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Manitoba students win top Minerva prize

University of Manitoba engineering undergraduate students Romain Coudiere, Alexander Hammond, Michael Holiday, Andrew Le, and Zhi Li were awarded the top prize in the 2010 Minerva Canada James Ham Safe Design Award Competition last month for designing enhancements to assist in inspecting rocket motor cases.

The team won $3,500 through the competition, in which Canadian university engineering students were challenged to make an original contribution toward integrating safety into engineering design.  Undergraduate students at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, took second prize.

The design created by the Manitoba student team would assist in reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries to workers.

The safe design award honours 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 and to the adoption of the Internal Responsibility System in Ontario workplaces. James Ham trained as an engineer with a secondary field of study in sociology; his writings emphasized ‘society and human needs’. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1980 and died in 1997.

Through the Minerva Awards program, students and faculty members in Canadian engineering schools are being challenged to:

  • Suggest ways to improve the existing design of devices, processes or systems.
  • Envision new, innovative designs that will eliminate or reduce potential hazards.
  • Create tools to help manufacturers and workplaces integrate safety into new or retrofit designs.

 

Minerva Canada is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting the teaching of Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) Management in post secondary schools across Canada.  It targets the educators of tomorrow’s leaders by encouraging colleges and universities to embed SHE management education into the core curricula of business and engineering programs. 

Research has repeatedly shown that effective, productive and profitable companies have a CEO and senior management team who understand the benefits of SHE management systems and processes and are committed to them.  SHE management education is a fundamental cornerstone of an effective corporate culture.