The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to welcome John Donald (Ph.D., P.Eng., Fellow CEEA-ACÉG) as the 2024-2026 Scholar-in-Residence.
John Donald holds BASc, MASc, and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from the Univesity of Waterloo, and is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph where he teaches and researches Engineering Design and Engineering Leadership. John has over 30 years of experience in a variety of leadership roles in post-secondary education, engineering consulting, and information technology start-ups. He is the founder of the Guelph Engineering Leadership (GEL) Program launched in fall 2020, received the 2022 University of Guelph Faculty Association Distinguished Professor Award for Innovation in Teaching, and is a past director of the University of Guelph Physical Sciences and Engineering Education Research (PSEER) Centre. John is a past president (2017-18) and fellow (2019) of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA-ACÉG), co-founder of the CEEA-ACÉG Sustainable Engineering Leadership and Management (SELM) Special Interest Group (SIG), and is an active member of the National Initiative on Capacity Building and Knowledge Creation for Engineering Leadership (NICKEL).
John’s scholarship and teaching in Engineering Education focuses on the role of engineers in society in the context of engineering practice. He is particularly interested in understanding and implementing mechanisms that support the capacity of engineering students to become successful engineers, to develop strong interdisciplinary design skills, and to take on leadership roles in engineering and more broadly in society. Key areas of interest include:
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Leadership and management in the engineering context: Through the lenses of the engineering accreditation framework and theories of leadership, sustainability and management practice, this work explores how the engineering curriculum can be developed and delivered such that leadership and management competencies are concurrently developed with technical skills as part of developing an engineering mindset.
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Interdisciplinary engineering design: To address societal challenges, engineers must work in interdisciplinary teams to design sustainable solutions that are technically feasible, economically viable, and socially acceptable. This work explores appropriate pedagogy to develop professional skills, reflective practice, and inclusive and effective teams in the context of interdisciplinary engineering design.
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Technological stewardship in engineering: In the context of the Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this work explores approaches to building opportunities for students to engage with and contribute to addressing these challenges in a meaningful way.
Links:
Research: Publications and Workshops, ResearchGate
Selected Publications:
Donald, J.R. and Jamieson, M.V. (2023), Engineering Leadership: Bridging the Culture Gap in Engineering Education, in 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings, Baltimore, Maryland: ASEE Conferences, Jun. 2023, p. 43327. doi: 10.18260/1-2--43327. (link)
Donald, J.R. and Jamieson, M.V. (2022). Diversity of engineering leadership program design. New Directions for Student Leadership, 2022(173), 83–91. (link)
Ibrahim, N., Jamieson, M.V., and Donald, J.R. (2022). What about sustainability? Adding the ‘S’ to leadership and management competency development in the engineering curriculum,” in Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), Jun. 2022. (link)
Ibrahim, N., Donald, J.R., & Moresoli, C. (2021). Developing engineering leadership skills through student-led workshops in the context of engineering grand challenges. Research in Engineering Education Symposium and Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, University of Western Australia, Sydney, Australia (link).
Jamieson, M.V. & Donald, J. (2020). Building the Engineering Mindset: Developing Leadership and Management Competencies in the Engineering Curriculum. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA), June 11, 2020. (link)
Resources:
Nadine Ibrahim; Christine Moresoli; and John Donald. 2023. Enabling the Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges for Educators – Encourageons la dissémination par les éducateurs des grands défis pour le génie canadien. February 2023. (link)
The Scholar-in-Residence Program
The Scholar-in-Residence is a new initiative in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo, which falls within the mandate of the Turkstra Chair in Urban Engineering, Dr. Nadine Ibrahim. The Scholar-in-Residence supports her role as the lead for academic programming for the proposed Master of Engineering related to future cities and funded by the Future Cities Institute. The Scholar-in-Residence initiative provides an opportunity to enhance the scholarly activity of the Department in relevant domains of expertise. It is an avenue for mutually beneficial engagement between the academic community and the engineering practice community. The Scholar-in-Residence is selected by the Turkstra Chair and invited to foster and develop research activities and enhance program initiatives related to engineering leadership, including developing resources and activities for student leadership development for the betterment of our cities now and into the future.
Roles and Responsibilities
The Scholar-in-Residence aligns with the vision for urban engineering by offering expertise in a variety of contexts including leadership, mentorship, technical guidance, teaching support, and other roles that leverage specific skills of the Scholar-in-Residence. The key focus for the Scholar-in-Residence is to enhance complementary non-technical skills associated with the creation and stewardship of technology in a sustainable manner. This will support the development of student mindset and capacity for demonstrating engineering leadership in society. Engaging the Scholar-in-Residence is one way that the department fosters a diversity of perspectives in the education of future and current engineering students.
We believe that beyond its technical roots, engineering is a leadership profession.
[Our work] represents a developing view of how to position and analyze non-technical skills in the engineering curriculum in a way that integrates its relevance within the leadership, management, and sustainability responsibilities of engineering practice.