Dean of Engineering, Pearl Sullivan, Speaks About E7

Since “B” Society voted no in March 14’s E7 Referendum, what does this mean to students?  We went to Pearl Sullivan, the Dean of Engineering, to ask her how this would impact engineering education for future students. Our interviewer is Angela Pause, a Waterloo Region freelance writer specializing in technology, engineering, business and education.  

Interviewer: Dean Sullivan, how do you feel about the outcome of the E7 referendum?

Dean Sullivan: The E7 building project has been primary focus of the Faculty for the past 18 months. We have worked tirelessly on developing the design and getting the necessary approvals. As a sign of their support, the EngSoc leaders, who were part of the E7 Project Planning Committee since December 2013, presented the referendum as way for the student body to also show their support for the building. It is unfortunate that many students did not fully realize that E7 is essentially an undergraduate building. Had the Yes vote won, it would have been an immensely strong message to the government and the university that our students strongly believe in their Waterloo Engineering education, reinforcing the need for better facilities.

Interviewer: So you view the voluntary $25 per term as a philanthropic act?

Dean Sullivan: I certainly do, and I believe so did EngSoc.  It would have been an important gesture on behalf of the engineering student body. As universities find it increasingly harder to operate with declining government grants, private donors are essential. We want to ensure the Waterloo Engineering degree remains the gold standard in Canada.  Without philanthropic donations of all sizes, we will not be able to offer the student experience that we want to. This is major construction and we need to rely on private funds to support part of the costs. If students, who we know are watching their dollars, felt that Engineering 7 was important enough to voluntarily donate $25 per term, then it would have been a strong show of support that we are addressing their needs. It would have helped us ask our alumni and others to give more.  We have seen, for example, how WEEF support for the Student Design Center, as well as Arts Endowment Fund support for the Hagey Hall Courtyard infill, made the difference.

Interviewer:  Will the plans for E7 change because of the no vote?

Dean Sullivan:  Not at all. We are committed to providing the space we have planned. We are close to finalizing the detailed drawings and hope to undertake the tender process in late spring. If everything goes as planned, Engineering 7 will be built and ready for students in fall 2018. I think it would have been helpful if our students had more background information on how the idea of E7 was conceived. In the Faculty’s first-ever strategic plan, Vision 2010, we conducted a space audit and discovered that engineering student enrollments had grown by 80% but the space only expanded by 20%. It was clear that there was a drastic shortfall of space for our rapidly expanding engineering departments. To address this, Vision 2010 planned to build three buildings: E5, E6, and E7. We phased them in so that we could also phase in paying for them. When I started my term as Dean in July 2012, my first priority was to attend to the undergraduate student survey results of 2011 – students asked for more study space, social space, and more spaces to work on their design and capstone projects. The second priority was to address the relentless demand for our undergraduate programs. We were then turning away hundreds, and now thousands, of top-notch Canadian students who want to enter our programs. It’s tough to be saying no to so many Canadian families. So we expanded the highly popular Mechatronics Engineering program and added the new Biomedical Engineering program in fall 2014. This means we have to hire more professors who will need research labs, to add new lecture halls and tutorial rooms, to house new faculty, staff and graduate students in offices, and provide more facilities for all engineering undergraduates. We are expanding not one, but two, undergraduate programs that will accommodate 1300 more undergraduates and another 200 graduate students by 2020. Simply put, E7 is an undergraduate building.

Interviewer:  The E7 building is part of a capital fundraising campaign Waterloo Engineering is undertaking. Explain to me what that is.

Dean Sullivan:  We are launching a $70 million fundraising campaign entitled  “Educating the Engineer of the Future.” Our campaign has several goals.  The first is to dramatically enhance student experiences in a number of ways – whether by supporting our student design teams or by providing much needed scholarships. As it relates to the building of E7, we will be providing a 147-seat student study space, seven large lecture halls, tutorial classrooms, the Engineering Ideas Clinic™ space for all programs, a second student machine shop and an eating area. Our other campaign goals include creating the Engineer of the Future Scholars program to attract the best and the brightest graduate students and establishing new research chairs in emerging technologies.

Interviewer: You mentioned the Engineering Ideas Clinic in E7. What is this?

Dean Sullivan: We have very bright students coming into Waterloo Engineering. They are also digital natives. Nearly all students today are very comfortable with technology, but less have experience in physical, hands-on aspects that help them make good engineering judgements. The ability to combine the digital with the physical will enable our students to deal with uncertainty and tackle truly difficult problems. E7 will house the Engineering Ideas Clinic which is about half the footprint of the first floor. The dedicated open lab space is intended for team teaching so faculty from various programs can jointly offer immersive and integrated learning activities from year 1. More important, each Clinic module will enable students to connect what they have learned in the classroom by solving practical problems. Our hope is to teach software engineers in the same space as chemical engineers. It will also be a broad setting for all students to express their creativity and test their ideas. The Ideas Clinic team has designed test beds for land and water-based vehicle in one section, and in another, a media room to learn how to do effective marketing. As far as we know, no other university has such an innovative space for engineering students to learn in.

We have also designed a two-storey aerial robotics testing lab, which we call the Robozone. After years having to put up and take down netting in E5, many students are looking forward to having this specialized facility.

I would like to reiterate that while we are refining the design, the general floor plan for the entire building has been available in the Dean’s Office for viewing since October 29, 2014. We will be publishing the floor plans publicly within the next month.

Interviewer: You’ve already raised $30+ million of the $88 million you need, where did that come from?

Dean Sullivan: There are many people who understand the significant value that Waterloo Engineering brings to Canada and the world.  Engineers, especially Waterloo Engineers, are a formidable force when it comes to affecting Canada’s economy and addressing societal challenges. Our donors, many of them alumni, understand that what comes out of Waterloo engineers – the big ideas and the ability to execute – depends on what goes into Waterloo engineering education. By supporting the Educating the Engineer of the Future campaign, of which E7 is a part of, they are counting on us to continue to uphold the excellence that has defined us.

Interviewer: What can students do to help make E7 happen?

Dean Sullivan: Great question. As experienced by universities across Ontario, higher education has been challenged from years of declining government grants. This directly impacts all our departments and their ability to offer undergraduate support such as TAs, staff service, funding for design projects and renewal of labs.  As we are already using our operating funds to pay for space, we cannot impact our undergraduate programs much further. We have to fundraise with this capital campaign. We’ve applied for provincial funding last fall under a major expansion program, but cannot assume we will get it. I would be very grateful to have your support, whether in the form of moral support or small financial support. With each student’s support, it will be acknowledgement of the importance of what we are trying to achieve in undergraduate education.