Robert Gorbet

Chair, Knowledge Integration
Robert Gorbet

Contact information

Phone: 519-888-4567 x43489
Location: EV1 203

Biography summary

Formally trained as an electrical engineer, Rob is an interdisciplinarian, a mechatronics specialist, an award-winning teacher and a technology artist. He loves words, art, design, teaching, travel, squash, and his friends and family.

Rob’s teaching includes courses on the profession of engineering, microcontrollers, robotics, control systems, and technology art. His engineering research involves the design of actuators made of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), for everything from car door locks to subtle next-generation actuation systems for responsive architectural environments.

Rob is a key member of Gorbet Design, a design firm and consultancy specializing in public interactive artwork and experiences, and also collaborates with other designers, artists, and architects. Gorbet’s collaborative interactive artworks have been exhibited across Europe and North America and have won several awards, including the international FEIDAD and VIDA 11.0 first prize, and being selected to represent Canada at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale. They have been featured in major print and online media, and on the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet.

Rob teaches INTEG 230, 231, 320 & 321, The Museum Course: Preparation & Field Trip, Field Trip Project, Research & Design, and Practicum & Presentation. He also teaches INTEG 375, Special Topics in Knowledge Integration: Art & Technology, an upper-year elective course in which interdisciplinary teams of students collaborate to create and exhibit works of technology-mediated sculpture.

Research interests

  • Modelling
  • identification and control of systems
  • hysteretic behaviour
  • Smart materials and application to actuation
  • Mechatronics & Controls

Education

  • 1997, Doctorate, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
  • 1994, Master's, Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
  • 1992, Bachelor's, Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

Courses*

  • FINE 392 - Technology Art Studio
    • Taught in 2019, 2020
  • GENE 499 - Special Topics in Fourth-Year Engineering
    • Taught in 2019, 2020
  • INTEG 210 - Making Collaboration Work
    • Taught in 2023
  • INTEG 320 - The Museum Course: Research and Design
    • Taught in 2019, 2022, 2023
  • INTEG 321 - The Museum Course: Practicum and Presentation
    • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024
  • INTEG 375 - Special Topics in Knowledge Integration
    • Taught in 2019, 2020

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

Graduate studies