1.     The CRIAQ Annual General Assembly took place at the IMI on August 27 at Boucherville.  This Assembly was presided by the new president of the CRIAQ Board, Mr. Guy Lambert, (replacing Dr. John Saabas) who had been nominated during the Board meeting preceding the Annual General Meeting.

One of the most significant points of the AGM was the induction of six new members to the CRIAQ. New members are always an occasion to celebrate the progress of CRIAQ, and this time we had the pleasure to welcome the following six new companies:

• Avior Integrated Products
• Composites Atlantic Limited
• Marquez Transtech Ltd.
• MDS-Prad Technologies Corporation
• Opal-RT
• Patt Technologies Inc.

The new Chairman of the Board of the CRIAQ, Mr. Guy Lambert holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace orientation) from the École de Polytechnique de Montréal, and is a member of the Ordre of Engineers of Québec. Since 2002, he is Vice-President Engineering for commercial helicopters at Bell Helicopter Textron Canada in Mirabel, Québec and Chief Engineer of the development program for the new Model 429.

 

The new Executive Committee of CRIAQ : Carlos Trindade, (CRIAQ) observer, Walter Di Bartolomeo (P&WC), Christophe Pierre (McGill),Christophe Guy (Polytechnique), Guy Lambert (Bell Helicopter Textron Canada), Chair of the Board of Directors, Claude Bédard (ETS),Philippe Molaret (Thales Canada), Simon Durham (MDS-PRAD), Fassi Kafyeke (Bombardier Aéronautique),Claude Lessard (Delastek) Chair of the Research Committee, André Bazergui (Chief executive officer, CRIAQ)

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3. John Saabas, New Honorary Member of CRIAQ

At the Board meeting of August 27, Dr. John Saabas became an Honorary Member of the CRIAQ.  He is a member of an illustrious group of people who had contributed in a very special way to the progress of CRIAQ: John Holding, Pierre Lavigne, Jean Nicolas, Hany Moustapha and Sylvie Dillard.

John Saabas, who just ended his two-year mandate at the helm of CRIAQ, has been a very  influential Chairman of the Board and of the Executive Committee, despite his numerous and absorbing professional responsibilities at Pratt & Whitney Canada. Under John’s  leadership, the CRIAQ made great progress as witnessed by 40 projects launched and nearly 50 new projects in preparation.  Dr. John Saabas demonstrated a deep understanding of the issues related to industry-university-research center collaboration.

Worth mentioning is also the fact that, under John Saabas’ direction, CRIAQ launched its plan of national and international expansion, which saw a very significant development in international collaboration: five collaboration projects with India have been started, a sixth has been submitted for review by the MDEIE, and projects with France and Germany are currently under preparation.

John Saabas:  outgoing president and Honorary Member of CRIAQ
and current president of Pratt & Whitney Canada

John Saabas has just been promoted President, Pratt & Whitney Canada, replacing Alain Bellemare. 

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4. International - Québec-Aquitaine 2008 Symposium

CRIAQ and Bordeaux 1 University jointly organized the Quebec-Aquitaine Symposium, which took place on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd July 2008, on the theme Mechanics of Materials and Structures for Aerospace.  15 Quebec researchers and a similar number of researchers from France participated in this symposium. fostering strong technical and personal relationships which will help set the stage for collaborative research projects. Other than CRIAQ, the following Quebec organizations were represented at this symposium:  École Polytechnique, Bombardier, CNRC-CTFA, CNRC-IMI, Laval University, Sherbrooke University, Concordia University, École de Technologie Supérieure and Pratt and Whitney Canada.

André Bazergui et Carlos Trindade (standing at right) and the French and Quebecois researchers during a meeting for wrap-up meeting of the Quebec-Aquitaine Symposium in July 2008

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5. International - Mission to China

With the support of the MDEIE, CRIAQ has organized a technology Mission to China in early November.  Our delegation was part of an important mission organized by the Council of the Federation and the Canada-China Commercial Council which includes participants from several provincial governments and numerous companies, universities and research centers from everywhere in the country. 

The focus of the CRIAQ and MDEIE delegation is collaborative technology development in Aerospace. Besides the CRIAQ and MDEIE representatives, this delegation gathered together representatives from Bombardier Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney Canada, École Polytechnique, École de Technologie Supérieure, Concordia University and McGill University.  On the agenda were meetings with Beihang University, in Beijing, and Jiao-Tong University in Shanghai as well as  companies, such as Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing and AVIC.

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6. New Administrative Assistant at CRIAQ

1.     After dedicated and competent services, Hélène Gagnon has decided to leave CRIAQ to pursue her career in another sphere of activity.

She has been replaced by Sylvie Benoit, whom you may contact at the following e-mail address and telephone number:

Sylvie Benoît
sylvie.benoit@criaq.aero
514 398-9772, extension 253

 

Sylvie Benoît, the new CRIAQ Administrative Assistant

We wish both Hélène and Sylvie great success in their new endeavours.

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7. CRIAQ Researchers Honoured by Pratt & Whitney
    Canada

Pratt & Whitney Canada has honored six researchers from all over Canada at the General Assembly of the AIAC, which took place in Ottawa on September 16th and 17th. These researchers were given the title of Pratt and Whitney Canada Research Fellows in recognition of their academic excellence and distinguished contributions towards the Pratt & Whitney technology programs in areas such as advanced materials and high speed machining.

CRIAQ wishes to congratulate these outstanding researchers and, in particular, the four who are or have been involved in CRIAQ projects, some of them from the very beginning:

• Dr. Prakash Patnaik, National Research Center of Canada
• Dr. Kamran Behdinan, Ryerson University
• Dr. Clément Fortin, École Polytechnique de Montréal
• Dr. Suong V. Hoa, Concordia University

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8. Students Aerospace Forum

The 7th Students Aerospace Forum, a CRIAQ initiative, took place on September 24th and 25th 2008 at Concordia University under the theme “Innovation and its Challenges”. This event has been, once again, a complete success. This annual forum has brought together engineering students from Québec and Ontario with representatives from the Aerospace Industry, Universities and Research Institutions.

While promoting one on one contacts, this Forum allowed the students to enlarge their network of contacts and the industries to take note of the high level of competence of the students that are getting ready to enter the workforce. The program included: presentations from industry, universities and other institutions, competitions and case studies.  We want to congratulate the student members of the organizing committee for a flawless organization. Bravo to all for a job well done and thank you for your efforts!

The Organizing Committee of the 7^th Students Aerospace Forum:  Hend Aziz, Mirelle Younan,Giancarlo Zingaro, David Piperni, Patricia Huynh, Sandrine de Jesus, Mota, Rami Neiroukh, Johnathan Goupil, Fadi Al-Jawabra, David Kafshbarghi (Chair), Martin Sosa, Shivani Goyal, Sandra Zaki, Yaniv Dahan, Marina Younan