Planning is in full swing for the 2020 Conference and we're thrilled to have these eight experts involved! They have all volunteered to be the lead for one our eight conference tracks: Cybersecurity, Alarm Management, Leak Detection, Wireless, New Technology, Mechatronics, Safety & Artificial Intelligence.

This year we've grown the conference to eight tracks, our new additions for 2020 are Mechatronics, Safety & Artificial Intelligence!

MEET OUR 2020 TRACK DEVELOPERS

Artificial Intelligence - Marziyeh Keshavarz

Marziyeh is a senior engineer with Enbridge and has spent the last 6 years working with instrumentation and pressure controls. She is currently co-leading a high profile project on asset heath performance monitoring and equipment failure prediction, leveraging AI algorithms that aim at increasing equipment reliability by identification and prediction of equipment failures in order to minimize operational downtime.

Prior to Enbridge, Marziyeh worked overseas in oil and gas for 6 years as an instrumentation and process control engineer where she identified and leveraged advanced process control and inferential sensors (AI-based) in complex control applications in various refinery and petrochemical plants.

Marziyeh has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Alberta specializing in process control, and a master's and bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran, Iran, specializing in control system design. Her second Master's thesis is on advanced data analytics in change detection using Bayesian and Expectation Maximization algorithms in instrumentation measurements that has wide applications in leak detection systems. While at the University of Alberta, Marziyeh worked on successful industrial AI-based projects including design of inferential sensors for naphtha recovery unit in the oil sands sector.

She is looking forward to developing AEC's inaugural AI Track over the next 10 months!

Cybersecurity - Paul Baril 

With over 20 year’s technology experience, Paul is currently Manager of ICS Cyber Security at EPCOR’s water business unit. Though he has worked with a wide variety of technologies and environments, he has specialized in ICS Cyber Security for the last seven years. His experience has helped him come to understand how best to secure ICS environments from the technology to process and procedure.

Safety - Mark Ropchan

As a Safety Coordinator for Nutrien’s Fort Saskatchewan Nitrogen Operations, Mark Ropchan is responsible for maintaining the site’s overall Health and Safety program. Mark works in cooperation with the operations, maintenance and engineering departments to assure a high level of personal and process safety is maintained. He also collaborates with Nutrien Health and Safety professionals worldwide (across North America and in Trinidad) continuously improving overall safety programs and performance - ensuring everyone gets “Home Safe, Every Day”. Mark graduated from the University of Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety program and is a certified Alberta Boilers Safety Association Power Engineer. Mark has over 18 years of experience working in plant operations, and safety, health and environmental roles. 

Leak Detection - Scott Medynski

For the past 17 years Scott Medynski brings technology to global leaders in the energy and mining sectors. Scott holds a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta. He has acted as an independent consultant, a technology developer, and as an operator. Scott’s work focuses on evaluating and adopting new technologies that can make organizations more effective, including innovations in cybersecurity and big data visualization.

With Enbridge Leak Detection, Scott looks at new innovators & technologies that can grow and enhance the capabilities of large adopters, while leveraging small and medium sized enterprises who can act as enablers. Scott has worked with engineering, testing and research teams to deliver first-of-a-kind accomplishments and manages pilot projects to understand how technology may be implemented and adopted within the organization.

New Technology - Bob Bahniuk 

Bob is the ISA Edmonton Section’s Past AEC Director, he’s the one responsible for growing AEC into what it is today! He’s been a dedicated ISA Edmonton Section Member (and advocate) since 1980, and continues to work closely with the AEC Team. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 1974 with a Civil Engineering degree. He first worked for CANA Construction, then Canron Pipe, and then Barber Engineering & Controls (where his instrumentation expertise was born). Finally, Spartan prevailed. He committed enthusiastically to Spartan for 26 years.

Mechatronics - Yadu Prabhakar

Dr. Yadu Prabhakar is a Robotics and Industrial Automation program advisor and instructional facilitator at NAIT. A significant part of his job is to confirm industry requirements for training related to robotics and automation, develop and update curriculum, and onboard new instructors as the demand for training increases. Yadu is a certified Siemens Mechatronics Instructor and certified Siemens SITRAIN trainer, and is currently developing the Mechatronics course for the Siemens Mechatronics Academy (SMECA) at NAIT.

He holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering and a PhD in Intelligent Vision Systems from  Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) de Rouen Normandie, France, specializing in Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence and developing computer algorithms.

Alarm Management - Kelly Wolf

Kelly has a Bachelor of Science degree from the U of A as well as a diploma from NAIT in Instrumentation Engineering Technology. She spent the first part of her career working for engineering consulting companies, and the last 7 years on the owner/operator side with Enbridge Pipelines. Her current role as a Specialist, Instrumentation Data Technologist, is to strengthen the company’s position on process safety by implementing a data centric system for instrumentation technical design data, and developing the processes and procedures around the governance of this data. In addition to this role, she is a Department Safety Representative, Co-Chair of an Employee Resource Group and leading Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives. Kelly is also the Champion of the Instrument Reliability Initiative within Engineering Services. The objective of this initiative is to reduce the number of false alarms (alarms where the condition is not present) by 20% to effectively reduce the number of unplanned shutdowns, unnecessary call outs and complacency. It was Kelly’s interest in this initiative that led her to be the Track Developer for Alarm Management.

Wireless - Preston Schoenberger 

Preston Schoenberger has been with Telus for over 16 years; for the past 7 years he’s been a dedicated Wireless Customer Systems Engineering Specialist. His role is diverse and includes providing technical expertise, industry best practices, and product guidance on mobile deployments, with a focus on Internet of Things (IoT), Jasper, LTE-M, NB-IoT, eSIM technologies and 5G roadmap. His role also involves logical design of private wireless networks (APN’s) connecting to AWS, Azure and other.