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Please check back soon for upcoming events or visit the Events Directory for other events...
Please view our Past Events.
Date: |
Saturday, April 30, 2011 |
Time: |
2:30 – 4:00 pm |
Location: |
Kinsman Trade Fair Upstairs at the Memorial Arena, Cranbrook, BC |
Details: |
Entry Form
Contest Rules
Building Tips
APEGBC –EK Branch will be hosting a popsicle stick bridge building workshop on Saturday March 26th at 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm at the Cranbrook Library Manual Training School.
All materials will be provided (popsicle sticks, glue, paper, clothes pins). |
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| From left to right: APEGBC Past President Russ Kinghorn, P.Eng., Paul Knipe, East Kootenay Branch Chair, Sean Abram, P.Eng. |
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In its second year of operations the Fernie Secondary Robotics team placed first in competition at Red Deer College on March 6th. This gave the team members a once –in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the World First Technical Challenge Robotic Finals in Atlanta Georgia on April 17th. Time was short for the team to raise enough money to take the ten-member team all the way to Atlanta.
A marathon of fund raising began and very generous donation from Teck Coal Limited pushed the effort over the top. The Robotics Team was on its way to compete in the World Finals. |
The experience was a fantastic one, where students were actually able to meet many people who are actively involved with this amazing technology. It was a great opportunity to meet with other teams and their sponsors from large organizations such as Boeing, Disney and NASA. The team members were also able to visit with many teams from schools similar to our own and realize that this is the future of technology education. Robotics will be a secondary school course in Alberta, equivalent to Math 30 (Grade 12 math in B.C.)
The Fernie students were able to observe the larger robots that are built by colleges and universities. They visited the pit areas and admired these bathtub-sized robots that are built at the next level of competition.
The experience was simply beyond description. It was estimated that twenty thousand participants attended. The Fernie Team and their robot, number 3037, spent four (exhausting days) competing in the Georgia Dome in front of thousands of people.
The robots compete four at a time in an arena where they have to perform an assigned task. The task was trip a hopper, collect balls, use the balls to score points in various ways: dumping balls in a trough scored one point, shooting the ball into a basket scored three points and shooting the balls out of the arena into a tub scored five points each. One yellow ball could double a team score and the competition for that one was intense.
The Fernie Team placed 39th in their division - out of about 1175 teams worldwide.
Grade 12 student and team member Will Butala said,
“We competed on the world stage and for a bunch of kids like us, that will be a memory that stays with us forever.”
Some of the team members will soon be graduating and at this point the future of the Fernie Robotics club is uncertain. It will depend on how many students express an interest next year and what sort of talents are available.
Again, thanks to Teck Coal Limited for being our major sponsor and giving the team this opportunity. We hope to be back next year with new team members facing a new robotics challenge.
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(You may also view this letter in pdf format - click here)
The East Kootenay Branch of APEGBC is looking to set up a formal program for youth outreach in our area and an opportunity has arisen to partner with the Kootenay Rockies Innovation Council (KRIC) to get engineers and geoscientist working with youth and receive help to coordinate with school activities and other events related to science, technology and innovation.
KRIC currently has a full time Youth Programs Coordinator (Andrea Weissenborn) who will be working with schools and in this capacity could provide some infrastructure support to help with the coordination and access to our volunteer network. KRIC can also play a role as a resource for accessing schools and keeping track of the events and coordinating outreach.
We would like to have a engineer and geoscientist champion in each of the major centers in our area (i.e. Elkford, Sparwood, Fernie, Cranbrook, Creston, Kimberley, Canal Flats, Invermere/Windermere, Radium/Edgewater, and Golden/Field) and one for each of the possible events.
Again, APEGBC is offering a $1,000.00 prize to the Branch with the most student visits prior to April 14th, 2011. This is a great opportunity to capitalize on by winning the prize and investing in the future of our youth and our association at the local level.
Our association offers significant resources to assist with this endeavour; not just the carrot of the prize money.
I hope that you will seriously consider this opportunity to expand the understanding of engineering and geo-science within our communities; and to expand the horizons of our youth. There are also numerous benefits of being a volunteer, including; networking, enhancing corporate reputation, mentoring, involvement in new and fun activities.
Please contact myself by email at sean@abramcs.com or by telephone at 250-489-8188 (office) to discuss the level of involvement that suits you.
Sincerely,
Sean Abram, P.Eng.
Chair, East Kootenay Branch, APEGBC
ek@apeg.bc.ca
Please feel free to contact any of the Executive to find out more about Branch activities, or to provide suggestions for improving the Branch’s services to its members. As always, the Branch is looking for members interested in volunteering with the Branch Executive, Professional Development, Social and Community activities. If you'd like to find out more about volunteer opportunities, e-mail ek@apeg.bc.ca.
If you are a new member who has recently or is about to receive your certificate, please contact our Branch Chair for a frame, and to arrange a certificate presentation at an upcoming dinner meeting.
New member Invocation (for certificate presentation to new members)
| Chair |
Sean Abram, P.Eng. |
250-489-8188 |
sean@abramcs.com |
| VIce Chair |
Katie Wells, P.Eng. |
250-342-5991 |
shinoqua@telus.net |
Secretary |
Jeremy Zandbergen, P.Eng. |
250-426-1517 |
jeremy.zandbergen@gov.bc.ca |
| Treasurer |
Steve Weatherall, P.Eng. |
250-417-3911 |
steve.weatherall@tembec.com |
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Mike Bapty, P.Eng. |
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Eric Jensen, P.Eng. |
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Elizabeth Ahlgren, P.Eng. |
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Upcoming Events
Youth Outreach
Recent/Past Events
National Engineering and Geoscience Month
Ideas
New Members
Past Events
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