assistant Editors
Andrew Hately
Jaime Tiampo
Layout Editor
Alan Cannistraro
Photo Editor
Chris McKillop
WWWEditors
Dushyant Bansal
Frank Yong
Staff
Daryl Boyd
Huyis Deez
Ryan Chen-Wing
RaymondHo
Eugene Huang
Liz Jones
Yada lubandhu
Lincol Lin
Jenn Motuz
Lynn Walker
ContributorsI'
Paul Ce ana
Christine Cheng
Gary Cheng
Bogdan Chmielewski
Ron Choi
Ander. en Consulting
Sarah Davies
Chris Ford
Jeff Gobatto
Brian HrIl
Alexis Jay
Vladimir Joanovic
Caroline Karlgard
Dan Kim
Alex Matan
Rock Radovan
Jame Sinton
UW News Bureau
The Iron Warrior is a forum for thought provolcing
and infonnative anicles published by the Engineering
Society. Views expressed in The Iron Warrior are
those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the Engineering Society_
The Iron Warrior eocourages submi ssions from stu
dents, faculty and members of the university COmmu-
nity. Submissions should reflect the concerns and
intellectual standards of the university in general. The
author's name and phone number should be included.
All ubmi ssions. unless otherwise Slated, become the
property of The Iron Warrior. wltich reserves the
right to refuse publication of material which it deems
unsuitable. The Iron Warrior also reserves the right
to edit grammar, spelling and text that do not meet
university standards. Authors will be notified of any
major changes !.hat may be required.
Mail hould be addressed to The Iron Warrior.
Engineering Society, CPH 1323B. University of
Waterloo. Waterloo. Ontario, N2L 3G I. Our phone
number is (519) 8884567 x2693. Our fax number is
(S 19) 725-4872. E-mail can be sent to
...
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 199 ews & Information 3
OEC a Success; Waterloo Wins First Place in Every Event
(continued from cover)
tion, LCD display, landing gear modeling
programs, helicopter de ign improvement
and Lego model .
Editorial Communications
This category focuses on communica-
tion skills, a well a the ability to formu-
late and support a per onal viewpoint.
Discus ion of current controversial tech-
nological i sues is encouraged, and thi
year a number of the pre entation dealt
with genetic engineering. Some of the
other topics included the afety of food
irradiation and impact of intelligence te. t-
ing. Waterloo dominated in this category,
with 5 of the 8 conte tants coming from
Waterloo Engineering. The e presenta-
tions were very well prepared, and com-
petitor sold hislher idea convincingly.
Parliamentary Debate
This event uses the style of parlia-
mentary debate, where competitors must
defend or refute a resolution using well-
formulated arguments on short notice. All
of the competitors had to think on their
feet , and their arguments had to be both
factual and convincing. This competition
drew some of the largest crowds over the
weekend, as these debates can get pretty
heated and amusing. The resolutions
included both the erious and the creative,
ranging from 'Be it resolved that Coke is
it' , to ' ... Beer is the centre of everything',
to the legalization of marijuana.
Corporate Design
The corporate design category gives
students an opportunity to develop a solu-
tion to a current industrial problem. Thi s
year there wer only thre team: c mp l-
ing in the corporate design category, but
each team had an excellent solution to a
real life industry problem.
Entrepreneurial Design
In thi category, students are encour-
aged to design a marketable product or er-
vice which is currently unavailable in
Canada. The projects were required to be
technically feasible, with a solid marketing
plan, and all of the competitors delivered.
This year, the competition covered a vari-
ety of innovative new product ideas, from
motorized page turners to brake powered
bike lights to ergonomic gynecological leg
supports to traffic update ystems. Expect
to . ee some of these product' on the mar-
ket in year. to come.
Team D ign
Thi categor) feature. the [alent of
only first year engineers, and is \'er) simi-
lar to Enginuity competition held b)
EngSoc. Thi year's problem: To de 'ign
and build an apparatus (in :2 hour ') which
will remove a dart from a 2.5 meter circle,
and then drop the dart into the centre of a
small target near the centre of the circle.
The teams also had additional con traints
of co t of material and tools. and limited
supply of the materiaL. There was al 0 a
high school team design contest, u ing the
ame problem, running in parallel with the
univer iry level competition, without ome
of the de ign con. traints. The team were
required to present and explain their solu-
tion, and demon trate it in the least amount
of time with the mo t-amount of accuracy .
. Some of the de ign. focu ed on speed and
efficiency, others on size and cost, ome
on elegance and creativity, but all were
excellent solutions to a difficult problem.
The winners:
Explanatory Commul1ications
1st Place: Parker Mitchell, Waterloo,
2nd Place: Phil Laird, Queen's, Airborne
L1DAR Wind Shear Detection and
Avoidance
3rd Place: Andrea Andrachuk, Rebecca
Kaufman, RMC, Analysis and
Redesign of Ch 124 Sea King Tail
Wheel Support
Editorial Communications
1st Place: Parker Mitchell, Waterloo,
fier the tt' aty: h Techno 0 i I
Challenges of De-mining
2nd Place: TOI1ya Sulley, Waterloo, Food
Irradiation: Safer Food for the Future?
3rd Place: Timothy Burns, Waterloo,
Information Technology and Flow:
Do PCs in the Home Improvc Quality
of Life?
Parliamel1tary Debate
1st Place: Alex Pak, Doug Suerich,
Waterloo
2nd Place: Colin Stairs, Dilip Andrade,
Queen's
3rd Place (Tied): Bruno Bratti, Jason
Worry, Waterloo
Timothy Burns, William Lee, Waterloo
Alex Pak (left) (llId Doug Suerich lise their c[el'er tongues 10 cleal/ up ill Parliamelllary Dehales
Corporate Design
1st Place: Tyler Close. Waterloo, ertllne
2.0: GSM I landover TUl1l1lg
2nd Place: Dan O'Connell, John
Paul Bowles, Shefldan I:thll.'I,
WINC'I I: Waterloo IntellIgent CranL'
Research
3rd Place: BCIl Seger, Lianm: Ing. Richard
Ng, Vince DiStefano, Torollln, Design
of an Isomerization Process
Ellfreprell(!urial Desigll
1st Place: Diane Cameron, Kate Iloye,
Waterloo, Ergonomic Gynecological
Leg Support System
2nd Place: James Kay, Jon Carter,
Western, Buddy Bar Ltd.
3rd PlilC(,: Vernon Kcc, Ryerson, Tetra
Pagl' Il1Illl'l
'/1'11/11 I k.li K"
ht PhIl'!.' : Rim"", Jason Thalll,
Kevin WOIl!! , Wllllli 'I W:llaloo
2nd 1)ltlCl': Andrl'w hll wal d, Dylan
Wa\lgh, Kevin illlmiltoll, Neil
Schul1l'r!,Otwwu
3rd Plal'c: ('hlis Wmkll1:lI1, Kim hancis,
Monica JlorJlIlf, Nicolas Perrier,
Ottawa
UW Students Triumph at
Canadian Engineering Contest
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
News Bureau
U
niversity of Waterloo engineering
students excelled at the Canadian
Engineering Competition held in
Ottawa last weekend, building on their
earlier success at a provincial qualifying
round.
"Against the best competitors from
the other regional competition , Waterloo
students won eight of the possible 21
awards at the national competition - no
other Canadian university did nearly so
well," said UW Prof. John McPhee, sys-
tems design engineering, and faculty advi-
sor for the UW team.
"They succeeded in winning an amaz-
ing number of awards, including the pres-
tigious WR. Petrie Award and first place
in three of the six competition categories."
Fifteen UW st udents qualified for the
Canadian competition after placing in first
or second in the various contest categories
of the recent Ontario
place for "The Silence of the Lamb: How
Dolly Changed the Face of Genetic
Engineering," which, as Mitchell explains,
"dealt with some of the medical and social
i 'ues surrounding genetic engineering
---------------------
and explained why
we should continue
to pursue research in
this field."; Tonya
Sulley, chemical
engineering: third
for "Food
Engineering
Competition.
The official list of
all winners i posted
on the Canadian
Engineering
Competition home
p age
www.cec98.cfes.ca
Here are the UW winners:
"Waterloo students won
eight of the possible 21
awards at the national
competition. "
Irradiation."
Explanatory
Communication - Parker Mitchell: third
for "The Next Step: The Technical
Challenge of Landmine Removal. "
Editorial Communication - Parker
Mitchell , mechanical engineering: first
Entrepreneurial Design - Kate
Hoye, Diane Cameron, systems design
engineering: firs! for "Ergonomic
Gynecological Leg Support System."
Corporate Debign - Paul Bowles,
Sheridan Ethier, Dan O'Connell , John
O'Reilly, systems design engineering: (jrst
for "Waterloo Intelligent Crane Research."
Extemporaneous Debate - Alex
Pak, Doug Suerich, systems design engi-
neering: third.
As well, UW won twO of the three
auxil iary awards. The Social Awareness
Award went to Parker Mitchell, while the
WR. Petrie Award for best overall
at the competition was won by Tyler
Close, electrical and computer engineer-
ing.
4
ANDERSEN
CONSULTING
1997 Andersen Consulting
All rights reserved.
.Video on demand
Improved technology boosts the sys-
tem's viability
In the early 1990's, video on demand
(YoD) was widely heralded as the next big
thing in home entertainment. But after ini -
tial experiments with the technology
proved too expensive and bulky to imple-
ment on a large scale, pundits scoffed that
YoD was one of the largest disappoint-
ments in the hi tory of high-tech.
Editorials proclaiming "Yideo on Demand
is Dead!" appeared in business and tech-
nology publications worldwide. But don't
look now: Advancing technology and
continued investment could bring YoD to
your home after all.
The potential market is enormous.
International Data Corp. (TOC) finds that
Americans alone spend approximately $8
billion annually renting movie in brick-
and-mortar video stores. Add an estimated
everal billion more for special pay-per-
view shows and purchased videotapes, and
it is not surprising that investors are reluc-
tant to abandon their hopes for YoD. And
with prices of set-top boxes falling quick-
ly, the technology may finally be within
reach for the average con umer.
What happened?
Cable TY companies have offered
"near video on demand" (NVoD) for sev-
eral years. NVoD is a pay-per-view s s-
tem that enables customers to watch their
movie selection at one of everal show-
times-8:00, 8: 15, 8:30, or 8:45, for
example. Viewers have no control over
the broadcast and cannot pause or rewind
their selection. Conversely, true VoD sys-
tems give users complete control over their
viewing selection, including pause,
rewind, and fast-forward functions. Based
on high-powered video servers, YoD sys-
tems can supply the same video to a host
of different users without sacrificing the
quality. But, as the RBOCs quickly
learned earlier this decade, the lack of eco-
nomical network bandwidth limit the via-
bility of any VoO project.
But bandwidth is only part of the
problem. Time Warner, regional Bell
operating companies (RBOCs), and cable
operators spent hundred of millions of
dollars building and testing true YoD sys-
tems in the early 19908. [n early trials,
unwieldy TV set-top boxes costing several
thousand dollars each were installed in
consumers' homes for free. Although the
tests found Significant consumer demand
for enhanced home-entertainment ser-
vices, the technology turned out to be pro-
hibitively expensive, even for a
first-generation system. Time Warner
announced last May that it would limit it
much-hyped "interactive TV" experiment
in Orlando, Florida to a VoD-only system.
Company officials ay the Orlando pilot
demonstrated trong con umer demand for
VoO systems, but critics argue that the set-
top boxes used in the Time Warner pilot
were much too expensive to be viable in
the marketplace at large.
So why might it work now?
The main impediment to widespread
adoption of YoD-cost-is beginning to
change. The price of the set-top boxe that
receive video streams has fallen from sev-
eral thousand dollars each to approximate-
News & Information The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
To THE POINT
A COMPILATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ABSTRACTS
Iy $300. Cheaper, more powerful file
servers can distribute video content to
more clients than ever before. And the
average cost of installing a single client-
server "stream" has dropped to just $500,
well below the $1,000 threshold of cost-
effectiveness. analysts say. Even the band-
width situation is gradually improving.
A number of companies are betting
that the "fai lure" of interactive TY in the
early 1990s was no more than a bump in
the road.
Time Warner-continuing its push for
consumer VoD- has ordered 500,000
advanced set-top boxes from NextLevel
and 500,000 more from Scientific-Atlanta
(http://www.sciall.com) and Pioneer.
Company officials say Time Warner plan
to add e-mail and basic Internet services
after basic YoD takes hold in the market-
place.
o The Public Broadcasting Service. (PBS)
has cho en streami ng technology provider
VDOnet (http://www.vdonel.com) to build
an architecture that will allow users to
access PBS programs over the Internet
from their PCs.
o Cable operators in the US state of
Pennsylvania are (esting a service from
Diva Systems (Iztlp:llwww.diva.com)
dubbed OnSet. Customers pay $5.95 per
month for access to the VoD service, and
pay an additional $3.95 for new release
movies and $2.95 for older titles.
o Intertainer (http://www.interraille!: com).
a project supported by Comcast and Intel,
streams movies, games, and other content
to users who have high-bandwidth cable or
DSL modem connections.
Perhaps the most compelling example
of YoD's success in the real world is one
that hits close to home. Hongkong
Telecommunications (HKT
http://www.hkt.com) partnered with
Andersen Consulting to design and launch
a pilot YoD program. HKT announced in
November of 1997 that it had won a gov-
ernment license to roll out video on
demand ervices to nearly 88,000 house-
holds. Hong Kong's extremely high popu-
lation density made the deployment of a
special broadband network infrastructure
feasible. Company officials say approxi-
mately 90 percent of the territory's citizens
will have access to the ervice within three
years.
Continued advance in video on
demand make it a technology that telecom-
munications companies and content
providers cannot afford to ignore. And
while ollle cable companies worry that
VoD will only erve to cannibalize their
customer ba e, the technology' potential
in that industry i undeniable. Most peo-
ple will not throw out their video cassette
recorders ju t yet, but don't be urprised
when it happen,.
By Michael J. Fenner
Hot Buttons
Netscape releases SuiteS pot 3.5
Net cape Communications ha begun
shipping version of its SuiteS pot line of
bundled Web server products de igned to
help companie deploy applications acros
extranet. Company officials say version
3.5 includes improved performance and
scalability; a faster. more reliable directory
with automatic fail-over and backup; and
an "express clients" facility that allows
u ers to access Netscape Me saging
Server or Net cape Calendar Server with
any Web brow er. SuiteSpot 3.5 is the
first product from any vendor to use ver-
sion 3.0 of the Lightweight Directory
Access Protocol (LOAP) standard, accord-
ing to Netscape.
Based on "Netscape targets extranets
with SuiteSpot 3.5," by Stannie Holt,
InfoWorId, 16 February 1998, p. 5 I;
"Netscape hits the SuiteSpot," by Ellis
Booker, InternetWeek, 16 February 1998,
p.27.
IBM to help Sun finish the JavaOS
Sun Microsystems and IBM have
formed an alliance to bolster the JavaOS as
a strong and reliable platform for network
computers (NCs), according to company
officials. The alliance is part of the com-
panies' strategy to position pure Java-
based NCs a a low-cost, low-mai ntenance
alternative to Wintel PCs.
Company officials say IBM will pool
its 2,400 Java developers with Sun's team
to resolve a number of difficulties with the
JavaOS that have delayed the release of
Java NCs. These problems include ecuri-
ty, servicing, device driver, and admini -
tration issues. The companies will
co-develop tools and services for Java
developers and will collaborate on educa-
tional and certification services. IBM will
also help Sun market the JavaOS in order
to demonstrate that it is a non-proprietary
operating sy tern, according to company
officials. After lm I8-month delay, Sun
will finally ship its lavaStation NC by the
end of this month, and IBM is planning to
release a JavaOS-based Network Station
NC later this year.
Based on "Sun enlists IBM for
JavaOS aid," by Mary Haye,
InformationWeek, 23 February 1998, p.
21.
.New Age Architectures
Sun to release completed Enterprise
JavaBeans spe<:ification
Sun Microsystems is readying its
Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) specification
for release later this month. EJB is a erv-
er- ide, component-based model that
allows Java objects to interact in distrib-
uted environments. The pecification will
enable developers to build business logic
and database access components that can
run acro s platforms.
The EJB specification was developed
by Sun with a number of leading industry
partner including BEA Systems, IBM,
Netscape, Oracle, Syba e, and WebLogic.
Some functionalities-including multi-
threading and location-independence-
were 9mitted in order to reach a consensus
among the participants. Several vendors
are planning to release tools and server
based on the EJB specification later this,
year .
Based on "JavaBean spec nears
release," by Rich Levin,
InformationWeek, 23 February 1998, p.
22.
IBM, Intel unveil new system manage-
ment te<:hnology
IBM and Intel announced new jointly-
deveioped hardware and oft ware technol-
ogy featuring PC ystem management and
asset-protection capabilitie . The Alert on
LA system will alert network adminis-
trations of PC problem -including con-
figuration changes and operating system
if the PC is turned off or
connected to the network from a remote
location. Company official say Alert on
LAN will also protect PCs from theft and
vandalism by alerting admini trators if a
system is disconnected from the network
or if valuable components such as memo-
ry chips or microprocessors are removed.
The technology will be built into Intel's
forthcoming 82558 LAN-on-motherboard
chipset, and will be offered in IBM's PC
300 corporate desktop devices and its
IntelliStation workstations later this year.
Alert on LAN is the latest product
from the Advanced Manageability
Alliance that was formed by IBM and Intel
in 1996. Previously, the all iance offered
Wake on LAN, which allows a networked
PC to be turned on remotely for mainte-
nance and administrative purpo es such as
software updates.
Based on "PC problems flagged," by
Bob Francis, Information Week; 23
February 1998, p. 121; "Intel Alert on
LAN announced," by Emily Fitzhoff,
InfoWorld, 23 February 1998, p. 10.
Universal Network
British Telecommunications introduces
micropayment system
British Telecommunications (BT)
unveiled a new Internet micropayment
system, dubbed Array, designed to manage
tran actions worth between 16 cents and
$16.50. Micropayments allow customers
to purchase small chunks of data-a single
magazine article or a one-use-only digital
game, for example--over the Internet. In
the Array system, consumers use a credit
card to obtain an account with BT.
Registered users can then purchase
goods and services at participating mer-
chants' Web sites, which contact BT for
purchase authorization and biJling.
Analysts say Web content providers could
be attracted to the BT micropayment sys-
tem as an alternative to the sub cription-
ba ed Internet sales models that have
gained limited popUlarity so far.
Based on "BT payment trial handles
small Web transactions," by Sharon
Machlis, Computerworld, 23 February
1998, p. 4.
.Worldwide Marketplace
Microsoft acquires Flash
Communications
Micro oft has acquired in tant mes-
aging systems vendor Flash
Communications for an undisclosed
amount. Flash's technology allows PC
users to participate in real-time electronic
conversations via an on-screen pop-up
window. Microsoft officials say the soft-
ware giant intends to build Flash?s mes-
saging capabilitie rnto its Exchange
Server system. Analysts believe the acqui-
sition illustrates Microsoft's ongoing strat-
egy to integrate emerging technologies
with its core software systems.
Based on "Microsoft bags instant
messaging company," by Barbara Darrow,
Computer Reseller News, 23 February
1998, p. www.techweb.com/investorlstoryl
INV19980223AOOI
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998 News & Information 5
Paul Martin announces balanced budget;
Lake Champlain to become 6th Great Lake
National ews
O
n February
24, Finance
Minister Paul
Martin announced the
first deficit-free feder-
al budget in 28 years.
He also colllJlti ted the
Liberal government to
zero-deficit budgets for the next three
years. Reform Leader Preston Manning
was unimpressed with Martin' s budget,
arguing the government should have gone
deeper in its tax cuts.
Martin's budget arso calls for a
Millennium Scholarship Foundation that
will hand out grants averaging $3000 to
needy students over a to-year period,
starting in the 2000. The endowment .of
$2.5 billion will provide about 100,000
scholarships.
Quebec Liberal Party leader Daniel
John on resigned on March 2. Premier
Lucien Bouchard commented that a
Quebec referendum could be delayed
while the Liberals look for a new leader.
He also believed that Jean Charest would
be unable to renew federalism even if
Charest became the new provincial party
leader.
Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard
will l!leet his Newfoundland counterpart
Brian Tobin on March 9. They will
announce the negotiations of a major
hydroelectricity project between the two
Beyond
Ring Road
by Lineol LiIl
province. consi t-
ing of two dam.
along the Churchill
Ri ver. The project
i e timated to be
worth 12 billion.
The number of
people and bu i-
nesse that decl ared
bankruptcy et a
record high in 1997. The figure rose 4%
from the previou record set in 1996.
Analysts say the figure refl ected the ea e
of obtaining credit.
Justice for Children, a children's
right group in Toronto, plans to challenge
a part of the Criminal Code that allows
parents to physically discipline children.
It argues that courts have ruled inconsi -
tently on assault charges against parents in
previous cases.
Ottawa and the provinces can't agree
on who should pay $200 million of a $1.2-
billion compensation package for people
who contracted hepatitis C from tainted
blood in the 1980s. They have agreed that
only those infected between 1986 and
1990 should get any money.
Ottawa and nine provinces signed an
agreement on February 20 to end inter-
provincial trade barriers. The agreement
would prevent municipalities, universities,
hospitals and schools from discriminating
against out-of-province suppliers. The BC
Minister of Employment and Investment
refused the deal.
Chocked 'full of Talent
T
'was the mid-
dle of term,
and all
through Engineering.
Not a creature was
stirring ...
The
incredible! D07.ens
of acts filled more
than 5 hours includ-
Social Spot ing the amazing jug-
gling guy, the
by Jernlifer Motuz "Backstreet Boys"
Well, that's not
true. These past two
weeks have been
very busy, celebrity-
packed and a lot of fun.
and Ajay and com-
=======0!1 pany doing "what
they do best".
Week 8: Lot's "0" fun
The Weekend: The OEC (Ontario
Engineering Competition for the uninitiat-
ed) was held this weekend, run by the
engineering society and went very
smoothly. Waterloo showed it's superiori-
ty as we took nearly every award that
weekend (11 of 18 plus all the auxilliary
awards). Congratulations to everyone
who did us proud!
Sunday: The Engineers held their own
World Cup Soccer Toumament today at
the Indoor Soccer Tourney. Spirits were
high and a good time was had by all.
Thursday: At the first Hick trip since
the famed night at the "Outsider Road
House" we found ourselves in Mimico at
the Blue Goose. George Kash, the
Oktoberfest King was there for a special
concert just for us (and everyone else who
bappened to be in the bar). Between the
songs and dances (with Lisa lighting up
the floor) we watched Mulder learn
George's trick, AI show off his knowledge
of Italian ("AI are you Italian" "Mais
Oui!") and demonstrated our own impres-
sive 10-man sport.
Week 9: Time to show off
Thursday: This term's Tal-Eng was
Friday: This
year's MOT drew out a huge crowd to
POETS as we celebrated the middle of
tflITl (and the 3B's celebrated their 365
days til IRS Pub Crawl).
Saturday: For the fourteenth year in a
row, the UW Engineers pulled a bus from
UW to Market Square raising money for
the Big Sisters of Kitchener- Waterloo.
Over a hundred people came out for the
Bus Push (though we pull the bus ... this
will forever be a mystery of nature) and
between the chants and cheers we learned
how to turn the bus and gained a new
respect for Bus Drivers .. those things are
NOT manuverable. All in all it was a lot
of fun, and definitely the best (although
the first) I've ever been to.
Also Saturday: Today was our
"Engineer's World Cup", the Enghockey
(indoor ringette) tourney. Several teams
signed up, and at the time of this writing
it's not over yet but I'm sure the final
game was very exciting.
Coming up look for:
March 16: Annual ChemEng Coffee
House
March 19: IRS!
March 25: The EngSoc Potluck (last
meeting of the term) in POETS
March 27: The End of Term Pub and TSN
movie showing
0\\ that the 1998 Winter 01 'mpic
Game. are officially over, Toronto begins
to prepare its bid to host the :2008 Unlnler
Games. Summer Games in Toronto will
equate to a 3 billion cash flo> to the 10 al
economy.
International News
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
wa succe ful in preventing war in the
Persian Gulf. Annan reached an agree-
ment with Iraq on the di pute over
weapons inspection. Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein agreed to open up previ-
ously inacce sible ites, including presi-
dential palaces, for inspection . However,
Annan sai d that Iraq mu. t account for all
missing POW's and return Kuwaiti prop-
erty before economic sanction again t
Iraq will be lifted.
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair
has been seen at Roman Catholic masse
several times in the last few months. His
appearances are fueling talks of his poten-
tial conversion from Anglican to Roman
Catholicism.
Lake Champlain may become the
sixth Great Lake. The lake that straddles
Quebec and Vermont is about IIl5 the size
of Lake Ontario. A senator from Vermont
is arguing for the inclusion because $56
million US in research grants is distributed
to universities in Great Lake states.
President Bill Clinton will likely approve
of the change.
1998 mark Puerto Rico's 100th
anniversary as a US territory. A vote will
be held before the end of the year to decide
whether if it will become an independent
country, join US as thl' 51 st statc. or
remain a sclfgovcrning US COIIIlIlOII
wealth.
Ru, sian Pre ' ident Boris Yeltsin
appointed a new minister for the country's
tomic Energ Ministry. Yeit in is cited
for telling the new minister that Ru ia
must keep its remaining arsenals of
nuclear weapon. in top shape.
Leader in North Korea announced on
February 18 that they were ready to nego-
tiate with South Korea's newly elected
government. The orth i. seeking peace-
ful reconciliation to end c nrrontalion that
began in 1945 when the Korean peninsula
wa: split into the two countries. The
North will run out of dome. tic food supply
by April and will have to rely on foreign
aid.
If Microsoft wins its current antitrust
battle with the US government, Net cape
Communications will bow out of the
Internet browser war, c aid company co-
founder Marc Andreessen. In tead, the
company will focus on offering corporate
cu tomers specific oftware applications
and ervices.
Researchers found that the inner ears
of lesbians work more like those of men.
This strong evidence of a physicaJ differ-
ence between homosexual and heterosexu-
al women support the theory that sexual
orientation may be decided before birth.
Jupiter's moon Europa may have a
life-supporting ocean beneath the moon' s
icy crust. Scientists made the peculations
based on pictures taken by the spacecraft
Galileo last December.
1n the wake of a dispute over the
validity of Dolly the clone sheep, scien-
tists in the Netherlands showcased two
cloned calves, Holly and Belle, on March
I
Engineers Pull a Bus from the
University to Downtown Kitchener
(C01ltillued from cover)
Big Sisters and their Little Buddies arrived
for the Pre-Bus Push Breakfast in the PH
foyer. Hard hats were distributed and t-
shirts were sold and given to those who
had raised over $75 in pledges.
After many preparations (special
thanks to Matt, Dan, Melanie, Scott, Ryan,
Chris, Benoit and Jaime for helping set up
at 8:30) it w ~ time to head out to the Bus.
Finally at 9:45 we were ready. The
CHYM FM vehicle led us out onto
University Ave and we were off, Now,
getting a 9 tonne school bus moving may
not sound too difficult, but "This bus is
heavy,oh this bus is heavy oh!", and with
a lot of effort we got the bus rolling.
For the next hour and a half there was
a sea of purple shirts and yellow hard-hats
as we pulled the bus down University and
King chanting, cheering, and having a
great time. Led by Oli Dumetz on his uni-
cycle, the Big and Little Sisters and a cou-
ple engineers collected donations from the
crowds totalling $438.73. The tool bearers
met up with us by Waterloo Town Square
and brought our energy up even higher
with candies and a couple helping hands.
We arrived at Market Square with a
cheer and soon we were back on our way
to POETS for lunch and the door prizes.
Thanks to everyone who raised
money and came out. Hopefully you all
had as much fun as I did on Saturday!
Congratulations go out to John Shmek
who raised $550 as of March 7. ther
contenders for the grand pri ze (most
money raised) are Matt larke, Jaime
Tiampo, and Sarah Davies alJ with totals
over $200.
And now for the long list of thank-
you's to people that the Bus Push wouldn't
have worked without: Matt for putting
together the pledge forms, Dan, Melanie,
Chris and Jason for getting some of the
sponsorships, Rocky for securing the liq-
uid grand pri ze, Jaime for taxiing me
around on my searches for free stuff for
the volunteers. Thanks al so to Mary for
supplying us with breakfast and letting us
use the C & D coffee machines.
The event was covered by CTV and
Rogers, giving us a lot of positive cover-
age in the community. I have a tape with
the news clips on it, so if you missed the
Bus Push this year, or if you want to spot
yourself in the crowd, just ask me Umo-
tuz@engmai/) and I'll lend it to you.
So until next year, ju t remember:
We are, we are, we are the Engineers,
We can, we can, pull this for fourty years,
Steer straight, steer straight,
and watch us make a fum,
We don't give a darn for any dam man
who doesn't have rope bum.
6 News & Information
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
Interview with Doug Beynon
On a mission to increase awareness of humanitarian values
BY PIERRE MENARD
Iron Warrior Editor
H
ow is it that the sounds of Mozart
and Beethoven can improve your
performance on academic tests?
How is your work performance affected
when your boss constantly ignores your
suggestions? r wonder how concious we
are of all the different human factors that
have an impact on us. Recently, I have
had the pleasure of interviewing Doug
Beynon, a representative of the Beynon
Memorial Foundation. He is an advocate
for increasing humanitarianism in the
workplace as well as increasing the aware-
ness of the impact of people's actions on
others. Doug has a long list of achieve-
menu;, one of them being a 1970
Mechanical Engineering graduate from
UW. He later pursued a Master's in
Management Sciences at UW and a PhD in
Business at the University of Kansas. He
once held the position of Regional Yice-
President for the Ontario Centre for
Environmental Technology Advancement
only to later become the President of
Waterloo Engineering Software. Today,
Doug is also the Waterloo Chapter
Pre. ident of the Engineering Alumni
Association.
Doug's interest in humanitari anism
probably originate from his father for
whom the Beynon Memorial Foundation
is named. Doug recalls that his. father, an
engineer and manager at Imperial Oil in
Sarnia, was concerned and involved with
humanitarian issues and activities. Doug'
father w ~ respected at his organization for
"treating people like people". He also
served on the planning committee for the
first ever Rotary Children's Centre of
Canada. In memory of Doug's father, a
humanitarian award is available to under-
scars running down her chest. The doctor
ignorantly replied without sensing the
patients need for compassion and under-
standing that she should become a Playboy
centerfold. The doctor in the scenario
described above is an example of someone
who is unaware of humanitarian values.
Technically, the doctor performed his job
with competence. Non-technically, he was
an absolute horror. Later on, the doctor
was diagnosed with cancer and went
through the same graduate engineering
students exhibiting an
interest in humanitari-
an values.
When asked
Doug to comment on
the differences
between people who
hold humanitarian
values and those who
do not he told me the
"Engineers must o s s e ~ s
technical excellence,
however, there is an
increasing demand
for Engineers who
process as his previ-
ous patients. He
found that the other
doctors were insen-
sitive to his needs a
a patient. After hi
treatment he
re olved to treat his
patients as he would
have liked to be
also possess
non-technical skills. "
story of "The
Doctor". "The
Doctor" is a movie starring William Hurt
who played a surgeon pecializing in can-
cer treatment , specifically women with
breast cancer. Part of the procedure for
removing breast cancer involves a large
cut running down the center of the chest.
On one occasion after this surgical proce-
dure was performed on a patient she asked
how she would cope with the permanent
treated and that all
interns become
patients in the hospital to experience how
it feels. The key issue in starting to hold
humanitarian values is to become aware
how these values, or a lack of them, impact
others. 'The Doctor" show us that it is
never too late to become aware.
Like the medical profession, the engi-
neering profession is in need of engineers
possessing humanitarian value.
If you're always on the go take us with you.
A pager from Bell Mobility is the easy and affordable
way to stay in the loop.
Bell Mobility
APPROVED AGENT
Weavers
Arms
Engineers must posses technical excel-
lence, however there is an increa ing
demand for engineers who al 0 po e
non-technical skill. Doug mention that
in many organizations, engineers tend to
not listen and only express their point of
view. People talking past each other
results in poor communication among
members of an organization. A simple
technique that Doug recommends is to
repeat back in your own words what other
are trying to tell you. In this way, the other
party will feel like you attempted to under-
stand their viewpoint. Using this tech-
nique may also help you concentrate on
what people are telling you rather than
hearing them but thinking about your own
ideas instead.
Doug believes that engineers in the
workforce could do better as far as human-
itarian awareness is concerned. Of course,
it is never too late to get interested in
humanitarian values or to put these values
into practice. There is no textbook formu-
la, it is more like a philo ophy on how to
conduct your life. As a spoke person for
the Beynon Memorial Foundation, Doug
hopes that UW undergraduate engineers
realize the importance of being aware.
After all, our actions do impact other peo-
ple' s lives. It is our obligation to make
ure the impact is a positive one.
:,;,,-x-
..... =t::"'-
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
Opinions 7
I Am Man Hear Me Grunt
J
USI ask the actu-
arial cience
students on
The
Other End
b)' Andrew Halely
a in pi ration for the
young male.
Following thi , a gen-
eration idolizing
Beavi and Butlhead
i not likely to pro-
duce the leaders of
about hL role in ociety.
campus, being male
is becoming a high-
risk occupation.
The male populace
is forecast to die
sooner, be prone to
alcoholism and
=======;;;;;;;;J tomorrow. I don' t
Back in the day.' of Canada
Scholarship and employment "equity'
act , I bore the fru tration of being the
advantaged e . ] beli ed that there may
have been good ju tification for the cat h-
up initiatives for promoting a ademi sand
technolog to women. M concern i that
this catch-up program and, imilar initia-
tive in Canada have ingrained a las inlde
and tupidity in young males that \. ill be
difficult to remed. The trend began in
1986, when Ontario women surpas. cd
men a, the dominant number of Ontario
Scholar . Thirteen year ago, 53 percent
of Ontario cholar were female and that
has increa ed to 60 percent in 1996 (Globe
and Mail, March 7th, 1998). The qualita-
tive ob ervation of teachers that "boy
don't seem to be even trying" i ignalling
a continuation of thi trend.
women." I gues we don't need to worry
about the other 55 si nce they'll tough it out
a men or boy , In that statement, it i pos-
, ible to 'ee the failing of the education sys-
tem and so ielY. Females are being
encouraged and supported more than
before and the males who are watching
this are not rcceiving the ame support .
gambling and become horribly depressed
in their early twenties. Throw on top of
this a surprising new trend in male tupid-
ity, it becomes clear that those of us at uni-
versity now could represent the last
qua i-equal generation.
It's almost surprising that tech-
nology and engineering programs have
been dominated by males in the generation
known as "X." Society was against the
intelligent male and we hardly noticed.
Save for MacGyver, the last 15 years has
yielded some exceptionally dismal role
models for the young male. The male
bookworm, or geek, common to many
films in the last decade can hardly be cited
S
tudies have
shown that
vegetar i ans
tend to have faster
metabolisms than
their carnivorous
counterparts
(Nutrition: Concepts
and Controversies,
West/Wad swort h ,
1997). As my friends and family will te -
tify, I need to eat often, incorporating fre-
quent snacks between meal. With
students' fridge supplies being low, and
their bank balance even lower, I thought it
might be fun to introduce some of my
favorite fast and yummy nack. These
recipes can be made quickly and cheaply
with few ingredients, and provide instant
grati Hcarion.
Expiring Yogurt Dip
Here's a dip that 's great to make when
blame the media
though. I laughed at
the "Nerd" and their sub equent
"Revenge" with the re t of you. My con-
cern rise from the often cited observation
that media i a reflection of ociety.
I have a legit imate concern for
the males of tomorrow. Patriarchy in
Canada i dying, if not dead, and defined
male/female roles are disappearing with it.
The female role has rightfully expanded to
an extent that is cause for celebration. It
brings me great joy to know that a daugh-
ter or niece of mine will have almost unre-
stricted opportunity. I am however,
worried that if the current trend in male
degradation is not reversed, that my son or
nephew will bear a lack of enthusiasm
It's reas uring that this trend ha
been noticed. This rea suring feeling
crumbles when you read quotes like "we
should be concerned about the Montreal
dropout rate because 45 percent are yo'ung
This is probably a difficult thing
to see in engi neering, where the com-
plaints of male-oriented education may
till hold tme. When [ examine my own
attitud , however, I find that I feel more
ompe1Jed to encourage a gi rl or young
woman to enter science or engineering.
Until recently, I . aw no need for the same
Ie el of support for males. We must
remember that drive and pas, ion for learn-
ing is not an imph it male characteri tic,
Our generation may have felt orne of the
la t undue par1itioning into male/female
roles. As we gain the opportunity to shape
society, we should remember that retribu-
tion should not be perpetuated through
generations.
Crazy Carrot Munchies
The Crazy
Carrot
by Lynn Walker
lVWW. eng. IlwaruJoo. ca!
Sludellr5llnwolker
all you seem to have
left in the fridge is
plain yogurt and
stale pita. I've only
ever tried this with
plain yogurt, so I
make no guarantees
if you try this with
strawberry yogurt or
something. Spread
some yogurt on a plate, and add some chili
powder (the hotter the better) and some
coarsely ground pepper. Serve with pita
wedges, crackers, or nuked stale bread.
Preya's Eggplant Dip (Choka)
This recipe comes from my friend
Preya, who makes the best Choka and flat -
bread around. But, ince Preya i busy
getting an engineering degree or some-
thing, here's how to make it yourself.
Take one medium eggplant and one large
tomato. Cut the stems off of the eggplant
and tomato. Jab some holes in the egg-
plant and tomato with a fork. Microwave
them on high power for about 5 minutes,
or until the eggplant is soft and deflated
and the tomato is mushy. Slice the egg-
plant in half lengthwise and scoop out the
flesh, seeds and all. In a bowl, mash it all
up with a fork. Add some chopped onion,
alt, pepper, and whatever other spices you
have left, and serve on pitas, crackers,
stale bread, whatever.
Crazy urry Vegetable Dip
This recipe is for a vcggic dip thnl 1
practically grew up on. Always pr 'sent al
every fami ly functioll, tillS dip and I go
baek a long way. In a bowl, tni together
the following ingredi ent s:
1/2 cup sour scream or plain yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp tarragon vinegar ( I lsI' tarragoll
& 2 lSp vinegar)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 t p thyme
112 tsp curry
2 tsp chili
2 tsp chives
2 tsp onion flakes
This dip is awe orne with CARROTS,
but any vegetable wi n do. it improves in
flavour if you let it sit for a couple of hours
or ovenight (in the fridge of course), but
can be eaten immediately.
So will''' thl' mlillchil.'S :-.l rikl', gil 101
these eas (1I Ild hL'lIllhy) sn:ld ..s. If
,\'/I ll hun "y, IIh' ('r",y Currof wl'h pagl:
u n.:t'ipc I'll! hUIllIllUs .
As a po:-. I\cript to la\1 issue's art1l'lc, I
have hllppily discovelcd thut Ihe pickled
gi nger for sli shi is IIvailable at University
Foods.

Sc.ore.s SinGe
low
ha. Ve. b e.e-n

month)
up
f>u>ye- blj
rev-
>

b-f5
d- pOiYl1s
:Jame.
8
Opinions The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
Tuition Hikes Should Stay Within Engineering
Author's Note:
This column is a
second pan to last
issue :s, where I com-
mented on the desti-
nation of the
increased revenues
from deregulation.
W
ith all the
talk about the deregulation of
tuition and planned increases in
the cost an individual incurs by studying
engineering, certain questions must be
asked: are we getting our money's worth?
Will we still be getting our money's worth
after the increase?
To determine this, one must consider
what is received in exchange for the tuition
fee. An education? Yes, but this is also
true of an arts program. What makes an
engineering program more valuable? The
crux of their argument is that engineers
Consider
this ...
by Jej/Gobafto
can expect a signifi-
cantly higher salary
than the arts majors.
So, an engineering
student should pay
more for the benefit
of having a better
paying job upon
graduation.
Now, look at
why the engineer can expect a higher
salary. The current job market is deprived
of engineering and other technical talent.
A mediocre individual can demand an
exhorbant salary simply based on the sup-
ply and demand situation. However, how
long is this glut of openings expected to
last? Forever? Certainly not. In time, the
market will settle, and the positions will be
signi ficantly fewer.
It is at thi time that engineering stu-
dents should start seriously looking at the
quality of their education. If the universi-
ty succeeds in increasing the engineering
tuition fee, one can be almost certain the
fees will not be reduced once the current
job bounty is exhausted. The university
must then earn this extra money by pro-
viding UW engineering students with the
same certainty the market does today.
The programs at the University of
Waterloo are of an acceptable calibre for
the moment. The graduates produced are
successful and capable individuals.
However, if this success is supposed to be
met by graduates in the future, where the
market is not so kind, they must have an
edge. The school can only rest on the lau-
rel of a co-op program for so long; with
new co-op programs opening up across the
country, how much longer will this be a
factor? The university must rise to the
challenge it will face.
The question is how will the school do
this? Courses with some connection to the
real world is a start. All too often the CUf-
riculum is muddled with theoretical
hypothe e and ab tract problem. (When
was the last time anyone encountered a
point charge radiating electromagnetic
energy while enclosed in a dielectric
sphere of infinite radiu ?)
Along with these new practical cour -
es would be realistic labs with equipment
similar to what would be encountered in
the late twentieth century work world. The
use of archaic equipment, while a useful
history lesson (as well as a way for people
to appreciate modem conveniences), does
not really prepare people for the fast
paced, high tech world.
To implement these suggestions, the
university will need more money.
Certainly new laboratories and a restruc-
turing of the course content is an expen-
sive undertaking. However, they are
asking for more money from the students.
Why not let the students have some say in
where the extra money i spent?
Tuition Hikes Should Aid Other Faculties
BY JAMES SI TO
2A ystems Design
I
t seems clear at this point that in the
near future, there will be some ort of
deregulation to the tuition fees of the
engineers at the University of Waterloo.
This would mean that engineers would pay
more for their education than would stu-
dent from faculties such as Arts or
Science. However, since it is not the fac-
ultie , but the university as a whole that
collects the tuition, the increased revenue
may not be funnelled into the
Faculty of Engineoring. Previous articles
in this paper have argued that these new
funds should be poured directly into
Engineering.
While allocating funds to faculties
based on revenue from tuition may seem
reasonable; it does not truly make sense.
L
ose thirty
pounds in
thirty days.
Become a math
genius in just a few
hours. Earn thou-
sands of dollars
from home.
You've heard it
all before. All of
'those wonderful, magical remedies to
life's problems. Quick fixes,
solutions. Over the years, they have earned
themselves a bad name. Most people have
learned that the only way to achieve stabil-
ity, and the only way to succeed in any-
thing, is to plan ahead. In a world where
we have been mindlessly destroying our
planet for the last century, it is reassuring
to know that people have started to catch
on to the concept of long-term thinking.
Losing weight is not a matter of diet,
nor exercise. Learning math is not a matter
of study methods. Earning money is not a
matter of miracles. Everyone is aware that
success in any area depends on the right
mind set. Commitment and planning are
the key factors.
If the government decided to allocate
funds for services based on the taxes paid
by the service users, then how would some
less fortunate individuals survive?
Gfanted, students in the Faculty of Arts
may not be seen as "Ie s fortunate". But
certainly once their univer ity education i
complete, their chance of finding employ-
ment i significantly lower than that of an
Engineering graduate.
While it is not being suggested that
the Engineers fully support students from
other faculties, it is not unreasonable to
ask that funds be shared among faculties
and departments, as needed. How can stu-
dents in Engineering convince themselves
that their increased tuition funds should be
spent on Engineering alone when
Engineering students use the services of
other faculties and departments each and
every day. For instance, do not
Engineering students u e the Physical
Activities Complex every day? Should
Engineering students then, not be allowed
to attend plays and public lectures organ-
ised in the faculty of Arts.? Should
Engineering have its own meal plan so
their students do not eat Food services
food?
Clearly, it is not at all feasible that stu-
dents be required to pay for theiT own indi-
vidual service . So why then is there such
a backlash when it is suggested that funds
be shared among all faculties and depart-
ments? Perhaps we Engineers like to
believe that we somehow deserve more if
we pay more. By that theory, how can it
be justified that an eighty year old
woman's taxes be used to pay for your
education? Without a tax pooling system,
your education would cost about five times
more than it does now. Think about that
Quick Fixes: a Lost Art
The Big
Picture
hy RaymOlld Ho
Yet in the midst
of all these develop-
ments, we have per-
haps forgotten how to
act quickly and deci-
si vely. It is true that
many potential prob-
lems can be prevent-
ed through
e tablishing strong
foundations and planning ahead. But what
happens when the foundation start to
deteriorate? Or when something happens
that we didn't plan for? In many instances,
there is no time to llIuli around and figure
out a long term solution; the problem may
require immediate attention. A quick fix is
the answer.
The benefits of a quick fix are best
illustrated through the old adage: "a stitch
in time saves nine." When you find a little
tear in your clothing, what do you do? Do
you sit around and think of all the po ible
long term solutions? Do you throwaway
that piece of clothing and buy a new one?
While you're busy pondering and plan-
ning, that tear in your clothing starts to
grow. Sooner or later, the tear becomes so
large, that you're forced to buy a new arti-
cle of clothing. The new piece of clothing
will definitely la t longer than the old one,
you think, and you pat yourself on the
back for a job well done. Had you acted
right away, however, and quickly stitched
up that little tear, then the same result
would have been achieved.
Many people look at our highways,
our school systems, or our hospital, and
notiCe that they are crumbling. They say it
is due to lack of foresight, lack of plan-
ning. This may be true to a certain extent,
but more likely, it is due to a failure to act.
When a crack forms in anything, be it a
road, a sy tem, or even your windshield,
what do you do? You don't blame it on the
builder. You fix the crack right away,
before it tart to grow. It's called mainte-
nance.
Quick, decisive, action, however, is
not to be confu ed with ha teo Decisions
that are hastily made can prove disastrous.
But in many cases, there i little risk in
coming to a quick decision. For example,
when the batteries in your remote control
die, then you replace them. In most cases,
it's not as simplistic as that, but the same
for a second.
The same is true at the University of
Waterloo. Would you like to pay for each
hour of lecture or for each minute you use
a Polaris computer station? Maybe you
should have to supply or pay for your own
chair for class. The point is that the finan-
cial system is most efficient if all costs are
"pooled" togefher and distributed as need
be.
Many, if not all of the individuals who
attend this are proud to live in a
country such as Canada; a semi-socialist
country that allows everyone a fair chance
in life, regardless of race, religion, or
financial tatus. If it is these ideals and
ethics that make our country stand above
the rest, then why do we all suddenly
become so selfish and individualistic when
our money is used to help other ?
logic applies. .
History, however, has shown us that
people are reluctant to perform mainte-
nance on work that is not their own.
Rather, they prefer to let things deteriorate,
putting the blame on the creators. They
wait until the work is about to collapse,
and then propose costly, major over-hauls
of their own. They claim that they're
establishing a stronger foundation for the
future. But consider our school system;
contrary to general consensus, it is not in
need of major reform. A couple of intelli-
gent changes in a few areas can save the
day. The problem is that we have lost our
ability to implement quick changes, and
have become obsessed with the long-term.
Ironically, there is no quick and easy
solution to this problem. We will have to
learn through experience and through our
mistakes. Unfortunately, learning may
take quite some time, possibly just as long
as it did for us to acquire long-term think-
ing skills. And like our development of
long-term thinking, we may again almost
reach the point of no return before we
reacquaint ourselves with the art of quick
fixing.
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998 Opinions 9
Division of
Power
Shades of
Grey
by Jaime 1iampo
A
s with most academic institutions,
UW i divided along solid lines of
Departments and spheres of
influence. But is there any communica-
tions between these sections? The answer
is Yes and No. The academic political
scene is riddled with self interest and own-
ership. People grip their little pieces of
the pie with a tenacity only ever seen by a
starving dog and a T-bone steak.
Now with this segmentation comes a
lack of communication and a deficiency of
doing what is most efficient and best for
the student or company (co-op). For
example, a few technical companies want-
ed to advertise themselves to engineering
students for the upcoming co-op term and
graduates. The FEDS, being the most
aggressive political tudent unit that deals
with the entire campus, were the first and
only people contacted about this.
Now the FEDS have a small impact
on the Jives of engineering students. All
the services they provide are provided by
the Engineering Society and all the hustle
and bustle in the back rooms talking to the
departments and negotiating on behalf of
the students is also done by EngSoc. So
when all the notices went out and the
advertising was done only a small percent
of the engineering students actually found
out about it. To me this is a waste of the
companies' money and their time jf their
not going to get to the right people.
This is only one example of a lack of
communication and a lack of inter-politi-
cal boundary discussion, there are many
many more. What I believe that Waterloo
should have is an all faculty council where
we can increase the communication with-
in the university. The faculty societies
should start playing a greater role within
the university so that there is actual repre-
sentation of the student body.
This council would have a two fold
purpose: to increase cross faculty commu-
nication and organizations and to create a
complete view of what is happening and
where we are going at the university as a
whole.
This type of communication and
council would not only improve the trans-
fering of ideas but al 0 create a more effi-
cient system for all the students. Many of
the services and events that are held on
campus are redundantly offered by many
faculties. Some should be kept within the
individual societies but things like event.
that are organized for certain occasions
could be cross co-ordinated just as the
Canada Day celebration is.
In addition, hot topics such as the dis-
tribution of tuition hikes within the uni-
versity can be di cussed and all sides of
the issue brought forth infront of the rep-
resentatives of the entire school.
This type of joint council would be
far more effective and helpful to the uni-
versity then the current divided, uncom-
munitive socities by themselves and the
FEDS who are more a service provider
than a student organization.
..
Giving More to the Tribe
rea on that the) had to
S
ix fir t place
~ ards at
OEC. Fir t
and third place
standing with our
concrete toboggan.
Eight out of twen-
ty-one awards at
the Canadian
Engineering
The Village
Idiot
cho. c a universit) to
attend and Wat rloo
just happcned to be
that s hool. But \\ hat-
evcr the rea<;on is. we
are all here.
by A Itl/l Cm/llisl ram
Competition. $6,000 rai ed for Big Sisters
by pushing a bus. Top Canadian fini her
in so many other competition. 3,600 ded-
icated Engineering students. One awe-
orne school. That's my chool; that' our
school.
We achieve all these great standi ngs,
but where's our school pride?
Many of us are here for different rea-
ons. Some are here because co-op offer
a chance to gain experience before enter-
ing the Engineering profe ion. Some are
here becau e of Waterloo's reputation and
name. Yet , another group is here for the
For fi \ e year: of
our lives, wc belong to
this community of
Waterloo Engineers. Regardless of our
individuality, we are all associated to each
other through this common bond. There
need to be a greater ense of "tribal spir-
it" when one of us achieve. ac omplish-
ments, uch a the ones mentioned
previou ly, for two reason.. First of all ,
the accompli shments of one reflects on the
reputation and excellence of Waterloo
Engineer as a whole, which in tum, looks
good on each of us as individuals in this
community. Achievements of one are
altrui stic because they pu h the group as a
whole further. Second of all , for no other
rcason than com rade ry, we all share this
common relationship of belonging to the
"tribe". There is a sen e of pride and glory
to know that wc belong to an organization
who has displayed such abundant excel-
lence.
atcrloo i:-; ou/' school. The accom-
plishment - of the university can only be
achieved by the p'ople that belong to it's
ommu nity, and we nre all a part of this
community. By showi ng our pride and
chool spirit when onc of our members
achieves great ta,k" then we are c. sential-
Iy patting them on the back. We are show-
ing them our appreciation and respect for
their hard work and dedicated goals.
o whatever your reason for attending
thi great institution of hi gher learning,
you are now here. If we are to reach
greater height then we need to encourage
each other to perform as well or better than
we have been pcrfornling, because if one
of us achieves, then we, as a tribe, have all
achieved.
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..

10 Arts

-Go
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
Silent Warriors
Like wraiths they roam the streets,
Silent Striders in the night.
Though they stand before you,
They're completely out of sight.
You see them every day,
Though you know not who they are.
Spirits existing in two worlds,
Yet from both forever far.
Ours is the world of hatred,
That fuels all their fear .
That strips them of all hope,
And leaves them chilling tears.
For while they search for shadows,
At but a fleeting glance,
We prey on their rrusfortunes -
They never stand a chance.
Our daggers of desecration
Make every jeer a cru hing blow
And though a tempest brews within them,
They never let it show.
They don happiness as their armour,
Make every smile a stalwart shield.
Some surround themselves in flames,
All fortresses firmly sealed.
And though they feel safe
Beneath their tangled web of lies,
Loneliness is a landmine,
You can see it in their eyes.
Divided souls are fragle things,
So easil y t ~ apart.
As fortresses slowly crumble,
With a whispered cry, th.ey depart.
Hail the silent warrior,
Facing the battlefields each day.
Though the journey makes you weary,
May you never lose your way.
For amid the darkness before you,
There are those who'll shine a li ght
Building bridges through the void,
Loyal comrades in your fight.
And for those who toss daggers blindly,
Upon whom the war depends,
Pray the next heart you rend asunder,
Is not one of your friend's.
- Anonymous
Something's Wrong
The weather is warm, the un is shining.
I have plenty to eat, to drink, to see.
My limbs work. I have no problem learning;
Classes may be dull but they are
Not what I am fearing.
Something's wrong with my life .
Friends...I have many; those who care
And those who do not.
A home, a hearth, I'm welcome to
And people with whom to converse.
Yet , all this while I know that
Something's wrong with my life.
Talk of dependence, independence, salvation and yearning;
All are inconstant and all are rewarding.
Time pas es quick.ly, time pas es slowly;
People are coming and some people are going.
I tand in the middle
A life changes about me,
Realization occurs:
There is nothing wrong with my life.
- Anonymous
--
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998 Humanities & Awareness 11
Does the Engineering curriculum
prepare us for the ethical dilemmas
we will face as professionals?
Centre for Society, Technology and Values
The following seven slIbmi sions are for the Engineering and
Society Humanitarian Award. The award is sponsored b) the
Beynon Memoria! FOllndation, the Centre for Science, Technology
and Vallies and offered through a lI'ritillg compet;on held in the /ron
Warri01:
Ethics - Food for Thought, Food for Growth
BY LINCOL LJ
38 Chemical, Society A
AND CAROLINE KARLGARD
38 Chemical, Society 8
I
n just over a year, we will get our iron
rings. We will become engineers-in-
training. Yet, how much do we really
know about the profession and the ethical
dilemma. we might face? The unfortunate
answer is "in ufficient." Our profe sional
illiteracy can be partly attributed to weak-
nesses in the engineering curriculum.
Let u. backtrack a little and talk about
high school. Back then, our education
consisted of a sprinkle of physics, chem-
istry, biology, and math, a dash of philoso-
phy, and a hint of social science such a
law, history, and geography. Such combi-
nation made a balanced and nutritious
meal for growing minds.
Our di et became more lopsided as we
moved on to University. The engineering
curriclI u laces emphasi on the devel-
opment of technical skills. University,
after all , is where we specialize in an area
of study.
Depending on the engineering depart-
ment, students take a minimum of four or
five complementary studies electives, only
one of which has to be a course on social
impact of engineering. However, engi-
neering ethics should be an ongoing dis-
cussion and an integral part of daily
lectures. Currently, profes ors rarely have
time to discuss the implications of the
material being taught.
For example, we hear about the won-
ders of biochemical engineering and artifi-
cial intelligence, yet we rarely addre
more than the underlying theories and
equations. The extra five minutes spent on
considering ethical issue can greatly help
students achieve a well-rounded perspec-
tive of the world.
Work terms constitute the other main
component of the curriculum. We rely on
them to teach us what we do not learn in
school. Perhaps that is why minute
emphasis is placed on teaching engineer-
ing ethics at the University. It is true that
the work environment is ideal for practic-
ing technical know-how. However, it is a
misconception that it i also the ideal envi-
ronment for learning professional ethics.
As juni or engineers, we are eager to
impres t:lpon the senior engineers that we
are team players, and not out to di sturb the
tatus quo. That is not to say that we are
incapable of rcsolving ethical dilemmas; it
is our lack of experience in dealing with or
identifying such that makes us
vulnerable in a work environment.
For e ample, supposc you worked for
Bre-X and knew about the lack of gold in
the Indonesian minco You that
someone salted gold dust to thc otherwise
worthless rocks to bolster the company\
sto k value. Would you have played along
with the charade, or risked blowing the
whistle? Would you have understood the
consequences of either choice? Would
you have known what reo ources YOLl could
have turned to for council')
The above example is extreme, yet it
illustrates our need to learn ba ' ic profes-
sional cthics at the University.
Thc obviou change is to make more
impact course a compulsory component
of the cuniculum. However, the addition-
al workload on top of a 30+-hour week
would be too large of a bite to wallow,
even with our appetites.
We need to make students become
more aware of ethical i sue in the class-
room and through non-compulsory cours-
es, i.e. seminars. There is a block on the
student's timetable marked off as "semi-
nar." If the other departmenc are at all
li ke our beloved. chemical engineering
department, these seminar hours are not
taken full advantage of.
The proposed seminars would be
inftllmal and baSl' tl. Iwld Oil a
wedly orbi \\ec\.,I) hasls rill'Y wOllld Ill'
faculty \\ide to lhaloguc and
hrainstorming hetwl'en \tulknh hom lilt'
rercllt During \Cllllllar,
a ""'(luld introduce an 1\.,Ul' <llId
lead the ensuillg dist'lMions. SlIll'\; .,tll
dents would not he graded, they would be
freL: to participatc at their levrl of comfort.
To add llavour 10 the discussions, there
would be challenging and thought provok-
ing issues such as:
- electronic surveillance at the work place
- value of self-interest in a team environ-
ment
- proprietary information versu public
awarene. s
A professor or a TA from Ihe CST V
would take up the responsibility of con-
ducting the seminars. Alternatively, stu-
dents who take the STY option would lead
some discussions, perhaps as a class pro-
ject. To promote participation and aware-
ness, other students would also be
encouraged to lead. Lastly, just a. we have
academic, WEEF, and recycling reps, we
would have voluntary with the
CSTV
It is a considerable challenge to make
ourselve become aware of the ethical
dilemma.s we will face as professional .
Tht: engineering curriculum is constantly
being changed to provide up-to-date tech-
nical knowledge. Changing technologies
1I1111llilll'l' IIn\ ('tilll;I1 qlll'stlllJ\\ , tllll" therl'
"hulIld hc Clllllllltl'lIt \\lIm, til thl' Lill o
rirulullI to IWller 11Il parI' 101 !It ,"illF
\\Ilh thC\l' 'l'll\ollj'" Intq'I,lIll1l1 01
dISl' I\\SIOlb IIltO till' d,I'iSnlOIIl .II\(I 111101
llIatiw sClllinars, dille ... wOl\ld hl'l"011 Il'
part 01 a lOlllpil te and nutritious
Univcrsity dil.'t.
Changes to Curriculum Required
BY CHRJSTlNE CHE G
38 Systems Design
N
o, uw engineers are not adequate-
ly prepared to face these "ethical"
situations. This is largely the fault
of the UW engineering curriculum. There
are many ethical dilemmas that engineers
face on a day-to-day basis (such as how to
build the best widget, but do it mo t cost-
effectively, and reach the largest market,
and deal with office politics, and please
your supervisor, and ensure that it has been
properly tested, and provide thorough doc-
umentation, and train those are meant to
use it, etc.). And most UW engineering
grads should be competent at handling
these situations after 5 or 6 work terms.
However, there is one ethical situation
that is not given a lot of attention and that
does have a serious impact on society.
After all, engineering is not just about
designing and implementing technical giz-
mos, but creating these gizmos to better
the lot of society.
In this sense, the UW curriculum does
not do enough to promote this concept of
havi ng a respon ibility to society. To be
able to handle an ethical situation requires
not only a moral perspective on society,
but also a subconscious agreement with
this common morality. Without thi s sense
of moral responsibility to society, UW
engineers will not be prepared to face the
ethical situations that do arise.
To address the other part of thi s ques-
tion, I believe that "being prepared"
requires a constant awareness- the ability
to quickly understand a situation such that
it becomes possible to generate potential
solutions. "Being prepared" means being
able to assess the consequences of these
solutions and make a morally justifiable
decision. From the engineering course
curriculum: "The professional engineer
requires in addition to technical knowl-
edge and skill, an understanding of society,
its needs, and the engineer's role in soci-
ety."
A brief examination of the average
UW engineering curriculum shows that of
the forty courses needed to graduate from
thc UW engineering program, only rivc of
these courses respond directly to neeu.
These courses are the complementary
studies requirements that UW engineering
students must fulfil before they can gradu-
ate.
These five courses are supposed to
introduce us to not qnly our social respon-
sibilities, but also our political, economic,
legal, hi storical and ethical responsibilities
as well. Yes, requirements like the impact
of technology on society courses attempt
to address this need, but the other four
courses can barely serve as an introduction
to understanding society.
Even when engineering students
become professionals, they do not have a
good enough understanding of society to
be able to think about the long-term and
social impacts of their decisions. The pro-
fessionallife of an engineer may include a
stable of courses to upgrade technical
skills, but not one single incentive to refine
an engineer's understanding of hi s/her
social context.
I propose two alternatives to make us
all bettcr First. thaI all engineers
be required tel carry six (a\ they
were requirL:d to do in the P<lst), and to
make the sixth course of every term a com-
plementary
Alternatively, engineering should be
11 ve academic instead of four. By
maintaining the same technical curricu-
lum, but sprcading it out over fivc years,
there will be many more opportunities to
learn about society, and how we can
improve it- both as engineers, and as
responsible citizens.
I understand that courses cannot fully
prepare anyone for an ethical dilemma. I
also understand that tinkering too much
with the technical curri culum might also
have negative effects, but as an engineer-
ing student, my lack of social understand-
ing may also have adverse effects that I
currently do not understand. As the si tua-
tion stands, it is my opinion that the UW
engineering curriculum does not adequate-
ly prepare its students to handle ethical
dilemmas.
12 Humanities & Awareness The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
A Philosophy that Pervades the Curriculum
BY CHRIS FORD
3B Systems Design
I
s Waterloo preparing it. engineers as effective, consci-
entious decision makers in situations having ethical
implications? The answer T propose is a fork with a
many prongs. The conclusion is that ethics in engineering
can't be ju t a course or a pamphlet in the Davis Center
library, but a philosophy that pervades the breadth of the
engineering curriculum.
in declaring their results. Engineers must be made to
believe that the answer they arrive at i as good as any
other answer until they are shown otherwise. Thi will
make engineers effective advocates of the right decision.
A good way to nurture this type of confidence is by
encouraging student project and building public pre en-
tation into the evaluation strategy for courses. Student
projects are a big part of the curriculum at Waterloo but
public presentati ons are scarcely required.
Further, engineering students regularly find them-
selves buri ed under strata upon strata of technology.
Often, the specification you are trying to meet in your
design is a piece of hardware whose needs are serviced by
another machine, that ultimately works in a system of
machines. The effect is that engineers are often pushed
into uch a high orbit above the end-user that it is easy to
forget what it was that was originally intended by the
technol ogy. As engineers, everything we do must pivot
about our abi lity to deli ver benefit to human beings and
we should be reminded of this in the spirit of every course
we take. Instructors should frequently illustrate the high
level purpo e of the technology's they teach.
training ha failed them. In this ense, the inadequacy of
the engineering curriculum i glaring. It was three year
of engineering before I had the opportunity to speak in
front of an audience and my core course have required
me to write argumentatively only once. Fear that my writ-
ing skills were in decay wa part of my motivation for
writing this paper.
It i al 0 important for engineers to have a breadth of
experience that reaches beyond the core technical engi-
neering courses. Taking courses in other faculties and
eeking experiences in the community wilt give engineers
an alternati ve vantage point from which to evaluate prob-
lems. 'Typically, ethical conflicts arise because someone
isn't building factors from out ide their perspective into
their decision, Engineers whose training is diverse are
less likely to suffer this affl,iction. The coop program i a
good application of this strategy.
Let me first dispel the myth that engineers are handi-
capped decision makers in situations without precise
mathematical description. Engineering applications are
notoriously unpredictable, difficult to quantify and com-
plex. For example, my coop experience has taught me
that software implementations invariably take three times
as long as the technical specification will lead you to
believe. Factors outside your present knowledge creep in
and block you from making the progress you anticipated.
Project planning is a fuzzy, nebulous activity and engi-
neering students undertake project planning each term.
Engineering is not just about pruggi ng numbers into for-
mulae and ejecting useful result because real problems,
technical or otherwise, seldom conform to descriptions
that are thi s simple.
The characteristics of the curriculum I identify next
will be critical factors in the success of Waterloo's gradu-
ates.
Engineers are accustomed to making decisions and
solving problems using blurred or contradictory criteria.
However, it is important that when engineers converge to
a solution in a conscientious way, they must be confident
Most importantly, engineers must be exceptional
communicators. When it is evident that a decision has
ethical implications, it is the obligation of the engineer to
vigorously advocate the consideration of this element in
the making of a decision. Members of the community
will look to engineers for guidance in times of uncertain-
ty. When there is doubt, it is imperative that engineers act
in accord with their conscience and not buckle under the
weight of social pressure. If the engineer is unable to
champion the decision that they know to be moral their
Lastly, engineers must be prepared to walk away
from a context in which they are asked to act contrary to
their morals. If this means that the contract is declined or
the job is resigned then so be it. There are enough things
in this world that keep engineers up at night worrying.
Engineers have immense power over what technologies
are produced for human consumption. In the mid 1980's,
over half of the world's scientists and engineers were
employed directly or indirectly by the arms industry. We
can only speculate on the predicament of man now had we
redirected these resources towards a more productive
focus . If the curriculum at Waterloo can adopt the philos-
ophy I have described implicitly in its courses, Waterloo
engineers will be well positioned for the moral mine fields
that await them in the undergraduate afterlife.
Devote some course content to Ethics
BY EUGENE HUANG
38 Systems Design
E
thics is such a vague, all-encom-
passing word. There is an ethical
discussion in practically every
aspect of our lives. We speak or environ-
mental ethics, bio-ethics, gender and race
ethics, and medical ethics. We must deal
with temptations of compromi se, breach-
of-confidentiality, and conflict-of-interest.
We must decide whether or not to copy
someone else's work, to lie to a friend, or
even to cross a red light.
Ethics cannot be avoided in engineer-
ing because it affects the grand public, and
the safety and welfare of the public i fun-
damental to keeping some sanity to our
society. Imagine not having the assurance
that the toaster you use in the morning
does not meet certain electrical standards.
While ethics is considered a keystone
of the engineering profession, it is not a
fundamental component of the engineer-
ing curriculum at the University of
Waterloo. Nevertheless, opportunities to
learn about ethics exist in the undergradu-
ate experience and through engineering
licencing requirements.
The emphasis that professional gov-
erning bodies place on ethics is clear. An
article in the official journal of the PEO
says: "It is increasingly apparent that engi-
BY ALEX MATAN
IN Electrical
N
o. The UW Engineering curricu-
lum is graduating engineers who
are incompetent to deal with ethi-
cal dilemmas.
Engineers are morally and legally
obligated not to design contraptions that
will endanger the public. The PEO's Code
neerin ethics is a fundam ntal founda-
tion, not just a eparate, equal and parallel
pillar alongside technical competence." [2]
Losing a licence due to profes ional
misconduct is a grave thing. Good charac-
ter and integri ty are hi ghly respected and
in any person; they are required of the pro-
fessional.
At that magical moment when engi-
neers slide the famous iron ring onto their
pinky linger, a contract has been made.
The ring symbolizes the union between the
engineer and hi or her world. Of course,
a ring does not make a professional engi-
neer. It is more lik.e an 'engagement' ring.
The ' marriage' occurs when the profes-
sional licence is granted by the PEO (or
,another governing institution). The rights
to use the designation "P. Eng." and an
engineering seal come with solemn duties.
Engineers are professionals because they
are responsible and accountable to society,
and are expected to meet standards of
competence and conduct.
A standard of competence ensures that
an engineer is technically capable, and the
University 'of Waterloo engineering cur-
riculum excel in this area. A standard of
conduct is much harder to define, but
might imply be described as 'sound judg-
ment' and 'doing the right thing'. A mini-
mum acceptable level of conduct is
required, as de cribed in the codes of
ethics and professional conduct of all pro-
fessional associations.
One needs to look no further than the
university calendar to discover, with dis-
may, the place ethics has in the engineer-
ing program: "Further objectives are that
the engineering tudent develop a broader
intellectual outlook, a broader understand-
ing of moral, ethical and social values, and
an improved ability to communicate." ll ]
Ethics and values have been demoted
to an afterthought! While formally recog-
nized as an 'objective' , a student can - and
often does - graduate from an engineering
program without taking a course on ethics
or profe sional conduct.
A full course on ethics may be
overkill. However, a broad-based core
course on what it means to be a profes-
ional engineer may not be a bad idea. As
well as covering basic ethics of the profes-
sion, it could inforJ)1 students of what
licencing associations are all about, and
the legal duties of an engineer. This hypo-
thetical course could also include a history
of engineering, from ancient times to
recent engineering accomplishments in
Canada. What a source of pride and inspi-
ration this would be to the undergraduate
engineer!
It must be realized that students have
Ethical Incompetence
of Ethics expects that licen ed engineers
regard the duty to public welfare as para-
mount. But "public welfare" i not
expressed in a formula that you can easily
plug into a calculator (even an HP).
There are cases where the moral
course of action i readily apparent. If you
find that reinforcing a highway overpas
with Popsicle sticks instead of steel bars
will cut costs by .02%, but probably end
up killing a bunch of people, the ethical
(and legal) cour e of action should be
obvious. But what if the deci ion isn't so
ea y?
Let us ay that an engineer at
Amalgamated Electromatic Widgetronics
(a real company that I just made up) has
designed a fancy new widget. This widget
will vastly improve the human mind, body,
and soul. And at a reasonable price, too.
a life apart from classes and homework
(however minimal that life might be), and
are constantly being bombarded by ethical
issues. In fact, as much is learned out of
the classroom as in the classroom, and per-
sonal development is as important as tech-
nical development. Pressures and difficult
situations come from all direction , and
nowhere is this more intense than in uni-
versity. Thus, anyone graduating from a
university wilt have had fi rst-hand experi-
ence in handling ethical dilemmas, even
without having taken a course on ethics.
Finally, a PEO requirement for obtain-
ing a licence is a Professional Practice
Exam. This exam has nothing to do with
Taylor's series or kinematics, but has
everything to do with ethics, professional
practice, and engineering law. The PEO
recognizes the importance of studying
ethics, and so should the engineering pro-
gram at the University of Waterloo, by
devoting some course content to ethics.
[II Complementary Studies Requirements for
Engineering Students, University of Waterloo
Undergraduate Calendar 1998-99, pageIO:6.
[21 Ridler, Jim. ' ''The rete vance of ethics to the
engineering profession and its culture", Engineering
Dimensions, Professional Engineers Ontario,
January/February 1998, page 52.
Unfortunately, one in ten million widgets
will violently explode, killing its user and
anyone nearby. This problem can be
solved, but the solution would quadruple
the price of the widget. Unfortunately,
market research has shown that quadru-
pling the price would make the widget too
expensive for the poor, locking them out of
the grand opportunity that this widget will
(see "Ethical Incompetence ... ", page 12)
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998 Humanities & Awareness
Preparation by Choice
BY JEFF GoBAlTO
48 Electrical
T
he Univer ity of Waterloo
Engineering curriculum i com-
pri ed of two main facet : the acad-
emic cour e and the co-op work term .
Both offer the student a means of prepara-
tion for ethical dilemma they are likely to
face as profes ional engineers. The cour e
of tudy contain course dedicated to the
study of ethics and values in engineering,
and the work terms offer the student the
opportunity to face the decisions a profes-
sional would. However, there i no guar-
antee every student who complete this
course of study will have been adequately
prepared, a none of these opportunitie
are compulsory requirements for an engi-
neering degree.
The engineering curriculum offers the
student a number of courses specifically
dedicated to studying ethics. One such
course is an elective generally reserved for
4B students called Ethics and the
Engineering Profession, that is "an appli-
cation of philosophical analy is and theo-
rie of ethic to issues of moral conduct in
the engineering profession" [1]. This
course has been designed to prepare stu-
dents for the ethical choices they will like-
ly have to make when they are
profes ionals. In addition to this, there are
also a series of courses offered under the
heading Society, Technology, and Values
(STV); course titles in thi area include
Society, Technology and Risk and Design
and Society. These course also offer the
student a way to prepare for ethical deci-
sion by enabling them to study the effects
BY SARAH DAVIES
3BChemical
AND ROCK RAOOVAN
3B Environmental Chemical
H
igher education systems are won-
derful institutions that provide
members with the power to use
big words to express simple ideas. In this
instance, the ethical dilemmas future grad-
uates will face is simply a matter of choo -
ing between right and wrong; a curious
debatable mixture that depends on the
individual, their background, their educa-
tion, their sense of understanding, and
their ability to communkate those deci-
sions.
Universities have a responsibility to
mass produce intelligent, skilled and edu-
cated individuals. Are they also inclined
to instill a sense of morality and to teach
morals to every student as a result of their
involvement in the teaching process?
Superficially the answer is no - of course
not - don't be silly. It is the role of anoth-
er important institution, one that is woven
into the very fabrio of humanity; the fami-
ly.
Of course, the choice between right
and wrong is secondary to being able to
communjcate it clearly and in getting other
people to understand it. The Canadian
Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE)
has already noted that industry feels that
engineering graduates are excellent techni-
cally, but inept in the so-called "soft
skills". 'These soft skills include personal
interaction, communication, conflict reso-
lution, and other relational aspects which
are not necessarily included in the engi-
neering curriculum. With the exception of
the occasional project and/or group work,
presentations and communications
their work will ha e on their urrounding ,
but none are compul ory course. Thi.
part of the curriculum can, but doe. not
neces arily, prepare the ' tudent for futur
deci ion making.
The academic cours in the engineer-
ing curriculum can be categorized into
three main ection. : compul ory, technical
elective and complimentary tudies elec-
tive. In the compul ory cour. e there is no
explicit instruction in the area of ethical
deci ion making. The range of compli-
mentary tudie electives is vast. but each
student is required to take one impact
cour e, where they study the effect tech-
nology and engineering have on ociety.
An STV course fulfills the requirement ,
and if chosen will provide the tudent with
a treatment of ethic . However, there are
other cour es that are acceptable for this
requirement that do not involve the study
of ethics.
Finally, there are the five or six work
term the tudent must complete to earn
the co-op portion of their degree. Here,
the student i placed in a real world situa-
tion for an extended period of time, and in
most cases expected to function as a grad-
uate engineer. Depending on the type of
job the student has, they may be called
upon to make certain decisions that have
ethical undertones. This provides the stu-
dent with the best possible preparation by
actually placing them in a situation where
they need to make an ethical deci ion. The
situation is also beneficial because co-op
tudent are generally supervised, making
it possible for an employer to offer the stu-
dent help in developing better decision
making ;' kiIL. nforrunately. the o-op
program is not tandardized; each . tu-
dent's work e perience diffen. from hi . or
h r peers. Therefore. some student ' ma
not have the opportunity to make such
deci
The ' ourse of , tudy in the Faculty of
Engineering at the Uniwrsity of Waterloo
make provL ions for IlIdents (() learn
about ethical decision making and as such
prepare them elve. for the deci. ions the
\I ill face in th real world. in
engineering ethics and ociety. t chnology
and alue arc available for ' tudents, and
the co-op nature of the engineering pro-
gram offers the developing engineer a
chance to make ethical deci ions while
earning hi or her degree. It must be noted
that these provisions do not nece. arily
affect every tudent, since none of the
mean are standardized. A tudent mayor
may not take the cour es de igned, or may
not have a work term placement that
affords them thi opportunity. However,
in every discipline tl1ere i a choice of spe-
cialization, and just becau e a particular
tudent does not choo e that area doe not
mean the department doe not adequately
prepare tudents in that field of tudy.
Therefore, the engineering curriculum at
the University of Waterloo does prepare
future engineers for the ethical deci ions
they will face.
Footnotes
[1) http://www.adm.uwafer/oo.ca/
infoucaIlCOURSE/course-GEN_E.lztml
nglneer
between student and . tudent, and student
and profe or are trictly relegated to
numerical solutions parlayed on paper.
After aJl, if a tudent has pa sed high
school it i not out ide the University
braintrust to assume that one would know
the basics of communication. So where do
students get them from? Obviously it is a
matter of learning and developing them
from a young age. Little League, Boy
Scouts and Girl Guides, school plays and
drama productions are all examples of
areas where countless youngster have
learned important les ons in dealing with
others. But when they are young it is u u-
ally not their choice to do these things. It
is their parents pushing and commitment
to driving them to be well-rounded indi-
viduals. So why is there a lack of commu-
nication skills? One di turbing possibility
is that there is no need for families to send
kids outside to keep them occupied. The
best baby sitter in the world is sitting in the
living room.
How has television become uch an
important institution? How is it possible
that the family has been replaced and how
could it get to this point? Ironically, one
can trace the roots back to the late 19th
century, before the advent of the televi-
sion. In one of the most infamous quotes
in human history Nietz che proclaimed
"God is dead" and as a result has been mis-
interpreted to the present day. The basis of
Nietzsche's comment was the idea that a
God was created in order to instill a sen e
of morals and ethics on society. Nietzsche
felt that society needed and could develop
a new set of morals not bound to religion
or belief. Year later, the motion picture is
developed. Years after that the television
replaces the radio as the entertainment
medium for the family. Eventually it lead
to 70 channels plus satellite ho\)kup:. plus
VCRs with a whol' host of shows thut d 'al
with fantasy, science tiction. education,
comedy, drama, cooking, etc.
The one thing it did not and does not
do is allow two way interaclion.
Television preaches and the recipient sits
and stares si lently: Everything one sees
during prime-time deals with characters
and "ethical dilemmas" they are placed in
by the production c mpanies. The enter-
tainment moguls teach us our morals and
we li sten and obey. How else could "The
Simpsons" be called one of the most moral
show on television? Homer usually does
something bad/wrong with respect to pop-
ular opinion. In the end he ends up doing
the right thing. The watcher is taught the
difference between right and wrong, how-
ever he is also taught that week in and
week oul he can make stupid mistakes and
will always be forgiven. The glossy mate-
rialistic world of televiSIon does not deal
with the consequences that are the area of
Profes ionals.
Univer. ities are now faced with this
problem - one that they may have helped
to create - and now must deal with. But
how? The engineering curriculum needs
to address the application of generalized
knowledge on a wider basis. Engineering
thought processes need to be extended
beyond the confines of science and mathe-
matics. Courses could teach these thought
patterns to have students look at public
concerns of health and safety, production
concerns, marketing strategies and inte-
grate them into all aspects of design.
Making the right decision is easy when it
is an informed, intelligent one - especially
one that is made by the New Moral
Engineer.
13
Ethical Incompetence
Continued
(coTltinuedjrom page 11)
provid . The engineer mu. t decide which
\I idget de. ign 10 manufacture. A tough
de i ion mu. t be made - between a few
li\c. and wide. pread ben fit. Which
option be:t promotes the "pubJi wel-
fare"? The ethical cour:e of action i not
a: clear as in the above PopsicJe stick
bridge 'a. c. An ethical dilemma is at
hand.
Peopl act ethicall in most situations
because th ethical choi e never needs to
be reasoned out thoroughly. Over the
course of our lives. we have been taught
various rule. , and they co er 1110 t ethical
decision. Ma ims like "Thou shalt not
kill" work well when they e i. t and do 110t
conflict ith each other. These are the
"plug and chug" formula of ethics. But
when the formula needed is not in the text-
book, a solution must be worked out from
cratch.
Solving ethical dilemmas can be
equated to putting an unproven design into
practice. If a design is unproven, there is
a much greater risk that the design will
fail. But the risk can be reduced by u ing
proven theories in generaling the design.
Designing a new bridge without knowing
any of the established theories of bridge
design is a dangerous effort. Similarly,
solving an ethical dilemma without know-
ing any theories of ethic greatly increases
the chance that the wrong decision will be
made. Courses in ethical theory and appli-
cation introduce students to some of these
techniques, hopefully reducing the possi-
bility that they will make unethical deci-
sions.
_ .......... "ou h the opportunity to take ethics
courses exists, the UW Engineering cur-
riculum doe not require any meaningful
ethical training as a graduation require-
111\.'nl.
TIll' mandatOlY fust year Il1trodlK'tion
to Englll 'l:ring Ml'lhods eOUf1lC' (,EN E
16x, etc.) olter vCly lilli' di:'l:u:>sion of
ethical dil'll1Jl1as. '1'111.' GEN E 16x t t
(lifth cdition) devotes only one half of a
pag' to lite solving or ethical dilemmas.
Complementary Studies Elective (CSE)
n:quircmell ts allowcngincering students
to cxplor' the w()lld b 'yond engin 'cring,
\0 make us b '\ler individuals and hetter
enginecrs. But courseS in ethical theory
and application arc only an option among
many other courscs that can be Llscd to sat
.isfy CSE requirement:.. It is possible to
graduate with almost no CKpO 'ure to ethics
in one's courscwork.
Waterloo does not do enough I()
ensure that graduates are prepared to Ul>e
their engineering skills in an ethical man-
ner. The public potentially faces unneces-
sary risk from unethical decisions, while
the individual engineer faces the risk of an
injured cOJ1<;cience, reputation, and career.
Professionals are expected to act in an eth-
ical manner, and more emphasis must be
placed on ethics in the curriculum if we
are to say we arc in a professional pro-
gram.
Editor's Note:
The winner of the Humanitarian
Award will be announced in the next issue
depending on if the winning entry meets
the standards set by the panel oj judges.
The award will be available again in the
term. If you are interested in sub-
mitting an enlly for the summer term,
please email iwarrior@engmail to be put
Oll all email list thaI will keep you
informed on possible article topics.
, ..
-.
14
Internal Information
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998
EngSoc to Supply Technical Magazines
W
ell, we are
about one
m 0 nth
away from finals and
rounding towards the
close of another excit-
ing term. There are a
lot of things going on
with the executive
and the Engineering
Society in general in order to close the
books on the term and end in a bIas!. Here
are a few updates:
I am still currently looking into the
magazine subscriptions. This is where a
company would donate a one-year's sub-
scription to a periodical that on an
engineering discipline. We are planning to
have these magazines available in POETS
and are looking to donating back issues
(over one year old) to the fourth year study
rooms. As mentioned before. Dow has
already committed to this in full and we
should start to get the magazines soon.
We've also now got Anderson Consulting
on board for sure and five other interested
companies from the Waterloo region. I'm
hoping that this project will be continued
on for at least a few years. as it a win-
win situation for both students and indus-
try. As students it wi II gi ve us an
opportunity to read about new innovative
President
Report
by Sarah Davies
products and ideas
emerging in society
and for companies,
it will give them
some exposure to
engineering stu-
dents at a fairly
minimal cost.
Speaking of
corporate involve-
ment and sponsorship, we have closed the
book on the 1997 Yearbook
Advertisements. Mary Bland (our
Corporate Manager) has been hugely suc-
cessful in acquiring advertising for the
yearbooks, and as of tne final deadline we
have reached our goal of subsidizing a
yearbook that was cheaper for the students
and paying off some of the expenses
incurred. [truly believe that with Mary's
drive and enthusiasm there will be nothing
but growth and even more success for this
project next year. We are coming up with
some interesting ideas already to increase
the potential profit for the yearbook next
year and have started looking towards
where the Corporate Manager prorlts will
be spent. The proposal discussed in last
issues Iron Warrior will be voted on at
joint council this summer so 1 would
appreciate any further comments or sug-
gestions to improve it's current format.
PEO Considering
Student Members

I s
Nationa
Engineering Week
From February
28 to March 8. both
student and profes-
sional
across Canada com-
memorated their
industry with
National Engineering Week (NEW). In
Ontario. the P 0 had a display at the
Ontario Science Centre that was a
resounding success. Here in Waterloo, we
had the Bus Push and Engcnuity. The Bus
Push was also parI of a cross Canada char-
ity effort that the CFES (Canadian
Federation of Engineering Students) orga-
nized. Every engineering school in
Canada was invited to hold a charity event
(with the proceeds going to a local charity
organization) to show the country that us
engineers are pretty cool.
PEO Information
As part of the Bridging the Gap series,
we had a speaker from the PEO come in
and speak about the organization and
answer questions about it. The . peakeI',
Johnny Zuccon, also left more forms for
pregrad experience credits. You can find
those forms in the Orifice in front of
Betty's desk. There was also another talk
about the PEO on March 10.
Also, as many of you already know,
the PEO has been working on a student
member hip. I was speaking to Johnny
(Zuccon) and according to him, the PEO
seems more receptive to the idea. The
VP External
Report
b\' Nina Sud/II
main function of the
student membership
is to introduce the
PEO to engineering
students during
their time at univer-
sity instead of wait-
ing until after, at
which point it may
be too late. The
PEO is beginning to 'ee the benefits to
both themselves and the students that the
student membership brings, However. it
will still take time - it is expected that a
formal presentation will be made at
November's PEO general meeting. (Nova
Scotia has just recently started a similar
student membership. and Quebec ha had
one for a number of years now.)
Events Shadow Day was held on
Wednesday. March 4. Although we had a
low turnout from the high schools;it went
off without a hitch, and tho 'e who came
had a good time. They were shown around
the 'chool and attended classes with their
.. hadow", a student currently in engineer-
ing. This program is to give high chool
students a chance to see what a day in the
life of an engineering student i like.
Explorations and Campus Day are
coming up on March 16 and March 17.
Both of these events are organized in con-
junction with the Year One Office. Like
Shadow Day. these event bring in
younger student and show them what
engineering can offer them. Explorations
target elementary chool kid, and
Campu Day high chool tudent.
Well, that' it for me for now. Have a
great day.
By the time this issue of the [ron
Warrior comes to print we will have elect-
ed a new team of executive members. I
would like to congratulate them all and
hope that they keep up the good enthusi-
asm and initiative. At the last council
meeting, I presented a quick proposal to
incorporate another member to the execu-
tive. This would be an appointed position
and hclp keep continuity through changing
executi ves so that we can make the
Engineering Society more efficient and
adaptable to students needs. For an
incoming, new executive, the position
would preferably be held by an ex-execu-
tive member or at least someone who is a
senior member of the society and knows
the directions and focuses of the society in
general. This person would act as an advi-
sor to the new executive, answering ques-
tions, attending executive meetings if
invited and just helping out in general.
The secone;! term the executive would
appoint someone who may be considering
to run on the executive that term or at lea. t
a director with much enthusiasm and ini-
tiative to help them out on a day-to-day
basis and would function as a general Vice
President. This person could then help the
next executive continue with the ideas and
directions before them. I think that this
position could help out all ....xecutives in
the future a great deal. and help the
Engineering Society change and adapt to
it's student needs more quickly by being a
much more continuou. and efficient orga-
nization. If you have any suggestions
about this idea, plea e let me know.
As many of you may already know,
Waterloo just recently held the Ontario
Engineering Competition. I am very
happy to say that we did extremely well in
this competition, winning fir t prize in
every category, I would also like to take
this opportunity to thank and congratulate
the organizing committee for all of their
hard work to en ure that the weekend was
a great succes. ot only did we how
other engineering students from across
Ontario our friendly competitive nature,
we showed them that would could orga-
nize and provide an excellent weekend for
them all to participate. Great job to Amy
Lai and her hardworking crew!
Well, that's it for me this issue. A.
always, I'm plea ed to accept any com-
ment or suggestions that you may have
for the remaining of my term as president.
My office hour is Friday, from 12:00-
I :00 p.m. and my email is
eng-prez@novice.
Application Deadline
for DOrectorships Soon
H
owdy, by
now evcry-
body knows
who the new execu-
tive are and you must
be thinking to your-
self why is Vladimir
still writing these
reports. Well the off-
ical transfer of power
is happening during our last EngSoc meet-
ing of the term. Thi meeting is a PotLuck
so start thinking about what to bring, there
will be a sign up list in the Orifice for you
to let u know what you are bringing. The
date of this meeting is Wed. March 25 and
the food start at around 4:30 p.m. This
meeting is welcome to anyone and it is the
perfect time to congratulate the new exec-
utive and watch the old exec, like me, say
goodbye.
March has been a busy one so far and
i not going to let up at all. The
Explorations Directors need your help on
Monday, March 16 from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m.
The ign up list is in the Orifice. March 17
St. Patricks Day is also Campus Day so be
nice to the young high school students that
will be touring the campu , be sure to let
them know how much you enjoy
Engineering and University Life. March
19 i a very important day for the graduat-
ing clas of 1998 because thi is the day
they have all been waiting for. This is day
they receive their Iron Rings and party like
its 1985. You'1I be able to ee them in and
around POETS from Noon to 2 p.m.
March 20 is the deadline for director appli-
cations which will be run by the new exec-
utive. These application might be web
forms based because EngSoc i moving
towards the new millenium with leaps and
bound. The End of Term pub is March
27, and i where the End of Term video
VP Internal
Report
by Vlad ioanovic
will . be first
debuted.
I would like to
thank the Tal Eng
directors Deb Boyd,
Alex Pak, and Renee
Lazarowich for an
awesome Tal Eng.
The night was filled
with great acts and a
cool atmosphere to relax. The Art direc-
tors are bringing another event to us, an
Art Exhibit at the University Club on
March 26 so stay tuned for more info.
Thanks to the Althletics directors OIi
Dumtez and Andrew Mulder(Boulder)
which have had a Soccer, Hockey,
Volleyball and now coming a Mudbowl
tournament all in just three week. Thanks
to the Bu Pu h director Jenn Motuz and
Chris Richardson for an awesome Bus
Push. All the money directly benefitted
the Big Brothers and Sisters of Waterloo.
This has always been our main fundraiser
for the Winter term so a pat on the bacl\
goes out to everyone who participated and
raised money for such a good cause. I'd
also like to thank the amazing IW team for
putting together a fantastic paper, good job
guys.
Remember there is a comment and
suggestion box just outside the Orifice
which I check regularly but has yet to have
any comments or uggestions. This sug-
gention box is there for anyone who has
feedback positive or negative with any-
thing to do with the society, like problems
with POETS, Orifice resources, executive,
etc. As usual feel free to contact me. I can
be found in such places as the Orifice and
POETS. You can email me at
eng_vpint@llovice or call me at horne
725-2048.
" . ,.
The Iron Warrior, Friday, March 13, 1998 Internal Information 15
Teams for Fundraising Initiative Cesana Name Lives On
BY ALEXIS JAY
ChESoc-A President
W
ell, Lhe Chemical Engineering
Society A (ChESoc-A) i well
underway with its fund raising
efforts for the 48th CSChE National
Conference. We are sending 48 delegates
to this conference, and to tackle thi mam-
moth (but accomplishable) task we have
formed four fundraising team . These
teams are:
- WEEF Team - Co-Chairs: Ryan
Penty and Rock Radovan
On Wednesday, March 4, Rock and
Ryan did an excellent job presenting our
proposal to send the ChESoc-A delegates
to the conference. To send all the dele-
gates will require approximately $4000,
and we hope to receive partial funding
from WEEF.
- Letter Campaign Team - Chair:
Michael Robinson
With the help of Dr. Chatzis, Mike
and his team will be writing to various
organizations to seek potential sponsor-
ship. The letters have been sent out on
March 9. With a little bit of luck and some
H
ello everyone.
With under a
month of lec-
tures left in the term,
everyone should be
getting busier now
approaching
deadlines
reports and presenta-
tions. It's a good thing
we have a week break before final exams.
First of all, I would like to thank all
the candidates who ran for an executive
position in the election. Without people
like you who are willing to sacrifice thei r
own personal time in order to help
improve the lives of others, the
Engineering Society with all it services
BY ROCK RAOOVAN
ChESoc-A Environmental Representative
R
ecently an old division of the
Chemical Institute of Canada
(CIC) resurrected itself. The
Environment Division resurfaced in June
1997 with a renewed focus. It is dedkat-
ed to excellence, promotion and encour-
agement of those who practice chemical
engineering, the chemical sciences and the
associated professions. But big deal, what
has it done for Environmental Engineers
recently?
The Division has many goals for the
future. Most obviously it is involved in
organising special topic symposiums and
programs at national conferences. The
National COIlference in Edmonton this
past October is one example of this, and
the upcoming National Conference in
London in the fall will also deal with a
variety of environmental topics. The
Division also wants to offer, in co-opera-
tion with local chapters a wide variety of
self improvement, training and networking
opportunities to broaden member skills
and career opportunities.
The Environmental Improvement
Award has been reactivated. This award is
crafty writing. I am ure that Mike and hi
team' effort will be met with ucce .
- Internal Sources Team - Chair:
Naomi Wong
The ChESoc-A has been very fortu-
nate with the generou donations that it
has received in the past from internal
sources. Past donations have come from
sources uch as the Chemical Engineering
Department, Engineering Faculty, Institute
for Polymer Research, and EngSoc.
Naomi and her team will be contacting our
previous internal ponsor with our new
proposal, and at the same time locating
potential new sponsors.
- Activities Team - Co-Chairs: Justina
Luke and Vincent C. Thomas
Last summer the ChESoc-A had a
very successful car wash in the parking lot
located by East Campus Hall. This term
Vince and Justina will be heading up the
wash. With the outstanding quality of ser-
vice and satisfied clientele from last sum-
mer, I am sure that Vince, Justina and their
team will be washing many dirty cars.
Please wish us luck with our fundrais-
ing efforts!
T
he tiL t item
of bu. ines
thi fortnight
is to i" ue a heartfelt
apolog, to Ian
Gallaway in 3A
Mechanical
Engineering. In a
past article 1 mistak-
enl y identified him
a Ian McGregor. How many Ians are
there in that la. anyway? Ian Gallaway
has been an in trumental part in keeping
his cIa 'WEEF participation rate well
over 90% for two consecuri ve term ,and I
am truly sorry for mixing up the two Ians.
This term's $110,000 wil1 be allocated
to various project by the Funding Council
on Monday, March 16th. The location will
be announced. If your WEEF rep has not
done so yet, a k him or her to circulate the
WEEF proposal booklet around the cIas .
Do not forget to add comment to the pro-
posal booklet. Your WEEF rep i voting
on behalf of your class, so let .your voice
be heard! After the Funding Council
meeting, the preliminary funding decision
will be presented to the Board of Directors
on April 1st for final ratification.
For those of you who are unaware, the
Expectations Within Budget
VPFinance
Report
would not exist and
could not continue
to prosper.
Congratulations to
those candidates
who were elected
for theIr respective
positions. I can
guarantee you al1
that there will be a
lot of work ahead of you in the next six-
teen months but I also promise you that
your work will be enjoyable (most of the
time) and the experience that you gain will
definitely be a rewarding one. YOli will
playa dominant role in the direction of the
Engineeri ng Society in the future.
Second, I would like to congratulate
all the graduating people who will be
receiving their iron rings next Thursday.
I'm sure that you've all have worked hard
for the past five years and deserve the
reward you are all about to receive. I am
truly happy for you (and a bit jealous too).
EnjOy your Sana ai1UlBiill. e WI
be two of your last memories of your
undergraduate careers.
1 he budget ror this It'rlll IS 100k.11lt'
grcat. Scvcral an' t'Oll\ill'
dose to thcir 1IIlllts but nOIll' arc III dall 't'r
or cxcccding thcir pmjcctlon b) allY sig-
nilicnnt amoullt. On thaI note. the lk'ml -
line for expcnl\c forms for this term willlw
Tuesday, March J I. Suhll1l SSIOIl 01
expense forms by this datt' wtll
you rCllnburscment hdore Ihe t'nd oj ll'c-
The Environment Division Report
given to a company, individual, team or
organisation in Canada for a significant
achievement in pollution prevention, and
treatment or remediation in Canada. The
award is made annually unless the
Selection Committee feels there are no
uitable nominees. The specific criteria
can be found in the ChESoc office. The
Environment Division has a web page at
www.cciw.ca/cicenv.
There was a Workshop/Conference
scheduled for October J 997 which has
been postponed. As information on this is
made available it will be forwarded to the
Environmental classes.
The Enviro Conference Report
Since this position has been created
just this year, there is a lot of information
that has become available that is out of
date. For example, there are environmen-
tal conferences that are occurring in March
- Globe98 (Vancouver), April -1998
International Environmental Conference
& Exhibit (Vancouver), and May -
EnviroAnalysis 1998 (Ottawa). By the
time this was found out it was too late to
organise. Hopefully this will not occur in
the future because of a better communica-
tion system (i.e. this section and ChESoc
meetings). For information on upcoming
meetings and conferences the ACCN pub-
lication is a great source. It is available in
the ChESoc office and you can even take a
copy home for FREE! The CECAB con-
ference may be a possibility see below
for more.
Enviro-Certification Report
Guess what? Once again Canada is
the only country that has decided that the
"newest" and fastest growing private sec-
tor industry needs to be certified in order
to make sure there is a national standard.
In this case it is CECAB - Canadian
Environmental Certification Approvals
Board and the certification program for
environmental practitioners. The follow-
ing information was provided to me from
on the certification initiative:
- Eight Town Hall meetings were com-
pleted - Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg,
Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, St. John's,
and Fredericton - Oct. to Dec., 1997.
- "Record of Town Hall Meetings" was
released Jan.23, 1998 and mailed to all
participants and registrants. It was
placed on the Web, Feb.3, 1998 at
www.chatsubo.comlcchrei
WEEF
Report
by Palll CeSIlIl(l
WEEF Director for
the next 16 months
was acclaimed. A
few people
approached me about
running for the po i-
tion but in the end,
Mark Cesana wa the
only one willing to
do the job. And yes,
the similarity in , urname i not a coinci-
dence, the next WEEF Director will be my
younger brother. Mark will be entering
2A Mechani al Engi neering next term and
has already been an assistant director for
both hi , I A and I B term, . I have the
greate t of confidence in him and know he
will do an outstanding job. Hmmm ... I
have a siSler in grade 10 who will be enter-
ing univer ity when Mark graduates. I
wonder ... ?
This term, there will be a few vacan-
cies left on the WEEF Board of Directors
due to graduating students. If you would
like to find out more about the BoD and
what the responsibilities of a student
member is, please come talk to me in the
WEEF Office (or POETS, my other office)
or e-mail me at endowmenf@heiix.
tures. If any of the directors would like to
know how much they have remaining,
please see me and I will tell you.
There are till a lot of events remain-
ing before the end of the term - Mudbowl,
Explorations, Campus Day, and the second
n mp; (0 name a eW. ere-', 0
the EngSoc Potluck, the last Council meet-
ing of the term, on Wednesday, March 25.
\1' yOU'H' IIl'\'l'! bel'lI to Bn
So 'jet)' (\IUIll'illllu'ttll' , why \lot Itlake
Ihis ylllll t'trst (It W:1" Ill ' Illst IlICl'\l1lg). So
l'Vt'1I though lillll'S IIli 'ht lw lou,h now
,ith school, try tn takl a bleak and
Ipllte ill orw 01 1I100l' or Ihl remainin'
l'Vt'llIs. Rememher
we'V(" '01 a whole wed; lIrtlr leLIlll'lS
arc done 10 study. You cilll'h lip then.
Four 'Task Forces are III the process of
being established: tthlCS, Disciplinary
ActiQn, Gntlldparenting, Certification
Proccss & Procl!dul'cs
A CECAB o{'fjcc has been opened in
Calgary
- A Logo has been developed
A document, responding to questions
asked at the Town Hall meetings will be
released March, 1998
- There will be a CECAB booth at Globe
98, in Vancouver, March 18-20, 1998
- The Founding Convention for CECAB
is planned for the Spring, J 998
- Grandparenting to begin FaJllWinter,
1998
Unfortunately, at this time representa-
tives from CECAB and the CCHREI
(Canadian Council for Human Resources
in the Environment Industry) are unable to
come down and give a presentation on
this. This may be possible in the future,
With luck, the Founding Convention may
provide an excellent opportunity for
Environmental Engineering students to
learn, and express ideas regarding this pro-
gram. To try and keep abreast of all this
information do not hesitate to contact me
(through the ChESoc webpage).
Mathematics Playground
BY HUYIS DEEZ
38 Electrical Engineering
"Think of the biggest number you can.
Now add five. Now imagine if you had
that many Twinkies. W0111, that's five more
than the biggest number you could think
of!" - Age 6
Figure 1.
Prof" "So 'it'S P llP2 = exp(f*phi).
Now how can we maximize power trans-
mission?"
Student: "Increase the angle phi ... or
change the value of e." - ME 322
Sometililes the an wer is right in front
of us but our formal traj ning condition us
to attack problems in a pecific way lead-
ing us away from the obvious answer. I
wa di cussing thi with a friend and he
showed me a problem which tricked me
(the problem i formulated below). My
friend also tells me that Nobel laureate
Linus Pauling fell into the same trap as I
did and chances are
a. .:: I
\
it instantaneously turn around and flies
toward the other car again at a peed of
80kmlh. The bird keeps flying between
both cars until the car hit each other.
What distance does the bird travel?
Take a look again at the quote at the
top of this article. You can see how much
fun the child is having applying mathemat-
ics to Twinkies. You too can have this
much fun applying mathematics to real
world problems. Here's a neat a signment
that you may later find useful:
You have just graduated from univer-
sity and have moved to the high technolo-
gy region of Perth, Ontario. You are
looking for a place to live when you real-
ize that if you put a down payment on a
hou e with the little money you have now
that you will 10 e a lot of money in interest
payments. However, if you rent for too
long then you are merely throwing money
out of the window. Somewhere between
these two extremes lie an optimal time
you should wait and accumulate a larger
down payment that will lead to less money
lost through interest payments. A sume
that the time value of money i negligible
(generally a bad a umption) and cash
flows on a monthly basis. See if you can
come up with a simple model.
H
ello friend . Mathematics is a lot
ea ier to understand when you can
attach it to some sort of physical
reality (at least I think it does). Take last
is ue's problem for example where the pop
can tower problem was posed. I suspect
many of you didn't try this becau e you
couldn't visualize what a tower in dimen-
sions greater than three would look li ke.
However, this visualizat ion wasn't neces-
sary. Indeed, I would pay large sums of
money to someone who can in fact con-
struct a four dimensional pop can tower.
The trick was to see what remains the
same when constructing towers in the first
three dimensions and using some intuition
to extrapolate to higher order dimen ions.
I fai led to mention that J was seeki ng a
closed form expression for the pop can
pyramid ]Jroblem rather than expressed as
summat ions of summations.
Congratulations to those of you who found
the open form an weT especially Dan Kim
of 3B Sy terns and Peter Durie of 38
Electrical who were the first to submit
their solutions. However, since nobody
found the clo ed form expression I wi ll
leave it as a problem for you to solve along
with a $ 10 reward to whomever can derive
the result. Therefore, the fi rst problem is
to find the closed form expres ion for the
summat ions of summations found in
you will be bamboo-
zled as well.
However, the solu-
tion is so obvious
that it freaks me out
that I overlooked it
the first ti me. The
problem is as fol -
lows:
Two cars sepa-
rated by 80km are
each travelling at a
constant velocity of
40krnlh towards each
other at 1=0. There is
a bird perched on top
of one of the cars and
at t=O it flies toward
the oncomi ng car at a
speed of 80kmlh rel-
ative to the ground.
Once the bird reach-
es the oncoming car
"'---- =
k SU,M
,
e. S, cV)
te.VWlS Df Y\ 4 k
\V\
The Sandford Fleming Foundation
CPH 4306 Waterloo Campus Activities
sff@dean
888-4008
The John Fisher Award for Leadership
The John Fisher Award for Leadership is made from time to
time to a graduating student whose activities throughout his/her
academic career have made significant contributions to
Co-operative Engineering Education. Nominations for the
Award can originate from student groups, faculty members and
the Foundation. Nominations should document the nominee's
contriputions and include other support for the nomination.
Contributions are to have a professional orientation and can
involve student activities, the Sandford Fleming
Foundation work or other appropriate functions. Letters from
colleagues, faculty members, and others knowledgeable of the
nominee's efforts will be given consideration.
The Award at Convocation, consists of a Citation and an
Honorarium of $1,000. - For more information, contact the
Sandford Fleming Foundation. Nominations are to be
addressed to Jeff Weller, Executive Secretaryrrreasurer by
April 1, 1998.
Teaching Assistantship Awards
Please submit your nominations by March 27th to the Engineering Undergraduate Office.
Funding for this award comes from your student contributions and depends on it for continuation.
An organization devoted to the advancement of engineering education.