Eleven Engineering staff members received one individual and four team Excellence Through Innovation Awards from U of T for their “above and beyond” contributions to the University and its mandate. These awards recognize the contributions of administrative staff in advancing the University’s strategic objectives; encouraging administrative innovation and providing a platform for sharing best practices.
Tomas Bernreiter, of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering (MIE), garnered an individual award for establishing the Multidisciplinary Energy Laboratory, to increase collaboration between departments. This space was created by renovating and overhauling the outdated MIE Heat Engines Lab. Currently shared by MIE, Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and the Division of Engineering Science, the lab allows students to access equipment not available through their departments in a safe environment.
Helen Bright, Janice Haugan and Sergei Metropolitansky, of the Office of the Registrar, were recognized for their development of the Academic Offence Tracking Tool (AOTT), designed to better manage and track alleged academic offences within the Faculty. Offence cases were previously managed via a Microsoft Access database, a system that was inefficient and time consuming. The AOOT database allows instructors to report suspected instances of academic offences online, and allows all parties to easily monitor the status of a case.
Linda Espeut, Karen Irving, Jayne Leake, Jaro Pristupa and Joe Wong, of The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) were honoured for creating Magellan, a web-based graphical user interface with underlying database. Magellan was developed to combine information from ROSI/NGSIS, ECE’s database of instructors, and faculty teaching loads. The program helps audit each student’s progress, track faculty’s professional certification and assist with undergraduate teaching assignments. It also generates offer letters and teaching assignment letters to faculty.
Tom Nault, of the Office of the Registrar, was part of a team of registrarial staff from across the University who were recognized for developing the Registrarial Professional Development (PD) Day. This was designed as an opportunity for registrarial staff across all three campuses to come together to share best practices in various registrarial fields. The day also allowed individuals to network with colleagues from across the University. The inaugural PD day was a great success, with over 300 registrants from several Faculties.
Dan Pettigrew, of the Office of the Registrar, received an award as part of the team responsible for enhancing the usability and effectiveness of the Degree Explorer system. Currently used by four Faculties, Degree Explorer is a web tool using real-time ROSI data to manage students’ progress toward program and degree completion. It allows administrators to catalogue, manage and deploy their respective course, program and degree rules and allows students to plan and monitor their progress towards their degrees.
“These awards acknowledge the essential role played by our staff in providing innovative excellence to advance the University’s research and teaching mandates, as well as the Faculty’s mandate to remain Canada’s leading engineering school,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate the winners and thank all our staff for their tremendous contributions.”
Excellence Through Innovation Award recipients will be recognized at a reception at the President’s Residence on October 23.
