Jüri Silmberg, P.Eng., FEC

Through quiet action, Jüri Silmberg has worked to uphold the standards of the engineering profession across the country. Beginning as a systems engineer in the aerospace industry, Jüri’s engineering career includes positions as a professor, and former chair, of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ryerson University.

A member of PEO’s Academic Requirements Committee for nearly 30 years, Jüri helped develop procedures for assessing and reviewing the academic qualifications of licence applicants graduating from engineering programs not accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB). These procedures include the association’s Confirmatory Examination Program, designed to increase the fairness and accuracy of assessment when the quality of an applicant’s academic credentials is not known or easily evaluated.

Since 2005, Jüri has served on the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board (CEQB) of Engineers Canada, which develops national guidelines on professional qualifications, standards of practice, ethics and professional conduct. He chairs two CEQB subcommittees: the Foreign Engineering Qualification Committee, which monitors international developments in engineering education, and the Examination Syllabus Committee, which establishes the syllabi of examinations for all engineering disciplines. These examinations form the basis for graduates of non-CEAB-accredited engineering programs’ access to professional engineering licensure across Canada.

In 2009, Engineers Canada made Jüri a Fellow of Engineers Canada (FEC) in honour of exceptional contributions to the engineering profession in Canada.