6. Cross-Faculty Education and Research

In the past year, U of T Engineering has continued to enhance cross-Faculty programs by launching two new undergraduate Minors, and developing new centres of excellence to foster innovative research and education. These initiatives increase curricular flexibility and enrich the experience of our students while promoting collaborative research within the Faculty.

As a way to provide undergraduates with more breadth in their studies and to help cross traditional departmental boundaries, the Faculty’s new Environmental Engineering Minor and Sustainable Energy Minor join the existing Bioengineering Minor. With a jump in enrolment from 212 students in 2008–2009 to 528 students in 2009–2010, we are developing and plan to offer more Minors in the near future.

Collaborative and multidisciplinary educational and research programs continued to expand with two new efforts: 1) the Institute for Robotics & Mechatronics coordinates current Faculty academic and research activities in the areas of mechatronics and robotics; and 2) the Centre for Sustainable Energy works collaboratively within and outside of the University to foster energy-related initiatives. Both support the Faculty’s research priorities of energy, environment and sustainability.

Building on the Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow program, the Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead) was launched in July 2010. ILead is the first such institute in Canada to provide curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular engineering leadership development programming.