Celebrating engineering achievement
by John Lipsett, P.Eng.

Fifty-one years have passed since PEO Council awarded it’s first Gold Medal to C.D. Howe, P. Eng., to recognize his outstanding leadership and contributions to the Canadian war effort during the Second World War. More recently, Gold Medals were awarded in 1997 to engineer, medical doctor and astronaut Robert Thirsk, P.Eng., and in 1995 to William O’Neil, P.Eng., who received a PEO Engineering Medal early in his career for contributions to the St. Lawrence Seaway and went on to distinguish himself in public service.

Expansion

In 1964, the awards program was expanded with Engineering Medals to celebrate engineering excellence. In 1970, Citizenship Medals were added to recognize voluntary contributions to society. Over the years, the Engineering Medals have been further subdivided into the following categories:

  • Engineering Excellence-recognizing overall excellence in the practice of engineering, where the innovative application of engineering principles has solved a unique problem or produced above-average results.
  • Research and Development-for developing new and useful applications, or improving engineering knowledge or applied science, or discovering or extending any of the engineering or natural sciences.
  • Management-for the management and direction of above-average engineering projects or highly successful enterprises. Recipients are PEO members who have contributed significantly to achieving excellence in engineering, primarily through their management skills.
  • Entrepreneurship-for applying new technologies that have enabled new companies to get started and/or assisted established companies to grow in new directions. Those who earn this award have demonstrated the initiative, energy and spirit it takes to seek out, promote and foster new ideas.
  • Young Engineer Award-for outstanding engineers under the age of 35, who have made exceptional achievements in their chosen fields. This award is given to those who have demonstrated excellence not only in their engineering careers, but also in community and professional participation.

Promoting diversity

Through its Professional Engineers Awards Program, PEO wants to keep alive the names of our exceptional engineers and create a record of achievement that reflects the growth of our profession and its role in Ontario. The association’s awards have always demonstrated the diversity of engineering in the province. Here are some recent examples of technical achievements for which PEO members have received awards from the association:

  • in biomedical engineering, tissue growth on substrate for plastic surgery and ingenious joint mechanics to improve greatly the flexibility and stability of artificial knees;
  • in structural engineering, creating the unique concept and mechanisms for the SkyDome roof;
  • in environmental protection, leak proof recovery of CFCs from refrigeration equipment; and
  • in physical research, creating an academic institute where robotics innovation can flourish.

Some industrial sectors have been underrepresented in recent years, however. PEO’s Awards Committee is addressing this issue by focusing attention on three of these underrepresented sectors: telecommunications, engineering applications of computers and software development, and new manufacturing methodologies. A communications program is underway to especially encourage the nomination of engineers working in these sectors.

Similar diversity has been shown in the range of voluntary activities recognized by Citizenship Medals, which have included:

  • a lifetime of involvement in hospital fund raising and board of directors policy making;
  • organizing a provincial plowing match so well that it made enough profit to finance the start up of a 911 emergency telephone service in an Ontario county; and
  • taking a year away from an engineering career to apply engineering skills to the recovery of a poor, war torn country.

PEO’s awards program has been, since it inception, a grassroots effort where recognition originates not from the Awards Committee, but, rather, from the membership as a whole. The thinking is that engineers working throughout the province in industries, universities, research and development labs, public utilities and elsewhere know who the technical, managerial and volunteer leaders in the profession are. So, nominations must come from them. This system has generally worked well, resulting in an “honour roll” that also seems to match the ethnic, racial and gender mix of the profession.

John Lipsett, P.Eng., is past chair of PEO’s Awards Committee. He received PEO’s Engineering Medal for Research and Development in 1984.