All Posts Tagged With: "Engineering"
Teens who launched LEGO-man into space talk university
Think they’ll both take engineering? Wrong.
When Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad play with LEGO, they don’t build the usual castles, battleships, or Star Wars X-wings.
The two grade 12 students from Toronto constructed a helium-filled weather balloon and launched a LEGO man holding a Canadian flag into space, more than 24 kilometers up.
The LEGO man’s space adventure was recorded and a GPS device allowed Ho and Muhammad to relocate their plastic astronaut.
In fact, you probably already know this. Their video has more than 2.6 million views on YouTube.
Continue reading Teens who launched LEGO-man into space talk university
Waterloo Engineering hires first female dean
But women still underrepresented
The new dean of Canada’s largest engineering school, the University of Waterloo, is a woman. Pearl Sullivan will be the first female to take on the top job when she starts on July 1.
Sullivan is originally from Malaysia. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Technical University of Nova Scotia and her PhD at the University of British Columbia. She taught at the University of New Brunswick and then Waterloo where she founded the graduate program in nanotechnology and chairs the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering.
Sullivan isn’t the first female engineering dean in Canada. Elizabeth Cannon was Dean of Engineering at the University of Calgary before she went on to become president in 2010.
But engineering schools are still mostly male. Only 20.6 per cent of undergraduate engineers in 2001 were female. The proportion declined to 17.7 per cent in 2011, reports Engineers Canada.
There’s a new social media obsession on campus
And it’s a haven for racist, sexist trolls
Facebook. Twitter. MSN. Google Plus. There’s no shortage of places for students to chat, opine, or procrastinate during finals. Yet there’s a new digital obsession spreading across Canadian campuses. It’s called OMG and it’s simple. Students submit short “Oh My Gods” about anything. Then, they’re posted to the site.
As a Waterloo student who found myself distracted by OMGUW far too often in December, I got thinking about what makes it so hard to look away. I wanted to know what makes it so enticing that it has spread from Waterloo to Guelph, Saskatchewan and Toronto, with tens of thousands of views.
Continue reading There’s a new social media obsession on campus
Which students work hardest?
Business? Engineering? Arts? You may be surprised.
Courtesy of NSSE. Click to enlarge.
Engineering students have been known to curse friends in other majors. That’s because they often spend hours sitting in their residence rooms sweating over near impossible differential equations while their non-engineering roommates leisurely read a couple chapters and then head out to party.
Then again, ask an arts major how hard they’re working and they’ll start rattling off the number of essays they have due.
But finally, it’s settled. Engineering students study more. The new release of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) shows that North American Engineering students spend 19 hours per week, on average, preparing for class. Arts, humanities and biology majors study 17 hours per week. Social science and business students study only 14 hours.
But don’t assume all non-engineers are slacking. Business students study the least, but they aren’t socializing any more. Instead, they work seven hours more per week at paying jobs. In fact, if you add jobs and study together, business students work the most—30 hours per week. Social sciences students work the least overall (27 hours). Engineering students are in the middle (28 hours).
NSSE, considered the gold standard of student surveys, involved polling of senior year students at 683 U.S. and 68 Canadian institutions in 2011. It had a response rate of 33 per cent.
Students are fleeing STEM degrees
And why they may want to reconsider
Photo by jeremy.wilburn on Flickr
Today, the New York Times suggested that President Obama’s goal of training 10,000 more engineers per year, plus 100,000 more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teachers annually is unlikely to be reached.
For decades, the U.S. has been trying to up its output of STEM students. But the percentage of all students earning Bachelor of Engineering degrees has actually fallen from nearly 10 per cent of the total in the mid-1980s to 5.4 per cent in 2009-10. Computer engineering hit peaks of 4.3 per cent of the totals in 1984 and 2004, but has fallen again to 2.4 per cent in 2009-10. It’s a similar story in other STEM fields too, like biology. As more people are educated, it seems fewer are choosing STEM.
The fast track
For some students, four years of undergrad is too much
Photo by Cole Garside
From the 21st Maclean’s University Rankings—on newsstands now. Story by Richard Warnica.
Shawn Alavi, who graduated from McMaster University in 2006, was 21 when he landed his first engineering job. Today, at 26, he’s a certified engineer—a P.Eng. in the jargon—with years of professional experience, money in the bank and a settled career. “Getting out of school earlier meant I was able to clear my debts earlier,” he says. “Now I’m just saving for my future, deciding on my next step.”
In engineering, Alavi found a profession that allowed him to enter the workforce after just four years of school and to achieve his professional certification through paid experience. “I’ve been working for almost five years now,” he says. “I’ve been able to get my life on track a little quicker than most.”
Canadians aren’t keen on graduate engineering
But deans have a plan. Cornish hen, anyone?
Photograph by Vincenzo D’Alto for Maclean's
“Canada has gone from brain drain to brain gain,” Stephen Harper told a crowd at McMaster University on Aug. 3. He was speaking at a ceremony to announce the 167 recipients of the 2011 Vanier Scholarships, awards that were launched in 2007 to provide whiz-kid graduate students from around the world with $150,000 in funding over three years. The Prime Minister made the goal of the big cheques clear. Research leads to innovations, which creates Canadian jobs, he said.
But wait a minute. Has the brain drain that sucked south 488 members of the graduating engineering class of 1995 before the ink dried on their degrees really been plugged? Look more closely at the 167 Vanier Scholarships awarded this year. Only eight will fund engineering research. Only five of those went to Canadian citizens or residents.
Continue reading Canadians aren’t keen on graduate engineering
Feds fund science outreach in Ontario
Money will create programs for under-represented youth
More students from under-represented groups will be encouraged to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine) fields, thanks to $1.25-million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
“Our Government recognizes the importance of preparing young people for today’s high-tech economy,” said Conservative MP Peter Braid at the announcement in Waterloo. “By developing our next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians, we can help drive innovation and keep the economy growing in southern Ontario for years to come.”
The money goes to Actua, a science, engineering and technology outreach network that provides summer camps and classroom workshops delivered by university students. The funding will help create new programs for under-represented children, including Aboriginals, at-risk youth and girls.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Commerce released a study that showed women make up only 25 per cent of the STEM workforce, despite holding nearly 50 per cent of all jobs. They concluded that America’s economic growth is held back by the gender gap in STEM fields.
Some students find high-paying summer jobs
Click to find out which programs they’re taking
The first-ever detailed analysis of summer jobs in Canada shows that students from some programs are finding high-paying work that will help launch their careers. Others are working low-skilled jobs and barely breaking minimum wage.
Those in math, computer science, engineering and other technical fields are making much more cash than arts and humanities students, according to the CanEd Student Research Panel’s study. And nearly half of them say their jobs are related to their education. Those in engineering and architecture programs are making the most money, averaging $15.62 per hour.
That’s $4 per hour more than arts and humanities students are making. Those students are barely beating Ontario’s minimum wage of $10.25. What’s worse? Two-thirds of them say their jobs have little to do with what they’re studying.
For more, see the post by Joey Berger of Higher Education Strategy Associates on CanadianBusiness.com.
RIM cutting 2,000 jobs
Bad news for graduates in Waterloo Region
Canada’s former smartphone leader Research in Motion announced Monday it will eliminate 2,000 jobs. The Waterloo, Ont.-based company will be cutting about 11 per cent of its workforce worldwide. That’s bad news for commerce and engineering graduates in Waterloo Region whom were often hired by the company upon graduation.
The BlackBerry maker said in a statement that the layoffs are a “prudent and necessary step for the long-term success of the company.” RIM’s first quarter profits fell 10 per cent this year, while its market share dropped nearly five per cent. Analysts attribute the company’s losses to its inability to keep up with competitors Apple and Google. After RIM cuts the jobs, it will continue to employ 17,000 people worldwide.
1,000 new jobs. Only 300 grads to fill them
Worker shortage makes this career a sure bet (for now)
Photo courtesy of jimmyharris on Flickr
During the 2008 recession, mineral prices dropped and mines stopped hiring. Back then, geology graduates and mining engineers had reasons to worry about their career choices.
Not anymore. Three years later, there are at least 1,000 openings at Canadian mines — and only 300 people are expected to graduate from Canadian mining-related programs this year.
Hani Mitri, a professor of Mining Engineering at McGill University, told the Montreal Gazette that Canadian companies are desperate for geologists, mining engineers, metal workers and environmental experts and that “[Schools] are not prepared for the boom.”
However, some schools are reacting to the changing job market. Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. announced last week that it will open a new School of Mines, which will mean adding more mining-related programs and courses.
Laurentian engineers win NASA competition
Lunabotics Mining Prize includes tickets to space shuttle launch
Students from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. have won the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition, beating out teams from 40 other universities, reports CBC News. The prize was awarded to the team whose robot collected and deposited the most lunar-type material in 15 minutes. Laurentian’s robot carried 237 kilograms — far more than the second place robot, which carried 172 kilos. ”They won the most prestigious prize you could win for an engineering student,” Laurentian faculty adviser Markus Timusk told CBC, adding that it’s ”an especially sweet victory” because the students will be the first-ever graduates of the school’s mechanical engineering program. The team won $5,000 cash and VIP passes to the July launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. McGill University was the only other Canadian team in the competition.
Too racy
Why a group of University of Waterloo engineers were suspended over a series of bikini-clad pics
Pictures of a bikini-clad woman posing next to a race car were splashed on auto blogs as far away as Italy last week, but not for the usual reason. The woman was, in fact, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Waterloo who had worked on the chassis design for the student-built car, and the dust-up was over the fact that the 20-year-old, and her entire team, had been reprimanded for the “unauthorized photo shoot” in U of W’s lab.
Some students commend the decision. But many say the punishment was unfair and sends the wrong message to female engineering students. (At Waterloo, women make up 17 per cent of the engineering class.)
The full-length bikini shot was a requirement for a charity calendar the student hoped to be selected for, according to Michael Seliske, who took the pictures last month. “She wanted to show that she’s both feminine and capable of working on cars,” says Seliske, a third-year computer engineering student, who uploaded the photos to his blog. (The student in the pictures declined to be interviewed.)
Trouble is, they eventually caught the attention of Adel Sedra, the dean of engineering, who deemed the photos “denigrating to women” and a “setback” for the school. So he suspended the entire race car team from entering the lab until June, which means they won’t be able to prepare for a competition in Michigan next month. It’s a race they’ve each spent 30 to 40 hours a week getting ready for, says disappointed team leader Francis Loh, a master’s of systems design student. “We accept that there was a mistake. But we think the punishment was too harsh.” Many team members didn’t even learn of the shoot, he claims, until they were punished.
The controversy has sparked plenty of debate in the hallways of Waterloo’s engineering building and on multiple Facebook pages. Some students are questioning the fairness of Sedra’s decision, especially considering the fact that the student herself commissioned the photos. Cailin Hillier, of the Waterloo Engineering Society, considers the photographs empowering. “Women should be allowed to wear what they like,” she says.
A similar conclusion was reached by many of the students who attended a forum on sexism in engineering that took place on Waterloo’s campus the day before the punishment was handed down. A central theme was that many female engineering students feel they’re expected to dress in traditionally male garb. “We talked about how female students shouldn’t feel they won’t be taken seriously if they don’t dress like a man,” says Hiller. “But that’s what [Sedra] is reinforcing.”
Sedra says that he’s merely trying to create an environment where all students feel comfortable. “If someone comes into the lab wearing shorts—man or woman—we don’t say, ‘Why are you wearing shorts?’ ” he explains. “But a bikini in the lab? That is not appropriate in any workplace.”
Though third-year computer engineering student Bhavya Khashyap doesn’t think the punishment necessarily fits the offence, she agrees with Sedra’s assessment that labs should be navel-free zones. “That’s not my idea of empowerment,” she says.
When did UWaterloo dean become moral police?
Engineering dean didn’t need to weigh in on ‘denigrating’ photo
University of Waterloo dean of engineering Adel Sedra was on course at first. When a racy photo of a bikini-clad woman standing next to a student-built race car emerged during preparation for a contest, the team responsible was immediately disqualified, and Sedra offered a valid, incontestable reason. “The suspension results from misuse of the Student Design Centre space for an unauthorized photo shoot involving the Formula SAE vehicle,” he wrote in a memo to engineering students. No sweat, right? No gender politics, no debate. Just, ‘You broke the rules, kiddos, so you’re out.’ If only he had stopped there. Unfortunately for admin, however, no one was there to kick Sedra under the table when he kept on talking.
In a subsequent interview with The Record, Sedra commented on the bikini pose, calling it a “setback” to efforts to improve gender relations in the engineering faculty at Waterloo. “I believe the incident that took place can be thought of as denigrating to women,” he said.
No, Sedra! No, stick with your old story and run!
Ah, it’s too late. With those few words, Sedra has ushered in an unnecessary moral judgment and thus undermined the conviction of his first explanation for punishment. Were the students really disqualified because they held an unauthorized photo shoot? Or because the faculty doesn’t approve of the “denigrating” photo?
The elephant in the room is the disproportionate male presence in the program (only about 17 per cent of engineering students at Waterloo are women), and the university’s efforts to balance the scales. And while it seems Sedra aimed his comment to say, “Hey, ladies, I’m on your side,” it has only served to stir the pot.
In fact, many women on one end of the feminist spectrum would argue that a photo that embraces female sexuality is anything but demeaning. Take the recent “Slut Walk” event that occurred in Toronto in response to a police officer’s suggestion that women can avoid sexual assault by not dressing like “sluts.” Women paraded around downtown Toronto wearing various amounts of clothing, rejecting the tendency for women to be “judged by [their] sexuality.” Wear what you want, was the message, and don’t let anyone judge you. I would assume some of those marching women would have a problem with Sedra asserting that a photo of a woman in a bikini, especially one taken with consent, is something worthy of censure.
The other obvious problem with Sedra’s comment is that it is made as moral judgment from a position of authority. Granted, the photo (which can be seen on The Record’s website) is sultry and suggestive, but neither descriptor necessitates commentary from the faculty dean. Such a statement conveys more than just Sedra’s personal attitude, and could easily be inflated to reflect faculty opinion as a whole.
Mainstream conceptions of acceptable female representation are so fluid and complex anyway that Sedra’s one-off comment inevitably comes off as beyond the call of duty. Should this ever occur again, he should just get them on misuse of student space and make beeline for the exit.
Photo: By Like the Grand Canyon
Mission Canadian
Satellite campuses abroad aren’t just offering degrees, they’re selling our values
The new campus of the University of Waterloo has lots of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Iranian students, but none from Ontario. You’ll see more hijabs than Flames jerseys at the University of Calgary’s new nursing school. That’s because both schools are in the Middle East—and they aren’t meant for Canadians.
Waterloo’s new campus in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Calgary’s three-year-old nursing school in Doha, Qatar, reflect a new strategy by Canadian universities to recruit bright students, train professors, and build connections throughout the world. These new campuses aren’t just small universities either. They’re mini diplomatic missions. If you ask Amit Chakma, president of the University of Western Ontario, they’re also the key to Canada’s future place in the world.
Under the leadership of Canada’s new Governor General, David Johnston (who was president of the University of Waterloo at the time), Chakma helped oversee the development of the new Dubai campus of Waterloo before moving into the president’s chair at Western. He’s not shy about his ambitions for the school. “The British education system of the 19th century, particularly Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Economics, influenced the rest of the world,” says Chakma. “It produced leaders like Gandhi, who then took what they learned back to their home countries. Turn the clock forward and you don’t influence the world through your economic or military power, but through your people, ideas and connectivity. At the end of the day, it’s the people who build the country’s bridges,” he explains. In other words, the campuses will help Canadian ideas—and Canadian values—spread through the new relationships they foster. “Think of the difficulties we’re having between the Islamic world and the Western world,” he says. “Why wouldn’t we be offering opportunities of a modern, liberal, Western education for those in Dubai who want to take advantage of it?”
The first two years of Waterloo U.A.E.’s programs (which include chemical and civil engineering, financial analysis and information technology management) are taught by Waterloo professors, who build connections with businesses and potential research partners during their residencies in Dubai. The students, many of them sons and daughters of foreigners working in the Middle East, will spend the final two years on campus in Waterloo, where they build connections with Canadian students and professors. After four years, they earn a coveted Canadian degree.
The Waterloo graduates then make good candidates for admission as immigrants under the new Canadian Experience Class, an immigration scheme that allows foreigners who have studied here to fast-track their residency, so long as they’re employed in the year after graduation. If they don’t choose to stay in Canada, they will take their well-travelling Canadian degree and spread the good word about Canada abroad. “What happens when someone gets a degree from Canada is the person retains their link to Canada all their life,” explains Leo Rothenburg, vice-president, international at Waterloo. “We call them ambassadors.” One day, there will be as many as 3,000 such ambassadors graduating every year.
Calgary’s nursing school offers students from around the world the opportunity to earn a Canadian degree in the Middle East. (Unlike Waterloo’s program, they spend the entire four years in Qatar.) Gail Fredrickson, acting public affairs director for the University of Calgary Qatar, says her school is helping Canada’s image in a region “of growing importance.” She says that Qatar’s people are fascinated by Canada. Case in point: two nursing students who travelled to Calgary were profiled by the local newspaper when they returned. “It was big news in Qatar!” says Fredrickson.
The Canadian branch campuses aren’t just in the Middle East. Since 2005, the University of Waterloo has partnered with Nanjing University to offer the University of Waterloo environmental engineering program. Chinese students spend two years in China before arriving at Waterloo. Once in Canada, the students are offered classes where they brush up on their English while learning everything from how to navigate Canadian grocery shops to how to use the local bus system. Graduates of the program earn both a Chinese and a Canadian degree. After that, about 50 per cent stay in Canada for graduate work. Some stay permanently.
Unlike the many lucrative graduate programs Canadian schools have set up overseas, these undergraduate campuses are not money-making schemes. Waterloo says they have not turned a profit in the U.A.E.—nor is that their goal. Waterloo hopes to profit in a non-monetary sense by providing its Canadian undergrads with the opportunity to study in foreign countries, while still learning from Canadian professors. So far, the school has only provided a few co-op students with experience in China and Dubai. But next year, Waterloo will offer engineering students the option to spend six four to six weeks in Nanjing.
According to Leo Rothenburg, Waterloo has already profited in another way from the bridges it’s building overseas. Waterloo professor Lei Xu was able to develop a new low-cost steel-frame structure that can withstand earthquakes after meeting new research partners on the other side of the Pacific in 2005. After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 killed upwards of 69,000 people, the Chinese government asked him to help make new cities safer. “Research that happened in Waterloo is being applied to a make houses safer in China,” explains a proud Rothenburg. “That wouldn’t have happened without these relationships.”
Waterloo is getting noticed, too. “I once chatted with a gentlemen in the lounge of Beijing airport who was an official from the Housing Ministry,” says Rothenburg, who gave the man a business card. “He knew Waterloo—because he knew about [Xu’s] work.”
Photo: These engineering students will come to Canada to finish their degrees
Engineering schools still have fewer females
Undergraduate enrolment for women is less than 25 per cent almost across the board
Undergraduate enrolment at Canadian engineering schools ranges from a few dozen students to more than 4,000 at Waterloo and Toronto. As these 2009 figures show, the number of female students remains low: less than 25 per cent at all but a handful of institutions.
Source: Engineers Canada *2007 figures
Engineering’s hot fields
Environmental and software numbers are up by roughly half, while mining or mineral enrolment has nearly tripled
Across 13 disciplines, mechanical, electrical and civil continue to be the top draws, but other fields have grown significantly over the past four years. Environmental and software numbers are up by roughly half, while mining or mineral enrolment has nearly tripled.
Source: Engineers Canada
Canada’s best professional schools 2010
EXCLUSIVE RANKINGS. Plus: where to go, how to get in, the hottest programs, and the biggest pitfalls
Coast to coast, getting into professional schools has never been more competitive than it is this year
ENGINEERING
From building bridges to running Bay Street
Technical geeks? Hardly. Today’s new breed of financial engineers take the lead as global innovators.
If you build it . . .
Robots, stem cells and green scenes: what engineers are making now
Aim for 80-plus
Average final-year high school grades of first-year undergrads starting engineering school in fall 2009
Engineering’s hot fields
Across 13 disciplines, mechanical, electrical and civil continue to be the top draws, but other fields have grown significantly over the past four years. Environmental and software numbers are up by roughly half, while mining or mineral enrolment has nearly tripled.
Sizing up engineering enrolment across the country
The number of female Undergraduate enrolment at Canadian engineering schools remains low
MEDICINE
Want degree, will travel
‘Think of the passion that comes from people willing to go halfway around the world to study’
No science? No worries
Getting a C in chemistry may not be a barrier to that white coat, as med schools reassess their admissions
How many get in
2009 figures show enrolment continues to increase with women outnumbering men at most institutions
How much they pay for it
Medical school first-year tuition for academic year 2010-2011
Applications high, success rates low: the stats tell the story
The medical college admission test (MCAT) is a standardized test required for admission at many faculties
M.B.A.
Northern exposure
‘The fact that the Canadian economy gets a lot of attention can only be good for Canadian business schools’
These doctors mean business
Fuelled by late-blooming entrepreneurs, business schools see doctoral enrolment double
McGill and Quebec Play chicken
A tuition hike is opposed by the province; so far neither side has blinked
Coffee, donut and an M.B.A
Slated to start in January 2011, a new morning M.B.A. class will run three mornings a week at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary
RANKINGS: How do Canada’s business schools stack up internationally?
Canadian schools didn’t crack the top 20 in either of the Financial Times’ rankings, but York (Schulich) placed first on the alternative Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey
Canada’s M.B.A. programs: a variety of options at 35 institutions
The traditional M.B.A.—two years, full-time—is no longer the only way to go, with many schools offering part-time studies
Canada’s E.M.B.A. Programs: for the working professional
Executive M.B.A. programs normally allow their participants to remain at their jobs, pursuing the degree part-time
RANKINGS: Financial Times Executive M.B.A. ranking 2009
The FT’s E.M.B.A. evaluation looks at a variety of performance measures for each school
Law
Ranking Canada’s law schools
How do faculty measure up? How do grads fare? Maclean’s fourth annual survey reveals all
Last year, maybe. This year, no way.
Getting in has never been easy. But now, it’s nearly impossible.
The letter of the Law
J.D. vs. LL.B degree
RANKINGS: Toronto and McGill law schools top the list
How successful are grads in landing top jobs? How often is faculty members’ work recognized by other academics?
Law School: what will it cost?
2010 tuition figures for first-year students
Hot engineering jobs
Robots, stem cells and green scenes: what engineers are making now
As University of Toronto dean of engineering Cristina Amon puts it, “Hot engineering careers combine innovation and creativity, and allow engineers to create things that didn’t exist before.” But in addition to dreaming up objects that improve lives—like artificial organs or medical imaging devices—today’s engineers are being enlisted to address global issues, such as warming. Here are other growth areas in the field of engineering.
Sustainability: From teaching students to design and build eco-friendly buildings and infrastructure to implementing green government policy, sustainability has become a dominant theme in engineering education. A master’s of engineering in clean energy at the University of British Columbia is now open for students with undergraduate degrees in engineering who want advanced training in energy-efficient technologies. At the University of Calgary, undergraduates in the engineering B.Sc. can enrol in a specialization in energy and environment. Carleton University offers its bachelor of engineering students a new option in sustainable and renewable energy, and the university has established a master’s program in sustainable energy, which students can finish with either an engineering degree (M.A.Sc. or M.Eng. in sustainable energy) or a public policy degree (M.A. in sustainable energy). Finally, the University of Western Ontario has a new green-process engineering undergraduate program, which teaches the fundamentals of chemical engineering to design commercial products and processes that are both economical and environmentally friendly.
Biomedical: The intersection of biological systems and engineering has led to innovation in medicine that could only be dreamed about a decade ago, and now biomedical engineering is one of the fastest growing areas of the profession. These engineers grow tissue and stem cells, build devices that can be implanted in the body to deliver drugs or detect illnesses, and design substitute body parts like pacemakers and artificial joints. In 2009, École Polytechnique de Montréal launched an undergraduate degree in the subject. The University of Guelph offers its undergraduates a biomedical engineering option. At the University of Calgary, undergraduate students can complete a biomedical specialization in conjunction with their engineering degree. The University of Manitoba will begin offering a new master’s in biomedical engineering in January, and Queen’s University, McMaster University, and the University of Toronto give graduate students the opportunity to take the interdisciplinary approach to biomedical engineering through collaborative programs.
Mechatronics: Mechatronic systems are all around: from industrial robots to the antilock brakes in your car. As society advances technologically, the demand for these computer- controlled electromechanical devices will only grow. As such, universities across the country have established degrees or specializations in this subject. The University of Waterloo, for example, offers an undergraduate program in mechatronics engineering. At McMaster University, students can enrol in mechatronics programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The University of Guelph gives graduate students in the engineering systems and computing program the option to research mechatronics, and the University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, University of Toronto, and University of New Brunswick offer a mechatronics option to mechanical engineering undergraduates.
Photo by Andrew tolson
From building bridges to running bay street
Technical geeks? Hardly. Today’s new breed of financial engineers take the lead as global innovators.
When Sukrit Ganguly finished his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and applied science, he set out on a traditional career track in oil and gas consulting. “The job was very technical,” says the 27-year-old, “and required me to work on models all day long.” Bored after a year, Ganguly wanted to try something new. So he returned to the University of Toronto to do a master’s of applied science, this time focusing on applied engineering in banking and setting his sights on Bay Street. “I wanted a job that looked at the bigger picture, and in finance you have to follow what’s going on all over the world,” he says.
The chemical engineer is now working on the trading floor for equity derivatives at TD Securities—on Bay Street. Instead of modelling pipelines and heat exchangers like many of his former classmates, he spends his days structuring financial products, reading international market commentary, and researching the activities of TD’s competitors. And he says an engineering degree was the best possible training for the job. “As an engineer, you’re taught how to solve programs. The finance part I could learn on the fly.”
Indeed, as more students flock to the field of engineering (at last count, enrolment in accredited undergraduate engineering programs grew by 11 per cent between 2006 and 2009), universities across the country are advancing the concept of the “global engineer” and broadening the educational experience offering courses—such as finance or entrepreneurial studies—outside of traditional engineering disciplines. “The idea now is that engineers are no longer just technical geeks,” says David Wilkinson, McMaster University’s dean of engineering. “They need to be able to solve global problems and answer complex open-ended questions.”
At Ganguly’s alma mater, the University of Toronto, students in the faculty of applied science and engineering can now enroll in a financial engineering major, the first undergraduate program of its kind in Canada. The inaugural participants in the course this fall will learn financial modelling and theory, while also getting a strong engineering science foundation that they can apply to work in financial institutions and investment banking. The university will also launch a new minor in engineering business in 2011.
These courses were born out of the realization that “our students are being hired by Bay Street and Wall Street,” says the faculty’s dean, Cristina Amon. “It’s their ability to address problems and the analytical skills engineers gather during their education that is very attractive for the i-banking and financial services industry,” she says, adding that “this recent phenomenon” has already registered in the U.S., where finance and business course options have been offered to engineering students at prestigious schools like Princeton and Columbia for several years.
At Queen’s University, the faculty of engineering and applied science is developing a program with the Queen’s School of Business called innovation and global leadership, which will bring engineering and commerce students together. “We decided to design this now because of a need for engineers and commerce students to contribute to the knowledge economy,” explains Kimberly Woodhouse, dean of the faculty of engineering and applied science. “In order for them to do that, they’re going to need to be innovators.”
While Woodhouse says she’s seen “a huge demand in finance for engineers,” the program— anticipated to start in fall 2011—is focused on teaching business and engineering students to collaborate. “As an engineer, you now need to understand the business world, and commerce students need to understand the impact of technology on business.”
