Rob Gorbet, PhD, PEng (He/Him)

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, 320 & 321, The Museum Course: Preparation & Field Trip, Field Trip Project, Research & Design, and Practicum & Presentation. He also teaches INTEG 210, Making Collaboration Work, and occasionally 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.

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

• 1997, Doctorate Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

• 1994, Master's Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

• 1992, Bachelor's Electrical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

• 0000 Twice short listed for the University of Waterloo's Distinguished Teacher Award (2006 & 2007)

• 1994 NSERC PGS A Scholarshipfor Masters-level Research

• 1996 NSERC PGS B Scholarship for Doctoral Research

• 2000 NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship

• 2002 Recipient of the first 'Brush With Art' visual arts grant

• 2003 Recipient of the Faculty of Engineering/Sandford Fleming Foundation Teaching Excellence Award

• 2004 Nominated for Best Student Paper Award - B.F. Keats "Design and analysis of an SMA tuning rod for resonator thermal compensation"

• 2004 Appointed to the University of Waterloo's Teaching Excellence Council

• 2005 Carnegie Scholar for "Cross-Disciplinary Learning in Engineering & Fine Arts"

• 2007 Finalist for Best Student Paper Award -

• B.F. Keats "Design and Testing of a Thermally Stable Filter Using Bimetal Compensation"

• 2007 'The Notebook Project' featured in 2007 Friends of the Library author's event

• INDEV 212 - Problem-solving for Development
  • Taught in 2024
• INTEG 210 - Making Collaboration Work
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2025
• INTEG 230 - The Museum Course: Preparation and Field Trip
  • Taught in 2023, 2024, 2025
• INTEG 275 - Special Topics in Knowledge Integration
  • Taught in 2024
• INTEG 320 - The Museum Course: Research and Design
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• INTEG 321 - The Museum Course: Practicum and Presentation
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• INTEG 499A - Independent Group Project A
  • Taught in 2022

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