The University of Manitoba has held a NSERC Chair in Design Engineering almost continuously since 2001.  These partnerships have fostered significant developments in a design-oriented curriculum in the Faculty of Engineering.

2018-2023 – NSERC Chair in Design Engineering for Sustainable Development & Enhanced Design Integration
Chairholder – Dr. Marcia Friesen, P.Eng.

We view design as the common engineering function across engineering disciplines, and the goal of engineering education is to develop students’ design knowledge, skills, and values for engineering practice.  

Read the Year 1 Newsletter here

This Chair focuses on:

• Advancing students’ design knowledge in sustainable development and sustainable design in all disciplines.  This is a set of knowledge & skills identified by the practice community as critical for the profession in the future, and it has applications across our programs, ranging from energy resources and security, water resources management, agriculture and food security, transportation and resilient cities, infrastructure resiliency and adaptation, and smart systems.

• Advancing students’ Indigenous Knowledge, perspectives and design principles as part the principle of social inclusion inherent in sustainable development. In addition to cultural awareness, design focuses on important Canadian applications in energy independence, food security, and infrastructure development.  In a province with the highest proportionate Indigenous population (17%) in Canada and an Indigenous population that is predominantly young and growing, the Chair will foster education and reconciliation through curriculum initiatives by which graduate engineers can more effectively provide design services to and with Indigenous clients and communities in Manitoba and Canada.

Sustainable design and Indigenous Knowledge are being facilitated through the redevelopment of existing core courses and capstone design courses. 

• Enhancing students’ design skills by integrating a design spine in all programs to provide cohesive, incremental design experiences for all undergraduate students.  This will tie an explicit thread from preliminary year to capstone design.

Supporting these initiatives, an expanded Engineers-in-Residence program will bring practice-based design expertise into the curriculum and share design outcomes with the practice community.

For a list of all past Design Chairs -  Click here