Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/103039
S sit rep Paper trail: From robotics to a Mars mission Canada breaks new medical ground Most winners of a student paper competition leverage their victory into employment opportunities. Simon Engler leveraged his into a trip to Mars. Sort of. In March, Engler, who won the 2011 Unmanned Systems Canada (USC) Annual Student Paper Competition for his reSimon Engler search on the evolution of an unmanned ground vehicle that he built, will join a six-member team for four months in a Mars-like habitat. After winning the 2011 competition, Engler earned an internship with Carnegie Mellon University where he spent a summer working on a Mars robotic platform. At the same time, he applied to the NASA Mars Analog Mission, a simulated Mars environment in Hawaii. The University of Calgary student will be conducting experiments on human-robotics interactions while living in a 900-sq.-ft. dome structure. The mission will include 20 minute communications delays and require members to don a simulated space suit every time they venture outside. Engler,35, said the USC conference allowed him to make contacts that he has been able to leverage in support of the mission. "I've been able to get people I met here to give me some UAVs and UGVs to take with me." A student of astrophysics, Engler became interested in robotics as he was deploying to Afghanistan in 2009 as a combat engineer. "I had a couple of friends who lost their legs to IEDs. I saw that and said, if I just had something that could go a little in front of me and look around first before I walk up there, that might save my butt. The intention was just a camera on wheels that I could control." With no previous experience in soldering, he built his first UV, called Prairie Dog. His winning USC paper was based on the design changes he made when he built Prairie Dog II. The NATO Role 3 Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield set remarkable standards. Not only was it the first ever NATO multi-national field hospital involved in combat operations, it broke new ground for the treatment casualties and for survival rates of those who passed through its doors. In November, BGen Jean-Robert Bernier, the Canadian Forces Surgeon General, and Col Jacques Ricard, the first commander of the medical unit, accepted the prestigious Dominique-Jean Larrey Award, the highest honour for medical support that NATO bestows, for Canada's role in establishing and commanding the 3 MMU from 2006 to 2009. This is just the second time the award has been granted. Over 800 CF Health Services personnel worked in the field hospital alongside coalition partners during the period of Canadian command. The award recognized Canada's lasting contribution to NATO multi-nationality and/ or interoperability or to improving the provision of health care in NATO missions. It also commended Canada for integrating multinational health teams comprised of military and civilian personnel from partner nations, including Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. A true cost of cyber attack Just what does cyber crime cost Canadian business annually? Though numerous reports have attempted to put a dollar figure on it, true numbers have been hard to come by because most companies are reluctant to reveal not only when they've been attacked, but also how much it has damaged them. 6 DECEMBER 2012/JANUARY 2013 www.vanguardcanada.com BGen Jean-Robert Bernie and Col Jacques Richard receive the NATO Larrey Award from BGen Rob Van Der Meer. Photo: NATO The International Cyber Security Protection Alliance, a global nonprofit first launched in the U.K. in 2011, is hoping a new study will shed a more accurate spotlight on the impact of cyber crime on the Canadian business community. The ICSPA used SecureTech in Ottawa to announce the survey of a cross section of industry this fall, including critical infrastructure, utilities and defence firms. "After you've done all you can as a business or a nation, what do you next," asked the organization's chief executive, John Lyons. "This is a key opportunity to reach out to the business community and see what is really happening." What sets the ICSPA effort apart from other attempts to gather this data is the anonymity of the process. Lyons said the organization would maintain a "Chinese wall" between itself and those conducting the survey. "Essential to information sharing is building up trust." The study, which has the support of companies like CGI Canada, Lockheed Martin, McAfee and Research in Motion, will examine not only the economic impact of cyber crime but also the nature and characteristics of attacks, including size, scope and damage to corporate reputation. The findings will be reported in spring 2013.