USask Engineering alumni honoured by APEGS

University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering (USask Engineering) alumni were among those honoured at the APEGS awards banquet on March 7.

We are proud of the achievements of these engineers, who are making a positive impact in our province and beyond.

The Brian Eckel award is an honour given only to those who truly exemplify the best standards of engineering and geoscience in Saskatchewan.

Fonstad (BE'88, MSc'96 Ag, PhD'04 Civil) has spent the past 35 years of his career supporting food security through environmental engineering for animal agriculture as a consulting engineer and professor of engineering at the University of Saskatchewan (USask).

He believes the privilege of education comes with the obligation to give back and has served on local municipal council, APEGS council and executive and is serving on several industry boards of directors. 

Fonstad is currently associate vice-president research (ethics and infrastructure) at USask. 

The McCannel Award honours service to APEGS and to the Professions as a whole. 

Sumith Kahanda (PhD'07 Agri/Bioresource) is project manager, major projects at SaskWater. With over a decade of dedication, he has been at the forefront of engineering and managing water and wastewater projects, ensuring communities thrive through sustainable water solutions. 

Beyond his professional achievements, he passionately mentors the next generation of engineers and selflessly serves as a volunteer, inspiring a brighter future in engineering communities. 

The Outstanding Achievement Award honours members who show technical excellence and achievement in engineering and/or geoscience in Saskatchewan.

The work of Philip LePoudre (BE'01, MSc'03 Mechanical) at Nortek Data Center Cooling Solutions and USask led to the commercialization of a completely new liquid-to-air membrane exchanger technology with a wide range of application in air treatment and cooling for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) industry.

He has over 20 inventions related to exchanger and cooling system design and is currently developing power and water efficient cooling solutions for the rapidly growing data centre market.

The Promising Member Award recognizes exceptional achievements by a professional member in the early stages of their career in Saskatchewan.

Since becoming a professional engineer in 2022, Jenae Nixon (BE'16 ME'16 Civil) has mainly worked on the geotechnical inspection, monitoring, risk assessment, rehabilitation, dam safety review, and design of dams and water infrastructure in the province.

She contributes time to the profession on the Licensee Admissions Committee and Regina Geotechnical Group as well as to her community through curling and the South East Regional Science Fair Committee.

The Exceptional Engineering/Geoscience Project Award recognizes accomplishments in engineering and/or geoscience.

As the COVID-19 pandemic began overwhelming healthcare systems around the world, Jim Boire (BE'96 Mechanical), president of Saskatoon's RMD Engineering Inc., set out to design and manufacture an emergency-use ventilator, or EUV.

Within 42 days, Boire and his team had achieved third-party certification of their ventilator - a mere three days after the same feat had been achieved by a group that included NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Within nine months the RMD ventilator successfully passed rigorous reviews and received COVID-19 Medical Device Authorization from Health Canada. Along the way, RMD's subsidiary, One Health Medical Technologies, became Saskatchewan’s first licensed medical device manufacturer.

Learn how USask Engineering partnered with RMD to support development of the ventilator.

Please visit the APEGS website to see the full list of 2024 award winners. USask Engineering extends its appreciation to APEGS for the information and videos included in this post.