Mary Robinson (she/her)

Supporting Women in Engineering is a cornerstone in Mary Robinson’s strategy as the inaugural Associate Dean of Outreach, Equity and Diversity.

In this key leadership role, Robinson supports Waterloo Engineering’s commitment to equity and diversity as well as our award-winning outreach programs.

Robinson is also leading our ongoing efforts to become a more accessible, welcoming, and inclusive community. She oversees our initiatives related to underrepresented/historically excluded groups in our Faculty of Engineering including Indigenous and Black students, with a particular focus on advancing Indigenous ways of knowing and being into our Faculty. A longtime member of Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE), Robinson continues to energize the University of Waterloo’s work around women in engineering.

Prior, Robinson was the Associate Director First Year Engineering where she guided and supported students in achieving their goals and aspirations during one of the most challenging years of their young lives. In this role, Robinson undertook key roles including:

• Academic advising for first-year engineering students in areas such as study skills, transfers, electives, promotion rules, and extenuating circumstances

• Examinations and promotions (E and P) where she reviewed end-of-term marks and promotion decisions, prepare and present petitions on behalf of students to the E and P committee

Previously, Robinson was an instructor with the Department of Chemical Engineering where she taught courses from basic Chemical Engineering concepts to distillation column design, to food process engineering.

She is a Fellow of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACEG).

• Active learning and teaching methods

• Teaching with technology

• Process safety management

• Food production and packaging processes

1) Engineering curriculum delivery: use of technology in course delivery (iClickers), course and curriculum realignment for outcome-based learning, laboratory upgrades, and inclusion of process safety management, health & safety., 2) Food engineering: functional food production using enzymatic hydrolysis, membrane separation processes, and antioxidant property quantification techniques; food safety and industrial production techniques.

September-December 2009: Kraft Canada Inc - biodegradable packaging - 4th year design project September-December 2009: Kraft Canada Inc - sodium reduction in crackers - 4th year design project, May 2018-April 2019: Mondelez - Mr Big waste reduction - 4th year design project, May 2018-April 2019: Hartmann - egg carton drying optimization - 4th year design project

• 2010, Certificate Certificate in University Teaching, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2010, Master of Applied Science Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2002, Bachelor of Applied Science Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Canada

• 2007 UW Chemical Engineering MASc Research Seminar Best Presenter Award

• 2008 UW Graduate Research Conference Travel Award

• 2012 Minerva Canada James Ham Safe Design Award

• 2013 "Members in each Faculty unit (department or school) whose annual performance rating for the current year is within the top twenty percent of ratings within the unit...The primary criteria will

• be outstanding performance in teaching and in scholarship. Consideration also should be given to dispersing the awards across Faculty units, ranks, and to both women and men."

• - https://uwaterloo.ca/faculty-association/work-life-balance-working-group-seeks-your-input/feedback-re-anomalies/outstanding-performance-award

• 2018 "Members in each Faculty unit (department or school) whose annual performance rating for the current year is within the top twenty percent of ratings within the unit...The primary criteria will be outstanding performance in teaching and in scholarship. Consideration also should be given to dispersing the awards across Faculty units, ranks, and to both women and men." - https://uwaterloo.ca/faculty-association/work-life-balance-working-group-seeks-your-input/feedback-re-anomalies/outstanding-performance-award

• 2018 The award recognizes a teacher (professors, lecturers, or laboratory instructors) from the faculty of Engineering for their contributions to ensuring academic success for their students. More specifically, the award recognizes an instructor who has:

• 1) Employed non-conventional teaching techniques

• 2) Allowed opportunities for experiential learning

• 3) Showed a commitment and dedication towards ensuring academic success for students

• https://www.engsoc.uwaterloo.ca/about-us/awards/

• 2018 This award goes to a person who, early in their career, has committed to the development of engineering education in Canada through practice and/or research. This person is contributing to the field in a way that demonstrates her/his commitment to innovation, change, and improvement in engineering education; is making significant differences in engineering education practices through innovation in the engineering classroom and/or through research; and has demonstrated support of the Canadian Engineering Education Association through membership and conference participation.

• CHE 102 - Chemistry for Engineers
  • Taught in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• CHE 564 - Food Process Engineering
  • Taught in 2024

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

• Seniuk Cicek, Jillian and Steele, Alan and Gauthier, Sarah and Adobea Mante, Afua and Wolf, Pamela and Robinson, Mary and Mattucci, Stephen, Indigenizing Engineering education in Canada: critically considered, Teaching in Higher Education, 1, 2021

• Cicek, J Seniuk and Steele, Alan L and Burgart, Deanna and Rogalski, Pamela and Gauthier, Sarah and Mattucci, Stephen and Bazylak, Jason and Mante, A and Robinson, M and Herrmann, R and others, Indigenous Initiatives in Engineering Education in Canada: Collective Contributions, Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), , 2020

• Robinson, Mary and Minshull, Scarlett, SIX DEGREES OF CHEM \\& BACON, Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), , 2020

• Robinson, Mary and Li, Eugene, “It’s not pronounced Mahna-mahna”: Creating a hands-on activity to teach first-year engineers about pressure measurement, Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), , 2018

• Li, Eugene and Rennick, Chris and Hulls, Carol and Robinson, Mary and Cooper-Stachowsky, Michael and Boghaert, Eline and Melek, William and Bedi, Sanjeev, Tron days: Horizontal integration and authentic learning, Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), , 2017

• Robinson, Mary and Hulls, Carol and Rennick, Chris, ONE-A-DAY PROBLEMS FOR IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING AND STUDY HABITS, Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), , 2019

• , , , , 2018

• Research projects backed by online educator D2L