T H E M E T WO
The Forefront of Engineering Education
Queen’s Engineering: Driving Curiosity Forward
7
The Forefront of Engineering Education Engineers have always been problem solvers, but the scope and the challenge of the problems that we are facing have grown in complexity and scale. We will ensure that our curriculum prepares students to tackle major issues from urban development and land usage, to providing healthcare to remote populations, to mitigating climate change. We will do this with a comprehensive focus on curriculum redevelopment, enhanced experiential opportunities and investment in career support and internships. Queen’s Engineering has long been recognized for its strengths in providing a robust and engaging undergraduate experience. The Faculty continues to attract top undergraduate students, and alumni find meaningful employment and leadership roles across the globe. The Faculty has a major recruitment advantage with free discipline choice, which often distinguishes Queen’s from its competitors. The recent growth in our 12–16 month paid internship program points to a new way to further distinguish Queen’s Engineering. Global reviews of engineering education identify silos among disciplines as a major challenge that constrains the development of engineering education. Queen’s Engineering has recognized experts in educational trends in their Engineering Teaching and Learning Team (ETLT) and faculty who have internally identified many directions to ensure that their curriculum is up to date and attentive to global engineering education trends. The ETLT and the faculty need to be enabled and supported to develop interdisciplinary, relevant and future-focused curriculum. Faculty, students, alumni, employers, and staff all identified the need to ensure that students have access to hands-on learning that connects to the grand challenges of today and that have been identified in the UN SDGs.
Further commitment is needed to ensure that our undergraduate and graduate curriculum is focused on training problem-solvers who can work with people from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. We need to continue to invest in career supports for our students. Engineers learn by doing, and one of the best ways to do that is through gaining work experience before graduation. Our 12–16 month paid internship program offers students the opportunity to gain valuable work experience. This program has grown by 80% over the past 4 years. This year 40% of our fourth year class is currently out on internships. Queen’s Engineering is committed to a learning environment where “Curiosity Creates.” While there will always be requirements for discipline-specific technical skills, there is a need for space for students to experiment and learn broadly, and see how their skills can be applied to different contexts.
Queen’s Engineering: Driving Curiosity Forward
8
We will push the frontiers of education, ensuring that the Faculty has a curriculum and a set of work-integrated learning options that are recognized as being among the most innovative in North America. OBJECTIVE 4.
OBJECTIVE 5.
Commit to curiosity-driven and challenge-based education
Enhance interdisciplinary learning
SA 4.1
SA 5.1
Investigate the feasibility of an integrated engineering program for students who are interested in a more general and multi-disciplinary curriculum experience.
SA 5.2
Investigate and decide on a new interdisciplinary undergraduate program in Biomedical Engineering.
SA 5.3
Identify and design integrative course “threads” that provide students with a curated list of courses across disciplines that tackle a common theme, such as addressing an UN SDG.
SA 5.4
Commit to reviewing upper-year electives, with the objective of reducing barriers such as pre-requisites, establishing bridging courses that facilitate an overall increase in cross-listed courses that students in different disciplines can take, and offering courses jointly by faculty in different departments.
SA 5.5
Expand opportunities to have students take courses outside of Engineering as a core part of their Engineering education with a specific aim to jointly develop courses with other Faculties in areas that speak to global challenges and the UN SDGs.
Provide course scenarios that introduce students to the grand challenges that engineers can help solve and ensure they are given the space to experiment through trial and error when working on these issues.
SA 4.2
Develop more connections between undergraduate study and research.
SA 4.3
Commit to ensuring that applied courses also introduce students to real-world challenges and issues.
SA 4.4
Identify key social challenges in the local community, Ontario, Canada, and/or around the world that students and the community can work on collaboratively.
SA 4.5
Connect both undergraduate and graduate students to entrepreneurial opportunities.
Queen’s Engineering: Driving Curiosity Forward
OBJECTIVE 6.
Expand professional experience options SA 6.1
Nurture career-ready graduates through career training that equips students to succeed in an ever-changing and complex world of work. Provide undergraduate and graduate students with enhanced support for work experiences, internships and careers.
SA 6.2
Look for ways to support and expand extra-curricular and professional development opportunities, such as student design teams, conferences, or clubs, while seeking ways to recognize their work through digital badges or micro-credentials.
SA 6.3
In addition to the Queen’s Undergraduate Internship Program, develop a range of signature summer experience options with diverse opportunities for students to develop professional skills and gain meaningful work experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
SA 6.4
Develop a plan for engaging Queen’s exceptional community of alumni as a key constituency for work-integrated learning experiences.
9