IESVic Seminar - Jessica Bekker – Indigenous Perspectives in Energy Transitions and Engineering Education

Jessica Bekker

Thursday, June 18, 2028

3:30-4:30 pm

MacLaurin D202 

Jessica Bekker’s research and industry work has supported energy transitions for Indigenous communities since her engineering co-op position with T’Sou-ke Nation in 2009. She will present an overview of her master’s thesis work that developed technical and economic modeling tools to analyze the integration of solar, wave and hydro energy.  As an IESVic researcher, this work focused on Hesquiaht Nation, a remote diesel-powered community in Hot Springs Cove, BC and she will address its relevance of this work today.  There is a great need to better understand the roots and severity of energy inequities experienced by Indigenous peoples. This perspective guides her research plans and teaching role at the University of Calgary. She will briefly discuss research partnerships to advance energy equity for Indigenous communities in Southern Alberta and her teaching role in University of Calgary’s Indigenous Engineering Pathways program and Sustainable Systems Engineering program.

Ms. Bekker is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor (Teaching) and holds a Teaching Chair in Indigenous Perspectives in Engineering at the University of Calgary, Schulich School of Engineering. She is a member of the Piikani Nation, part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Her previous education includes a 2009 Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Victoria and a MASc. in Mechanical Engineering in which she developed energy modelling research tools to support energy planning and energy transitions for remote communities. She is currently registered in the PhD program in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary.