Tim, a recent graduate of Carleton University’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering program, is working at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada on a year-long contract. He is a part of the University of Prince Edward Island’s ClimateSense internship program which aims to build climate change adaptation capacity in recent post-secondary graduates. He is doing project management for WEICan’s new climate monitoring facility, as well as hardware and software development for research projects. He is also taking professional development courses through the ClimateSense program, gaining expertise in the field of climate change adaptation.

For the rest of his work placement, Tim is excited to continue gaining experience in the field he went to school for. He also hopes to study the effects that climate change has had on the area around the North Cape using the wealth of data available at WEICan. In the future, he hopes to continue in a field where he can make a difference in the effort against climate change.

Jeremy Cadence graduated from Dalhousie University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2020 and has been with WEICan since February of 2021. His duties have ranged from completing designs for a rooftop array on the WEICan electrical building, to running logistics during the Wind Energy Research Network's 2021 webinar series to developing calibration procedures for the new Tesla Powerpack battery. Jeremy has told us "I have really enjoyed my time here at WEICan, I've been given so many cool opportunities and I have been learning SO much about the industry that I love." Jeremy hopes to continue pursuing his dream of working developing sustainable microgrids for rural northern communities.

Junxiang, a computer science student from Dalhousie University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in the summer of 2018.

During Junxiang’s term, he wrote a software related to GADS System. His main work consisted of four parts. The first part was to import data in varying formats (CSV, Excel, Access) from a local server to his own software in addition to storing the data into datasets. The second part was to build a database, export the data with different standards (2011 Standard, 2016 Standard) from datasets to the database, modify the data properly and fix the errors automatically. The third part was calculation. There were many formulas needed and he wrote more than 30 queries to finish all the calculations for each farm. Then he summarized the data from all farms to analyze them. The final part was to generate reports (debugging reports and final reports) based on the analysis and calculation for each farm, including tables, charts and graphs, so personnel from each farm could access the reports, know the performance of their turbines and adjust their turbines accordingly.

Junxiang is currently in his fourth year of computer science at Dalhousie University and is working towards becoming a software developer.

Ben, a mechanical engineering graduate from Dalhousie University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in 2015. His duties included data acquisition from small wind turbine owners throughout the Maritimes. He utilized the data he collected to reinforce his research into performance and issues involved with small wind turbines. Hearing from Ben recently, he told us that, “I learned a LOT about the renewable energy sector, and the challenges associated.” Ben is currently completing his Master’s Degree in mechanical engineering with a focus on grid energy storage.

Sean, a mechanical engineering graduate from Dalhousie University worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op winter-term in 2010.

His duties included a great amount of data acquisition for the testing of small wind turbines as well as performing and reporting on wind energy assessments.

Sean told us, “This experience with data collection has been incredibly helpful for other work terms, classes and projects. Also everyone at WEICan was incredibly friendly, helpful and great to work with.”

Sean is currently completing his Master’s Degree in mechanical engineering specializing in tidal renewable energy.

Jeff, a mechanical engineering graduate from Dalhousie University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month coop term in the fall of 2007. Jeff was the first coop student ever to be hired by the Institute. During Jeff’s term at the Institute, he was involved in a project to test the efficiency of a new concept wind turbine blade. He also collected and compiled data on this new concept blade for future performance evaluation.

Jeff mentioned recently that “My experience at WEICan helped land my next job with a wind energy developer in Ireland. As well through contacts made during my time at WEICan, I was contacted by a wind energy company to work on a new project in Nova Scotia. Both these experiences I directly attribute to my previous involvement with WEICan.”

Jeff is currently working in Halifax, Nova Scotia with a shipbuilding company as the maintenance manager. He is excited to be part of a growing team and to contribute to Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy.”

Jeff can be reached at the following link if you would like to learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffallenworks/

Trevor, a 4th year electrical engineering student at Laval University, worked at WEICan for a 16-week co-op term in the summer of 2018.

His duties included troubleshooting of a DeWind turbine, maintenance of wind turbines, writing a report on power curves of small wind turbines and horizontal axis turbines, researching possible solutions for a condition monitoring system, writing an excel script to ease vibration data preparation and the collection of vibration data.

After graduating from his degree, his plan is to find work related to developing sustainable energy.

André, a mechanical engineering graduate from Laval University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month term in the fall of 2010 as he completed his doctoral studies.

His duties included the installation and testing of Laval University’s “ice-free anemometer”. The results he obtained highlighted the financial losses WEICan was burdened with due to icing of anemometers. He holds 4 patents and has published several papers including one entitled, "Commissioning of a new ice-free anemometer: 2011 field tests at WEICan,” co-authored by Gerald Giroux, former WEICan project engineer.

André is now an associate professor in mechanical engineering at Laval University with many research projects linked to the wind energy industry. The ice-free anemometer project has merged into what is now known as the Meteorological Conditions Monitoring Station (MCMS), a sensor dedicated for icing measurements on wind turbines. In November 2020, he co-founded ICETEK, a startup company (www.icetek.ca) dedicated to the commercialization of the ice sensor. He is very grateful for his time at WEICan as it has helped him in bringing his ideas to the market.

Jan, a mechanical engineering graduate from McGill University, worked at WEICan for an 8-month co-op term in 2013. During Jan’s term he worked on a variety of tasks that were part of multiple projects. He performed data acquisition and analysis, wrote reports, helped install small wind turbines and programmed in VBA.

Jan was speaking to WEICan staff recently and said, “The WEICan experience helped me to secure a position at Siemens Canada. The interviewers had many questions about the internship at WEICan and admired the versatility of the program.”

Jan is currently finishing his PhD in mechanical engineering at McGill University. His work examines the dynamics of combustion of metallic suspensions and their use as zero-carbon energy carriers on Earth and ISRU propellants in space.

Remi, an electrical engineering graduate from McGill University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in the summer of 2009.

Remi has recently been in contact and he told us that, “My experience was tremendously valuable specifically because of the size of the team, which made knowledge transfer easy, and because I had the chance to touch on a little bit of most projects that were running during my term.” Remi’s work has shifted towards controls systems involved in the underground transport system of his hometown Montreal.

He told us, “I still leverage my experience at WEICan at job interviews” and he is currently looking to get back into energy-type work at the moment.

Lee, a mechanical engineering graduate from Memorial University, worked at WEICan for a 4-month coop-term in the winter of 2008.

Since Lee’s work term at WEICan he hasn’t worked specifically with wind energy. However, he did continue to pursue a master’s degree with work that was utility related, and is current working in the electric utility industry. Lee’s message to future students is, “The work was interesting and I'd encourage any prospective students to complete a work term with WEICan if given the opportunity.”

Lee is currently working as a transmission equipment engineer with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro in Bishop's Falls, NL.

Thomas Fincker received his master’s degree of Engineering from ECAM Strasbourg-Europe and a European post-Masters in Renewable Energy from Mines Paristech specializing in Wind Energy in 2018. He worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in the fall of 2018. During his time at WEICan Thomas worked on many projects from energy storage to machine leaning technics on SCADA data. Thomas recently said " It was a great abroad experience where I leaned a lot about wind energy".

After his time at WEICan he worked for almost 2 years at Opale Energies Naturelles in Besançon developping WindPark projects. During those 2 years he leaned a lot about administration process and difficulties you can meet with wind energy. Thomas is currently working at Leonidas Wind in Reims as an "Exploitation Engineer" where he and a team monitor 250MW of wind parks.

Nanae Kii is currently working in Sydney Australia in the logistical industry. Although she is not directly applying any of the knowledge gained during her time at WEICan, she hopes to get back into the renewable energy research industry in the near future.

Meher, an environmental science student at the University of Moncton, was an intern with WEICan from April to July 2013.

Meher has been in contact and said “Although there is no direct link between my actual or former job and my internship at WEICan, the experience that I gained and the technical knowledge that I learned helped me a lot in the few last years. I think the project management and statistical analysis skills that I developed during my internship at the Institute were particularly helpful.”

Meher has gone on to work with a geomatics, environmental consulting and aerial photography firm as well as with an oyster hatchery automating data acquisition.

Mehdi, an electrical engineering graduate from the University of Moncton, worked at WEICan for a 4-month coop term in the winter of 2012.

Mehdi’s main focus while at the institute involved data analysis of the rink’s net metering project. He used predictions of the average yearly wind speed for each location and then compared the actual 4-month wind speed and analyzed how it affected the turbine’s production. Mehdi told us recently that, “WEICan has a positive work environment that made me feel good about coming to work every day.”

He is currently working for Air Canada as the “Technology Portfolio Manager".

Ehsan joined the Wind Energy Institute of Canada (WEICan) , through Mitacs Program, as an intern student for four months in winter 2017 while pursuing his Phd in electrical engineering in University of Calgary. His main responsibilities involved operation of energy storage systems and wind turbines in providing ancillary services considering their technical constraints. His Phd thesis was on optimal operation and sizing of energy storage systems in competitive electricity markets. Ehsan graduated from University of Calgary in 2017 and since then he is working as an energy market analyst at EDC Associates Ltd in Calgary.

"Alex was a technical intern from May 2016 to March 2017 and completed work on the Generation and Availability Database for the Canadian wind market to analyze the performance of wind farms across Canada and provide performance benchmarks for operators. He also completed work on the underperformance of small wind turbines in collaboration with Dr. Wood at the University of Calgary. The research was presented at TUrbWind 2017. Alex also assisted senior wind turbine technicians in servicing and troubleshooting the on site turbines.

Alex is now a technical specialist with WSP in the wind group in Calgary focusing on wind resource assessment, layout design and production assessments."

Connor finished his 2nd year of Chemical Engineering before beginning a 4-month co-op work term at WEICan in the Summer of 2021. During Connors time at WEICan he participated in various projects such as leading-edge erosion , Tesla battery operation, and data analysis in the Pi system. His role also included assisting in various building maintenance activities.

Diego LeClair is going into his fifth year of Civil Engineering at the University of New Brunswick. At WEICan he participated in field work for onsite turbines and equipment.

Brett is an Engineer-In-Training from Summerside, PEI. He is an electrical engineering graduate from the University of New Brunswick and worked at WEICan for 21 months from October 2018 to the end of June 2020.
Brett was involved with the new solar and battery storage project and the Greater Tignish Community feasibility project. Brett also worked on multiple python coding projects for automating energy forecasting, web data scraping, daily animated twitter updates, and a program to quickly retrieve data from WEICan’s PI Server.

Brady Gaudette works as a civil engineer for EXP Services Inc. in Fredericton, New Brunswick. His role is a Designer in the Municipal Infrastructure division.

James is an electrical engineering student currently at the University of New Brunswick and he worked at WEICan for a 3-month term in the summer of 2013.

James was involved with the assessment and collection of wind turbine performance data, determining placements for new wind turbines using industry standard software tools like Windpro, and conducting any necessary on site tasks such as maintenance trips up the Dewind D9.2 turbines. James also created a macro through SCADA office that updates the institute on the Dewind turbines production, availability, and fault history.

James is aiming to graduate from UNB in May of 2016.

Andrew Bourgeois is a Computer Science student at UPEI who completed his third year. He was at WEICan for the summer of 2020 and he is back for the summer of 2021. He is using programming to develop tools that will facilitate and speed up data analysis. He is also automating data retrieval and conversion between systems using technologies such as Python, the .NET Framework, OSISoft PI and REST APIs.

Dylan is a graduate of the Sustainable Design Engineering program at the University of Prince Edward Island, who has previously spent two summers at WEICAN as a student. Since graduating Dylan has worked in the power generation industry commissioning of gas turbines across various power plants in the US. With a passion for renewable energy he has continued to gain experience in photovoltaics and energy storage systems. For the duration of his employment Dylan will provide engineering support on various Microgrid projects, as well as having involvement acquiring experience on the operation and maintenance of the Wind Park with a hands on approach working with the technicians.

This fall he will begin his Masters at the UPEI School of Climate Change and Adaptation, evaluating the current state of carbon emissions for a community on PEI and how renewable energy can play a role in achieving carbon neutrality 2040.

Andrew is a Computer Science student at UPEI. He completed his second year and is now working at WEICan for the summer. He is creating applications and modules to help with data analysis and weather forecasting.

Dylan, is a 4th year engineering student enrolled in the School of Sustainable Design Engineering at the University of Prince Edward Island. During his two internship terms at WEICan, Dylan was involved in the data analyses, maintenance and troubleshooting of the Dewind turbines. Other duties included developing software protocols and the preparation of presentations.

His future plans include graduating from his degree and finding employment related to sustainable energy in the province of Prince Edward Island.

Liam, a 3rd year Computer Science student at the University of Prince Edward Island, worked at WEICan for a 4 month co-op term in the summer of 2018.

During his time at WEICan, Liam created some Visual Basic .NET programs to go through the company's data and find instances where the data did not seem correct. He also used these programs to calculate a specific exponent in a formula to find the turbine's wind gradient.

During the summer of 2016, Cameron Hastie worked as a technical intern at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada and contributed to data analysis for two scientific papers. This internship was a pivotal moment during Cameron’s professional development, as it was his first opportunity to publish an academic paper and learn about science from an industry perspective. After this experience, his interests shifted from theoretical to applied physics.

Since his internship at WEICan, Cameron has started his PhD in applied physics at the University of British Columbia. Cameron is a member of Sabrina Leslie’s lab, which is known for pioneering a single-molecule technique called convex lens-induced confinement (CLiC) to measure the kinetics of biomolecules. Cameron uses CLiC and other fluorescence microscopy techniques to investigate nucleic acid interactions.

Conner, an engineering student currently at the University of Prince Edward Island, worked at WEICan for a 4-month coop term in the summer of 2014.

Conner’s main responsibilities involved data analyses of the Dewind turbines along with the battery energy storage system (BESS) and report writing. He would be included in fault troubleshooting and turbine maintenance as well. His advice to future students is, “Showing up to work on time with an open mind is key because chances are you will be doing something different every day.”

Conner is currently in his third year of sustainable design engineering at UPEI and is working with an industry client on a large design project.

Alexa, a business graduate from the University of Prince Edward Island, worked at WEICan for a 3-month term in the spring of 2013.

Her work was on the administrative side of WEICan. She worked on small wind turbine financial breakdowns, competitor analyses and did research/data acquisition on the opportunities of small wind in the global market. Alexa was happy with her term here and told us recently, “My experience at WEICan provided me with some insight on how non-profit organizations are run, which is relevant to what I work at now.”

She is currently employed at Grant Thornton and is working toward becoming a CPA this year

Alexa, a business graduate from the University of Prince Edward Island, worked at WEICan for a 3-month term in the spring of 2013.

Her work was on the administrative side of WEICan. She worked on small wind turbine financial breakdowns, competitor analyses and did research/data acquisition on the opportunities of small wind in the global market. Alexa was happy with her term here and told us recently, “My experience at WEICan provided me with some insight on how non-profit organizations are run, which is relevant to what I work at now.”

She is currently employed at Grant Thornton and is working toward becoming a CPA this year

Mitchell, a business graduate from the University of Prince Edward Island, worked at WEICan for a 4-month coop term in the summer of 2008.

His main responsibilities were business and administration oriented. He had the opportunity of learning about business development and growth along with project management. We got in touch with Mitchell recently and he told us that while he was here “The staff took an active role in developing my skills and allowed me to gain experience in a variety of fields.”

Mitchell is currently in a management role as the “Tourism Manager of the North Cape Coastal Tourism Area Partnership.”

Tapabrata (a.k.a. Topo), an electrical engineering graduate, worked at WEICan for a year-long term in 2014-15 while working towards his master’s degree in Electronic Systems Engineering at University of Regina.

His main responsibilities involved implementation of various ancillary grid services using energy storage. He did his MEng. project work on automatic generation control (AGC) using energy storage. Topo says, “In my opinion, WEICan is one of the best research institutes to work for in Canada. People are very helpful and the work environment fosters creativity”

Topo is a professional engineer and currently works at SaskPower.

Maggie, a mechanical engineering student from the University of Toronto, worked at WEICan for an 8-month co-op term in 2010-11.

Maggie was involved with the improvement of wind turbine test procedures, analyzation of acoustic and power performance of wind turbines and helped improve the data processing speed of various programs. Maggie’s tip to future interns is to ask questions in order to get the most diverse experience WEICan can provide.

After graduation Maggie went on to work with an oil company as a machinery engineer.

Da, a mechatronics engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo, worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in the fall of 2008.

His main job was analyzing and formatting logged data from the field and identifying trends by relating wind speed and power output. Also, Da was involved with the installation of various wind speed measurement instrumentation. Hearing from Da lately he said, “The skills I learned from my internship were incredibly important to add to my skillset in order to find meaningful employment.”

However, Da’s career path has shifted to the wire and cable industry. Specifically software and machine design for industrial automation.

Monika, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo, worked at WEICan for a 4-month co-op term in the summer of 2008.

She spent the majority of her time at the Institute working with excel and macros to develop a worksheet for processing and interpretation of wind turbine performance data according to IEC standards. She has informed us lately that “After graduating I got a job at RWDI Inc., which performs wind tunnel tests on buildings. It is possible that my previous experience with WEICan would have made me a more suitable candidate for the job.”

Monika has recently returned to school to complete her master’s degree in transportation.