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McMaster Engineering: By the Numbers
Women make up 40 per cent of McMaster Engineering’s first-year engineering class
In the last six years, the representation of women students increased by 18 per cent at Mac Eng.
Only a few decades ago, women made up a very small proportion of engineering students across the country.
Today, many of Canada’s most promising young women see themselves as future engineers: problem-solvers capable of making change and addressing society’s most wicked challenges.
This year, McMaster Engineering has reached a new equity milestone, with 40 per cent of first-year engineering students being women.
She says the university’s outreach efforts have succeeded in connecting with girls and showing them that they can make a difference in the world through engineering.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment,” says Dean of Engineering, Heather Sheardown, who recently became the first woman to move into the position.
Building an engineering program that truly reflects Canadian society remains McMaster’s priority, says Sheardown.
Here are a few of the talented young women making up this year’s first-year undergraduate class:
Chelsey Ellis developed a love for biology, health and the human body in her earliest years. Her mother, a family physician, fostered that interest with books and gifts related to human anatomy. But when a Grade 12 class showed her how science could be applied to human health through technologies like gene editing, 3D bioprinting and wearable devices, she knew her future was in engineering.
Javayria Mudassar was awarded a prestigious Schulich
Leader Scholarship in recognition of her academic excellence and leadership. An aspiring astronaut, she wants to contribute to new technologies that better our understanding of the universe.
And as a Muslim woman who speaks five languages, Mudassar also aims to be a role model who helps “shape a world where talent and passion are valued, regardless of who you are or where you are from.”
Julia Dowson says participating in an all-girls LEGO Robotics team in middle school helped inspire her to study engineering. She also has a passion for music, playing in her high school band and earning a scholarship for her dedication and skill. While still waiting to see where her studies lead her, she hopes to inspire other young women to study STEM subjects.
Neaha Bijo intends to study artificial intelligence. She wants to contribute to space exploration by incorporating AI into rovers, but also dreams of building a smart home to help older people with day-to-day activities and make it easier for them to live independently.
She says her mother, a civil engineer, is her biggest supporter and she believes she will succeed as a woman in engineering because it is an innovative field that’s always looking for ideas.
Inclusive Excellence Highlights
Heather Sheardown becomes the Faculty’s first woman Dean
Sheardown brings more than 25 years of diverse academic research, administrative and teaching experience to the position. She joined McMaster in 1998 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She was the only woman faculty member at the time. Sheardown is currently the Scientific Director for C20/20 Ophthalmic Materials Commercialization (C20/20 Innovation Hub; 2016-present).
Sarah Dickson-Anderson becomes Acting Associate Dean, Academic
Dickson-Anderson has been with McMaster for two decades. In the past 20 years, she has served as associate chair, graduate and led the civil engineering department as acting chair on multiple occasions. Dickson-Anderson’s research focuses on water security in rural, remote and marginalized communities.
Creation of an Indigenous Working Group
Made up of faculty, staff and student advisors, the working group strives to establish a fulsome picture of all points of engagement with Indigenous communities currently taking place among the faculty and develop an understanding of university-wide policies, projects and activities that engage Indigenous communities.
Giving Day
McMaster’s inaugural Day of Giving on May 11 raised more than $2.8 million and engaged 1,220 members of the university community through giving and participation in events. This one-day, university-wide fundraising campaign focused on supporting Black student excellence, Indigenous priorities and equity-deserving communities at McMaster.
In Engineering, this translated to $90K in philanthropic dollars donated by over 30 alumni towards the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Scholarship fund.
Honorary doctoral degree recipient Barry Hill, BEng (Class of ’66) and MEng (Class of ’68), launches Indigenous engineering student scholarship.
Black Faculty Cohort Hiring Initiative
Civil Engineering professor, Paulin Coulibaly, is part of the African Caribbean Faculty Association at McMaster (ACFAM), which is involved in a cohort hiring initiative at McMaster University with the goal of up to 12 appointments of emerging and established academics and scholars who will contribute to the advancement of Black academic excellence across all six Faculties. As part of this initiative, five Black Scholars were hired by Mac Eng in 2021-2022. Two more Black Scholars will join the Faculty on January 1, 2023.
“Our pursuit of
EDI is simply from my viewpoint a pursuit of justice...Whenever a systemic barrier is removed it makes our entire society more just.”
Programming and scholarship for equity deserving groups
McMaster Engineering has partnered with five other Ontario universities (Waterloo, Ottawa, UofT, Queen’s and Western) to release a Fellowship to expand the pathways for Indigenous and Black students pursuing doctoral degrees in engineering.
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
McMaster Chapter has established a scholarship that will be awarded annually to Canadian Black students entering the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster.
Hamidu Mbonde, PhD student in engineering physics, is one of 15 Black students worldwide awarded with the prestigious Optica Amplify Scholarship.
Halima Banuso is the inaugural recipient of the NSBE Entrance Award. The Materials & Society student presented her research project on utilizing slag, a steel production by-product, for sustainable construction applications at the 2022 Annual Undergraduate Research Showcase.
Teaching and Learning
McMaster Engineering takes pride in equipping our students with the knowledge and skills needed to change the world. Through The Pivot, our transformed curriculum, students are learning to be resilient, calculated risk-takers who are intellectually curious and unfazed by failure. Experiential learning is integrated into every facet of the student journey.
Co-op opportunities, community-focused co-curricular activities, clubs and teams and Canada’s
largest undergraduate
research program educate the whole engineer.
Mac Eng grads win two James Dyson Awards
Mac alumnus and teammate win the James Dyson Global Sustainability Award
McMaster engineering graduate Swaleh Owais and his business partner Yang Cheng won the prestigious 2022 James Dyson Global Sustainability Award for Polyformer, an open-source machine that turns used plastic bottles into 3D printer filament.
Polyformer is a financially and environmentally sustainable solution for communities around the globe tackling issues of plastic waste, accessibility and production.
The idea for Polyformer came together when the pair wanted to solve two problems using one solution. Cheng wanted to create an innovative way to recycle plastic bottles and Owais was passionate about making 3D printer filament cheaper in developing countries.
3D printing has made products and accessories — from wrenches to fidget spinners — accessible to communities where they are otherwise too expensive to produce or purchase. But the price of the filament used in 3D printing is often inflated or too expensive to ship in for these communities.
At a cost-efficient price of $150 total, Polyformer breaks down these barriers.
Not only does Polyformer support the development of affordable 3D-printed products and tools, but it also establishes rewarding recycling infrastructure where there may not be one in place and helps tackle the growing problem of plastic waste.
“We picked the Polyformer because buying the plastic you need for rapid prototyping machines is very, very expensive,” says Sir James Dyson, founder and chief engineer of Dyson.
How it works
The first step is to build a Polyformer machine, which is easier than you’d think. Polyformer is an open-source community project with the CAD, code, and building instructions available for free online. People interested in building this machine can buy the full building kit online.
Once the machine is built the user cuts plastic bottles into a long continuous strip using a custom, easy-to-use bottle cutter mechanism. The user feeds the plastic strip into the machine, where it will turn into 3D printer filament spool that can be released and put directly into a 3D printer. Owais’ passion for engineering began at a young age, as he credits competing in robotic competitions in middle school as the beginning of his interest in innovation. Those passions propelled him even further when he attended McMaster and obtained his mechanical engineering degree in 2021.
Owais will be returning to the original makerspace he was working at in Rwanda during the initial development of the Polyformer with an even more ambitious goal - to create a Polyformer machine from scratch using only locally resourced supplies.
“This goal that I have to create the machine entirely from locally available material will prove that the design can be built in a low resource setting like Rwanda and communities across the globe so that they can also have access to low cost 3D printer filament,” explains Owais.
Mechanical engineering alumni win National James Dyson Award
Teamwork, diligence and an inspiration named Beatrice helped a team of final-year mechanical engineering students capture the 2022 Canadian James Dyson Award.
Their invention – a knife guide designed to improve the lives of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease, hand tremors or other mobility issues – was created as a group project in a product design class.
The simple but elegant assistive device slips easily under a cutting board to provide a safe way for Parkinson’s patients to slice food.
It earned students Afeef Khan, Eden Lazar, Caitlin Kuzler and Clayton MacNeil the national award.
The team named their device Taco – after an early tacoshaped version – and say it was inspired by the struggles of Beatrice, a patient at a care home where Lazar volunteered.
Beatrice suffers from severe Parkinson’s disease, making it dangerous to use a knife and forcing her to rely on caregivers to prep her food.
By designing a tool to hold her knife in a safe, effective cutting position, the team saw an opportunity to give her more independence and improve her quality of life. Starting with a small plastic 3D-printed model, the students progressed through a half-dozen design modifications, making improvements based on testing and feedback.
They are now investigating the business case for bringing Taco to market, with Khan working full-time on the endeavour. He is seeking to establish a relationship with McMaster’s business incubator The Forge and talking to the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) about producing a first small batch of products.
Assistant Professor Elizabeth Hassan taught Topics in Product Development, the course that inspired the award-winning device. The course promotes real-world learning by having students analyze case studies using modern product development methods, value engineering, product specification, rapid product development, lean design and continuous improvement.
“That reflects what is going on in the broader engineering program – incorporating real-time feedback to students when they are actually able to do something with it, before they’ve finalized their work.”
“We wanted to make sure we were creating something that would have an impact on people’s day-to-day lives,” explained Khan.
