Carol Hulls, PhD, PEng (She/Her, Any)

Dr. Carol Hulls, P.Eng. is Associate Chair Teaching and an Associate Professor Teaching Stream in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department. Her role involves supporting instructors in the department to improve teaching and learning in a wide range of areas including mentoring of new faculty, supporting the adoption of innovative teaching and learning approaches, and promoting reflective practice as a way to improve teaching. She has been teaching courses in programming, sensor fusion, and computer hardware since 1999, and has taught several thousand engineering students, primarily in mechanical and mechatronics engineering. In 2016 she received the Brightspace Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning for her work developing open-ended design activities for first year students in engineering. After having spent much of the pandemic live-streaming her lectures from home, she is happy to be back on campus teaching in person.

• Engineering education

• Experiential learning

• Use of technology for teaching

• 1996, Doctorate Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 1991, Master of Applied Science Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 1989, Bachelor of Applied Science Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2024 Distinguished Teacher Award

• 2024 Ontario Volunteer Service Award 40+ years

• 2023 Fortitude Award, Girl Guides of Canada

• 2022 Fellow, Canadian Engineering Education Association CEEA-ACEG

• 2021 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2018 Teaching Excellence Award, Waterloo Engineering Society, University of Waterloo

• 2017 Outstanding Performance Award, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2016 Brightspace Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning, STLHE

• 2016 Outstanding Teaching Award, Sandford Fleming Foundation, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo

• 2015 Ontario Volunteer Service Award 30+ years

• 2022 Associate Chair Teaching

• Fellow Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG)

• Member Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG)

• Member Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE)

• Member IEEE

• GENE 199 - Special Topics in First Year Engineering
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2024, 2025
• ME 101 - Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Practice 2
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• MTE 121 - Digital Computation
  • Taught in 2020, 2021

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

• Rennick C., Litster G., Hulls C.C.W., and Hurst A., Curricular Hackathons for Engineering Design Learning: The Case of Engineering Design Days, IEEE Transactions on Education, Volume 66, 654-664, Canada, 2023.

• Nickel J., Rennick C., Litster G., Hulls C.C.W., and Hurst A., A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS' DESIGN EXPERIENCES IN A WORK-INTEGRATED LEARNING SETTING, Proceedings of the Design Society, Volume 3, 375-384, Canada, 2023.

• Rennick C., Litster G., Hurst A., Hulls C.C.W., and Bedi S., Characterizing Engineering Design Activities Using Jonassen's Design Theory of Problem Solving, International Journal of Engineering Education, Volume 38, 56-66, Canada, 2022.

• Rennick C., Hulls C., and Gryguc A., Assessing the Impact of Transitioning Introductory Design Instruction to an Online Environment, ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings, Canada, 2021.

• Hulls C.C.W., and Rennick C., Use of a Cornerstone Project to Teach Ill-Structured Software Design in First Year, IEEE Transactions on Education, Volume 63, 98-107, Canada, 2020.

• Rennick C., Hulls C.C.W., and McKay K.N., Introductory Engineering Decision-Making: Guiding First-Year Students to Relativism in Software Design, IEEE Transactions on Education, Volume 62, 199-208, Canada, 2019.

• Distinguished Teaching Award for Engineering prof