SPECIAL RADICAL ISSUE

A FORUM FOR ENGINEERING CONCEPTS June 1984

COCAINE
Page 1
THE
'HIGH'IN HIGH- TECH
by Pete Lash
Over the past few years,
drug in high tech compa-
nies. especia!ly in California's
Silicon Valley. has been increas-
ing at an alarming rate. Due to
the intense pressures and high
salaries associated with the
electronics industry, the use of
drugs, such as cocaine and
amphetamines is becoming more
com monplace.
The drugs used see m t o be
readily available on t he job from
either eo-workers or dealers
parked in company parking lots.
For example, last Fall, an
employee of National Semicon-
ducto'r Corp., was arrested for
selling cocaine in the company's
parking lot after complaints
were made about traffic jams
due to coke buyers in the parking
lot at lunch time. There have
been stories of drying cocaine in
cafeteria microwave ovens at
Signetics Corp., regular use of
methampetam ine (speed) in some
departments at Memorex Corp.
and Fairchild Semiconductors
Corp., and even cocaine parties
in IBM's parking lots.
In an industry where
advanced commercial and mili-
tary devices are being developed
and manufactured, one would
expect to see concern from top
management. Although some
companies have drug rehabilita-
- tion programs, very few of them
will admit, at least publicly, that
there is a problem. In a recent
television news show on the sub-
ject, spokesmen for Intel and
Memorex said they are aware of
drug use but don't view it as a
problem. Signetics said its drug
problems are no different from
any other company, and IBM
stated that drugs are not a prob-
lem with them. As Silicon Val-
ley social worke r David Hanner
puts it: "This Valley's in a gold
rush. These little chips are the
gold nuggets of the 80's. You go
out and try to talk about
employee rehabilitation pro-
grams and it's like passing out
Bibles on the Klondike Trial. It
isn't their trip. They're into
bucks".
A major problem is that
payment for drugs is not always
in cash. Some dealers trade
drugs for stolen parts or classi-
fied and proprietary documents.
Last year, an Intel imployee was
arrested for paying for cocaine
with stolen integrated circuits,
and a Signetics Corp., employee
was charged for stealing gold
used in circuit production to
support her boyfriend's (also an
employee of Signetics ) drug
habit. David Hanner com ments
on the situation, "I don't under-
stand how it is, with all this
emphasis on security, why the
government isn't taking the situ-
ation seriously. Some of this
stuff is supposed to be secret.
It's a dandy way to lose a
secret."
San Jose police chief .Joseph
McNamara also thinks people
INSIDE:
should be more concerned with
the problem.
"It's very serious for this
industry because it's so related
to our (U.S.) national defense".
McNamara says. "If there are
people producing defective com-
ponents, it can have very serious
consequences."
According to McNamara,
cocaine use permeates all levels
of the high paying computer
industry. For example. one
Silicon Valley boss hosted a
party on his yacht where they
passed around sugar bowls filled
with cocaine. Another high tech
executive gave gifts of coeaine
to guests at his (,hristmas pArty.
These are not just cases,
but are in fact quite representa-
tive of the extent of drug use in
the electronics industry of the
Valley. One report in a Califor-
nia newspaper a case in
which a supervisor went to the
front office of a high tech com-
pany and said he wanted to fire a
worker for bringing drugs onto
the pre m ises. The boss dis-
agreed; it turned out the
employee caught with cocaine
was his supplier.
Another major area of drug
abuse in high tech companies is
on the assembly line, where high
paid employees do boring repeti-
tive jobs. Electronics assembly
line workers recovering at drug
rehabil itat ion cent res have told
of widespr ead use of
amphetamines and eocaine on
the job. One worker explained it
by saying, "Once you know your
job you could do. it blindfolded,
so you might as well be stoned."
Another claimed, "Once you get
some speed, you can do twice as
much work."
According to social worker
David Hannes, the mistakes
made by the drugged assembly
line workers are "costing some-
one an awful lot of money."
There are even cases of workers
having access to "company
drugs
"
.
The primary difference
between drug use in the elec-
tronics industry and elsewhere is
the apparent frequency with
which drugs are used on the job.
Explains a drug rehabilitator,
"the nature of e lec tron ics as an
industry and the nature of pres-
sures they are under provides an
excuse to go into drugs in a far
greater way than in other indus-
tries."
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE _____ --t'P 15
WAT'S ON AT WATERLOO? pIt
IMPRINT: OPPONENTS FACE OFF p 6
MARANATHAS - CULT? P 12
2 IRON WARRIOR
THE EDITORS' PAGE
Is School A Waste of Time?
Everyone asks themselves if
their studies are really worth the
time and money. Our co-op
engineering education will cost
us approximately twenty thou-
sand dollars if we include room
and board. and thirty-two
months in school. That is a sub-
stantial investment; but then,
your return is also qui te sub-
stantial. Or is it?
What do you get? A Dip-
loma, a little older and an "edu-
cation". The former is some-
times referred to as "the piece
of paper you need to get a job".
Without it, you cannot as a rule,
get an engineering position.
What then, does your diploma
symbolise? It stands as a repre-
sentation of your engineering
knowledge and designates you as
an individual who can solve
physical problems using scien-
tific methods. It is in effect,
making a very serious statement,
keeping in mind that people will
have complete faith in your
abilities.
a chance to enter the work
force. and some of you acquire
responsible posi tions. [t prob-
ably won't be very much differ-
ent when you are offered your
first full ti me job. P
Most employers offer training
programs for new employers,
regardless of their previous edu-
cation. These programs are
essential because they relate
directly to the new job.
attended one of these
courses along with three starting
engineers. We recognized some
of the concepts discussed, but
that wasn't our concern; we had
to take good notes and in effect,
develop a new thought pattern
because this was what we were
going to use on the job.
It can be argued that our
university education will give us
a solid base for understanding
future engineering concepts, and
that we will acquire useful prob-
lem-solving techniques. Aren't
we investing too much for these
somewhat questionable 'returns'?
The question is: what abili-
ties? Every four months you
When you're out on a workterm, how much do you remember from
school?
. "
. "" , 1
They're Debating the Wrong Issue at Imprint
A lot of people have asked me
my views on the situation at
Imprint. At the same time
they're generally curious about
just what the situation is. There
have been major changes at
(mprint. (nternally, quite a bit
of the full time (salaried) staff
are gone; some by choice while
some others weren't quite so
lucky to maintain that freedom.
There has also bee"n an
increase in the amount of inter-
nal dissention in the organiza-
tion. Advertising manager
Kathleen Kelly has circulated a
petition throughout the campus
calling for removal of George
Elliott Clarke, the paper's editor
since May 1st. She has the sup-
port of some of the former staff
as well as some of the current
staff. Kathleen feels that this
was the only alternative avail-
able to thOse on staff who see
the situation at Imprint as intol-
erable.
Unfortunately the real prob-
lem at Imprint has been camou-
flaged by petty politics both
inside and outside the organiza-
tion. The problem is not the
personality conflicts among the
staff. Nor is it the questionable
role of the federation of stu-
dents in Imprint's business. (t's
not even the fact that as a dem-
ocratically-run paper, the role of
the editor is poorly defined.
While these concerns are all
valid, they don't come to the
crux of the matter. These prob-
lems could be solved or reduced
by taking a step back and exam-
ining the situation from a more
global perspective.
What I see is a tempest in a
teapot which has arisen because
of differing views on the goals
of a: student newspaper, and how
these goals should be met. spe-
cifically, is Imprint intended as a
training ground for students
interested in journalism or is it
supposed to be a newspaper
aimed at a student market?
Originally, Imprint evolved as a
newspaper which was run demo-
cratically by staff rather than by
a single editor in response to the
divergence of it's predecessor,
the Chevron, into the unpopular
role of defender of the basic
interests of students. Since
then, however, the role of
(mprint has never been ques-
tioned.
It's not hard to see why a
student editor and a non-student
advertising manager would disa-
gree in very fundamental ways.
The ad manager's goal is to sell
the paper. To do so. she has to
have the highest quality, most
appealing paper possible. How
the paper is put together really
has had no bearing until the
quality began to fall in the eyes
of advertisers.
To the staff who have sup-
ported George, the changes this
term have meant the removal of
a protective barrier, the full
ti me staff. To these people
Imprint was a paper run by a few
select professionals who did a
good job, but ultimately stifled
creativity by limiting student
input to secondary roles.
On July 3rd the staff of
Imprint will be voting on the
wrong issue: the or
acceptance of Ellil ltt
Clarke as editor. Depending on
the results it may come to a
student referendum with the
same misguided resolution.
My suggestion is that we the
students hold a two-term refer-
endum to determine the role of
the newspaper. The choices
would be a student-run paper
subject to the risk of fluctuating
quality or a professionally-sup-
ported newspaper with a stan-
dard of quality set by non-stu-
dents. The idea that we can
have a mixture of these two
goals has led to the problems we
face at (mprint today. Any
other solutions will only leave us
to face this same question at a
later date.
('11 let you in on how I'd vote
by describing the way [ron War-
rior is run. We have only one
paid staff member and that's our
secretary, Maria. You see, to
me a student newspaper is a lux-
ury. Like the Federation of Stu-
dents and the clubs and student
June 1984
Barring any research oriented
employment, the skills needed
for most engineering occupations
could probably be acquired in
half the time it takes to get a
degree.
It see ms as if university is
simply the last stage of a per-
son's education tha t puts hi m
past the pimples, rock ami .roll.
and home -cooked meals, and
initiates him into a career where
maturity is essential for success.
In any case, we are lucky to
have chosen the co-op education,
because the 'engineering educa-
tion' we get may eventually be
useful, but the 'work education'
is what will really count.
societies on its role is
to make life more pleasant here
by providing secondary needs
such as a social structure,
entertainment and informal
learning processes. As such, itls
something that we've got to do
ourselves. Relying on outside
employees to support a student
newspaper is a cop ou t.
[ don't believe that a news-
paper is such a vital part of
every organization that it must
exist at any cost. Surely, there
are students capable of assum imr
any position-- at "Imprint. The
quality of a publication is not so
important as the experience
gained in the process. In the
long run, quality will follow if
there is dedication, and if there
is no student dedication then we
don't deserye to have a student
newspaper at this campus._
For more on IMPRINT see p. 6
June 1984 NOT THE IMPRINT 3
Radical views From the Dean
As a result of the so called
"information age" in which we
find ourselves, the teaching and
practice of engineering is
experiencing a period of unprec-
edented change. It is sometimes
referred to as an "information
explosion" and as it progresses,
it places new and considerable
demands on the faculty and on
you, the students. Some of the
questions which we now face and
must quickly solve in light of
these problems are as follows:
How can we satisfy the var-
ied and changing needs of indus-
try, the requirements of the
Canadian Accreditation Board,
and our own self imposed aca-
demic standards all in the face
of continually more increasingly
restricted resources'?
The final curric ulum will
necessarily be a comprom ise,
resolving as many of these and
many other questions as possible .
In a recent conference on
Eng-ineering, one researcher
LETTERS
In This Issue:
. The !roo T ,t)d!l400
,-:; Tom AlII$OI"I Siamml>d .
S60 !ncrl.'.SC
'1'\ Third Wortd
EI'1911WH..'I"S SultE'f Frc>m $ttf'l$
Dear Editors:
p. 6
p. 5
p. "'4
" 10
" e
Sometime in March, 1985,
we too will be going through the
ceremony to receive our ring
recognizing the five years of
work put in at the University of
Waterloo. What will this piece
of iron mean to you? Does it
represent your education as a
sole personal achievement or as
a goal that was shared by the
other members of your class and
acheived by mutual support?
After all this effort by those
involved and the significance of
now being an engineer is the
present iron ring "stag" really
what you want? With the
increasing number of women in
our graduating ciasses, is it fair
to plan the big celebration hav-
ing entertainment that is gener-
ally offensive to most females'?
There are some of us wno
think that it is time to
things and we want to hear 'your
ideas of feelings ab<:Jt this. To
have something diff .>rent from
recom mended that the workload
for undergraduate engineers
should be in the order of 55
hours per week, including class
time. Statistically the workload
here and in other institutions
exceeds this. One possi ble
re medy for this proble m is to
have weekly assignments
reduced in importance whereby
they would no longer count
towards a final - mark, [n this
way students could work
together, form study groups, and
develop skills in team work
which will be required of them in
later life. The assignments
would be handed in to ensure
that the students were keeping
up with the work but would not
be as rigourously marked,
providing more time for the TA's
to spend with students. All
solutions would be posted in
conveniently posted locations to
provide the same feedback on
termwork.
This increases the impor-
tance of the final and midterm
marks but it may not be com-
past years we hu 'v"! t o start now
to co-ordinate with other stream
and line te en ter-
tailllTl en t.
Possible altern<3. t lves to the
"traditiona
P
' celebration are to
have an Ball, or set
up a nil?;htclub atmosphere with a
co medy troure or musicians.
Many of the organized
events (sports, WBS, etc.) do not
prohibit females from partici-
pating but make i.t difficult for
them to do so as equals. Women
are treated as equals in the aca-
demic sense and as friends.
They should not be dissuaded
fro m participating in the last big
social event in University life
due to the entertainment pro-
vided. The format for the iron
ring celebration has been the
same as the Welcome Back Stag.
Since we set foot on this cam-
pus, we have matured into
responsible adults. We deserve a
better "goodbye" than tpe "hel-
los" that are dished out at the
beginning of each term without
regard for anyone's sensitivity.
Is upholding the present format
so important?
The 1985 Graduation Com-
mittee is presently beginning the
planning of the activities assici-
ated with graduation for rtext
spring. Let your Class Grad Rep
know your feelings on this issue
and any other events for gradua-
tion.
Ann Yeo &: Dave Queen
Dear Warriors:
It was interesting to peruse
the article by Mike Urlocker on
'Bombay U and more' (Iron War-
rior, May '84). The article was
pletely detrimental. In the
engineering world the success or
failure of a project is often
decided on the end product.
Another chronic problem is
the difficulty of providing ade-
quate numbers and qualities of
T.A.S. This is due to the under-
funding of the T.A. budget and
the decrease in the size of the
graduate student ranks. One
program designed to solve this
involved using senior students on
a "volunteer" basis to aid in the
teaching of first year courses.
Three hours per week were
required during either the 4A or
4B term. A similar program in
the United States offers
"enrichment" opportunities for
some students while serving as
T.A.'s in junior years. Applied
here this could be considered as .
a com munications credit, per-
haps satisfying some of the new
Accreditation requirements for
communications skills.
Given the rapid change of
some technologies, how best do
well-written and provided an
informative exposure about the
Indian universities in general, as
observed by an outsider. Never-
theless some of the figures pre-
sented were woefully incorrect
and/or
First of all there are 5 (and
not 4) ' Indian Institutes of Tech-
nology (IlTs) located at Bombay,
Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and
Madras.
Secondly, the -;ala-
ries that an enginet r or " li(H'tOt'
Nuns is at ICflst :) 'jlt' t,
ure quoted in t'w U'I iI-I.,.
(Sour e: Consulate (;t'lwr'HI (It'
Indi a , Ottawa).
converting wages earned in (mt'
we design a curriculum which
will still be of value five years
from now?
[f we agree that elll t.he
"new" ideas should be in the pt'O-
grams, what should we remove'!
Obviously the final curricu-
lum represents a compromise
between these and other factors.
I feel we have succeeded well
but it obviously requires
continual monitoring. Of pri-
mary concern is that we keep
our overall requirements realis-
tic in terms of student abilities.
Regards,
Dean Lennox
country (e.g. Indian Rupees) into
the currency of a diff ert'!n
t
country (e,g. Canadian Dollar,)
is meaningless and out p!r:-.rf'C'
tive, if one does not simul'''''l('-
ousty take into cons i.derat ion 'lie
local Jiiestyles and cost of
index.
Bhim Asdhir. Kishor-e Chanchlani
Ttl(' stJnd.s corrected.
Salaries quoted w're furnished
by stl'iking KHrntttllka Stat gov-
ernment l'ngirl('crs,
The IRON WARRIOR is published by the EnginlO'ering Society ,-' t
the University of Waterloo, Its purpose is to prornot professiollfll
awareness throughout the campus.
No portion of this publication may be reprinted without the writ-
ten permission of the editor. This INCLUDES the Chevron.
EDITORS: Mike Urlocker and Carlos Panksep.
STAFF: Lee Wanstall, Mike Thomas, Peter Lash, N ena Panksep,
TO,m Fulton, Eric Dormer, Alex Watt, Joe Wigglesworth, Glen
Field, Mike Hagley, Jeff Endenburg, Vic Quintana, Shelley Smith,
Antoinette Camilleri, Frank Van Biesen. Jaye Shintani, Eugene
Derhun, Wendy Fletcher, Phil Brearton. Langis G. Pune.
Homer' Watson and the layout crew.
COpy EDITORS: Lars Wilke and Robert Tasker.
PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ginger Moorey, "ova tt, Chul Lee
and Jeff Warren.
PRODUCTION: Ken Jones.
SECRETARY: Maria Akot.
ADVERTISING: John Occhipinti
88S, -2 563, 885-12l1 ext. 2323
:>;?ecial thanks go to all the dedicated people who've been working
on IRON WARRIOR for the past two terms. -
DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: JULY 8
Letters and Submissions welcome
4
NOT THE CHEVRON EITHER
June 1984
IDlproving Class/Professor
Relations
By Chul Lee
and Glen Field.
' ''S.T.A.G.'', does not stand for
the drunken, beer throwing bash
set up by Eng Soc each term. It
is, a constructive program which
enhances class-professor rela-
tionships. S.T.A.G. stands for
student Teacher Advisory Group
and is project set 'up by Ian
Smart of Engineering Counse ll-
ing. The project's main aim is
"to provide constant and rapid
feedback to and from professor
and class, so that teaching con-
tent and method can be altered
to benefit both class and
teacher, and so that class
response and responsibility can
be enhanced."
An advisory group is initi-
ated when either a student or a
professor approaches the coun-
sellor to discuss various possibil-
ities of improving class condi-
tions, and up to now the
initiators have been about half
and half. If both students and
the professor are in favour of
the program, then a group of
four to six students, whose aca-
demic standings range from top
to bottom of the class are cho-
sen to represent the I S5 in
weekly and lat er bi - weekly
informal group sessions.
General topics of diSCIIS:'illlr
include: course content. 1,
methodology (audibility "I the
professor, his visual pres("f11 (\-
tion, his response to class que.:,
tions), class responsibility (stu -
dent feedback, noise levels), Ilr
any other topic of concern.
These sessions are not used to
point fingers at each other or to
criticize faults .
The role of the counsellor as
mediator is to relieve initial
tension and anxiety. He ensures
that the discussion does not
stray from the topic. Although a
counsellor is always present,
after a few sessions he begins to
playa lesser role and allows the
participants to carryon.
These advisory groups are
not just for problem classes;
their intent is to "enhance com-
munication and learning for both
students and professor."
A case in point, is one of a
Systems Design class taught by
professor Roe, who approached
[an Smart to initiate an Advisory
Group.
His reasons for starting the
group were to increase student
feed- back and "to leok for a
mechanism to prevent things
from going wrong", one of the
topics of discussion being alter-
native methods for doing things.
Professor Roe is very positive
about the program and highly
recommends it. The students
enjoyed the input. Participants
in other groups have often said
"I'm glad [ took part" or "I've
learned a lot."
Since the project began last
year , six groups have partici-
pa ted and both prot'essor and
students have commented that
they have been helpful to both
sides.
If you think the program
Nuuld be nefit your class, contact
iCln Smart in Engineering Ccoun-
selling, CPH 4320 or at exten-
sion 2849.
Icefield Feehike Irks Student
by Eugene Derhun
If you are planning to book
ice-time this term or in the
future at Columbia [cefield you
will be in for a suprise. The stu-
dent rate for the past 2 terms
was $S/hour for non-prime and
prime time bookings. Non-st u-
dent fees were $2S/hour for
non-prime time and $47.S0/hour
for prime time. A new fee
structure was proposed and
passed by the Athletic Advisory
Board in late March 1984. The
student fee now becomes
$20/hour at anytime while the
non-student fee for prime time
becomes $50/hour (the other is
\
unchanged).
A 400 percent increase
hardly seems appropriate, but
compared to other arenas, stu-
dents are still getting an excel-
lent deal. The question that
arises is. why should we be sub-
ject to this large increase for an
arena that was built by student
funds.
There is of course a reason
for the increase. Hopefully, if
will improve the efficiency of
ice usage by students. A
problem does exist with bookings
of ice time. On many occasions
only 2 or 3 people were utilizing
the ice. With a backlog of book-
ings for groups of people it
doesn't seem fair that a few
individuals should have access to
the ice. This was a consistent
occurrence since bookings were
usually taken on a term basis.
The Athletic Advisory Board
wanted to eliminate this prob-
Ie m. The solution was to
increase the student fee from $5
to $20/hour. In theory this
would discourage une or two
people from booking the ice and
would force large groups to book
the ice. However, there is still
the problem of larger groups
forfeiting.
The question that arises is;
is this going to work? Will the
higher fee improve efficiency of
ice usage? The question can be
debated without reaching and
answer. Only a term the
new fee will determine its' suc-
cess. Fortunately there .are
other methods to impro"e ice
efficiency than just increasing
The initial rental fee of
$5/hour was incredibly low, but
the user fee. One pOSSlbtlltV IS
to include a returnable default
deposit on the minimum number
of people on the ice per session.
isn't that the way it should be
since we did supply the capital
to construct the building? The
money from rentals goes towards
an account to offset full-time
salaries for employees at the
Icefield. The University agreed
to pay all operating expenses for
the bu ilding . Therefore, the
extra money is not an issue for
the University. Thus, an
increase in the student fee from
$S to $lO/hour with a returnable
default deposit seems to be a
much better attempt at a solu-
tion than the one in effect.
The interesting thing about
the Athletic Advisory Board is
that it has a majority of student
votes. Representation is from
all sectors of the student body.
A majority of student votes were
not present at the meeting, but
there must have been some stu-
dent support for the fee increase
(I didn't get a copy of the min- '
utes before this article was pub-
lis hed). If my source is
eorrpct. the only opposition to
tilt' :r.otion came from the
Federation of Students. Yet. the
Feds did not publicize the Ollt --
come of the meeting. In f$!"
students were not aware ot' the
problem in the first place.
believe this is an important iSSJP
and students should havt-' been
informed even if it would not
affect everyone directly. Since,
we are dealing with a facility
provided by students, students
should hve the opportunity to
express their views on the mat-
ter. [f nothing is known about
the problem, how can the stu-
dent representative of the
A.A.C. effectively express stu-
dent positions on the SUbject?
[f students are not satisfied
with the result, the issue may be
reoopened. I have been assured
of this by Wally Delahey, a
member of the council. If you
are dissatisfied or satisfied with
the new fee let your faculty
societies know (undergraduate or
graduate). The Federation of
Students, Graduate Student
Association and the Engineering
Society is now aware of the
matter and are hopefully looking
into alternative solutions.
Let's get some input from
the other societies on campus.
Student interest is required if a
new fee is to be implemented.
After all it is your building.
June 1984
3A EE NEWS
5
by Jeff Endenburg
and G. Pune
Recently, there has been
much discussion in the Engineer-
ing profession over the latest
revIsion to the Professional
Engineers Act (1980), which is
Bill 123 of 1983. Soon to
become effective, this bill deals
with all of t he f undamental
aspects of law by which the
Engineering professi ons' self-
regulating body, th., APEO, gov-
erns itself. Althuugh the bill
itself is sufficien tl y :)ophisti-
cated to require an pxtensive
background in law and pngineer-
ing for the proper intt-!rpretation
of its many deta ils. the heart of
the debate seems to focus on
only two of the proposed
changes.
The first major issue con-
cerns the details of proposal to
make the purchase of liability
insurance by consulting e ngi-
neering firms and individuals
mandatory.
Professor F .E. Burke, of the
Department of Management Sci-
ences here at UW, who has been
involved in various com mit tees
of the APEO, for over twenty
years, including two years on
their Council simplifies the
terms of this proposal in the
following way:
"The compulsory require-
ment for professional liabiji tv
insurance in the new professiona l
engineers act arises from it em
7.24 of the draft act which
makes the issuance of a certifi -
cate of authorization to hold
oneself out t o be a registered
professional eon.suLting engineer
condiHonal on meeting pre-
scribed minima for such insur-
ance, and giving proof of such
valid insuranc e to the registrar
of the APEO."
SimpJ ified further, this
Professor McNeice-"This is just a
band-aid approach."
means thRl t.he APEO grants
permit!'; l.V practice consulting
engineer"ing only after having
judged applicant . to have
obtained "sufficient" insurance
coverage.
The ramifications of such
legislation coulo be numerous.
For instance, the first question
that arises is whether the man-
datory purchase of such liability
insurance, which can be argued
as providing protection for
smaller operations, will Drove to
be a sufficient financia l burden
to drive the smaller companies
out of business. Secondly, to
what extent will the cost of the
insurance be passed on to the
clients?
A second concern in this
particular issue is that the
requirement of liability insur-
ance might lead to a large num-
ber of litigations.
Professor G. McNeice, of
the Civil Engineering Depart-
ment at UW, and president of
the Canadian Socie ty for Pro-
fessional Engineers, feels that
engineers in general will have to
be "better in tune with the legal
aspects of engineering" as a
result of this.
But concurrent with the
Professor Burke-"Clarify, consolidate and
limit the function of senior technologists
in the industrial scene."
liability insurance debate is an
equal if not more heated debate
over the issue of the issuance (If
limited licences to technologists
to practice "engineering
tl
s
newly defined under Bill 123,
section 12. Essentially, th ct
says that after having ub tained
a three year engineering tech-
nology diploma or a four year
honour science degree at cer-
tified institutions, and after
having demonstrated at least
thirteen years of engineering
work (as judged by the P EO
councilor nne of their commit-
tees. the applicant may be
granted a limited licence to
practice "engineering" without
the supervision of a professional
engineer.
The scope of the limited
licence is as follows: The lim-
ited licence shall specify the
name of the employer by whom
the holder is employed, the
period for which the licence is
issued and shall include a
requirement that the limited
licence be renewed annually
provided that the holder contin-
ues to perform the same work
for the employer.
The t does not
define The
extent to which a licenced tech-
nologist can practise profes-
sional engineering. Some feel
that the APEO will be unable to
monitor thes!' limitRtions and
that ventuRllv limitfd will
b come unlimited; otlH. rs fCll
that the rcstrietions impost'(j
will be maintain d by the tV!)!' of
work assigned by the employer.
Mr. Dick Stewart, m(\mb r
of the APEO, who addressed the
Engineering Society oLlnC'il on
this issue recently, feels
situation in the country, it is a
"bad time to talk about extend-
ing licencing."
Professor McNeice echoed
these thoughts and added "quite
frankly, I don't see anything
wrong with the old act - this is
just a band-aid approach."
He was referring to the gov-
ernment's attempt with this bill
to rectify the "rock bottom"
state of the engineering profes-
sion already.
He went on to paint a rather
gloomy picture of the status of
the engineering profession.
speaking of the relationship
between technologists and eng-i-
neers and their work and how
these relationships evolved. He
also spoke of the general show of
apathy in the profession, in par-
ticular pointing to the Lack of
response to the new bill. Only
about 200 engineers out of the
approximately 50,000 in Ontario
made any response to the first
draft of the bill sent to them.
"The guys graduating now
will be affected most by the
misunderstanding", he said.
Whil e predicting that the
long term effect of the limi.ted
lie c issue will be increased
unemplovment in the ruture, he
also said that the act as a whole
is a "necessary evil".
Bill 123 is expected to
become enacted some ti me this
y nr, nfter apprOVAL of nguln'-
tions by the AIlEO council and
th minister nnd after royal
55 'n t.
Professor M N i is
exp ted to the' bill and
oth r issues relf\ting to the
APEO and rSPE sam tim in the
very n sr future, h r on cam-
pus.
with the bad un ____ ------------ 1
6
PRO
George Elliott Clarke
I relish this opportunity extended me
by the Iron Warrior to address you, the
students of the University of Waterloo,
on this issue that has been rumoured
about, written about, and lOcked about
for the past few months.
To come to the point, the charges of
"incompetence" which have been hurled
in my direction are absurd - mere,
unsubstantiated balderdash. My best
defence is the recent editions of Imprint
that have been distributed around the
campus. Each succeeding Imprint
produced under my direction has been
better than those preceding (compare the
June 29th and June 15th editions).
The student staff has much more say in
the running of Imprint than it ever did in
the past. In fact, the volunteer staff is
running Imprint . (And that's the way it
should be.)
As well, there is much more training
going on. I give seminar" in layout and
paste-up every week. r give advice on
writing. And typesetting instruction is
available to anyone who desires it,
particularly on Fridays. In fact, All of our
typesetters are students. There are more
students using the typesetters now than
there have ever been.
At one time, as earlier indiciated, the
technical knowledge of how one goes
about producing a newspaper was
jealously guarded by the "long-time,
overpaid staff" (as the president of
Canadian University Press, Andre Picard,
THE RADICAL TIMES
June 1984
IMPRINT: OPPONENTS FACE OFF
once put It) .
But that's all done with now. Imprint
has made a jarring transition from an old,
staid, comfortable but boring organization
to a fresh, young, vibrant and exciting
organization, where volunteers are trained
and which keeps its doors open to all
students.
In fact, the recent petition drive was
the culmination of four months of effort
to ensure that r would either not be
elected editor or to engineer my removal.
Here are the facts of the matter:
Before I even expressed an interest in
serving UW as editor of Imprint, Mr .
Allison warned me that if I was elected
editor, he would install a second,
Federation-backed newspaper in the
current office space of Imprint and would
hire the old Imprint staff, including Ms.
Kelly, to work for him.
During the Imprint editorial election
"campaign", Mr. Allison threatened the
entire Imprint staff that he would install a
second newspaper if staff elected me, and
supported openly another candidate.
Following my election as editor, Mr.
Allison - despite my repeated attempts
to calm the situation, and despite his
public promises to allow Imprint the
summer to "get back on its feet" -
persisted in his attempts to - I can only
think - destabilize the paper.
In early May, he told Imprint's Board
of Directors that he would cut off all
Federation advertising, lock the paper out
of its office space, and send a letter to its
advertisers, advising them to re-appraise
the value of advertising in Imprint . All of
this was to happen unless I was removed
as editor.
And that's what's been going on
behind the scenes.
If r may, I would like to clear up some
other misconceptions . First, Imprint 's
advertising base is the same as it has
always been. We haven't lost a single
advertiser. Mr. Allison stopped running
Federation ads for awhile, but he is
advertising again. Secondly, Imprint is,
generally, smaller in the summer term
than in the fall or winter terms, running
from 12 to 16 pages in size, depending
on ad content. Thirdly, not one paid staff
member was fired when I became editor.
However, two former employees - Mr.
Bast and Ms. Hannigan - chose not to
re-apply for position at Imprint after their
contracts with the paper expired.
To conclude I would like to say that
our new system at Imprint is better than
the old, even if all the bugs haven't been
worked out yet. Imprint is now a student
newspaper run by students - just like
most newspapers in the country.
Imprint is a good place to work now.
People come in, exchange ideas, debate,
and practise journalism. The newspaper is
much more of a cooperative enterprise
now, with less of a top-down,
authoritarian structure.
Ms. Kelly may prefer the old system,
with its nastiness, closed atmosphere, and
lack of opportunity for picking up skills.
But I think I speak for the majority of
staff members when I say that the new
system is better, even with its rough
edges, because it affords the student
volunteers more say, more control, more
opportunity for experimentation, and
more fun.
I thank you for hearing - or reading
- my case. If I can answer any further
questions, please do not hesitate to
contact me.
For more on [MPR[NT see P. 2
COM
by Kathleen Kelly
Imprint Staff
Of Imprint, I have a vested interest in
making sure this papcr is the best
newspaper that it can be.
tion of Students, is the one behind the
petition. Some people believe that
EXPERIENCE IT
The reason that a number of
Waterloo students and I got involved
the petition is the result of Mr. Al-
lison's "personal vendetta" against Mr.
Clarke. This is totally absurd! Mr.
Allison is in no way, shape or form in-
volved with this pctition. He had no
knowledge of the petition until after it
had started circulating.
in the petition is that we feel it is in the
be t interests of Imprint's future to re-
call the current Editor, George Elliott
Clark.e. As the result of Mr. Clarke's
lack of qualifications and skills, the re-
cent issues of Imprint have not been up
to previous standards.
Some student volunteers ar.e upset at
the lack of proper training they are re-
ceiving to learn different a pects of
putting together a quality newspaper.
staff members feel that the lad
cation are
:urrent
of com-
jing the
It, Im-
ars which
Hence.
keep reg-
in poor
J as
)f this oc-
'ur part-
a.m. to
1 hour for
Since I
md no
le. She
)urs
is term,
bers that
re-
lew "flop-
This
lttwo
e time.
, been
tions re-
: with the
that
; Federa-
Listen to what orne of the students
supporting the petition havc to say:
David Bain, Entertainment Editor of
Imprint, 28 Geography, "ffeel that
the present Editor is incompetent in the
areas of newspaper production (i.e.
paste-up and layout). f also believe
that his demonstrated lack of abilit), in
public and slaf]" relations and his
chronic disorganization make him un-
suitable for the job as Editor of
Imprint . ..
Laurie Kirsh, Advertising Assistant,
3A Math - "Having recemly become
an Imprint staff member, I find the
present Editor lacking in the ability to
communicate with other staff members.
Due to this lack of communication, the
quality of the paper suffers drastically. "
Mr. Clarke has problems putting to-
gether a 12 page paper in a two week
period. When Mr. Clarke has been
questioned at staff meetings as to why
corrections were not made, he blames
time constraints. If time constraints
affect a 12 page bi-weekly paper, how
can he expect to publish a high quality
28 page paper weekly in the fall and
winter terms?
Over 10% of the fee-paying members
of this term have signed the petition.
Under the by-laws of Imprint, a staff
meeting will be called and a vote
held. Failure of staffs decision to re-
move Mr. Clarke as Editor will result
in a referendum which would be held
over two terms.
In 1979, the students of WaterlOG
voted to have Imprint as their official
student newspaper. As fee-paying
members of Imprint, you should be
concerned with the future of your
student newspaper.
c
June 1984
Presidential
Nominee:
IRON WARRIOR

7

Director of Athletics to President?
by MICHAEL HAGLEY
Hello again, I hope that everyone is
enjoying this summer term. the warm
weather. sunshine, beer, baseball .
frisbee and what ever el e you enjoy in
the sun! It has been two terms since
last the reigns of the society have been
handed from the President to the
President-elect and it is time to do it
again.
Many of you already know me! I'm
the guy talking to you at captain's
meetings. asking you to referee and
generally running around getting
people organized so that we could
begin the tournament, be it the Mud
Sowl , volleyball, basketball or
broom ball. I've been doing this for
three terms and I have been enjoying it
for three terms!
My name is Michael Hagley for
those of you who do not know me.
am in 3A Chemical Engineering and I
have been Athletic for three
terms. I have participated in debates;
played on various class teams; taken
pictures and written articles for
Iron Warrior and the Heliograph; I
have and I am still a member of the
Campus Recreation Advisory Council;
and I have been an active member of
this society in all events for many
terms.
I believe that I would be able to lead
this society and shape it into an
effective tool for serving you. the
majority of the engineering tudents of
the University of Waterloo. The
Society provides a number of "services"
which are used by a large number of
our students. Some of these services
are new and have only been
implemented last term (photocopier,
book torC\ a computer for the orifice
etc.). We have increased C & D service
and election and we have tried to
increase participation in the P.O.E.T ..
which will be undergoing an expansion
in the ncar future.
My goal as President will be to
develop our existing services as fully as
possible in the time frame of the next
two terms! (kind of vague isn't it?!).
First, the book tore needs to be
managed so that we acquire a large
selection of books! A deal with Eng
Soc "A" needs to be arranged where
by the stock of books is transferred
from one consecutive term to the l1ext.
In this way, neither society should need
to start from scratch in an effort to
provide books for sale every term. An
inventory may be kept on the computer
in order to keep the transfer of money
between people in different stream
from being confused.
Secondly, better, smaller
photocopiers should be sought in an
attempt to minimize the congestion at
peak periods (i.e. interview time when
resumes are being copied and three
people take an hour). The copiers
should be able to hold mOQey for more
than one copy and maybe even have an
electronic "charge card" set-up as in
the Arts Library or E. M.S. Library!
Well, I've only named two specific
items but. three other main areas where
we can better our existing services are
Athletics. Social and Engineering
Weekends (weeks?). In Athletics, we
need the chance to provide ladies ,
events! Segin now to incorporate them
into Athletics, possibly on an inter-
faculty basis. so that we will have a
means of representing the Female
WaterlQo engineering students at the
other University's Athletic events
HAGLEY FOR PREZ ..... . "DEVELOP
OUR EXISTING SERVICES AS
FULLY AS POSSISLE"
(Queen's Flag-Football tournament). in
the area of "Social" we need to provide
pubs that won't necessarily make
money (they seldom do make money,
not because of the quality of
entertainment but due to the lack of
participation and bad timing) but, are
timed and advertised to maximize
participation. The "Weekend" are
organized by a handful of people who
spend a lot of time running events.
They need help. We, the society, need
help, more volunteers!
Mo t important, we have to increase
our communications. We put up
posters, we tell the class reps but,
people don't seem to here the
announcements. If you go to CPH
you will ee the signs otherwise, well,
you probably won't. So put up more
signs. That takes more people, more
help. To expand our services we need
more help. A few students cannot
er ice the whole tudent population
and one student alone, cannot provide
all the an wers! So I won't try to do
that.
Whether I am elected or not it is still
necessary for you to "help LIS help
you" (sorry about that, but it's true!).
We need to increase the people on
publication staffs. The Iron Warrior I
feel, is an important source of
information for all students. Its editors
have been working tremendously hard
to bring its quality to a level that
surpasses any University publication
that I have seen to date but, Mike and
Carlos need more help. as does the
Heliograph staff, Weekend Directors
and many other!
The faces in the society have been
changmg very slowly and so has the
society. Let us bring in some new faces,
new ideas and new proposals! There is
a lot of work to be done and a lot of
effort to be spent. Our services have
increased but, our volunteer ranks have
not! I'd like to organi/e and co-
ordinate as much change and
development in the next two terms as
possible. So, I am asking you to vote
for me, MICHAEL HAGLEY (a.k.a.,
Marvin) for the position of President
of Engineerin.g Society "S" on election
day! Also. between then and now I
invite you to ask me questions, give
your complaints or offer some
thoughts, be they positive or negative!
I do not bite and I am very interested
in what you have to say!
Thank-you for your consideration!
(the most colourful Prel you may ever
have!!)
Thank you!
The University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering
would like to thank the following sponsors of prizes
for the Engineering Spring Phonathon, May 28-31.
McGinnis Landing
Tony's Pizza and Spaghetti House
Video Movie House
Video Works. Inc.
Riordans Ski and Sport Centres
WITH SPECIAL THANKS to the donors of the grand
prize trip to Florida

50 Ontario 51. S.
Kttch.-ner. Onl
H2O IX4
(Sl8) 578-4410
10. KInO 51. N.

N2J2X8
(SIt) .. 5 51110
C'"RE mlllllR TRIIVEI
Catousel
CanadIt's HIIppy-HoIidIIy MMer
Their contributions have helped the Faculty maintain
communications with Waterloo graduates, and to
build support r the Engineering development
program, Our sincere appreciation!
8
IRON WARRIOR
June 1984
Vice Presidential Nominees:
So here I am writing a campaign
speech. Why? Mainly because it is a lot
more interesting then t he assignments I
have to do, but ( confess an ulterior motive.
Let me begin by telling you that [, Tom
Schmitz, am running for the elected posi-
tion of Vice President of ENG SOC B. Now
for a question, "Why the hell should you
care?tI Well [Ill tell, one iJl the most
important reasons is t ht> $8.::'1) r'very
one of you pays to ENG SOC "i:lC:-, '.erm.
That is a hefty price to pay. and VIIU "ave a
right to expect more in retUr"1 ther a pho-
tocopier and long C&D lines. How much
more depends on two things; the pellple you
elect to lead your society and vou r sl' :",
For those of you who don't ('"r'" ,-tbout ,
the money you pay to ENG SOC. ',ake a
holiday on your Florida swampland,
ENG SOC has always been 8 friendly
group of people who get elected. Prin
cipally because they all have lots of friends
who voted for them. During this election
week I will try to meet as many of you as [
can, but for those of you that I miss, here is
some personal type information which will
make you feel like you've known me for a
long time.
I am in 2B Mech Eng and currently hold
the P**5 directorship. This post mak,es me
responsible for recording class points >IS
well as awarding points for special act 1 "I '
ties. I try to involve myself in as many
ENG SOC and recreational activities as I
can while still keeping my nose above the
water. With other members of my class I
helped put together a memorable whitewa-
<-
ter rafting trip early last may. Many of you
frosh may remember me as one of the
in black shirts. Helping to vou t'l
ENG'G at Waterloo was one of the \-0 ; ,[: '
lights of last term and [ am lookinf; forwa rd
to our fall '85 term.
Finally I would like to tell vall aoout
how r see my responsibilities as a 'ca ndidate
for Vice Pres, I am a capable organizer and
good motivator, two of the most important
requisites for an Eng Soc office. I see the
Vice Prez's office as the one which is
responsible for ensuring that you do get
more for your fees then the use of a copier
and a C&O. The benefits offered by ENG
SOC go to those who look for them. How-
ever, seeing as we're all such great friends.
I'll do my best to my best to tell more of
you where to go .... ER, [ mean where to find
the more enjoyable benefits which ENG
SOC offers. [n addition, as Vice Pres I will
be a primary motivator within ENG SOC,
where I would be in contact with your class
reps. Through the organization of group
events such as ski trips, pub's, Eng'g weeki
ends and athletics, I'm sure [ encour-
age all of you to get out and enjoy yourself.
The most important thing is that you
try to involve yourself in eXI.racurr ieular
activities. The first is to get out and vote.
See ya in POET'S. (Yes I like beer too.)
LAURIE WHO?
Laurie Lawson - remember the name.
Got it? Go . Add, 'for Vice President.'
izing - one of my favourite pastimes! By
the w Y Dan1 I like beer too, but I don't
tastes. ('m still wait-
Tea to be served in
the challenge of the
as, and improving old
with others, be diplo-
and am willing to
energy to make your
, more enjoyable.
end to do that?
ces and activities we
best possible. Let's
o Engineering. Let's
pub, the Non-Ac-
power of the TOOL.
ty at the Universit'y'
t in Canada, sp
s keep it up, ',OT!
FOR
,ONTON ESKIMOS
;UNDAY JULY 22
6
,00
INCLUDING RETURN COACH a $13 SEATS
IRO WARRIOR
9
ENG-SOC ELECTION
Presidential
Nominees:
lun with
[ take fun seriously.
To show how serious I can be, here are
some of my contributions to our society.
[ began my involvement last term as a
Class Rep. and later was asked to be
Advertising Consultant for EngSoc. I then
attended, with fellow EngSoc members, the
Regional Engineering Student (R. E.S.S.A.)
conference in Montreal whe;-e r was a
representitive for EngSoc R.
After the conference ( organized the
petition for the Reinstatement of the
Undergraduate Study Room. (had to meet
with the Dean on several occations and col-
laborate with his staff for the success of
this project.
Two months after the R.E.S.S.A. con-
ference, ( was asked to attend the Canadian
Engineering Students conference, and rep-
resented EngSoc B as a senior and voting
member. While there, [ was instrumental in
getting Waterloo twice the coverage of
other Engineering Universities in a new
national student engineering magazine.
,This term, [ am one of two undergrad
engineers appointed to the Faculty Engi-
neering Council. This council discusses
academic matters with the Dean an<;1 other
administrators.
[ have just finalized the reinstatement
of the Undergrad Study 'Room which
opened June 19. I'd like to take this ti me to
thank all who signed the petition - we were
over 800 signatures strong. Our new study
room is located in E2 1302 and is equipped
with desks, locker facilities and adequate
air- conditioning. But my strongest com-
mitment this term is to Heliograph, of
which [ am editor.
I, like Heliograph, promote participa-'
tion and comradery amongst our fellow
engineers. But, it is time for us to come of
age, to disprove our existing stereotype by
improving our image and getting out to
know the rest of the campus. With Helio-
graph, [ have started this, with its cross
campus circulation.
Chris
[ believe that we as individuals are
highly motivated, with a strong for partici-
pation. But our campus and surrounding
community often perceives us as a group,
and, a negative force. For those who feel
that you're not part of this "group" - you
are - simply because you're an engineering
student from the University of Waterloo.
Our own negative feelings towards our fac-
ulty are what I hope to meet head on. By
introducing a more positive image of us to
our surroundings, I hope to promote a better
self image to ourselves. ( want to bring
pride back to the word - ENGINEER.
To begin with, I feel we should resusci-
tate the University of Waterloo
ing. If I'm elected as president, [ will work
with our fellow Society presidents and the
Alumni Affairs Committee to create not
just an event, but a tradition. We are stu-
dents for only 5 years. and graduate engi-
neers for the next 25.
I feel it is also time to increase our
level of community participation. [propose
that a major fund raising event, like our Big
Sister's Bus Push, be executed every on-
campus term-. But for a change, ( would
like to begin a second tradition - "SLAVE
DA Y". The auctioning off of engineering
students as "slave-for-a-day", to other fac-
ulties (ie. Arts). This will be a true Paul
Plum mer test! All proceeds from th HUC
tion will go to a charitable foundation and
this event would give engineers an opportu-
nity to meet, one on one, other students of
this campus.
To maintain this attitude, [ would also
like to begin a campus wide Coffee House.
This would be held in a neutral zone (like
the Bomb Shelter) to give all "closet" musi-
cians the chance to perform 1n front of a
live audience.
But for those not so b"avp, I WOU[ O ;lbo
like to begin regular ('offee ,n our
own P.O.E.T.S., featuring us. those lai!!nted
engineers. Our Coffee Houses would be as
llrtcn t.he students support dictated,
being just a good chance to get out and
hnve SOft l" fun.
To have fun and to mlnlmize the exist'-
ing segregation is what our society sup-
ports. If you support me, the removal of
that ridiculus "closed/open" sign in the win-
dow of our office will be my FIRST step in
opening the doors between societies and
students.
This is what I truely believe in, and if
you want the same, then I'm the person for
the job. [f not, then support the platform
that reflcets your ideals. It's your EngSoc,
so get out there and vote!!
Communication
is the Key
1 he ckction of the Eng, oc executi e is not an
C\ eryda) occurance. and certainly not something to be
taken lightl) , YOli have some important decisions to
make. and one of them invohes the seicction of an
indi\ idual \\ ho ".ill rcpresent you and about 1200
colleaug's to the rest of the World As We Know It.
s President of the Engineering, ociety, that
individual should also be an cffecti\c and respoll ible
administrator, capable of making 'cnsible decisions
v.hich reflect the interest of (the majority of) the
Engineering student body, I am (I'll bet you guessed
it) presenting myself as a candidate for EngSoc
president.
"OK, AI," I hear you ask. "so what makes you
think you can cut it as prei!"
Let me begin by filling you in on my background, I
' uppose I am not your standard basic engineering
student: I spent five years in the working world before
coming to Waterloo. with a sixth year spent in an
Alberta college studying Engineering, I learned a great
deaL in what we call the Real World. that I think is
applicable to the presidency, One of these is the ability
to talk (which is to say. the ability to listen) to all
kinds of people in the spectrum from manual
labourers to corporate executives, I feel that this is
essential to one of my main policie ', which is: there is
a need for more and better communication between
engineering students at U of Wand the rest of the
world, Thi s include ' industry, the engineering
profession. and the rest of thi s campus,
We also keep industry informed of what we
arc doing, Unless yo u've been li vi ng in a phone booth,
you know that there arc som exciting thingll
happening on this campus. but not that many people
outside the University know that yet. Why? Because
we don't have any direct COntact with industry, Being
In the work force given me a sense of perspective
as to where we fit into the "seh'e me of things" as
,tudt'l1l\ lIlId ot ... ell '(lIl'l'n, I Ihillt... thai OIO\t
t'ngillceling ,\u(\('/11\ leall) do 1I0t 'l'all/\.' hlll\ the
gt'J1l'lal ruhltc rl'11'l'I\ l.', u .... and 1I11'l' llIlI1l10U:.
pott' l1llal that \\l' have, I 0111 IXI Win Ihat \\l' nrc Iwl
lull a(l\atltagc \11 th .... POtl'1I1"!. Ol1l' 01 the
01 the pll'\idenc) ) 1111 10
the ollt\ide I PII)IHJ\C 10 dc) \0.
IngSoc i., a lot of good thlllg\ : cvel1h, lih'
thl' I' ngineeling Weckend!>. and pub dancc:.:
!'ttudcllt \cl\icc!'t. like thc C & 1>, thl.: Garagc. !lnd the
multitude of <t\uilabll' t hlOligh 1 he 0, irice.
and a ,Olllce nf infol mutjon and l'lltlIWiIlIl1Cnt. by
virtue of OUI \aIIOUI'> publication,>, II can. however, be
much mOle. It can bl' YOLII voice to the world, and
your inltutancc that }(lll arc gl.'lIing the 1l10ltt out of
your tunioll dollar, I came back to ,>chool I
want to be a damn good engineer . and I deCided \0
run fOi the "rc\ldency because I \\ nat i:ngSoc to be a
better Of' course. one person can't make a
difference without a lot of support. I don't calc to be
an autocrat: McGowanSoc doesn't have the
ring to il.
So, here's the Deal: I'll devote m) time and effort
to representing and defending your intere\ts as
l'ngineering students, if you'lI give me your support in
helping to make a force to be reckoned v. ith.
Arc \ ou with me. or whar! .
The Engineel'j' Engineer
10 THE 3A ELECTRICAL TIMES
Ever Consider
Doing Your Masters?
A Masters! ... Me?
by Eric Dormer
Many Bachelor of Applied
Science (Engineering) students
set a goal to graduate from 4B
and keep struggling through
midterms and assignments in the
first three years of university.
After four and two thirds years
of hard work these students are
sometimes disillusioned to find
that they are a 'Jack of all
Trades, and Master of None'.
Completing a Master of
Applied Science degree is som e
people's answer to the need to
focus their educat ion in one
area.
A masters program con-
..
sists of four advanced level co
interest in Management Sciences
tends to ' indicate that many
graduates have their eye on
management positions, yet pre-
fer to remain technical instead
of doing a masters in Business
Administration.
Attitude Changes
But take heart, Mr. Tom
Chmara, a masters student in
the Electrical program believes
that attitudes towards lifestyles
change as you cross the thresh-
old from undergrad to grad work.
"Some students marry,
can't accept the 'Sunnydale'
attitude anymore, and some jlJst
can't stand moving {'verv -l
months. There is an Ilrg-
p
to set
down roots ", he says.
June 1984
urses and a research thesis, or
eight advanced level courses and
an engineering project. The
program usually takes four l.u six
terms (two years) althollo!h
part-ti me masters students
allowed up to five years to com-
plete their studies.
For a typical six term, . ,1.;-
course program the direct cost
is
He sees a masters as a con-
tinuing of a social and emotional
education, not just a te:chnical
one. Masters students are at
school because they have a job
to do. They are their own boss
to some degree because they
have to manage their courses,
their projects, their thesis, and
their research activities, and
they must co-operate with their
supervisor and with other stu-
dents to get the full benefit.
Barb Rae of the Engineering Grad Studies office will be sending
out applications to selected students in their 3A term.
To encourage students to do
a masters there are many
sources of gran tSt bursarys,
assistantships, and academic jobs
available.
Getting In
Normally. if an applicant has
a cumulativp of 73'16 (3
full 'B'), he will be given consid-
eration as a regular masters stu-
dent. Late bloomers (those with
a final average substantially
above 73%, but a low cumulative
average) will be considered as
probationary students. Also,
applicants who have had at least
three years of industrial or pre-
fessional experience after com-
pleting their bachelors program
can be considered as probation-
ary students.
Loves Company
"Well, if a masters is such a
good idea. I wonder who's doing
it?'" you might be asking ...
The enrolement for winter
'84 is outlined in table 1. Each
program has about 60 to 100
people pursuing a masters,
except Syste ms Design with just
30 and Management Science with
133. Systems Design is a rela-
tively new program, and judging
by the number of areas of
research that the department
encourages (seventeen), their
enrollment should grow as the
program mat ures. The large
Tom reported that the first
month of his program was much
like first year of university. He
had to get adjusted to very small
classes, and challenging courses
with bi- weekly assignments,
presentations, and seminars.
Combined Bachelors
Masters Program
Students are recruited into
the combined program as early
as 3A, where admission is lim-
ited to those students on the
Dean's honour list. These stu-
dents must still complete all the
academic and co-op require-
ments for their bachelors
degree, but in 4A and 4B, 600
level courses are taken instead
of technical electives.
The combined program
includes two workterms (W6,
W7). They can be on or off
campus, but they must be on
significant projects which form a
coherent pair relating to the
masters course work and project.
The fourth year projects would
also be integrated into the mas-
ters program such that they are
of a related topic.
Students from all disciplines
are allowed to do a combined
program in Management Sci-
ences provided they took the
MSci option as part of the
undergrad program.
To remain in the combined
program students must maintain
a cumUlative 'B' average (73%)
to the end of 4B and 70% there-
after. If a student withdraws,
his 600 level courses from 4A
and 48 count towards his bache-
lors degree and cannot be
applied to a masters should he
later reapply.
Barb Rae of the 'Faculty of
Engineering, Graduate Studies
Office' in (' P H reports tha t she
will soon be mailing application
forms to selected students in 3A.
In light of the fact tha t stu-
dents are being ('ecruited as
early as .1,\ to pursue graduate
studies, it is a good idea to be
-lW,lrP. of what is d'Jrlilable in life
\;'to"
Pamphlets are available
from the Associate Chairman of
Graduate Studies in each
department, and most professors
welcome interested inqumes
about their area of research.
Finally, even if you are
flunking Psych 101, keep plan-
ning for the future, till then stay
tuned for the next article in this
series: II A PhD! ....... Me?? II
due sometime in 2010.
ENROLLMENT IN GRADAUTE ENGINEERING PROGRAM, U OF W, W '84
DEPARTMENT TOTAL GRADUATE MALE FEMALE FULL PART MASTERS PHD
STUDENTS TIME TIME
CHEMICAL 96
83 13 76 20
68 25
CIVIL 108
106 2 79 29
70 33
ELEC1RICAl 92
91 I 75 17
60 31
MECHANCIAl 127
121 6 77
50
97
30
MSCI 145 129 16 44 101
133 10
SYSTEMS DESIGN 46 37 9 38 8
30 15
1'0'1 At 614 567 47 389 225 458 144
June 1984 THE RADICAL TIMES
by Tom Fulton
and To m Wa tsO,
If there's one thing we can
say with certainty about the last
decade or two, its that we've
cemented our entrance into a
new era. Some call it the com-
puter era, due to the exponential
advances we've made in com-
puter hardware and applications.
Others have called it the infor-
mation era, referring to the huge
quantities ,of data that are
required to feed these ever-hun-
gry sentinels of logic.
GO
Barely in time to make the
press, this reporter has uncov-
ered a plot by that shrewd leader
of rebels, Doug Wright, to have
this era re maned the W AT era.
He started small, using the
momentum of the computer rev-
olution to gain public familiarity
with carefully words like
WATFOR, WATFIV. WATDCS
and WATBOL. Then he moved in
on easily impressionable high-
A WATOPIA of higher learning, WAT else?
64K Dual Processor
(6502 l 80)
schoolers with the infamous education) right into the palm of
WATBOX, that leads thses new his plan. Of course something
recruits (under cover of a higher this large needs funding, which is
The
Fully Apple Compatible
allol
Low Cost
Personal Computer
AVAILABLE NOW FOR $799.00
DEMO IN ORIFICE
DETATCHABLE KEYBOARD
with 188 Predefined Function Keys
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11
the hidden purpose behind
WATFUND. He even began his
planned reconstruction of the
English language by introducing
a conjunction, WATAND.
Therels also W r\ TF AC,
WATCOM, WAT ON and who
knows WATELSE. Of late he's
been gaining interplanetary
exposure, introducing W ATSU N.
W. TST AR I and of course, the
epic sequel W TSTAR II, as if 5
. 10 ** 33 WATS wonlt keep us
warm.
One can only ponder the
WATOPIA Ooug is 0
create, complete with its won
language WATSPEAK, folk heros
(WATM AN & WOBIN),security
forces (WATGB, SWAT), a motto
(WAT, me worry?) and education
escape devices (WATSNOOZE).
My biggest worry is that my next
assignment will be to report on
one of Dr. Wright's lectures.
Everyone knows that when he
talks he can fill a W AT air bal-
Ion. Oh well, off to a WATPUB.

12 IRON WARRIOR June 1984
Who Are The Maranathas?
by Eric .1. Donner
Some people call them a
club, or a church, or a cult. In
fact the Maranathas consider
themselves a church, whose
mandate is to preach the whole
bible and bring their Christian
message to university students.
Their charismatic style of
evangelism has led them to
establish ministries on 67 U.S.
campuses, 3 Canadian campuses,
and 19 other campuses in
Europe, Latin America, Austra-
lia, and in the South Pacific.
The ministry started in 1972
in Kentucky as an outreach to
highschool students with drug
problems. The founders, Bob and
Rose Weiner, were guest speak-
ers in a Methodist church and
ended up converting 150 teenag-
ers in 3 days. As the movement
grew, it shifted its focus to a
more fundamentalist attitude,
and independent
'non-denominational' ministries
were gradually established, with
a coordinating office in Gaines-
ville, Florida. The Marana tha
goal is to establish ministries on
every major campus in the world
World Literature Crusade, LIFE
Bible College), celebrities (Ron-
ald Reagan, Pat Boone, Charles
M. Duke (astronaut), Rosey Grier
(NFL LA Rams), various
evangelist magazines, and fac-
ulty from universities where
they are already established.
The Maranathas arrived in
Canada first in Windsor, afta
stayed there a few years before
moving to Waterloo in 1979.
They are also active at the Uni-
versity of T o r o ~ t o and at the
University of British Columbia.
Each campus ministry is reason-
ably independent although the
international church policy is
made by 30 - 40 elders selected
from various ministries.
The Waterloo "Maranatha
Christian Center" is located at
29 Young st. West, Waterloo, in
a residential dwelling which is
used as a residence for 6 Chris-
tian men during the week
(mostly students, but not all
Maranathas), while the enlarged
livingroom is used for Sunday
services.
The service on Jun,e 3
started with a 3 piece band
MARANATHA
CHRISTIAN CENTRE
SUNDAY 11 A.M.
Cal Weber, Maranatha Pastor
"A close-knit group, dedicated to their beliefs."
you're
the congregation and referred to saved if you do, but
half a dozen passages from the damned if you don't.
bible. He concentrated on
. encouraging unity of purpose in
the church, telling members to
devote themselves to God, and
to yield to Him. The one and a
half our service concluded with
communion, announcements, and
more catchy songs.
The Canadian ministries of
the Maranathas produce a quar-
terly newspaper called "The
Dominion", which is distributed
on campus here at Waterloo. In
it a few of the Maranatha view-
points are clearly dis-
played ... non-abortion, non-ho-
mosexual, non-communist. :v1r.
Blaha believes that these (right
wing) attitudes are derived
direct from the bible, and thus
are the will of God.
When asked about a limit to
the Maranathas evangelism, he
replied that it was their purpose
to "go and witness, but not
impose". He felt that cults were
led hy someone "who does not
preach the word of God". The
Maranathas obviously think they
don't fi t tha t ca tagory. Cui ts
are more often considered to be
organizations where the individ-
uals lose their free choice due to
extreme peer pressure, brain
washing, or other control tech-
niques.
The Maranatha service was
arranged to draw newcomers
into the group. The clapping and
einging was hard to resist, and
joining in the fun is a significant
I
step towards conforming to the
group.
In the sermon, :v1r. Blaha
repeatedly returned to the point
that "God speaks through the
'BROTHERS"'. He asked the
congregation to "sa<.'rifice them-
'I selves to God" .... to Ie' r-:od help
them make their day to day
decisions.
An undercurrent of pressure
was also present with the funda-
mentalist belief that you're
The Maranathas have raised
money through a bowl-a-thon,
selling coupon books, etc. The
members are also expected to
tithe (to give one tenth of their
income), and they are encour-
aged to complete their 'Faith
Pledges' to help the church. The
Maranatha Christian , Center
doubles as a residence, helping
to keep costs down, and appar-
ently many of the other mem-
bers share accomodation also.
To sum it up, it's clear that
the Maranathas are close knit
group who are dedicated to their
beliefs. None of their activities
seem outrageous, but they do put
a lot of pressure on members to
get involved and stay involved.
Mr. Carlos Correia, assistant
pastor at the Maranatha Chris-
t ian Center, points out that new
ideas and the people that pro-
mote them are always criticized.
"Martin Luther King was criti-
cized and excommunicated from
the Catholic r'hurch. .John
Wesley was criticized when hf:'
founded the Methodist church
hundreds of years ago." Mr.
Blaha takes the resistance all in
stride saying "all those who
desire to live life according to
the word of God will be perse-
cuted". .
Finally, I'd like to say that
from my limited exposure to the
Maranathas I have a hard time
feeling threatened by them. or
fearing- them as a cult.
As a group, there is
pressure to conform. but that is
present in most groups. I don't
know what, if any, influence is
applied to keep members from
leaving the church, but I would
be interested. in talking to people
who have experienced the other
aspects of the Maranatha, move-
ment.
June 1984
IRON WARRIOR
13
The Threat of a Cult
by Cathy Whyte
Having been the chairman of
the Board of Entertainment
(8.Ent) for the majority of the
time the Maranatha Christians
were recognized as a club, I feel
I might have a different experi-
ence of the group than the one
exgressed in Eric Dormer's arti-
cle. While I did not feel physi-
cally threatened by the group, I
was very uneasy about the lack
of individuality expressed by the
members, by their almost blind
acceptance of doctrine and
regurgitation of this policy, and
by the violent renounciation in
some cases, of former lifestyles.
The recruitment methods used
by the group were the cause of
many complaints to the Bent
office during my term as chair-
man from March 81 to January
83.
These complaints led to
investigations and discussions
with
the Council on Mind Abuse
(COMA) and ultimately to their
removal as a rec ognized Feder-
ation club.
The Maranatha Christians
were recognized as a club in late
1979 despite the misgivings of
t he ad v is i-
bility of the Federation granting
club privileges to a self-pro-
claimed church. One of these
privileges is the ability to book
rooms in the Campus Centre but
C.C. policy did not allow for the
solicitation of funds either in the
Great Hall or in any of the
meeting rooms.
Members of the club were
requested (read required) to
t ithe one tenth of their income
to the church and strongly
encouraged to donate any dis-
cretionary income over and
above their basic needs. Meet-
ings in the C.C. usually ended
with a request for donations.
Members were taught that the
church would take care of their
needs.
M.eetings, movie nights, and
other social functions were
widely and effectively adver-
tised. Events were aimed at
getting the most student
involvement possible with the
biggest drive occurring during
orientation. All very effective
marketing and advertising with
only two minor problems; very
often the name of the sponsor
was in very small nondescript
print or somehow oU the
posters completely. Events were
usually followed . by a sermon
which had not been advertised as
part of the agenda. It was about
these sermons by some very
charismatic ministers that B.Ent
received the most complaints.
Some people objected to the
manner in which they were
encouraged to stay for these
almost hypnotic speeches.
Complaints ranged from eve ry-
thing to verbal abuse, attempted
bodily restraint and Jocked
doors; and the ever present
solicitation of funds.
explanations and offers were
met with disbelief and subtle
suggestions of fraud. The ability
of members to dismiss without
question any suggestion t hat
church doctrine was anyt hing but
10096 accurate was frightening.
Members are encouraged to live
together in order to help sustain
each other's beliefs; or is it to
keep to a minimum any influx of
questioning and contradicting
information?
In individual discussions with The Maranathas have not
members I was unnerved by their quoted any new ideas to me and
acceptance of doctrine. [was their Bible readings and quota-
frequently approached by mem- tions are often very select ive.
bers in their efforts to remove In my dealings with them, I
the Birth Control and C. L.O. W. found their methods of recruit-
offices. One such memorable ment and maintenance of mem-
discussion centred on the sub- berships to be very similar to
jects of abortion, homosexuality other publicly recognized cults
and all horrors of the such as PSI mind development,
20th century western world the Hare Krishna, etc .. , only the
brought about by post WW2 preachings and doctrine were a
breakdown of sexualmores and little different. Despite the fact
norms -, doctrine tiwght by one that the Maranathas feel they
prevalent Maranatha minister. are saving you by "bringing you
When I explained that all three to Christ", I find it easy to feel
had been occurring since the threatened by them and to view
beginning of written history and them as a cult, after all, they
offered to bring in literature share a common important fac-
dealin it ...... _.",0 er JIl.8..Qi ulaH
Egyptian civilizations, periods r emotionally, physically and
am most familiar '-\lith, my financially.
HEY, HOW ABOUT THAT GUY WHO HEl.PED YOU AIJL TERM?
Simply fill out a nomintion form (availabl from the Fnginccling Scicty Office)
on the T.A. of your choice. A comment from the Prof. would also help.
Nominations for the TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP AWARD should b '
forwarded to the Eng. Soc. office or your Assiciatc Undcrgrad Chairman by the
end of term.
Cmon he was good to you!!
CALL FOR
NOMINATIONS
For more information abOll1 the foundation
or any of Its programmes, pledb(, cOlltdel :
The Sandford Fleming roundatlon
Room 4332,
Carl Pollock Hdll
8850910 or 8851211 ext. 3440
T.A. Award winners for the last academic year were:
Re9lSlered Charitable Organization (no.0462275
21 15)
Medhat Morcos
Electrical Engineering
Hugh Ellis
Civil Engineering
Al 8lahey
Mechanical Engineering
Jack Celej
First Year Engineering
14
IRON WARRIOR June 1984
Your future and the morals of technology
by Mike Thomas
What are you going to do
when you graduate? You'll
probably try to get a job; ei ther
one that is interesting, or one
that pays a lot, or both if you're
lucky. Are there any other cri-
teria for a good job? By con-
ventional thinking the answer is
no; if both of those conditions
are met, you've found the right
line of work for yourself. Does
it matter to the individual engi-
neer, the uses to which hIS work
is put, or does he have the abil-
ity to decide whether it is being
put to proper use? In most
cases, yes, but only to a limited
extent.
In the past, the development
of technology has often been so
divorced from the eventual
application that the developers,
if they were to sit down and
truly think about what they had
done, would be very uneasy.
An engineer working on a
project will often take a very
myopic view; if he's working at
the forefront of human knowl-
edge in an area, the very size of
the project is bound to leave hi m,
concentrating on only a very tiny
part. When you're working on a
VHS (very high speed) IC
designed to multiplex data com-
ing from a number of sensors,
it's pretty easy to forget, or at
least to ignore, the fact that it
will be used primarily in a mili-
tary tracking syste m.
A second tendency, if the
engineer is unavoidably con-
fronted with what he is doing, is
to rationalize it. After all, jobs
are scarce, and to accept a view
that condemns your line of work
puts a person under moral obli -
gation (to himself) to quit the
job. Who wants to quit a job
that's interesting and challe"ng-
ing? Hence, the ready accep-
tance of viewpoints that support
what you are doing. Rest
employees. It, however. noboav
had that outlook, the situation
.-: ,...., would be different no matter
-- - how many people were trained to
Low level nuclear waste piling up
in someone else's backyard.
do the work.
Historically there are many
examples of how truly short-
sighted technological develop-
ment can be. This is so much
the case, in fact, that it is diffi-
cult to come up with examples
of technological progress that
solve one problem without pro-
ducing or contributing to other
unexpected problems.
A timely
example of shortsightedness is
assured that there are a lot of that of nuclear power. Twenty-
believers in nuclear deterrance
working at Litton Systems (and
a lot of them talk about it too
- this allows people to reassure
one another that the status quo
is right, and pushes aside any
uncertainty when it seems that
everyone around has the same
view.
Recently an engineer at U of
W, when asked if he would
knowingly work on the develop-
ment of biological weapons if
the job was personally fulfilling,
replied "Sure; the technology is
being developed anyway, what
difference will it make if I work
on it or if someone else does"
(Name witheld to protect the
guilty, and no, 1 am not quoting
out of context). Presumably this
engineer would become involved
enough in the work that the
intended use (several levels
higher up in the development
tree) would become very much a
secondary cons idera t ion. A t the
level of the individual, this atti-
tude makes sense - a company
can replace a single employee.
If there are enough trained peo-
ple around with the same atti-
tude (genetics is a fasr-inating
field, after all) there will be no
short supply of qualified
Happy Hour
Daily 5-8 PM
seven years after the first com-
mercial reactor went on line in
Pennsylvania, there is still no
permanent waste disposal system
anywhere in the world. The
issue of waste disposal should
have been tackled and resolved
before the first reactor was
brought into use, bl.;:. C;C!e!l-
tists and !T\',;Ol ved were
so caught LIp i[l p.xcitement
of the new tecr.:1.0lugy that they
ignored the p,:nblems and made
rash prOfP i::OfS of "clean energy"
that be "too cheap to
meter!! . In fact, the cost of
electricity produced by a nuclear
plant is slightly more expensive
than that produced by a coal-
fired plant in most cases (when
compared across the industry).
It is an industry plagued by
waste (not only the kind that
glows in the dark), half-finished
projects, and cost overruns that
make an actual cost of two or
three times the original project-
ion seem like a real bargain. As
an example, the 1300 MW reac-
tors at Midland, Mich. are nine
years behind schedule, and will
cost $4.4 billion (original esti-
mated cost: $267 million). Get-
ting back to waste disposal, the
present techni"iues for solving
the problem are pretty scary.
Scattered about North America
are numerous disposal sites for
liquid or sludge waste dating as
far back as the Manhattan
Project. Though many of the
original tanks developed leaks
(already!!!), contaminating sur-
rounding areas, modern ones are
made of steel sitting inside met-
al-linked concrete boxes. The
unnerving thing is that they have
to be water-cooled and continu-
ously monitored for leaks for at
least 500, preferably iOOO years,
at a prohibitively high cost. The
redeeming feature may be that
it's "challenging" or "interest-
ing".
Engineers, because they are
given special training and hence
power in guiding the progress of
technology, are looked upon by
the rest of society to lead the
way and are assumed to have a
certain moral concern with
where they are going. For that
reason it is necessary for every
engineer to take a good look at
what he wants to do with the
rest of his life, and to look
beyond the primarily selfish
concerns of making money while
doing something whose only
onus is passed c,; "'Tlany. many
future g';Wr"l , to
take C::;<: .:t :}U\' Spent
fuel l', nlld are being
kept ;':'actor "temporar-
ily" :0 swimCT!oI'g pools (these
pools emit a bluish glow. for
those who are int( .' ested). When
the pools begal\ :,:. fill up, the
distance between .,: djacent rods
was changed fro ", 20 inches to
12 inches, therebv reach!r'g the
design maximum for' heat dissi-
pa lion in the pools. Le t's
they were built perfeeDy.
The people wtiG nnike deci-
sions about technOlogy are often
so far removed from the devel-
opment and have so little under-
standing of it that they have lit-
tle to go on but their own
personal motivations and
instincts. Witness the chairman
of the Ohio Coal Board, who
claims that there is no conclu-
sive evidence linking acid rain to
sulphur dioxide em missions,
wh'en every statistician on earth
would be absolutely convinced
with the data. In fact his only
goal is preserving the economic
health of the Ohio coal industry,
and keeping his job; screw the
rest. The same can be said
about US defence policy: con-
gressmen whose ' areas stand to
gain economically from
increased defence spending will
vote for it, regardless of need or
of the moral issues involved.
Tuesday's: All You Can Eat "Wings"
5-10 p.m. $4.49
t:II!.!I!:J!' ,. ii I II. I.
UIOEOMOUIE HOUSE
!:.!'i !..!.!!..!.! II! .. ..!! 1iTi I
Wednesday's: 5-11 PM Ladies Night
2 drinks for the price of 1
(500 ALBERT STREEn 884-1441
PARKDALE PLAZA WATERLOO
Monday tllr'J Fnday lOAM 9PM & 'OAM bPM
Coupon roy good Monday thru rhUl saav and enltUes
bflarer to VCR MACHINE & 3 MOVIES FOR I OAY(NIGHn.
A security deposit and proper identification will be required.
Offer expires Aug. 30/84

June 1984
IRON WARRIOR
15
Computers Getting
Smarter
An Introduction to
Artificial Intelligence
by Nena Panksep
Before anything can be said
about development of Artificial
Intelligence (An, it is important
to have a clear understanding of
what it is. The McGraw Hill
Dictionary of Scientific and
Technical terms offers the fol-
low ing defini tion;
"The property of a machine
capable of reason by which it
can learn functi normally asso-
ciated with human intelligence."
However, workers
field have their own
tions,such as;
in the
defini-
"Artificial Intelligence is
concerned with understanding
the principles of intelligence and
building working models of
human intelligent behaviour."
and
11 Artificial Intelligence is the
part of computer science con-
cerned with designing intelligent
uter hat is, sys-
tems that exhibit the c aracter-
istics we associate with intelli-
gence in human behaviour -
understanding language, learn-
ing, reasoning, solving problems
and so on."
Japan is currently involved
in two major national R&D
projects in this field. One, is the
"Fifth Generation Computer
Project'. According to the Japa-
nese, to develop such a com-
puter, one must design a new
architecture based on natural
logic called predicate logic.
They say that to accomplish this,
you must establish a "compute
a new society based on
a new kind of computer, the
Fifth generation computer.
Currently the Japanese are
developing programs to under-
stand natural language but with
a system like predicate calculus,
the computer will be the closest
to the way man thinks. But
again, even with the techno-
logical advances of the Japa-
nese, more research is still a key
factor.
For the first half of the 10
year project, they are going to
develop a basic technology in
hardware and software. If they
are successful, they will imple-
ment more complicated func-
tions.
The second major project is
the Supercomputer project.
Supercomputers are very high
speed computers for special
uses. These days, some calcula-
tions for aerodynamics, meteo-
rology and nuclear energy take
up about 10 hours to calculate
one case,so computers 100 to
1000 times faster are required.
Since these are only special
cases, (special-purpose), indus-
trial companies cannot afford
the cost to develop these sys-
tems. Even if there isn't too
much demand for Supercompu-
ters, they are very important for
Japan's survival and especially to
overcome issues such as overpo-
pulation, limited land and other
resources. MITI, a group in
charge of finding the money to
make these projects possible,
estimates that the Supercompu-
ter will cost about 100 million
dollars and last a little over 8
years.
Canada is very far behind in
AI research because we don't
have the money and support of
business organizations and
government. It is a big commit-
ment to invest at such a high
cos , -espec atly wtren pro i
may ge seen 10 or 20 years in
the future.
It is difficult to attempt to
define this topic in one state-
ment because over it's short his-
tory, it's aims and approaches
gave changed. In the Al
was directed towards building an
artificial brain that could per-
form human functions. Today,
researchers have realized that it
is far too complicated to do this
type of research because we
don't know enough about the
brain. Consequently, they have
narrowed research to more
practical contributions in a
ited number of fields. However,
computer systems change con-
stantly and theoretical insights
are gained, so AI may change
direction again.
Describing Artificial Intelli-
gence is difficult mainly because
a precise definition is lacking
together with a common back-
ground for Al workers. More-
over, it can't be identified with a
specific piece of computer hard-
ware. It is intangible. It does
not fulfil a single goal but rather
a series of various and useful
applications. Artificial intelli-
gence works very much the way
the mind functions. It must have
a very broad knowledge in order
to accomplish a given task. An
AI computer must have some
understanding of the world
around it and to use this under ...
standing to reason , deduce esti-
mate and plan. If it is able to
accomplish this, it should
respond correctly to each new
situation it encounters.
One of the issues always
raised is the fact that with
machines such as these being
created, jobs will be eliminated.
But even now, with the high rate
of unemployment, specialists are
not worried because they know
that the computer will probably
act as a partner and not a com-
petitor in the workplace. They
know that manual. repetitive and
monotonous tasks are ideal for
robots but the activities that
humans enjoy doing are .tasks
a the camp er OfJI>m(llt'
One of the most significant
tie Ids of AI research is knowl-
edge representation and bases.
What are knowledge bas s1
Simply put, they are a collection
of facts about the world that are
used in the basic work on exp rt
systems, problem solving, com-
puter vision, na tural language
understanding and speech recog-
nition. [n the following para-
graphs, ( will discuss how knowl -
edge can best be represented bv
a computer, what programming-
languages are most appropriat
for knowledge representation
and how knowledge bases can be
used in question- answering
machines and expert systems.
Expert systems are the most
visible sur.cess of Al today.
They are practical to businesses,
professionals and non-experts
because they demonstrate how
computers can solve problems in
an intelligent way. Expert sys-
tems are designed to have the
knowledge of experts in certain
fields. In other words, depending
on the background information
which is provided, they can make
a medical diagf!osis, predict a
chemical structure or suggest
the locat"'n of a mineral
deposit.
itA perfect expert system
not only gives accurate solutions
o comp ex p ems t;ut
explains how it arrived at it's
conclusion. "
It should be able to learn
from experience, restructure
n w knowl dgeand dt't ('I incon -
sist n i s in it's own knowl g '.
When attempting to solve
problem, the system should also
realize what is th most impor-
tant aspect of the problem, what
can be neglected and also be
aware of it's own limitations.
Much research is done all over
the world, not only in Japan.
With conferences like the Inter-
national Conference on Fifth
Generation Computers (one was
held in 1981) which will be held
in Tokyo in November, 1984. a
great deal of knowledge will be
shared.
16
THE 3A ELECTRICAL TIMES
June 1984
A look at IBM's RS7535 robot
IBM has entered the field of
robotics with the introduction of
the RS 7535 and RS 7565 indus-
trial robots. The less expensive
of the two, the $16,000 RS 7535,
is manufactured and sold by the
RS plant and robotics lab in Boca '
Raton Florida, Birthplace of the,
IBM personal computer.
This Robot has four degrees
4
of movement; shoulder motion
(Theta 1), elbow motion (Theta
2), vertical motion (Z - degree)
and roll. It can lift approxi-
mately five Kg which is remark- .
able for a machine of t his size.
The work envelope or the effec-
tive work area is about the size
of a small kitchen table. The RS
7535 uses DC servo motors for
shoulder, elbow and roll move-
ment. These are smooth running
motors, a quality essential for
position monitoring. This is par-
ticularly important in order to
guarantee repeatability of all
movements. Motion along the Z
axis is performed by a pneumatic
activator. This air driven
mechanism is simpler and
cheaper than equi valent
calor hydraulic " systems. The
simplicity of the RS 1535 makes
it a low cost machine yet it still
has the potential and perform-
ance of more sophisticated
IBM's new RS 7535 robot and controller unit.
pieces of equipment. This makes
the RS 7535 an attractive prod-
uct in the manufacturing mar-
ket.
The RS 7535 is oper-
ated by a dedicated processor
called the 'Controller Unit'. The
controller has 5K resident mem-
ory into which programs may be
downloaded or compiled. It sup-
ports the AML/Entry Version '.!
robot control language. Some
typical " com mands in this lan-
guage are; Move, Open, Close,
and Pickup. Application pro-
grams may be created and com-
piled onboard or if more flexi-
bility is required, a larger host
may be used for these functions,
provided it has the proper down-
loading facilities. Up to five
sequences can be stored in
memory each of which can be
manually selected on the control
panel. More complicated com-
puters may also be interfaced to
the RS 7535. The IBM P .C. for
example can be used as a con-
troller, providing greater pro-
gramming area,- processing
power and flexibility. User
by Vic QuintanR
in.terface is also much superior
with such an arrangement,
enabling less trained personnel
to use the system.
Thilo Sack, a 3A Mechanical
Engineering student at UW,
spent this past workterm work-
ing with these robots at the IBM
Manfacturing Plant in Toronto.
The robots which he worked with
were implemented on an assem-
bly line manufacturing rEM 3180
terminals. Amoung other things
RS 7535's handled the assembly
of the upright legs for the 3180's
and the installations of foot
pads. The removal of this tedi-
ous labour allowed for manpower
to be transferred to more
important tasks requiring human
monitoring. . Despite having a
high volume, the 3180 production
line required only eleven [)i'ople
to run it at any particuLu
as a result of the robot installa-
tion.
As with many other IBM
products, the RS 7535 and RS
7565 seem destined to become
Industry standards. In the next
few months other companies will
undoubtedly be scrambling to
introduce similar low cost robots
into the manufacturing market.