Price Faculty of Engineering

Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education

The Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education is an academic centre in the Price Faculty of Engineering recognized for leadership, innovation, expertise and partnerships in the pursuit of engineering education excellence.

Solar panels.

The knowledge and skills required for professional engineering practice are always changing as the world changes. We collaborate with departments in the Price Faculty of Engineering and industry partners to reflect this evolution through development and delivery of professional practice and design curricula.

Our goals are to:

  • Serve as a focal point in the Price Faculty of Engineering in the ongoing innovation of professional practice teaching and learning, and to enhance the capacity of the departments in design teaching and learning.
  • Partner with the departments and programs in the Price Faculty of Engineering toward mutual goals in design and professional practice learning, including innovation through new opportunities and support for interdisciplinary or interdepartmental efforts.
  • Nurture existing and grow new industry partnerships to enhance the undergraduate educational experience.
  • Develop opportunities for graduate-level study in engineering education in the Price Faculty of Engineering and produce rigorous engineering education research that drives the scholarship of engineering teaching and learning in Canada.

  • Membership

    Our membership model includes both core members and associate members. Core members are academic appointments from within the Price Faculty of Engineering, as well as engineers-in-residence. Associate members are others in the Faculty, other faculties, and the external engineering community with affinities to the mission of the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education. Within Engineering, the director will use all-faculty email to let faculty members know of the opportunity for associate membership, with annual invitations. For those that wish to pursue it, they will receive a letter of invitation and be appointed for three-year terms.

    Learn more about our members

  • featuring portraits of Engineers in Residence, David White, Jill Seniuk Cicek and Farhoud Delijani

Engineers-in-residence

Engineers-in-residence are one way the Price Faculty of Engineering fosters educational collaboration with the engineering practice community. Engineers-in-residence are individuals with proven track records in their respective industry sector and who bring the expertise of the practice community directly to students, enhancing the undergraduate educational experience. They are engaged with the Price Faculty of Engineering in various roles of teaching and mentoring students, supporting extracurricular student design teams and building connections between faculty members and the engineering practice community.

  • Excellence in Engineering Leadership Program

    The Price Excellence in Engineering Leadership (excEL) Program is a FREE co-curricular program for undergraduate engineering students that aims to provide you with the tools and skills needed to excel as an engineering leader of the future.

    Learn more about the excEL Program

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  • UMIDEA program

    We administer the UM Innovative Design for Engineering Applications program, which brings together the requirements and expertise of the local industry with the innovative potential of engineering students.

    Learn more about the IDEA program

  • A graphic outlining the details of a bicycle mechanism allowing riders to exercise their legs or be pushed like a wheelchair.

Facilities

CAD and FAB Labs

The Tetra Tech CAD Technology Centre (E2-210 EITC) and the Digital Fabrication Laboratory (FABlab) (E2-220 EITC) are complementary design spaces that allow students to develop a hands-on understanding of how to conceptualize, design, prototype, and communicate design ideas.  

In the CAD Lab, students use state of the art CAD and other design tools to develop and design engineering solutions to engineering problems in a variety of disciplines and applications. The facility is comprised of a 40-seat computer (teaching) lab, with a multitude of design and analysis software applications available for use, including:

  • Full Solidworks Suite 
  • Autodesk Autocad 
  • Autodesk 3D Studio Max 
  • Autodesk Civil 3D 
  • Autodesk Inventor 
  • Ansys Workbench 
  • ArcGIS 
  • Geo Studio 
  • Maple 
  • Matlab 
  • Mastercam 
  • Arduino IDE 
  • Adobe Photoshop (Elements) 
  • Ansys Workbench 

In the FABLab, students use a mix of industrial and open source fabrication tools with an emphasis on digital fabrication technologies to prototype and develop designs. The facility is composed of a wide range of fabrication equipment with a custom designed room that features active ventilation and workflow management to allow students to come and go and develop their designs. Some of the fabrication equipment students have access to include:

  • 7 FDM 3D printers set up to print in PLA/ABS/TPU and a variety of materials 
  • 1 Continuous-Fibre-Reinforced 3D printer to print Nylon with fibreglass, Kevlar or carbon reinforcement 
  • 3 desktop SLA printers set up for resin and castable materials
  • 2 Laser Cutters (50-watt) set up for wood, plastic, foams, paper 
  • 5 Axis Dental CNC milling machine set up for metal/plastic prototypes 
  • 2 industrial laser scanners for reverse engineering (photometric) 
  • Various surface treatment stations (vapor, ultrasonic, abrasive media) 
  • Small scale injection molding machine for small prototype runs 
  • Vacuum form machine for over molding (styrene core) or straight forming 
  • Manual machining equipment (gunsmith lathe, knee mill) set up for precision prototypes 
  • A variety of manual manufacturing equipment (presses, brakes, rolls, saws, drills) for specialty work 

The CAD and FAB Labs are used in formal course instruction while also supporting open access time for students in upper year design courses and design competition teams. 
 

Engineering Education Research

The Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education and the Department of Biosystems Engineering support research in the area of engineering education. Engineering education research (EER) is an interdisciplinary field that employs theories, frameworks, research methodologies, and practices from education and the learning-, social-, and neuro- sciences to conduct rigorous research, build knowledge and inform evidence-based practice in all areas of engineering education. Active research areas at the University of Manitoba include:


•    Indigenous initiatives, methodologies and pedagogies in engineering education
•    Student culture, diversity, perspectives, identity, and learning
•    Program evaluation
•    Outcomes-based education
•    Engineering competencies (e.g., the CEAB graduate attributes) in engineering practice
•    Instructor pedagogical practices and belief-systems
•    Epistemologies in engineering education
•    Socio-technical thinking in engineering education
•    Educational tool/program development
•    Team/peer assessment
•    Interdisciplinary approaches

 

Graduate Specialization in Engineering Education

The new Graduate Specialization in Engineering Education (GSEE) is offered and administered by the Department of Biosystems within its Ph.D. program. It builds upon existing courses in the Faculties of Education and Engineering, with the addition of two newly developed Engineering Education courses (ENG 7030 and ENG 7040 – see below) to form a coherent concentration for doctoral students wanting to conduct research in engineering education, and join an EER community of practice. A preparatory pathway for students with no prior academic work in engineering education who wish to apply for the GSEE is available through the Biosystems M.Eng. degree.

Engineering Education Graduate Level Courses

ENG 4100: Contemporary Topics in Engineering Practice

ENG 7010: The Engineering Design Process - Consideration of the Engineering Design Process
and the logic upon which it is based. Explore both the history and possible future directions of the process from technical, social and environmental points of view.

ENG 7020: Topics in Engineering Practice

ENG 7030: The Discipline of Engineering Education – An in-depth examination of the discipline of engineering education, including its evolution, its characteristics, application, and theoretical developments.  

ENG 7040: Foundations of Engineering Education Research – Engineering education research conceptual and theoretical frameworks, methodologies and methods in both qualitative and quantitative paradigms, and the scholarship of teaching & learning in engineering education.

ENG 7510: Operational Excellence – Application of the fundamentals of operational excellence through the methodical application of engineering principles and theory to address real industry problems, grounded in the Plan-Do-Study-Act system.

Courses for industry participants

The Price Faculty of Engineering offers opportunities for your company and your employees to participate in courses and programs led by our engineers-in-residence. These are offered to industry participants as non-credit courses delivered concurrently as technical electives with senior undergraduate students.

Applied Aerospace Instrumentation

The Applied Aerospace Instrumentation course will provide you with a practical understanding of the role that measurement plays in today’s technologically advanced world. Though geared towards aerospace test system instrumentation (with a particular focus on the gas turbine engine industry), this course is of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about the design, implementation and analysis of the measurement chain. The goal of this course is to introduce you to the design and deployment of measurement systems and all elements of the measurement chain – from sensors, to signal conditioning, to data display. Through practical, industry-based projects, you will gain an understanding of how to apply a measurement system design methodology and how to measure system accuracy. Participation is via a per-seat fee. For details, contact engineer-in-residence Kathryn Atamanchuk.

Fluid Power Systems: Operation, Circuit Design and Applications

The Fluid Power Systems: Operation, Circuit Design and Applications course considers the operating principles and performance of standard fluid power components such as pumps, motors, valves, cylinders, etc. Using standard components, appropriate circuits are designed and calculations made to match components with operating conditions in typical fluid power applications. Hydrostatic transmissions, cavitation, accumulators, pump controls for energy conservation, hydraulic fluids and filtration are also covered. Participation is via a per-seat fee. For details, contact engineer-in-residence Vlad Kowalyk.

Operational Excellence

In the Operational Excellence course, participants methodically apply operational excellence and engineering principles and theory to address real industry problems. The emphasis is on the data and fact-based engineering method of problem solving. The course is grounded in the Plan-Do-Study-Act system, covering the seven-step problem solving method (Problem Definition, Examine the Current Situation, Root Cause Analysis, Action Planning and Testing, Study the Results, Standardize the changes and Draw Conclusions), applied statistical concepts (Lean Six Sigma Management), and the fundamentals of teamwork, team dynamics and change management applied to current engineering problems. Participation is via a multi-year funding agreement between the University and your organization, by which you can then send two employees per year to the course and have student teams work on your internal operational excellence challenges. For details, contact engineer-in-residence Vern Campbell.

Contact us

Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education
Price Faculty of Engineering
SP-341 Stanley Pauley Engineering Building
97 Dafoe Road
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg MB, R3T 5V6

dean_engineering@umanitoba.ca
204-474-9954