Dean's Messages

The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board’s (CEAB) next visit will occur on October 19-21, 2025, covering all of our undergraduate programs.

The purpose of accreditation is:

“… to identify to the member engineering regulators of Engineers Canada those engineering programs whose graduates are academically qualified to begin the process to be licensed as professional engineers in Canada. The process of accreditation emphasizes the quality of the students, the academic and support staff, the curriculum, and the education facilities.” (CEAB Accreditation Criteria and Procedures 2023 PDF)

The visiting team chair is Julius Pataky, P.Eng., MBA, CEAB member and Management Consultant, KPMG (Vancouver, BC).

The vice-chairs are James Lee, Ph.D., FEC, P.Eng., Department Head and Professor, Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, SK) and Darlene Spracklin-Reid, P.Eng., Assistant Deputy Minister, Infrastructure, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s, NL).

Ann English, FEC, P.Eng., retired CEO and Registrar, Engineers & Geoscientists BC is an observer (Burnaby, BC).

The program visitors are:

• Chemical Engineering:
  • Andrea Julio, P.Eng.
    Program Manager, School of Engineering & Technology, Conestoga College; Lead Project Engineer, Honeywell Aerospace (Cambridge, ON)
• Civil Engineering:
  • Catherine Tatarniuk, Ph.D., FEC, P.Eng.
    Associate Teaching Professor, Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops, BC)
• Computer Engineering:
  • Sathish Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)
• Electrical Engineering:
  • Mahda Jahromi, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Senior Lecturer, Sustainable Energy Engineering, Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC)
• Engineering Science:
  • Robert Holland, P.Eng.
    Specialist Engineering – Quality Assurance, BC HYDRO (Burnaby, BC)
    Common core (first 2 years); Engineering Mathematics, Statistics and Finance
  • Réda Fayek, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Management Consultant, Kimitek Inc. (Kitchener, ON)
    Biomedical Systems Engineering; Energy Systems Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Joshua Marshall, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Professor and Associate Head, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Queen’s University (Kingston, ON)
    Machine intelligence; Robotics Engineering
  • Simone Pisana, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, York University (Toronto, ON)
    Aerospace Engineering; Engineering Physics
• Industrial Engineering:
  • Ali Akgunduz, Ph.D., ing.
    Associate Dean-Academic Programs, Gina Cody School of Engineering and Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
• Lassonde Mineral Engineering:
  • Marek Pawlik, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Department Head and Professor, Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)
• Materials Engineering:
  • Marilyn Spink, P.Eng.
    Operations Director, Canadian Critical Minerals & Materials Alliance (Toronto, ON)
• Mechanical Engineering
  • Robert Brennan, Ph.D., P.Eng.
    Professor, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary (Calgary, AB)

An external review of the Cross-Disciplinary Programs Office and the Faculty’s under-graduate minors and certificates has been scheduled for November 20-21, 2025. Four eminent colleagues with experience managing cross-disciplinary programs at peer institutions have agreed to form the review team:

• Wesley Burghardt
  Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering
  Associate Dean, Undergraduate Engineering
  Northwestern University
• Oscar Dubon
  Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
  Associate Dean of Students
  University of California, Berkeley
• Ahmad Ghasemloonia
  Professor, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering
  Associate Dean, Student Success & Interdisciplinary Academic Programs
  University of Calgary
• Roni Khazaka
  Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
  Associate Dean, Academic Programs
  McGill University

Members of the Faculty who would like to offer comments toward this review are asked to send them via email to governance.fase@utoronto.ca.

Please circulate this memorandum to any member of the Faculty who may not have received it through the general distribution.

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Craig A. Steeves as Acting Vice-Dean Graduate for a term of six months, effective July 1, 2025.

Professor Craig Steeves joined the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in 2009 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015. He served as Associate Director, Graduate Studies at UTIAS from July 2016 to June 2020. Additionally, he served as Acting Vice-Dean Graduate from January to June 2023 and served as the Associate Director of the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation since July 2015.

Please join me in in expressing gratitude to Craig for serving in this important role and providing leadership to the graduate portfolio over the next 6 months.

I extend my deep appreciation to the following members of the Advisory Committee for this search for their time and thoughtful input:

• Professor Christopher Yip, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering (Chair)
• Professor Joshua Barker, Vice-Provost, Graduate Research & Education and Dean, School of Graduate Studies
• Helen Bright, Faculty Registrar
• Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou, Chair, Civil & Mineral Engineering
• Professor Hani Naguib, Chair, Materials Science & Engineering
• Professor Markus Bussmann, Chair, Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
• Tess Seip, President, The Graduate Engineering Council of Students (GECoS)
• Roger Francis, Executive Director, Engineering Career and Experiential Learning