Dean Naterer’s Reflections

Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science

Research Report

Looking back on a decade of impressive engineering research achievements

by DR. GREG F. NATERER

Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science 2012-2022

At the end of my second term as dean, after 10 years since I began in 2012, I have reflected on all that the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) has accomplished over the past decade, including research and entrepreneurship.

In the past ten years, FEAS has grown significantly, especially in terms of enrolments (doubling of graduate student enrolment from mid-300’s to over 700), faculty complement (from 61 to 84; nearly a 40% increase), space (80,000 sq. ft. added, plus 30,000 more in progress), and research capacity, among others.

The Faculty’s research profile and prominence, nationally and internationally, have increased to become highly respected in Canada. In the 2021 World University Ranking (Times Higher Education), the rankings of our engineering programs rose to 1st in industry partnerships and 4th overall among comprehensive universities in Canada.

Training of researchers such as graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are among the most impactful contributions and outcomes of the Faculty’s research activities. The graduate student-to-faculty ratio has increased significantly in FEAS to become among the highest of research intensive engineering schools in the country. The ratio of graduate students has grown from about one–quarter to one–third of the total student enrolment in the Faculty.

The Faculty’s research has made many wonderful and beneficial impacts on our community and province, as well as nationally and internationally. A useful metric to characterize the impact of research is the number of citations by others to work published by researchers in the Faculty. By this measure, our Faculty’s research has become much more impactful on the technical community over the past decade. The average number of citations to research articles, per professor, has more than doubled since 2012 to over 200 citations per year on average.

Another indicator of research excellence is through clusters of world-leading researchers who are named into prestigious chair appointments. Ten new research chairs have been appointed in the past decade.

These include industry-sponsored chairs in areas such as environmental systems, offshore safety, subsea communications, entrepreneurship, reservoir characterization and seafloor mechanics. Research chairs have been supported by a range of federal and industry funding sources such as Husky Energy, Wood Group, and Equinor, as well as NSERC IRC and Canada Research Chairs.

The Faculty has also led a number of national and international research networks in the past decade. These too have raised the visibility and profile of the Faculty’s research excellence. Dr. Wei Qiu launched a new Canadian Network for Innovative Shipbuilding, Marine Research and Training (CISMaRT) in partnership with other universities, government agencies, and marine industry partners across Canada. Dr. Bing Chen is the founding director of a pan-Canadian and global Network of

Persistent, Emerging, and Organic PoLlution in the Environment (PEOPLE Network).

Over the past decade, opportunities have also increased for undergraduate students to participate in exciting research projects. To integrate research and innovation more actively into the undergraduate program, students can avail of research semesters within the co–op program. This allows undergraduate students to work with a professor on a research project in an eligible co–op work term.

Many of these research projects have been multidisciplinary in partnership with other faculties / schools. For example, a MUN MED 3D initiative paired students from Engineering (on a co–op work term) and Medicine on a research project involving 3–D printing and assembly of prosthetic hands from polylactic acid plastic.

In 2015, FEAS partnered with the Faculty of Business Administration to create a new Memorial Centre for Entrepreneurship (MCE). This new Centre has significantly contributed to the culture of student entrepreneurship across campus.

MCE’s student intake has grown from initially 20 to over 300 students per year in entrepreneurship programming activities. MCE was named one of the world’s top five emerging entrepreneurship centers by the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers (GCEC) for two years in a row.

Through the MCE, new student opportunities were created in entrepreneurial work terms. These allow students to develop their business ideas and potentially launch a new venture. It also connects students with mentors and provides access to startup funds to build up their business idea, concept or prototype on the path to business ownership. Many successful ventures, initially formed at MCE such as CoLab Software and Mysa Thermostats, later became successful startup companies in the province that have hired hundreds of employees.

The past decade has been an extraordinary period of growth and achievements in research, innovation, technology transfer and entrepreneurship in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science. Undoubtedly the coming decades will continue this tradition of excellence and upward trajectory of Engineering at Memorial University.

"The Faculty’s research has made many wonderful and beneficial impacts on our community and province, as well as nationally and internationally."

Greg F. Naterer

Dean Naterer's Reflections

Research Report