Here is a peek at what’s going on this month!
EGS Election Results
We would like to congratulate our newly elected reps! These are your go-to people for advice and problems. They keep a pulse on the department so that we can pass the information up through the administration so that we can flag big issues and help to solve them. Reps also sit on important committees such as GCPC, Graduate Council and the GSA so they are your voice when it comes to changes in grad curriculum, policy, grad issues etc. Get to know your reps and use them as a resource!
There are a some vacant spots in some departments. We will be allowing nominees at the AGM on May 31st at 5pm in JHE-328 and if there are enough people from that department to meet quorum for voting we can vote reps in at our AGM. Note: we also have numerous spots for volunteers so we encourage you to contact us if you’re interested in getting involved. Tell us what you like to do or what you’re interested in learning and we’ll find a fit!
| Name | Contact | Dept. |
| Vahid Mohsenzadeh | mohsenzv@mcmaster.ca | CIV |
| Oscar A. Tirado R. | tiradoro@mcmaster.ca | CIV |
| Mohammed Zaher | zaherm@mcmaster.ca | Mech |
| Paul Ricciuti | ricciupr@mcmaster.ca | Mech |
| Yousef Tabatabaei | tabatasy@mcmaster.ca | MSE |
| Maedeh Pourmajidian | pourmam@mcmaster.ca | MSE |
| Simon Younan | younans@mcmaster.ca | Phys |
| Jared Goguen | goguenjp@mcmaster.ca | Phys |
| Issam El Khatib | elkhatii@mcmaster.ca | SEP |
| Christabel Aryeetey | aryeetec@mcmaster.ca | SEP |
| Maryam Badv | badvm@mcmaster.ca | BME |
| VACANT | interested? Attend AGM | BME |
| Aili Zou | zoua2@mcmaster.ca | CAS |
| VACANT | interested? Attend AGM | CAS |
| Nazanin Moshtagh | moshtagn@mcmaster.ca | Chem |
| VACANT | interested? Attend AGM | Chem |
| Larissa Taylor | taylorla@mcmaster.ca | ECE |
| VACANT | interested? Attend AGM | ECE |
GSA Student Services Fees Referendum Results
The results for the GSA student services fees referendum are in. The referendum was a very close outcome with a relatively low voter turnout: 701 graduate students (20.7% of the graduate student population).
Students have voted NO to both proposals i.e. they do not want to pay the same students service fee as the undergraduate students do for the health and wellness services here on campus and they do not want to pay for SGS career services.
Refer to our full blog post here to find out more about the impact of this vote and what you can do if you need mental health services http://egs.mcmaster.ca/2016/05/2016-fees-referendum-results/
EGS Annual General Meeting
The EGS will be having its Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, May 31st at 5pm in the JHE Lounge (JHE-328). All engineering graduate students are invited to attend. We will be reviewing what we did last year and giving details of our plans for this year. If we have quorum for a given department & somebody wishes to be a rep where there is a vacancy – we will have rep elections at this event.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1776370102586353/
METRIC 2016
The Engineering Graduate Society (EGS) is organizing METRIC 2016: McMaster Engineering, Technology, Research & Innovation Conference.
Our conference provides an opportunity for graduate students, postdocs, professors and industrial alumni in different engineering fields to engage, share ideas, develop collaboration strategies and share advice & resources. Researchers can discuss the most recent innovations, trends, concerns, and practical challenges encountered and we can work to find big-picture engineering solutions by fostering collaboration between departments, research groups and industry.
Tentative Schedule
Mark your calendars for Friday August 19th. The conference will be held in McMaster Innovation Park. Student speakers will be grouped into research areas, not by department. The intention being to naturally identify areas of potential collaboration, resource sharing and advice sharing! After each set of speakers there will be a Q&A panel instead of individual question time. This is an opportunity for you to discuss your research, to know what other researchers here are working on and to network with colleagues. The hope is to foster collaboration and share information & resources within the Faculty. You can participate as an attendee, as a presenter or showcase a poster (old or new). As part of the conference you have the opportunity to take a tour to Canmet, The Forge or MARC. The afternoon will consist of numerous breakout professional development events and workshops and we’ll finish off the day with a wine & cheese party.
Registration
Early Bird tickets are $20. Students can either pay themselves or use their supervisor’s account number (with their permission). We are looking for graduate students to talk about their research! Register and submit an abstract. Please include 3 keywords to identify your research area e.g. Water, Automotive, Infrastructure. Your audience is general engineering so tailor your content to make it understandable to those who are not in your department.
Register now: http://egs.mcmaster.ca/metric/
See you in August!
Travel Funding
Are you planning on going to any conferences this summer? You might be eligible to apply for some travel grants. Check out the GSA and SGS funding for travel grant.
- http://gsa.mcmaster.ca/
funding.html#travel-grants - http://graduate.mcmaster.ca/
scholarships-and-funding/ travel-awards/yates-travel– fund - http://graduate.mcmaster.ca/
scholarships-and-funding/ travel-awards
Research Minutes Video Contest
We just got our SPICES funding proposal for the video contest approved. Share your research & learn a cool new skill: videomaking. Participants are invited to make 1 minute video about their research. You can make it by yourself or you can make it as a group. The best video from each Faculty will be awarded $500. The judges will be the Dean’s of each Faculty.
The contest will run from May and the deadline is July 31st. Videos should be submitted to and any questions should be directed to researchminutes@mcmaster.ca
There will be a video template released soon that you can use as a starting point and there will be a video making workshop next month to help you along the way. Start planning your script now!
OTHER
- International Students come out and learn about work permits on Tuesday May 10th at 1pm in ETB535. Adam Peplar has arranged for two immigration consultants to deliver a presentation on immigration & work permit related issues relevant for international graduate students in Engineering. There will be presentation followed by a question period. Register Here
http://egs.mcmaster.ca/2016/04/grad-work-permits-event/ - There is a big Engineering Career Fair in Toronto on May 12th.
Register here https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/engineering-career-fair-2016-tickets-21114692614 - JHE will be having a scheduled power outage on May 28th & 29th.
- Are you interested in patenting your research, developing a spin-off company or looking for general advice on IP. MILO – the McMaster Industry Liaison Office is having an information day on May 31st. http://www.degroote.mcmaster.ca/2016/04/27/milo-information-day/
As always, you can find out all of the events related to engineering graduate students on the EGS calendar http://egs.mcmaster.ca/calendar/