Canadian Federation of Engineering Students

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Canadian Federation of Engineering Students
Fédération canadienne des étudiants en génie

Abbreviation	CFES
Founded	1967
Type	Organizations based in Canada
Location	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Membership	75,000 (est.) students in 51 engineering societies
Official language	English, French
Key people	See National Executive
Website	www.cfes.ca

The Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) (Fédération canadienne étudiante de génie in French) is the national association of undergraduate engineering student societies in Canada and exists to organize activities, provide services and interact with professional and other bodies at the national and international level for the benefit of Canadian engineering students. The organization is a bilingual non-profit corporation based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, managed by a volunteer team of engineering students and recent graduates from across Canada.

The flagship event of the CFES, the Canadian Engineering Leadership Conference (CELC), formerly known as Congress, serves as both the Annual General Meeting of the Federation, as well as a leadership development forum for engineering students from across Canada. Congress is typically held in the first week or January, spanning a full week of leadership development sessions, informational presentations, guest speakers from industry, a career fair and culminating in plenary, the decision making body of the CFES. At congress, the CFES National Executive and other officer positions are elected, and bids are made to host other CFES activities.

The CFES Project Magazine, also known as ProMag, is a magazine published by the CFES and distributed to member schools. In 2012, ProMag was discontinued due to a shifted interest in providing an online journal that is more easily accessible. Additionally, the content of ProMag did not any longer satisfy the desires of CFES members.

Subsequently, Promag was replaced by the CFES Publication (also called the Pub), which is an online publication that is focused on promoting the research and super-curricular activities of Canadian undergraduate engineering students. The Pub is a service provided by the Federation, and is no longer up for bid at Congress. The Pub has since become defunct.

In the 2019-2020 Operating Year, the CFES decided to revive Project Magazine as an in-house online journal, celebrating the different regions of the federation through articles and stories submitted to a Task Force. It exists as a virtual publication.^[1]

The Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC) (Compétition canadienne d'ingénierie in French) is an annual competition involving more than 150 of the best and brightest engineering students from across Canada.

All competitors at the CEC qualify for the competition through one of four regional competitions:

• Western Engineering Competition (WEC)
• Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) - OEC 2022
• Quebec Engineering Competition (QEC)
• Atlantic Engineering Competition (AEC)

The CEC includes competitions in a variety of topics. Individual competitors can be entered in any one of the following competition categories:

• Extemporaneous Debate
• Senior Team Design
• Junior Team Design
• Consulting Engineering
• Innovative Design
• Engineering Communication
• Re-Engineering
• Programming

As the CEC has a national scope, engineering schools wishing to host the competition must win a competitive bid process through the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students. Schools that have hosted the competition since its inception in 1985 include:

The CFES offers a certification course in Lean Six Sigma. Formerly available through a partnership with Canada Post, the service could only be offered in one of Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, or Montreal- one of Canada Post's major hubs. In 2019, the CFES obtained a partnership agreement with Abacus^[2] which re-instated a more nationally available event for members to participate in. Typically, it occurs over the course of two weekends- one in English, and one in French, respectively.

• 2019 École de technologie supérieure (Montreal, Quebec)
• 2020 York University (Virtual)
• 2021 Cancelled due to External Factors

The CFES is offers the Conference on Diversity in Engineering (CDE) to its members.^[3]

NCWIE began in 1990 as a local conference at Queen's University and in 2003 it became a national event. Other Canadian universities were invited to host it after the 2007 conference. The University of Western Ontario was the first school after Queen's University to host the event in 2008.^[4] Shortly thereafter, NCWIE was made a service of the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students.

The first year that the CFES Conference on Diversity in Engineering is offered is 2015, denoting the end of the National Conference on Women in Engineering.

• 1990 – 2007 Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario)
• 2008 University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario)
• 2009 University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario)
• 2010 University of Ottawa (Ottawa, Ontario)
• 2011 McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario)
• 2012 Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec)
• 2013 University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia)
• 2014 University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
• 2015 University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
• 2016 McGill University (Montreal, Quebec)
• 2017 McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario)
• 2018 Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario)
• 2019 University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario)
• 2020 University of Calgary (Virtual)
• 2021 Dalhousie University (Virtual)
• 2022 University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
• 2023 University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
• 2024 Western University (London, Ontario)

The CFES is offers the Conference on Sustainability in Engineering (CSE) to its members.^[5] CSE began as a new conference intended to address the need for a national discussion on sustainability in the Engineering field, as a part of the sustainability working group's work, and in address to the CFES Stance on Sustainability.

The first year that the CFES Conference on Sustainability in Engineering was offered is 2019, at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, BC.

• 2019 University of Northern British Columbia (Prince George, British Columbia)
• 2020 University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario)
• 2021 Université de Sherbrooke (Virtual)
• 2022 University of Guelph (Virtual)
• 2023 University of British Columbia (Vancouver, British Columbia)
• 2024 Toronto Metropolitan University (Toronto, Ontario)
• 2025 University of Guelph (Guelph, Ontario)

The membership of the organization consists of engineering student societies, rather than individual engineering students. Eligibility for membership is limited to those societies located at a Canadian university that has at least one engineering program accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board and represents engineering student concerns to the school's administration and engineering faculty.

The member societies are divided into four geographic regions for the purposes of representation on the Federation's board of directors:

• Atlantic (New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island)
• Ontario
• Quebec
• West (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Canadian territories)

As a non-profit organization, the Federation has a board of directors that is responsible for managing the business and property of the organization. Aside from the Chair, the board consists of 3 individuals elected at the annual meeting (the President, and the two National Councillors) and four regional ambassadors, selected using regionally-determined methods. The Vice-Presidents sit on the board as non-voting members:

• The Chair
• The President
• Four (4) Regional Ambassadors
• Two (2) National Councillors of the Federation
• The Vice Presidents (Non-Voting)

The CFES' operations are split by the National Executive, each operating in a different component. The National Executive will coordinate as one unit and ensure the smooth operations of the federation.

• President
• Vice President Advocacy
• Vice President Finance and Administration
• Vice President Services
• Vice President External
• Vice President Communications

• President: Duncan Lamont (University of Manitoba)
• VP Advocacy: Catherine Bentancourt-Lee (University of Calgary)
• VP Finance and Administration: Emily Schwab (University of Regina)
• VP Services: Bridget Patterson (University of Prince Edward Island)
• VP External: Juliette Gagnon (Universite Laval)
• VP Communications: Christine Nguyen (Toronto Metropolitan University)

• President: Kalena McCloskey (Queen's University)
• VP Advocacy: Aleksandr Kim (Université Laval)
• VP Finance and Administration: Luke Schuurman (McMaster University)
• VP Services: Houda El Hajjaoui (University of New Brunswick)
• VP External: Jamie Grasley (Lakehead University)
• VP Communications: Sheyda Shams (University of waterloo)

The CFES further operates with Commissioners conducting the tasks in a specific portfolio. These commissioners are:

• Corporate Relations Commissioner
• Bilingualism Commissioner
• Engineering Change Lab Commissioner
• IT Commissioner
• Social Issues Commissioner
• Communications Commissioner
• Logistics Commissioner
• Leadership and Development Commissioner

The chairs of each of the activities and services offered by the CFES are also considered full officers of the CFES. These include:

• Lean Six Sigma Activity Manager (L6S)
• Presidents' Meeting Activity Manager (PM)
• Conference on Diversity in Engineering Activity Manager (CDE)
• Canadian Engineering Leadership Conference Activity Manager (CELC)
• Conference on Sustainability in Engineering Activity Manager (CSE)
• Canadian Engineering Competition Activity Manager (CEC)

• Engineers Canada
• Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
• Association of Canadian Engineering Companies
• Engineering Change Lab
• Ontario Society of Professional Engineers

• Board of European Students of Technology
• bonding-studenteninitiative e.V. (German student organization for students of engineering and natural sciences)
• National Association of Engineering Student Councils (American student organization for students of engineering and technology)
• EngiQueers Canada (National diversity and inclusion engineering student organization)
• Canadian Association of Business Students (CABS)

• Western Engineering Student Societies' Team (WESST)
• Engineering Student Societies' Council of Ontario (ESSCO)
• Quebec Confederation for Engineering Student Outreach (QCESO (more recognized by its French acronym, CREIQ))
• Atlantic Council of Engineering Students (ACES)

• List of engineering societies in Canada

• Official CFES Website
• Atlantic Council of Engineering Students (Atlantic Region)
• Western Engineering Students' Societies Team (West Region)
• Engineering Student Societies Council of Ontario (Ontario Region)
• Confédération pour le rayonnement étudiant en ingénierie au Québec (Québec Region)