If the next generation of engineers is to continue solving the world’s greatest challenges, they need both rich technical competencies and the ability to clearly communicate their ideas to others.
While U of T Engineering’s many academic courses equip students with engineering fundamentals, the Faculty’s Engineering Communication Program (ECP) enables them to learn the necessary writing, speaking and critical thinking skills to succeed in their careers.
This fall, ECP will offer the Faculty’s first academic certificate in communication. Engineering students will have the ability to develop their expertise in particular communication areas of interest. (Criteria outlined below.)
Established 20 years ago by Senior Lecturer Robert Irish (ECP, EngSci), ECP includes a robust suite of educational offerings—from one-on-one student tutoring to curriculum design and consultation. They now have five full-time senior lecturers and three dedicated sessional lecturers in key roles, as well as 37 other sessional lecturers and teaching assistants.
U of T Engineering sat down with ECP Director Deborah Tihanyi (ECP) to learn more about the program and how it benefits engineering students:
1. What does the Engineering Communication Program offer the Faculty?
ECP’s educational offerings are embedded throughout the Faculty and are available to all undergraduate students. We partner with our Engineering colleagues to develop instructional and assessment materials that will best serve students, fostering a culture of excellence that continues beyond the classroom.
Our program includes a number of curricular and co-curricular student supports, as well as guidance for faculty and teaching assistants. We lead stand-alone communication courses, co- instruct design and communication classes and assist most of the capstone design courses across the Faculty.
Outside of the core curriculum, we offer five electives designed specifically for engineering students, as well as creative writing workshops in the fall and summer. We have a Tutoring Centre that provides online and in-person sessions to assist students in their course work, graduate school and job applications and more.
2. How is the ECP improving engineering education?
There is an integral relationship between learning and communicating. We use language to teach, ask questions and express ideas. The ability to articulate ourselves aids—and even underpins—our understanding.
This is where ECP comes in. Our supports not only enable engineering students to develop as writers, speakers and thinkers, but also enhance their learning by making core engineering concepts easier to grasp. Students learn to formulate thoughtful questions and express ideas. This, in turn, lays the groundwork for success in the classroom and beyond.
3. Why are communication skills important to engineering students?
The volume of writing that is required during an engineering degree often surprises students, but effective communication is also vital for success in the real world.
Engineering is a multidisciplinary profession. A single project may involve teamwork with business specialists, psychologists and public health officials, to name a few. The ability to collaborate and communicate effectively with a diverse team, as well as express complex concepts to a non-technical audience, is an asset.
ECP helps students develop into proficient writers, speakers and communicators, both in print and online. More than ever, these skills are vital to engineering leaders.
4. How is ECP different from communication programs at other engineering schools?
We are one of a very few communication programs in North America fully integrated into the engineering curriculum. We have played a pivotal role in curriculum redesign, in developing learning outcomes for our students and in shaping the learning culture at the University to be one where communication can be a core component of engineering education.
A student who graduates from engineering at the University of Toronto has had more than just a writing course. They have learned to write, speak and communicate effectively as part of their engineering education over four years.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
About the Academic Certificate in Communication
To receive the new academic certificate in communication, undergraduate engineering students must complete any three of the following courses:
- APS 281H1 – Language and Meaning
- APS 320H1 – Representing Science on the Stage
- APS 321H1 – Representing Science and Technology in Popular Media
- APS 322H1 – Language and Power
- APS 325H1 – Engineering and Science in the Arts
- APS 445H1 – The Power of Story: Discovering Your Leadership Narrative
- INI 304 H1 – Critical Thinking and Inquiry in Written Communication (Offered by the Faculty of Arts & Science)
- INI 305H1 – Word and Image in Modern Writing (Offered by the Faculty of Arts & Science)
- INI 310H1 – Editing (Offered by the Faculty of Arts & Science)
This story is Part 2 of an eight-part series, Engineering Experiential Learning, running throughout spring and summer 2015.
When Patricia Sheridan (MechE 0T9, MASc 1T1, ILead PhD Candidate) was an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at U of T, she loved working on team projects. Most of her fellow classmates, however, were less than enthused.
That’s when Sheridan had an idea.
Now four years into her PhD in Engineering Leadership at U of T, Sheridan has turned that idea into the Team-effectiveness Learning System (TELS), a unique online tool that’s designed to enhance teamwork and leadership skills among engineering students.
TELS helps students organize, learn and practice cooperative skills during their school projects, and it also sets them up to succeed in their engineering careers in either academia or industry—both environments where successfully working in a group is essential.
“Teamwork is critical because engineering is a team-oriented profession,” Sheridan said. “Yet many technically savvy students struggle with the ‘softer’ science of how to work effectively with others in a group.”
Sheridan’s research is being conducted through the Faculty’s Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (ILead), a multidisciplinary hub that offers innovative learning opportunities that help engineering students develop critical competencies in leadership, collaboration, communication and problem solving.
Professor Doug Reeve (ChemE), ILead’s director, said what he hears from industry echoes Sheridan’s experience. Sometimes smart, technically savvy engineers fall short in their ability to translate their knowledge into a workplace setting.
“It is the ability to translate technical knowledge to real-world situations that we are developing,” said Reeve.
How TELS works
TELS creates a personalized learning environment that provides students with lessons, exercises and self- and peer-assessments throughout the duration of a project. It offers students individualized training based on their current level of competency in a range of specific team-effectiveness behaviours.
For example, TELS is used in the first year engineering design courses, where formal team projects can account for up to 75 per cent of a student’s grade. At the beginning of the project, students are introduced to TELS and different models that can be used to help facilitate effective teamwork.
Throughout the semester, students are asked to complete online assessments of themselves and others. This feedback is then shared confidentially with each team member, and they are encouraged to develop weak areas through tailored exercises that TELS provides. The instructors also get a report—called a sociogram—that shows how the different team members perceive each other’s effectiveness.
“In the [instructor’s] diagram, if you start seeing three members that are really tightly clustered together and one member that’s really far out, we’ll flag that as a team where it looks like the four members aren’t working effectively together,” she said.
The tool has already been fully integrated into several team-based courses at U of T Engineering for the last two years. This has provided data that Sheridan can analyze—such as the differences between student assessments and teaching assistant assessments—to determine how TELS is working and how to improve it in the time ahead.
National recognition
Since its development, TELS has already captured the attention of Canada’s research community. This spring, Sheridan received a scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)—an honour that is very unusual for engineers, who are typically funded through more technical-oriented funding bodies.
Sheridan said she hopes the SSHRC award will not only elevate the status and credibility of her research, but also the status of ILead and U of T Engineering “as a place that conducts world-class leadership research, in particular, on engineering and about engineers.”
Using findings from TELS trials and other activities, the team at ILead is also designing a resource kit for instructors to help them teach teamwork more effectively and develop more confidence in teaching effective teamwork. This project is being funded through the Faculty’s Engineering Instructional Innovation Program and has been underway for nearly one year.
Programs like TELS have great value, said Reeve, because they help students learn how to become leaders by developing self-awareness and increasing their capacity to apply their knowledge.
“And that’s important not only for the success of the individual engineer, but also for the success of the enterprises they join, for the country, and for that matter, the world,” said Reeve. “We have a lot of issues to deal with in the world and engineers are extremely well placed to bring solutions to those challenges—but they need an additional set of skills beyond the technical.”
Learn more about the Team-effectiveness Learning System.
This story is Part 1 of an eight-part series, Engineering Experiential Learning, running throughout spring and summer 2015.
An invaluable new perspective came to engineering student Cassandra Rosen (Year 4 EngSci + PEY) when she was deep in the heart of a nuclear power plant: “There’s something about getting to walk through it, seeing each part in action and how they relate to each other, that’s way more powerful than reading about it in a book.”
From May 2013 to May 2014, Rosen worked at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, operated by Ontario Power Generation. One of her responsibilities included making sure that the emergency coolant injection system was working as expected, which involved monitoring tests and developing a response strategy if something went wrong.
“Having to defend your ideas in front of senior executives can be intimidating,” she said. “You really have to learn confidence in what you’re doing.”
While she loved the practical aspect of her job, Rosen says it was the multidisciplinary background she brought to the role through her major in Energy Systems Engineering that added value for her employers. “Energy systems is a bit of mechanical engineering, a bit of civil and a bit of electrical,” she said. “That’s exactly what this job required.”
Each year, hundreds of students enrol in U of T Engineering’s Professional Experience Year (PEY). While many universities offer co-op placements or four-month summer internships, PEY is different: it’s a full-time job lasting one year or more. It is the largest paid internship program of its kind in Canada. In 2014-15, more than 720 students participated in PEY—the largest cohort in the program’s 35-year history.
Employers include well-known international firms like Apple, Tesla Motors and IBM, as well as nimble start-ups in medical technology, social media and other emerging fields. Despite their differences, all of these companies benefit enormously from the energy and fresh perspectives PEY participants. Their positive experience keeps them coming back, and many hiring managers maintain their ties with PEY as they move between companies; in some cases, those same hiring managers were once PEY students themselves.
Some PEY students choose to work abroad. In 2014-15, more than 60 PEY students secured paid international placements in the U.S., China, Bermuda, Germany and Peru, among others***.
“The breadth of opportunities available through PEY are a big part of what makes our undergraduate experience so unique,” says Thomas Coyle, vice dean, undergraduate studies at U of T Engineering. “It gives students a new perspective and prepares them to be innovators, entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow.”
As for Rosen, upon graduation she will begin a Master of Science in Systems Engineering at MIT—a program that combines practical knowledge of engineering with a focus on public policy. She hopes one day to help governments make smarter decisions around electricity systems. “Having worked in a nuclear plant is something that will always stay with me; it’s a unique perspective I couldn’t have gained any other way.”
What other students are saying about PEY:
Dimpho Radebe (Year 4 IndE + PEY)
“PEY was an amazing experience,” said Dimpho Radebe (Year 4 IndE + PEY), who spent the 2013-14 year as a process analyst for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). “It not only helped me launch my professional career with confidence, it also enabled me to improve my communication and networking skills.”
At CIBC, Radebe applied her technical knowledge to analyse existing processes within the bank, such as how transactions are managed. She identified areas for improvement, coordinated testing of a new system and performed statistical analysis to see how the changes improved overall performance.
In addition to the technical work, Radebe also discovered a passion for understanding people and a desire to further develop her leadership skills. Upon her return, Radebe became the president of the U of T chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. She also hopes one day to start a not-for-profit organization focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education for elementary and high school students.
“What surprised me the most was how I could use these skills in other aspects of my life,” she said. “I would highly recommend that students participate in PEY.”
Priya Anandakumaran (EngSci 1T3 + PEY, IBBME MASc Candidate)
In addition to work in industry or commerce, many PEY placements offer students the chance to advance scientific research in emerging fields. For Priya Anandakumaran (EngSci 1T3 + PEY, IBBME MASc Candidate), it was the opportunity of a lifetime.
“Before PEY, I was sitting in a classroom reading scientific papers about various concepts in biomedical engineering,” she said. “Six months later, I was doing the same kind of experiments that I was reading about, at the very institutions were many of these concepts were first discovered.”
Anandakumaran spent her PEY year in Professor Jeffrey Karp’s advanced biomaterials and stem cell-based therapeutics laboratory at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. Her research focused on exploring the therapeutic properties of stem cells, which could help grow new tissues to treat heart disease, bone defects and other conditions.
Outside of the lab, Anandakumaran enjoyed the opportunity to explore a new city. “Boston is a beautiful city that has discovered a fine balance between nature, rich history, and modern architecture,” she explained. “Boston’s spirit and livelihood is also very contagious—after three months I was slowly turning into a Red Sox fan!”
Anandakumaran now works with U of T Engineering professor Molly Shoichet (ChemE, IBBME), conducting research in stem cells and tissue engineering. She credits her time in the Karp Lab with influencing her career path. “Working in the Karp Lab was an unforgettable experience. It was the first time I envisioned myself doing research long-term,” she said. “Most importantly it made me really excited for my future in biomedical engineering.”
Gordon Dri (Year 3 CivE + PEY)
“The PEY program interested me because it offered me a real-life experience of what I have learned in school for the past three years,” said Gordon Dri (Year 3 CivE + PEY). For Dri, who is enrolled in the Engineering Business minor, that means applying engineering techniques like data analysis to make corporate operations more efficient.
Dri is currently interning at Cadillac Fairview Corporation, Ltd., which owns, manages and operates commercial real estate across Canada. Working in the Operations department, he tracks various building metrics: everything from the average temperature and energy usage to the number of service calls.
He then synthesizes this data into reports that are used to make decisions around property management. For example, an increase in energy usage might indicate that certain equipment should be replaced, while a low number of service calls might be a selling point for potential tenants.
Dri aims to continue this type of work after graduation. “My future career plans are to work in analytics, leveraging big data to propel companies forward,” he said. “In any industry or discipline, there are always problems to be solved. This is what engineering teaches you.”
Christopher Sun (EngSci 1T3 + PEY)
Adjusting to the rhythm of working life left a big impression on Christopher Sun (EngSci 1T3 + PEY). “In University, students are in charge of their own projects and timelines, or work in much smaller groups,” he says. “In industry, I was part of a much larger and more intricate team. The methodologies used to keep track of progress were new and surprising to me.”
As a Quality Assurance Analyst, Sun was in charge of testing website features and ensuring that they were functioning properly. Sun’s employer, Indigo Books and Music, used “daily scrum” meetings that connected his team with other working groups from across the company, including those focused on product development and branding. The goal was to track all the projects being worked on and the estimates for completion, allowing for greater synergy. “During those scrums, it was nice to see how other people relied on your work,” says Sun.
Today, Sun is an MASc candidate in the lab of Professor Timothy Chan (MIE) where he works on modeling and optimizing health care systems, including those that manage service delivery and work flow. His PEY experience as part of a large team still influences his thinking.
“In quality assurance, if you miss anything, it ends up being deployed out to the public and there can be serious repercussions for both the customers and company,” he said. “Health care is like that too. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” By leveraging his first-hand experience in industry, Sun aims to find efficiencies that will improve the quality of the health care system for everyone.
What employers are saying about PEY:
“An intern that is available for up to 16 months is very attractive to us. In most cases, it can take up to 3 months for a new hire to be fully trained and to feel productive. Having them on the team for longer allows them to get more out of the experience and to add more value to the team and to the business.”
– Natalie Murray, Technical Recruiter, Demonware, Inc.
“I first learned about the PEY program as an Engineering Science student many years ago. PEY students contribute like full-time engineers and are treated that way. We also get to “try before you buy” a number of outstanding engineers. We are very pleased that so many have returned to join us full-time after graduation.”
– Terry Borer, Manager, Altera Corporation
“Our organization has benefitted dramatically from our PEY experience. We’ve been lucky enough to get students with a fresh eye on our business model who contribute new ideas from day one. With every new skillset acquired, we’ve received insight into at least one new technology or approach. We’ve also found that the students that we’ve hired bring an energy and enthusiasm that is unparalleled in the job market today. It’s something you just can’t find in external internships or even new external hires.”
– Adil Sardar, Lead Developer, WaveDNA, creator of Liquid Loops software
* Active employers: those that have posted positions through PEY in the last two years
** Approximate
*** In order to participate in an international placement, students have to be eligible to work in those countries
Sasha Gollish (CivE MEng 1T0, EngEd PhD Candidate) is not a superstitious person. But when she had to run a 1000-metre race on Friday the 13th this past February, the Pan Am hopeful was not feeling particularly inspired.
“I said to my coaches, Ross Ristuccia and Carl Georgevski, ‘I don’t feel well. I feel so heavy and slow.'”
With a little coaxing, Gollish laced up for the race at the Spire Invitational meet, and then delivered the 2014-15 performance she’s most proud of: a time of 2:39.70. This set a meet record and ranked her sixth in the world.
This remarkable time was just one of a series of other standout finishes that helped to take the Blues women’s track team to the top of the CIS podium and earned Gollish the titles of both the CIS Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year and U of T Female Athlete of the Year for 2015.
“Sasha Gollish is a genuinely home grown University of Toronto developed student-athlete,” said Georgevski. “She started in our junior development track program back in 1996 and was rookie of the year as a first-year U of T student athlete in 2000.”
Gollish stands out among past winners of the athlete of the year honour because of the multiple and complex and demands she’s met while racing.
“I am an engineer by trade. The foundation of undergrad is learning how to multitask,” she said. “I can work well this way.”
She not only works well, but thrives with a full plate. A PhD student, Gollish works as an engineering consultant while studying engineering education at U of T – and is racing against students who are often 10 to 15 years her junior.
“Sasha is an extremely bright, talented and compassionate woman,” Georgevski said. “From a coach’s perspective she is the total package—a fierce competitor on the track and a true teammate and leader off the track.”
“They keep me young,” the 33-year old said of her teammates, with a light-hearted laugh. “Things have changed between when I first competed and now—what matters most to me is different.”
Over the years Gollish has fine-tuned what brings out her optimal performances. For example, her school work and sessions at the gym suffer without adequate sleep, so she won’t compromise on that; she is also very mindful of her diet. And beyond that, she’s able to manage expectations and stress better.
“My perspective is different,” she explained. “If I have a bad work out, for example, I get over it really quickly. Before, it would eat me up for a couple of days. I appreciate that I have more wisdom now.”
Georgevski is confident that her experience and skills will take her to the next level. “Here we are in 2015 and it’s already been a big year; she is the CIS Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year, U of T Female Athlete of the Year and we’re not done yet. We still have the Pan Am Games in her sights.”
Gollish is currently in California racing to quality for the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games and the World Championships. Like her track and field peers, she will know if she makes the cut in late June. For updates, check out her website. You can also watch Gollish featured as CityNews Athlete of the Week for April 6.
New York is an energy hog, London and Paris use relatively fewer resources and Tokyo conserves water like a pro. These are just a few of the findings from a new study on “megacity metabolism”—the world’s first comprehensive survey of resources used and removed in each of the planet’s 27 largest metropolitan areas.
Led by engineers at the University of Toronto, an international team of researchers examined data on how resources pass through the globe’s largest cities, such as burning natural gas for heating, using electricity for public transit or disposing of solid waste and wastewater. Published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings could point the way toward strategies to make cities cleaner, greener and more sustainable—or at least less greedy.
Megacities—metropolitan areas with populations greater than 10 million—continue to grow in size and economic prominence. In 1970, there were only eight megacities across the world. This number grew to 27 in 2010, and it’s expected to reach 37 by 2020. These urban areas currently generate 14.6 per cent of the globe’s total GDP, but they also consume resources disproportionately.
The study found that today’s megacities are home to only 6.7 per cent of the world’s population, yet they consume 9.3 per cent of global electricity and produce 12.6 per cent of global waste.
(With a population of approximately 6 million, the Greater Toronto Area doesn’t make this megacity list.)
According to U of T civil engineering professor and industrial ecologist Chris Kennedy (CivE), some cities are guiltier than others.
“The New York metropolis has 12 million fewer people than Tokyo, yet it uses more energy in total: the equivalent of one oil supertanker every 1.5 days,” he said. “When I saw that, I thought it was just incredible.”
Kennedy, also a senior fellow at the Global Cities Institute, explained that some of the differences have to do with geography: colder megacities like Moscow and New York use more fuel for heating. Another factor is economic activity.
“Wealthy people consume more stuff and ultimately discard more stuff,” he said. The average New Yorker uses 24 times as much energy as a citizen of Kolkata, and produces over 15 times as much solid waste.
Yet as can be seen by comparing New York and Tokyo—both relatively rich megacities in temperate regions—wealth and geography aren’t everything. Tokyo’s efficient design and vast network of public transit reduces its environmental impact, and demonstrates that in some cases, smart urban policies can reduce resource use, even in the face of rising GDP and exploding populations.
Tokyo has also aggressively addressed leaky pipes, a strategy that has reduced water losses to 3 per cent. This compares to over 50 per cent leakage in cities like Rio de Janiero and Sao Paolo.
“These are places that are really short of water, and yet they’re leaking it away,” said Kennedy.
In the study, Kennedy and his team shared several other successful policies:
- Moscow has built the largest district heating system in the world, providing combined heat and power to buildings housing 12 million people; this being more efficient that using separate systems for each building.
- Seoul has developed a system for reclaiming used wastewater for secondary uses like flushing toilets, increasing the overall efficiency of water use.
- London has been subject to rising electricity costs and taxes on the disposal of solid waste. It is the only megacity for which per capita electricity use is going down even as GDP goes up.
While Kennedy and other researchers have studied resource use in big cities before, they have often been limited either by a small sample size or by a definition which did not include the entire metropolitan region. This new study is the first to capture detailed information from these 27 megacities.
This research contributes to an increased understanding of the growing complexity of cities. “A megacity is not a politically defined region,” said Kennedy. “It’s a commuter-shed. The people who live there have a common labour and housing market, and they travel throughout the region for daily work or leisure.”
Across the world, megacities are seeing massive increases in population, but the findings show that they are growing even faster in terms of energy use and GDP. In the developing world—especially China, home to more megacities than any other country—the combination of more people and more consumption per capita is putting an enormous strain on the planet’s resources.
Yet the study suggests that megacities proliferate, smart policy decisions can make a difference. “What we’re talking about are not short-term, one-election issues, but long-term policies on infrastructure that shape cities over years or decades,” said Kennedy.
“The evidence is that megacities can make some progress in reducing overall resource use, and I think that’s encouraging.”
It started with a viral campaign for the world’s most energy-efficient light bulb in 2013. Now, international media are also calling Nanoleaf a “green job” leader.
Founded by University of Toronto engineering alumni Gimmy Chu (ElecE 0T6), Tom Rodinger (IBBME PhD 0T7) and Christian Yan (ElecE 0T6), the company has grown from its days as a crowdfunded venture working from the founders’ apartments to a bi-continental company attracting investment from the likes of Li Ka Shing (dubbed “Asia’s richest man” by Bloomberg News).
Now, Nanoleaf’s efforts have been highlighted by Reuters as a best practice for the increasing trend of ‘green jobs’ in a country that the International Monetary Fund ranks as the world’s largest economy.
Nanoleaf recently won two 2015 Red Dot international design awards for its bulbs and opened an office in Toronto. And, on Earth Day, the startup launched its newest product: Nanoleaf Gem—described as “the world’s first all-glass, designer LED bulb.”
One of Nanoleaf’s newest recruits, U of T alumna Leslie Chen, shared the latest on their recent growth.
What’s new with NanoLeaf?
Nanoleaf recently set up an office in downtown Toronto, so we are now officially a global company that spans two continents.
The Toronto office opened in January this year. We were originally in the MaRS building, which started off with three people, but now we have moved into our own office at Queen and John, having expanded to eight people. There are about 20 employees in China and we have a small office in Hong Kong with a few people as well.
The expansion to Toronto was to focus on research and development, to expand our team of engineers as well as develop the creative team, which includes me and a new industrial designer. We mostly coordinate with the China team over Skype and email. Meetings are usually nights for us and mornings for them!
We’ve also been getting ready for the launch of our new product, the Nanoleaf Gem, which is the world’s first LED décor bulb.
How has the green lighting landscape developed since you came on the scene?
Green lighting has definitely expanded since Nanoleaf started. There are now so many ‘green’ companies and products out there, but Nanoleaf is constantly striving to be the best and to create the most sustainable yet stylish products available.
What are you most interested to see in the near future in terms of energy-efficient lighting?
We’re excited to see even more energy-efficient bulbs available. Not just energy-efficient but also LED lights that challenge the industry standards, which inspired us to create the Nanoleaf Gem.
People usually don’t associate LED bulbs with beauty, so we wanted to create a light bulb that was eco-friendly but still appealed to designers and artists.
What’s your next big goal or challenge to work through as a company?
Our goal for the Nanoleaf Gem is to get designers and others in that industry to start thinking about adopting LED lighting. We’re all about green without compromise. Green products usually only focus on the energy efficiency aspect and forget about style, but we wanted to bring those two worlds together with the Gem.
Any favourite U of T startup companies that you’re keeping an eye on?
We recently saw Fuel Wear Clothing in Metro, which was really interesting. Similar to Nanoleaf, it was founded by three engineering grads who launched their product with a Kickstarter campaign.