Dean's Welcome
Welcome to the newly renamed Faculty of
Engineering and Applied Science and welcome to our new website. It’s
still under development, but we have a lot of exciting new features
planned, including a new Online Writing Lab to help students and
faculty with their questions about writing in engineering and to help
develop their writing skills. Other new features include more links
to main U of R pages and the major online tools students use, such as
UR Course, in addition to our new look.
Our website is not all that’s new. For undergraduate engineering programs, the Faculty of Engineering now has five (5) “full degree” programs:
- Software Systems Engineering (SSE),
- Petroleum Systems Engineering (PSE),
- Environmental Systems Engineering (EVSE),
- Electronic Systems Engineering (ESE) and
- Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE).
All of these programs have received full accreditation from the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) administered by Engineers Canada. In addition, we also offered Master’s and Ph.D. programs in the above programs in our Faculty.
We also have a few new courses, including a new master’s program in Process Systems Engineering (PSEng). In addition, we have a number of relatively new faculty members and staff whom I’d to also welcome.
Our key areas continue to grow and garner significant interest. The International Test Centre for CO2 Capture (see www.CO2-research.ca) has completed development of a number of commercial-ready capture plant systems and is preparing for full-commercial demonstration. The Petroleum Technology Research Centre continues to expand, adding several new major projects to the highly successful IEA GHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project (see www.ptrc.ca). The University also recently launched the International Performance Assessment Centre for Geologic Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2) (see www.ipac-CO2.com) to help establish performance criteria and operational policies and guidelines for geological storage of CO2. In other areas, researchers in our faculty are making tremendous strides in sustainable development, including alternative energy and biofuels; grey water reclamation and other water resource management strategies; and projects to utilize agricultural byproducts, such as flax straw, to produce single-use items such as paper plates, to name just a few. Another leading research area is Informatics, with IT-related projects conducted with TRLabs (see www.trlabs.ca) and energy related-projects conducted by our Energy Informatics Lab. All in all, the research in all of our program areas is achieving unprecedented levels of success, and we look forward to even greater achievements in the not-too-distant future.
The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science is a young, dynamic, growing faculty with a lot of innovation, not just in research but in teaching too. If you are a new student, on behalf of all the faculty and staff, we hope you are enjoying your first year, and we welcome any suggestions for how we might improve our services to you. If you are one of our senior students, we also welcome your input and suggestions, and we hope you are having a great semester. If you are a student thinking about applying to our faculty, please explore our new website and the main university site as well, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Dr. Paitoon Tontiwachwuthikul,
Dean of Engineering and Applied Science