Engineering in full flight
Dean Nabil Esmail presented a report on the development and challenges facing the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at last January’s Board of Governors meeting.
The overall portrait of ENCS is one of tremendous growth and development over the past 10 years. More than 70 professors have been hired in the past five years, undergraduate enrolment has grown 151 per cent since 1998 and the graduate student population, which dipped slightly in the past two years, has almost tripled since 1997.
“ENCS is now recognized as among the best engineering faculties in Canada,” said Dean Esmail. “We are second only to the University of Toronto in terms of size, but we have the best graduate student to professor ratio in Canada and the highest rate of growth in full-time undergraduate enrollment.”
ENCS now boasts 40 per cent of the graduate students at Concordia, compared with 17 per cent and 13 per cent in the JMSB and Arts & Science respectively. At the undergraduate level, there has been 80.2-per-cent growth in full-time equivalents from 1997 to 2006 and 85-per-cent growth in completed bachelor degrees during the same period.
“The entire engineering field saw a downturn in the past two years, but our faculty has held its own. Now we are in a position to continue to develop very positively, especially given our new facilities and growing research profile.”
Research and grants
It is in the quality of the research work carried out in the faculty and the increase in research grants that this positive development is most evident.
In the past five years, research grants have more than doubled, from just over $3 million to just under $7 million. Likewise, the value of industrial research contracts went from just over $1 million in 2000-01 to five and a half million dollars in 2004-05. Total external research funding for the faculty is now over $12 million.
“ We have 30 research chairs in a faculty of 150 professors —18 Concordia research chairs, seven Canada Research chairs and we are also working on five prospective industrial chairs, two from Hydro-Quebec, one from Pratt & Whitney/Sikorski, one from CN and one in Information Security.”
One of the striking successes of the faculty is how it helps to keep talented students in the province. In a survey of the graduating class conducted by the office of the dean, 70 per cent of undergraduates and 66 per cent of graduate students intend to stay in Quebec. Another 15 per cent of undergraduates and 24 per cent of graduate students will remain in Canada.
Challenges for the future
“On the undergraduate level, we must continue to improve our programs, especially in the area of soft skills like language and communication skills.
“On the graduate level, the challenges are similar, except that we have a special responsibility to support the teaching and research activities of our graduate students. The synergy with a renewed, dynamic teaching core involved in groundbreaking research makes this work easier.
“Giving all our students a strong sense of their ethical and social responsibilities is also very important. We have to continue to attract the best students and support them through external funding for student scholarships.”
The Journal will continue to highlight these Board presentations. Look for Dean David Graham’s presentation on the Arts and Science Faculty in the next issue.