To our U of T Engineering community
First, a huge congrats to all our students for wrapping up final assessments — way to stay focused and motivated through this wild semester, you made it! Big congratulations and thanks to every one of our faculty members and staff. You have been so creative and tireless in your efforts to support our students and each other, and ensuring that we all successfully wrapped up the term. So — everyone, please take a moment to celebrate this accomplishment.
As we continue to plan for the summer and into September, the University is taking its direction from government and public health agencies. And while every day seems to give us more information and insight, much remains unclear. One thing for sure – we know that restarting Engineering will be much more complex and certainly more drawn-out than our pivot was a month or so ago.
At this point, and after discussions with all the vice-deans, department chairs and institute directors, we’re asking all instructors and staff to start preparing to launch the Fall semester online. While we still hope to be returning to campus in-person at some point in the Fall, without timelines for when we might start a gradual return, it’s important that we plan for and consider all scenarios and options — up to and including the possibility of carrying out the whole term remotely. This is truly a complex multi-variable problem with lots of unknowns.
Our plans have implications for every facet of our operations, from admissions and curriculum design, to research, facilities and residences. Leading our Faculty’s primary working groups are:
- Undergraduate programs: Tom Coyle, Vice-Dean, Undergrad and Micah Stickel, Vice-Dean, First-Year
- Graduate programs: Julie Audet, Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies
- Research: Ramin Farnood, Vice-Dean, Research
To support our incoming first-year class, this week we announced the creation of the University of Toronto Engineering Academy, a new program built by our Outreach team. The U of T Engineering Academy will give admitted students who accept our offers access to a suite of established online materials to help them get up to speed on core pieces of the math and physics curriculum. Our First-Year curriculum leads, members of ILead, and high school teachers are contributing to its development, with the goal of helping ensure our incoming students have a smooth transition into first year.
So far, we’ve pivoted about three weeks of class and final assessments online — mapping out a whole semester poses a completely different set of complex challenges, and indeed opportunities. I encourage everyone to work together, to share ideas and plans, as we move into the next phase of our response to the pandemic. I’m proud of all that we, the Skule™ community, have accomplished together, and look forward to working with everyone over the summer.
There will be lots on the go — so stay in touch, stay well, and I’ll keep everyone up to date as things develop.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto
To our U of T Engineering community
I hope everyone is well — it has been just over a month since we all left campus, and so I thought I would do a quick update and also provide some info on upcoming plans.
It’s been quite a busy few weeks and I again want to give a shout-out and thanks to everyone — students, staff, faculty — for all your work, effort, and most importantly, patience. Hearing from folks has been great, to get input, feedback and ideas on ways that Engineering can work together right now as we start into finals, and as we move to planning for the summer and into the fall.
It’s important to know that all the decisions that we’ve made, and all the plans we’re developing, are being made in an environment that is constantly evolving. U of T Engineering, and the whole University, have to take direction from the public health authorities and governments — they are going to be the ones to decide when groups can gather again, and how big those groups can be. Right now, we just don’t know when and what that’s going to look like. As we can see in the news, the situation is quite different province-to-province, and country-to-country, so there are many unknowns in this complex equation that we’re trying to solve.
Right now we’re looking at lots of different scenarios and strategies.
Here’s where we are today:
Summer
- All U of T Engineering summer-term courses will be offered with remote delivery. Visit the 2020 Summer Registration and Enrolment Guide for information on what courses are available and important dates. Undergraduate FAQ.
- Summer research opportunities will continue but we’ll have to be quite flexible on the nature of the research projects because of restrictions on on-campus activities.
- Stay tuned for an announcement about a new Faculty-wide program set to pilot this summer that will augment our existing summer research opportunities.
Professional Experience Year (PEY) Co-op
- All the ECC and PEY Co-op programs are up and running with all services running remotely and online.
- While these are challenging times, ECC and PEY Co-op are working with all employer partners to consider things like virtual onboarding and remote work arrangements as employers are making adjustments to their business continuity plans.
- Please refer to the ECC website for detailed information and updates.
Convocation
- The University will host a Convocation ceremony via webcast on or before June 2. The Chancellor, who is the Chair of Convocation, will confer all degrees in absentia, and diploma parchments will be couriered to graduates on a rolling basis following the virtual ceremony. Convocation FAQ.
- U of T Engineering will host an in-person celebration as soon as we’re able to gather together again in 2020 or 2021. We won’t know when or where until the restrictions around COVID-19 are lifted, but stay tuned…details around venue and format to follow!
- Diplomas will be couriered to all graduates on a rolling basis starting June 2 through June 19.
Recruitment & Admissions
- We’re excited to welcome our incoming undergraduate and grad students this September — our recruitment and admissions cycles are on track and on schedule, with online and virtual recruitment events reaching prospective students all around the world.
Fall
- As we look to the Fall term and beyond, several groups led by the Vice Deans will lead the scenario planning for our various programs:
- Undergraduate programs: Tom Coyle, Vice-Dean, Undergrad and Micah Stickel, Vice-Dean, First-Year
- Graduate programs: Julie Audet, Vice-Dean, Graduate Studies
- Research: Ramin Farnood, Vice-Dean, Research
- These team leads will work with the relevant Associate Chairs in our Departments and Institutes, as well as our partners in other Faculties (Arts & Science, Medicine, etc.) to lay out plans for all our initiatives.
I certainly know that the adjustment to physical distancing has been a tough one — the demands of school, work, and for many of us, child, family, and elder care, and now homeschooling can be overwhelming.
I’m attaching our U of T Engineering Identify-Assist-Refer resource (PDF) on how we can support each other’s’ mental health during COVID-19, that includes guidelines for faculty and staff, as well as resources for students.
While there’s still a lot of work to be done for the fall, I see an enormous opportunity for new, innovative ways to deliver engineering education and research. As with any experiment, while some won’t work, everything is a learning experience and I remain ever optimistic that we will come up with some great Skule™ solutions.
I’ll keep you all up to date as details firm up.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto
To our U of T Engineering community
I hope everyone is doing well, taking time for breaks and staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. I know I’ve had a few hiccups in figuring out this new learning and working from home plan so I hope everyone has been coming up with some good strategies – do feel free to share.
As promised – I said I would keep you up to date with our plans for Convocation, since the University’s announcement that unfortunately we can’t host the big event in person in June.
Our graduating students received a message this afternoon from President Gertler, and I want to share some more details about how we’ll be celebrating:
- The University will host a ceremony via webcast in early June — stay tuned for the exact date and time. The Chancellor, who is the Chair of Convocation, will confer all degrees in absentia, and diploma parchments will be couriered to graduates on a rolling basis following the virtual ceremony.
- The University has also posted answers to some frequently asked questions around Convocation
- When the situation normalizes and it is possible to gather safely, Engineering will host its own in-person graduation ceremonies to celebrate this important milestone. These will not happen before September 1, 2020, and will take place over the course of 2020-21 as scheduling and space permits.
- Our in-person graduation ceremonies will have many of the core elements of the traditional Convocation ceremony – from the academic procession of all the graduates, to congratulatory remarks, a convocation speaker, and individual presentation of the graduates.
Convocation is perhaps THE highlight of the year for all of our faculty and staff, and a once-in-a-lifetime moment for all our graduating students. I know that we all want to be there with you to celebrate. I can’t wait to join you all in person – so stay tuned and I will keep you posted as we start to finalize the details.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto