The National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science (NCDEAS) held their spring meeting on April 15-16, 2016, in Montreal, QC, hosted by McGill University.
The National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science (NCDEAS) held their spring meeting on April 15-16, 2016, in Montreal, QC, hosted by McGill University.
Jim Nicell, P.Eng., Dean of Engineering at McGill, kicked off the meeting by welcoming participants to the historic Mount Royal neighborhood of Montreal. He highlighted the unique aspects of McGill’s Faculty of Engineering and also mentioned that McGill is preparing to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2021.
Engineers Canada CEO Kim Allen, MBA, FCAE, FEC, P.Eng., provided an update on behalf of Engineers Canada, highlighting key initiatives. For example, he provided updates on various Engineers Canada diversity initiatives, such as 30 by 30 and Go ENG Girl 2016, and on initiatives towards a sustainable engineering profession. He spoke about Engineers Canada’s partnership with the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students and he announced that a new website with engineering labour market information (entitled EngScape) would soon be launched. Meeting participants were invited to preview the features of this real time labour market information resource.
Graham Reader, FEC, P.Eng., updated the NCDEAS on Accreditation Board activities. This included the most recent updates on the Engineers Canada Consultation on Engineering Instruction and Accreditation. He also provided information on the upcoming First Forum on Accreditation to be held in July 2016 and encouraged deans’ participation at this event. Over the two day meeting, both Dr. Reader and Lynn Villeneuve, LL.B., Practice Lead, Accreditation, answered several meeting participants’ questions regarding accreditation.
Other topics on the meeting agenda were presentations by:
- OIQ president Jean-François Proulx, ing., P.Eng., on learnings from the Charbonneau Commission report
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) on various policy and procedure changes
- Alain Baudet, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, on engaging engineers in health research
- the Engineering Graduate Attribute Development (EGAD) project
- the provincial deans’ councils regarding recent activities
The next NCDEAS meeting will be November 24-26, 2016 in Regina, SK.
