Thirty-six specific goals. Eight strategic areas. One overarching vision: to become a truly world-class school of engineering.
Read about our eight strategic areas to find out more, or download the full Vision 2015 plan (PDF).
Faculty and staff
To achieve excellence, you need to recruit and retain the best. With Vision 2015, we’re enhancing the strength of our team in key areas, expanding our faculty 20 per cent and increasing our staff complement to support our priorities.
Undergraduate studies
How do we graduate engineers and architects who can analyze problems, think beyond the boundaries of their discipline and create solutions? We’re piloting a clinic where students can apply their knowledge to industry problems. We’re upgrading our teaching labs to the tune of $8.5 million. And we’re making sure that our students get meaningful work term experiences, right from their first year.
Graduate studies
At the graduate level, we’re improving our course offerings and recruiting more high-quality students. We’re introducing three new master’s degree programs: mechatronics engineering; business, intrapreneurship and innovation; and product management. For working engineers, we’ll enhance our professional programs and introduce real-time, online interaction.
Research
Our goal is to foster high-impact research: research that spurs new ways of thinking and changes people’s lives. That means attracting great researchers, securing the money and facilities they need to pursue their ideas, and collaborating more closely than ever with industry, government and the broader community to translate results into action.
Teaching
At Waterloo Engineering, we don’t believe that teaching should be an afterthought. That’s why we’re creating a new position – Associate Dean, Teaching – to support our faculty and TAs. We’re more thoroughly assessing teaching potential when we hire new faculty and improving the feedback once they’re on the job. And to inspire stellar performance, we’re recognizing and rewarding exemplary teaching in our classrooms and labs.
Outreach
Our outreach programs have energized thousands of elementary school students about the possibilities of engineering, science and technology. Now we’re expanding our programming and bringing more high school students to campus. We’re also committed to broadening diversity within our field, continuing to increase the participation of women and fostering an inclusive, supportive atmosphere that creates opportunities for everyone.
Internationalization
As the world becomes more globalized, we are too. We’re taking the Waterloo experience overseas through our United Arab Emirates campus. At the same time, we’re aiming to offer more undergraduates than ever an international experience, either through co-op work terms or academic exchanges.
Entrepreneurship
For
decades,
Waterloo
Engineering
has
served
as
a
launch
pad
for
new
businesses,
generating
great
ideas
and
transforming
them
into
real-world
solutions.
We’ll
continue
to
build
on
that
success
by
expanding
initiatives
like
the
Conrad
Business,
Entrepreneurship
and
Technology
Centre,
E
Co-op
and
our
capstone
design
projects,
giving
undergrads,
graduate
students
and
faculty
the
know-how
to
create
thriving
enterprises.