U of M creating standalone engineering education department

Department of Engineering Education at U of M Katherine speaks with Marcia Friesen about the new engineering education program coming to the University of Manitoba.

An upcoming overhaul of the University of Manitoba’s faculty of engineering will make way for a standalone department dedicated to an emerging discipline within the field – engineering education.

Marcia Friesen, professor and dean of the Price Faculty of Engineering, described the new department as a “natural evolution.”

“It goes back to understanding that there are a set of engineering skills and competencies that all Canadian engineering curricula are required to teach, and they go beyond any core department,” she said in an interview on Thursday.

“They’re engineering topics, but they sit alongside or on top of or between the civil, mechanical, electrical, computer and biosystems curricula.”

Friesen said the discipline of engineering education is generally focused on understanding engineering skills and competencies, and how they change over time.

Watch the video above to find out more about engineering education and the U of M’s new department.

- With files from CTV’s Katherine Dow.