so as a young University student
engineering was never an option for me I
didn’t know any engineers and to be
honest I really didn’t see a place for
compassion or a place for helping people
in engineering so medicine it would be
my mom was a doctor and my brother was
in med school made perfect sense so my
first year of university I registered
into the Faculty of science it’s all
gung-ho got into my classes but
something didn’t feel right
I felt unsettled so I reflected and you
all know what happened I transferred her
to Sciences and went into engineering
but if I’m gonna be honest I was
terrified with doing that and the reason
I was terrified was because I didn’t
think I’d find any engineer like me
gregarious
passionate and with this burning drive
to help other people well this was 25
years ago I did meet a few like-minded
engineers and during my training as well
I did learn how engineers help people
right through those brilliant
technological advances but as my career
progressed what I noticed was that
sometimes engineers but such emphasis on
those technological advances but at
times we forget that people and places
matter that’s when I realized that
compassion really had a role in
engineering because when it comes to
compassionate allows you to put yourself
into somebody else’s shoes truly
understand what they are going through
and the power in that is that then you
can create thoughtful and considerate
so that is the foundation when it comes
to engineering with decency and I had an
opportunity early on in my career when I
was doing my PhD to take a course from a
professor from Ohio State University and
he shared a groundwater contamination
case study with me it occurred in a
small idyllic town called Woburn
Massachusetts a bedroom community to
Boston and what happened here was there
was a specific street called Pine Street
where the residents started to notice
that their water smelled funny the taste
wasn’t very good actually to the point
where they had to add juice crystals to
their water just to be able to drink it
so the residents would then complain to
the city and the city engineer would say
it’s okay don’t worry I’ve run my tests
everything is fine he’d reassure them
his intentions were good
and the reason the water he said didn’t
taste good is because of the chlorine
we’re adding to make it safe so the
residents listened but things didn’t get
better so they would complain and the
engineer would reassure them and the
residents would complain and the
engineer would reassure them and the
cycle would go on for three years but I
always made an impact on me because the
engineer was so certain that his
technology was keeping all those
residents safe his intentions were good
but things got worse a cluster of
childhood leukemia cases started to pop
up in Pine Street and an Anderson one of
the mothers decided to rally up the
residents and hire a lawyer to figure
out what was going on and what they
found out was that there are several
companies that had contaminated the
groundwater and two of the drinking
water wells were impacted and the water
the court case was long and complicated
and the Environmental Protection Agency
had to come in file a lawsuit to force
two of those companies to clean up the
contamination at the time it ended up
being the largest cleanup ever in the
history of northeastern United States at
a cost of 68 million dollars but the
cost that struck me was the human cost
seven people died one person ended up in
remission but look at the ages it’s
predominantly children so I always
thought if bad engineer maybe gave more
value to what the people were saying and
maybe didn’t trust as much the
technology he was using at that time
what difference he could have made so
this case study really made an impact on
me and I have carried it ever since
I have heard it and now in Canada I work
on groundwater contamination issues and
I always find it interesting the
response I get is there any work for you
Canadians and people from all around the
world think we’re a mecca of clean water
but that’s not necessarily the case this
shows you a map from a study carried out
in 2015 showing all the drinking water
advisories we have in Canada and what’s
interesting is it’s our First Nations
communities that are impacted the most
in Alberta alone 87 percent of First
Nations communities have had a drinking
water advisory in the past ten years was
shocking in Ontario one nation has had a
drinking water advisory for 20 years so
why is that why is it that some of us
don’t have to worry about our water but
yet when it comes to First Nations
communities they are being left behind
so I’ve had the opportunity to work with
several First Nations in Alberta
located in beautiful places this here
hard to see you is a picture of herd of
most recently I worked with a community
it was very concerned about their water
and I had two engineering students that
embodied the engineering with decency
philosophy so what do they do naturally
they decide to go and live in the
community so this is Travis one of those
students sitting on the lawn of a house
that he lived in in the summer of 2013
now Travis and Frasier were a little
uncomfortable they’ve only ever lived in
the city never have lived in a rural
environment they also weren’t super
comfortable with all the semi feral dogs
that are common in these communities or
the poverty or the homes in disrepair
and they also didn’t know if they had
anything to offer the community and the
community in Chern kind of thought it a
little bit weird that these two city
boys want to live in their community and
also weren’t sure what they had to offer
the community but Travis and Frasier
knew it was important to live in the
community and started to participate in
events Frasier participated in his first
rodeo didn’t go so well for Frasier but
the community found love with them and
they started to invite them to more more
events sweats rite of passage ceremonies
an enormous amount of trust began to
build between Travis and Frasier and the
community so when they progressed with
their work what they found was as
engineers we always chlorinate wells to
keep it safe for drinking but it was the
first time that Travis and Frasier
actually drank that water after shock
chlorinating a well tasted shocking
awful they also started to realize that
some of the Western systems and
checks-and-balances we had in place were
really failing the community because
some members in the community thought
they were on a boil water advisory and
actually weren’t and worse yet
some members of the community didn’t
think they were on a boil water advisory
but actually were so Travis and Frasier
were wondering after all of this
do they really trust their water so they
went out and surveyed the community
those that said no 100% drank bottled
water
not a shock but what about those that
said yes they do trust their water
sixty-two percent still drink bottled
water not a surprise right the systems
have failed them so why would they trust
it even if somebody told them that it
was safe to drink
but when things really change for Travis
and Frasier is when one of the community
members start to share their perspective
on water but water has a conscience and
is the living being now in all honesty
Travis Anna Frasier for thought oh my
gosh this is crazy
but decided to put that away and to
listen and so they learnt that water is
a giver of life if we really thought
that water was alive how would we treat
it we treat it with an enormous amount
of respect right it wouldn’t be a
commodity we wouldn’t pay for it we
wouldn’t sell it we wouldn’t contaminate
it and then we wouldn’t doubt more
chemicals in it to the make it fresh and
potable again this rocked Frasier and
Travis’s world they started to realize
they had a lot to learn but through this
experience they appreciate the fact that
they needed to slow down they needed to
talk and listen and to truly hear
perspectives that were very different
from the ones that they grew up with it
completely changed them as engineers and
for the community they realized what a
valuable role they had had in the
engineering education of these two
students
so now I can’t keep up with these requests I have engineering students
requests I have engineering students constantly asking me for experiences
constantly asking me for experiences that embody engineering with decency
that embody engineering with decency where curiosity and compassion lead the
where curiosity and compassion lead the way and how they tackle problems today I
way and how they tackle problems today I have the pleasure to work with another
have the pleasure to work with another student
student Tori Thompson a mining engineering
Tori Thompson a mining engineering student she’s worked with many
student she’s worked with many communities First Nation communities in
communities First Nation communities in the north and she’s an example of
the north and she’s an example of engineering with decency because she
engineering with decency because she holds a profession accountable and
holds a profession accountable and ensures that human dignity is at the
ensures that human dignity is at the core of everything that we do so this
core of everything that we do so this makes me very optimistic for the future
makes me very optimistic for the future and now I can say there are many many
and now I can say there are many many engineers just like me so with that I’ll
engineers just like me so with that I’ll leave you with this Cree proverb love
leave you with this Cree proverb love one another and help one another because
one another and help one another because there is no greater calling thank you
engineering was never an option for me I
didn’t know any engineers and to be
honest I really didn’t see a place for
compassion or a place for helping people
in engineering so medicine it would be
my mom was a doctor and my brother was
in med school made perfect sense so my
first year of university I registered
into the Faculty of science it’s all
gung-ho got into my classes but
something didn’t feel right
I felt unsettled so I reflected and you
all know what happened I transferred her
to Sciences and went into engineering
but if I’m gonna be honest I was
terrified with doing that and the reason
I was terrified was because I didn’t
think I’d find any engineer like me
gregarious
passionate and with this burning drive
to help other people well this was 25
years ago I did meet a few like-minded
engineers and during my training as well
I did learn how engineers help people
right through those brilliant
technological advances but as my career
progressed what I noticed was that
sometimes engineers but such emphasis on
those technological advances but at
times we forget that people and places
matter that’s when I realized that
compassion really had a role in
engineering because when it comes to
compassionate allows you to put yourself
into somebody else’s shoes truly
understand what they are going through
and the power in that is that then you
can create thoughtful and considerate
so that is the foundation when it comes
to engineering with decency and I had an
opportunity early on in my career when I
was doing my PhD to take a course from a
professor from Ohio State University and
he shared a groundwater contamination
case study with me it occurred in a
small idyllic town called Woburn
Massachusetts a bedroom community to
Boston and what happened here was there
was a specific street called Pine Street
where the residents started to notice
that their water smelled funny the taste
wasn’t very good actually to the point
where they had to add juice crystals to
their water just to be able to drink it
so the residents would then complain to
the city and the city engineer would say
it’s okay don’t worry I’ve run my tests
everything is fine he’d reassure them
his intentions were good
and the reason the water he said didn’t
taste good is because of the chlorine
we’re adding to make it safe so the
residents listened but things didn’t get
better so they would complain and the
engineer would reassure them and the
residents would complain and the
engineer would reassure them and the
cycle would go on for three years but I
always made an impact on me because the
engineer was so certain that his
technology was keeping all those
residents safe his intentions were good
but things got worse a cluster of
childhood leukemia cases started to pop
up in Pine Street and an Anderson one of
the mothers decided to rally up the
residents and hire a lawyer to figure
out what was going on and what they
found out was that there are several
companies that had contaminated the
groundwater and two of the drinking
water wells were impacted and the water
the court case was long and complicated
and the Environmental Protection Agency
had to come in file a lawsuit to force
two of those companies to clean up the
contamination at the time it ended up
being the largest cleanup ever in the
history of northeastern United States at
a cost of 68 million dollars but the
cost that struck me was the human cost
seven people died one person ended up in
remission but look at the ages it’s
predominantly children so I always
thought if bad engineer maybe gave more
value to what the people were saying and
maybe didn’t trust as much the
technology he was using at that time
what difference he could have made so
this case study really made an impact on
me and I have carried it ever since
I have heard it and now in Canada I work
on groundwater contamination issues and
I always find it interesting the
response I get is there any work for you
Canadians and people from all around the
world think we’re a mecca of clean water
but that’s not necessarily the case this
shows you a map from a study carried out
in 2015 showing all the drinking water
advisories we have in Canada and what’s
interesting is it’s our First Nations
communities that are impacted the most
in Alberta alone 87 percent of First
Nations communities have had a drinking
water advisory in the past ten years was
shocking in Ontario one nation has had a
drinking water advisory for 20 years so
why is that why is it that some of us
don’t have to worry about our water but
yet when it comes to First Nations
communities they are being left behind
so I’ve had the opportunity to work with
several First Nations in Alberta
located in beautiful places this here
hard to see you is a picture of herd of
most recently I worked with a community
it was very concerned about their water
and I had two engineering students that
embodied the engineering with decency
philosophy so what do they do naturally
they decide to go and live in the
community so this is Travis one of those
students sitting on the lawn of a house
that he lived in in the summer of 2013
now Travis and Frasier were a little
uncomfortable they’ve only ever lived in
the city never have lived in a rural
environment they also weren’t super
comfortable with all the semi feral dogs
that are common in these communities or
the poverty or the homes in disrepair
and they also didn’t know if they had
anything to offer the community and the
community in Chern kind of thought it a
little bit weird that these two city
boys want to live in their community and
also weren’t sure what they had to offer
the community but Travis and Frasier
knew it was important to live in the
community and started to participate in
events Frasier participated in his first
rodeo didn’t go so well for Frasier but
the community found love with them and
they started to invite them to more more
events sweats rite of passage ceremonies
an enormous amount of trust began to
build between Travis and Frasier and the
community so when they progressed with
their work what they found was as
engineers we always chlorinate wells to
keep it safe for drinking but it was the
first time that Travis and Frasier
actually drank that water after shock
chlorinating a well tasted shocking
awful they also started to realize that
some of the Western systems and
checks-and-balances we had in place were
really failing the community because
some members in the community thought
they were on a boil water advisory and
actually weren’t and worse yet
some members of the community didn’t
think they were on a boil water advisory
but actually were so Travis and Frasier
were wondering after all of this
do they really trust their water so they
went out and surveyed the community
those that said no 100% drank bottled
water
not a shock but what about those that
said yes they do trust their water
sixty-two percent still drink bottled
water not a surprise right the systems
have failed them so why would they trust
it even if somebody told them that it
was safe to drink
but when things really change for Travis
and Frasier is when one of the community
members start to share their perspective
on water but water has a conscience and
is the living being now in all honesty
Travis Anna Frasier for thought oh my
gosh this is crazy
but decided to put that away and to
listen and so they learnt that water is
a giver of life if we really thought
that water was alive how would we treat
it we treat it with an enormous amount
of respect right it wouldn’t be a
commodity we wouldn’t pay for it we
wouldn’t sell it we wouldn’t contaminate
it and then we wouldn’t doubt more
chemicals in it to the make it fresh and
potable again this rocked Frasier and
Travis’s world they started to realize
they had a lot to learn but through this
experience they appreciate the fact that
they needed to slow down they needed to
talk and listen and to truly hear
perspectives that were very different
from the ones that they grew up with it
completely changed them as engineers and
for the community they realized what a
valuable role they had had in the
engineering education of these two
students
so now I can’t keep up with these requests I have engineering students
requests I have engineering students constantly asking me for experiences
constantly asking me for experiences that embody engineering with decency
that embody engineering with decency where curiosity and compassion lead the
where curiosity and compassion lead the way and how they tackle problems today I
way and how they tackle problems today I have the pleasure to work with another
have the pleasure to work with another student
student Tori Thompson a mining engineering
Tori Thompson a mining engineering student she’s worked with many
student she’s worked with many communities First Nation communities in
communities First Nation communities in the north and she’s an example of
the north and she’s an example of engineering with decency because she
engineering with decency because she holds a profession accountable and
holds a profession accountable and ensures that human dignity is at the
ensures that human dignity is at the core of everything that we do so this
core of everything that we do so this makes me very optimistic for the future
makes me very optimistic for the future and now I can say there are many many
and now I can say there are many many engineers just like me so with that I’ll
engineers just like me so with that I’ll leave you with this Cree proverb love
leave you with this Cree proverb love one another and help one another because
one another and help one another because there is no greater calling thank you
Please follow and like us: