• President’s Message
• 2013 Learning Forums
• Teaching Modules
• Latest News
• Regional Reports
• Minerva Gets Ink
• Meet Our 2013 Minerva National Board
• We Applaud our Sponsors
• Resources
• Upcoming Events

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Minerva Canada’s numerous volunteers and stakeholders witnessed significant progress on new initiatives started this year. Our most ambitious initiative of developing Health and Safety Teaching Modules for engineering students got underway in March – we have eight Canadian universities developing 11 modules which will be piloted in various engineering classes next year. This year, we also saw over 150 engineering professors participate in our one-day Learning Forums and workshops held at five universities (Alberta, Laurentian, Western, Ryerson and Montreal Polytechnique). This format, in visiting various university campuses, provided more participation from academia and we will continue doing more of it next year. We also received valuable input for using our case studies from business professors attending the Inter-Collegiate Business Competition at Queen’s University.

Tony Pasteris, Chairman and President, Minerva Canada

In 2013, Minerva Canada continued to be actively involved in providing seminars and sponsoring projects at our Canadian engineering schools. We also succeeded in raising the necessary funding from industry, government and professional associations to allow Minerva to proceed with its second round of Teaching Modules. I was also pleased to see many new financial sponsors in 2013 for our numerous educational programs and activities.

And finally, I was very honoured to hear that I would be receiving the 2013 Citizenship Award in November from the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers for my work with Minerva Canada. In fact, this Award is really a tribute to our many volunteers from industry, government, academia and H&S professional associations who make up our Board of Directors and Working Groups and who deserve equal recognition for their endless assistance and support behind Minerva Canada. I am also very grateful to our many sponsors whose continued support and financial assistance make our efforts at Minerva Canada to advance Health and Safety education possible. Without this support, Minerva would not exist as an organization.

I hope you will enjoy this edition of Minerva Update. We welcome your comments and suggestions by contacting us at minerva@safetymanagementeducation.com.

A.E. Pasteris
Chairman and President
Minerva Canada Safety Management Education Inc.

FEATURE HIGHLIGHT

2013 LEARNING FORUMS

Annual Program Promoting a Culture of Safety Expands

Participants of the 2013 Learning Forum at Ryerson University, Toronto.

The how to’s of putting health and safety in the forefront of the minds of university professors and students was once again supported by Minerva Canada through its annual Learning Forums, sponsored by a number of corporations and organizations. New this year was the program’s reach – some 150 engineering professors attended one-day forums held at Laurentian University, Western University, Ryerson University and the University of Alberta. Each left with a stronger grasp of the importance of teaching health and safety management concepts to their students and with an introduction to the many valuable resources from Minerva to help them integrate core principles into engineering curricula.

Minerva Canada’s Tony Pasteris and Graeme Norval of the University of Toronto spoke about the Teaching Modules for engineering students initiative at all 4 Forums hem? The Forums also saw considerable participation and presentations from member firms of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC). “We are grateful to Bob Masterson, CIAC Vice President Responsible Care, for his assistance in getting some of our Forum speakers,” says Pasteris.

In keeping with Minerva’s objective to include students themselves in the program, our James Ham Safe Design Award was presented to this year’s winners at the Western and Ryerson Forums on May 9 and 15 respectively. The Minerva Educational Awards of Honour were presented as well at an evening reception following the Ryerson Forum.

For information about next year’s forums, contact us at minerva@safetymanagementeducation.com.

2013 LEARNING FORUM – RYERSON UNIVERSITY

Key themes, presented by industry, government and academia, ranged from instilling a culture of safety in and out of the workplace, to risk management in engineering process design, to human factors and ergonomics. Panel discussions were also held on integrating core principles into curricula.

“Those who have been closely associated with Minerva since 2004 when Minerva began its Summer Institute/ Learning Forums realize that we can enhance the health and safety content being taught and found in today’s engineering curriculum,” says Pasteris. “I want to thank Jacob Friedman, Chair – Mechanical & Industrial Engineering Program, Ryerson, for hosting this year’s Toronto Forum. I would also like to thank our participants and presenters, particularly Graeme Norval and Vic Pakalnis from Minerva’s Board, for their participation in all four Learning Forums.”

Here are some key takeaways from some presenters during the Ryerson Forum:

Instilling a Culture of Safety In and Out of the Workplace
John Foster, DuPont Canada

• DuPont’s mantra “The goal is zero [accidents/injuries]” was changed in 2013 to “Committed to zero”.
• Core values of health and safety need to be determined, communicated and exemplified by leadership: “Do it – be seen doing it – be believed.”
• Of the causes of injuries – unsafe conditions and unsafe behaviours – it is unsafe behaviours that tend to be more prevalent (96% of injuries derive from unsafe acts, 4% unsafe conditions).
• Why does good safety = good business? Lower absenteeism, lower manpower costs, less equipment repair, lower insurance costs, satisfied shareholders and happier employees.

Managing Occupational Health and Safety: The Business Case
Elizabeth Mills, President & CEO, Workplace Safety & Prevention Services (WSPS)

• A 2008 Canadian study showed that the ROI (return on investment) for health and safety programs in the workplace ranged from $1.50-$6.50 for every dollar spent.
• Other studies have shown: 20% more revenue per employee, 4% higher profit, 16% higher market value, 27% reduction in sick leave, 32% reduction in workers’ compensation and disability management costs.
• Additional benefits: happy customers and good company reputation, lower staff turnover, less employee stress and absenteeism, engaged employees, increased productivity, less paper work, fewer injuries and reduced legal fees and insurance premiums.
• What employers today want from graduates is to see them prepared to hit the ground running – to engage in health and safety conversation and develop solutions through safer design.

Here is what some attendees had to say:

“There are 5,000 students in the faculties of engineering and architectural science. Together we are making the world a better and safer place.”
Mohamed Lachemi, Provost, Ryerson University

“Zero risk doesn’t exist. People often accept higher/tolerable risks if they perceive substantial benefit and if reasonable measures are taken – for example, driving our cars.”
Marcello Oliverio, Baker Engineering and Risk Consulting

“Continue assisting students to enter safety awards; use real life incidents as classroom examples; and invite workers who have been involved in workplace accidents to talk about it. These things will inspire students to design for safety.”
Presenter on the student perspective Husain Amiji, Seprotech, and former Ryerson student and James Ham Award Winner

“What you have chosen as a profession directly impacts the safety of other people.”
Irene O’Hara, GM Canada

“We need to get the human side back into the system. Change the example of a ball on a hill to a guy on a roof.”
Patrick Neumann, Professor, Ryerson University

“Include H&S on the agenda of your curriculum committee so that it officially becomes part of the process of putting it on the curriculum.”
Vic Pakalnis, CEO, MIRARCO

“Engineers have so much to offer but we need to prepare them for the workplace.”
Elizabeth Mills, CEO, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services
2013 LEARNING FORUM – WESTERN UNIVERSITY

Coordinated by Professors Shahzad Barghi and Ralph Buchal, the Minerva Western Learning Forum was hosted on May 9, 2013 by the Faculty of Engineering at Western University. Attendees were welcomed by Professor Hesham El Naggar, Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies and Professor Ajay Ray, Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. The Forum attracted 44 attendees – including faculty members and graduate students from the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, Guelph University, McMaster University, Western University, Lambton College and Fanshawe College as well as engineers from Nova Chemicals, Sarnia- Lambton Research Park, CF-Industries, MIRARCO, Trojan Technologies, Bruce Power, Imperial Oil and Lanxess Canada. Industry and academic experts gave interactive presentations on a wide range of topics in Safety Engineering, Risk Assessment and Management, providing many real life examples and case studies. Attendees were also provided with extensive teaching resources compiled by Minerva. Overall, the Forum was very successful in raising awareness of the importance of safety and health education.

– Submitted by Shahzad Bargi, Engineering Professor, Western University, sbarghi2@eng.uwo.ca

2013 LEARNING FORUM – LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY

The Minerva Canada Laurentian University Health and Safety (H&S) Learning Forum was coordinated by Professor Philip Dirige and held May 2, 2013. Sponsored by Minerva Canada, the one-day forum had two key objectives: to demonstrate the variety of tools and materials available for introducing safety into the curriculum; and to discuss student teaching learning modules that will address the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) safety requirements. The Forum was attended by 25 participants and seven speakers. Attendees included Professors, Lecturers and Instructors from Laurentian University, College Boreal and Cambrian College, graduate students, and representatives from H&S associations.

The presentations covered a wide array of H&S issues from industry, government and academia representatives, including H&S culture in and out of the workplace, occupational H&S management, process safety management (PSM) and a discussion of H&S teaching modules for engineering students being developed by Minerva and eight universities. We believe that these modules will address the new Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) safety requirements. The Forum also provided an opportunity for Professors, Lecturers and Instructors to network and discuss how best to introduce H&S into the curriculum. They were provided with various teaching materials and tools to use in their courses.

The Forum benefited Professors, Lecturers and Instructors who have not been exposed to industrial safety standards and H&S management systems and regulations. Attendees left with a better understanding of H&S fundamentals and the business case for H&S.

– Submitted by Forum host Philip Dirige, Assistant Professor, Bharti School of Engineering, Laurentian University, PDirige@laurentian.ca

2013 LEARNING FORUM –UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

The Learning Forum at the University of Alberta was hosted on May 24, 2003 with attendees from industry, university facility departments, academia and government associations. In addition to professors from various engineering departments, leadership from the University Risk Management Services Division also attended and lent support to many of the topics being covered. Government representatives from “Work Safe Alberta” were also there to promote the inclusion of safety and risk management subject matter into engineering curricula.

The session opened with the University of Alberta Dean of Engineering showing leadership and support for the good work being done across Canada to incorporate safety and risk management into engineering faculties. This was followed by a presentation that highlighted the synergy between the good work being done by Minerva and the existing safety and risk management courses being taught the final year engineering students at the University of Alberta.

The core of the Learning Forum agenda included presentations by local students, Minerva engineering leaders and industry representatives covering such diverse topics as managing occupational health and safety, instilling safety cultures, asset integrity, the integration of HAZOPS into design courses, and opportunities for improving the engineering curriculum with safety and risk management topics. A presentation on University laboratory safety shared successful approaches for reducing the risk to students in these environments.

“The Minerva Learning Forum has again provided valuable insights and proven techniques, for improving engineering education with safety and risk management as a core competency,” says Learning Forum host Gord Winkel, Chair and Industrial Professor for Engineering Safety and Risk Management at the University of Alberta. All participants agreed that the day was a good investment of time and energy to advance this important work.

– Submitted by Gord Winkel, University of Alberta, gord.winkel@ualberta.ca

TEACHING MODULES

Engineering Student Teaching Modules Project Moves into Next Phase

Much progress has been made on one of Minerva’s most ambitious projects in its history. The Minerva Canada Engineering Student Health and Safety Teaching Modules Project, conceived to assist post-secondary faculty deliver this much-needed information to Canada’s future engineers and corporate leaders, is now well into Phase 3 of a multi-phase rollout. To date:

• Phase 1: This defined what first year engineering students should be exposed to in health and safety including the WorkSmart Campus e-course, designed to teach occupational health and safety principles and the importance of effective management of safety in the workplace. Ontario’s Electrical Safety Authority assisted Minerva to create a basic electrical safety add-on to WorkSmart Campus. Phase 1 also introduced WorkSmart Campus at some of the pilot universities.

• Phase 2: The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) and Workplace Safety and Prevention Services assisted by conducting a first-of-its-kind survey of their memberships that was designed to understand what firms would like to see in terms of H&S knowledge and skills when hiring new graduates, garnering over 80 responses.

The intelligence gathered from Phases 1 and 2 formed the basis of Phases 3 and 4, which are module content creation and implementation.

[left photo]Andrew Cooper, President, Canadian Society of Engineering, presents a $10,000 cheque to Minerva Board member Lynn Smith of General Motors of Canada, at its Annual Conference in September in Montreal. “The CSSE is extraordinarily pleased to be able to provide financial support for the development of Minerva’s Teaching Modules for Engineering Students,” said

[right photo] Minerva’s President Tony Pasteris receives a $10,000 General Motors of Canada cheque from Lynn Smith at the Minerva annual awards dinner in Toronto that followed the Minerva Ryerson Learning Forum.

“The CSSE and General Motors of Canada, as Minerva founding members, continue to actively support the work of Minerva Canada in its student awards programs and in developing, promoting its Teaching modules and case studies into the curricula for engineering and business students. We very much appreciate all this support from them.” says Pasteris.

The estimated three-year $250,000 project, which began in 2011, includes participation from academia, Minerva’s key industry and government supporters and Mitacs, a not-for-profit organization that provides research grants to universities based on an industry need.

“We have received tremendous support from industry, organizations and academia,” says Minerva President & CEO Tony Pasteris. “In addition to Mitacs funding, we have received a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, and special added funding from DuPont Canada, General Motors, the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE), Imperial Oil Limited and Bruce Power, specifically earmarked for this project. It’s a testimony to the importance that Minerva supporters place on the initiative.” Other important financial sponsors of this initiative include Nova Chemicals, Shell Canada, Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals, Erco Worldwide, BASF, CF Industries, MIRARCO, Canada Post, Lanxess, Chemtrade Logistics, Chemistry Industry Association of Canada and H.L.Blachford.

Support widens

The project has also received support from the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science, which recently sent a letter to its membership via Engineers Canada, inviting deans to participate in Phase 4.

Several universities are part of the committee developing and piloting the new H&S modules. Eleven modules are scheduled for completion by the end of this year, with a second round to take place in 2014. Modules under development or completed include:

• Codes, Standards, Regulations (Laurentian University)
• Hazard and Risk Identification (University of Toronto)
• Risk Management (Laurentian University)
• Risk Assessment Models (University of Toronto)
• Ethics, Public Safety and Professional Responsibility (University of Manitoba)
• Process Safety Management (University of Western Ontario)
• Electrical Safety and Hazardous Energy (University of Calgary)
• Radiation Safety (Ryerson University)
• Nanotechnology Safety (University of Calgary)
• Fire Hazards, Dust Explosions (Dalhousie University)
• Robotics Safety (University of Ontario Institute of Technology)

Each module delivers a practical and complete learning experience, covering:

1. The learning objectives and outcomes and module structure.
2. Importance of the subject matter to the graduate engineer.
3. The fundamental theory, existing literature information, material and some historical perspective on the subject matter.
4. The practical applications of the subject matter and its theory used within industry.
5. Safety issues and problems experienced within industry and risk mitigating measure put in place. This will apply to some of the modules.
6. Lessons learned from past events leading to new technologies.
7. Procedures, systems, etc.
8. Challenges and opportunities from industry.
9. Project assignments and reading reference material.
10. An exam, test and multiple-choice quiz to test if learning objectives were met at the end of each module. Backup instructor notes and answer to exam questions will also be provided.

“The modules will be integrated into all four years of study, so that health and safety will be a part of the curriculum throughout the learning process,” explains Minerva Board member Renzo Dalla Via, who, along with Board member Vic Pakalnis CEO Mirarco, Graeme Norval, University of Toronto, and Minerva President & CEO Tony Pasteris, is spearheading the development committee. “I’m delighted to say that everything is on target, moving quickly, and fully supported by all the players.”

Phase 4, scheduled for 2014, will involve expansion to other post-secondary institutions and continual improvement and assessment. Modules scheduled for 2014 are:

• Laboratory Safety
• Project Management, Safety Leadership and Management Systems
• Incorporating Safety into Engineering Teams and the Design Process
• Making the Business Case for Safety – Communicating Health and Safety
• Crisis and Emergency Management
• Incident Investigation and Reporting
• Codes, Standards, Regulations (specific codes per discipline)
• Advanced Chemical Safety
• Human Factors Design
• Field Safety Consideration and its Design Implications
• Bio Risk
• Transportation Safety

For information about the modules and how to support this initiative, contact us at minerva@safetymanagementeducation.com.

LATEST NEWS

3^rd Annual Minerva Canada Education Awards of Honour Presented

Dr. Marc Rosen [right] accepts his Minerva Education Award of Honour from Tony Pasteris at a ceremony in May.

[left to right] Tony Pasteris, Dr. Deborah
McPhee and Minerva Board member Vic Pakalnis

The annual competition challenges Canadian university engineering students to make an original contribution toward integrating safety into engineering design. Cui and Wang received a team cash prize of $3,500 for designing the app, which addresses and makes workers more aware of the risks associated with slips, trips and falls. The award was presented at the Minerva Ryerson Learning Forum at Ryerson University, Toronto, in May.

The award honours former U of T Engineering Dean James Milton Ham whose Royal Commission Report on Health and Safety led to the creation of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act in 1979. Professor Ham served as Dean of U of T Engineering from 1966 to 1976 and as U of T President from 1978 to 1983.

Wang said he and Cui were thrilled to win the award. “We worked at it for the better part of the semester and it took many iterations before we could come up with the final idea. We were informed about this after our final exam of second year Engineering Science. It was a great way to end off the year!”

Professor Mark Kortschot, Chair of Engineering Science, is proud of Cui and Wang. “I am really thrilled that Sherri and Shen showed the initiative and creativity needed to compete for and win this award. Engineering Science strives to produce engineers with a deep knowledge of fundamentals, but we also build a strong foundation of design thinking beginning on the first day of classes in first year. Sherri and Shen’s elegant approach to the very important problem of worker safety suggests that they are on their way to becoming outstanding design engineers.”

Wang described the development process: “A major step in idea generation was first recognizing that this was a huge problem. We did a lot of research regarding the biggest contributors to lost time due to injury. Afterwards, we realized that there was a barrier between our presumptions and recognizing the severity and importance of slips, trips, and falls. From there, we worked to develop better ways of conveying such important information to workers.”

The app is not yet available, Wang said. “It exists as a concept with a user interface and some front end production to display the idea. The app would require access to databases that we do not have easy access to. However, we have interest from multiple groups about our application.”

• Minerva Canada was featured in an article by Michael Mastromatteo in Engineering Dimensions Sept-Oct 2013
• Minerva Canada was featured in an article written by Vic Pakalnis in Engineering Dimensions, Jan-Feb 2013
• Minerva Canada was featured in an article by Tony Pasteris in the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) Journal, Winter 2012
• Minerva Canada featured in National Safety Council OHS Journal October 2012. Visit www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/designing-safety-2