CASI Toronto Branch Report to CASI Council
Thursday December 2, 2010
The Toronto Branch has been very active. The Ryerson Student Branch has also been active and off to the strongest start of any Student Branch.
Shown below is an overview of Toronto and Ryerson Branch activities for our 2010 / 2010 Year of Activities.
Thursday, September 16, 2010 (CASI Toronto presented at UTIAS)
Dr. James R. Drummond, Professor of Physics, Dalhousie University, presented “Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT)”.
MOPITT was provided to the Terra spacecraft by the Canadian Space Agency, and was built by COMDEV.
Between December 18, 1999 and March 3, 2010 the Canadian MOPITT completed ten successful years of operation, measuring carbon monoxide (CO) over the planet. MOPITT was one of the first instruments to measure pollutants from space.
Thursday October 14, 2010 (CASI Ryerson Student Branch)
The Ryerson Student Branch kicked-off their year with an orientation and benefits seminar regarding CASI. Drinks and snacks were provided and a Ryerson CASI movie created by the Ryerson CASI Executive was shown. The venue was packed.
Alex Tsoulis, CASI Toronto Councillor, was the keynote speaker and presented “Brief Overview & Comparison of Current & Future Airliners”.
Thursday, October 28, 2010 (CASI Toronto presented at UTIAS)
Prof. Jim Whiteway, Director - Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science - York University, presented “Snow on Mars”.
The NASA Phoenix mission landed on Mars in May 2008 and operated for five months. Instruments for atmospheric measurements were contributed from Canada, and one of these was a LIDAR that detected the backscatter of pulsed laser light. This measured the vertical distribution of atmospheric dust and water ice clouds. It was found that the atmosphere of Mars was similar to Earth in several ways.
Thursday November 25, 2010 (CASI Toronto presented at UTIAS)
The CASI Toronto Branch presented our Annual Video Night and Trivia Contest. A wide variety of timely and historical aerospace (commercial & military) photo presentations, mpegs and videos were displayed.
Awards were also presented to participants in the Trivia Contest.
Tuesday November 30, 2010 (CASI Ryerson Student Branch)
The Ryerson Student Branch held their second event of the 2010 / 2011 year. The event was kicked off again with an overview of the benefits of CASI. Drinks and snacks were provided.
Dr. Elliot Coleshill from COM DEV and Alex Tsoulis from EXMD Airframe were the keynote speakers.
Dr. Elliot Coleshill gave an excellent overview of his work experiences with MDA, CSA, NASA, International Space Station, and the current / future nan-satellite developments at COM DEV.
Alex Tsoulis followed with a presentation on the “Aerospace Market, Skills Requirements & Employee Expectations”.
The Student Branch is working on their 2011 activities. Ryerson Aerospace Students have committed to the CASI Free Flight Competition and the University has provided funding for the Ryerson Team.
Ryerson CASI Branch has asked that Ryerson be considered for the 2011 CASI Student Summit on Aerospace.
Thank You
Alex Tsoulis
CASI Toronto Branch Councillor