Event Details

There's No Such Thing as Electrical Engineering

Presenter: Dr. Eric G. Manning - Emeritus Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, University of Victoria
Supervisor:

Date: Tue, April 24, 2012
Time: 13:30:00 - 00:00:00
Place: ECS 660

ABSTRACT

Abstract:

A few real-world engineering projects will be examined, showing that all of them involve Electrical, Mechanical and Software Engineering and Computer Science.

Thus,

  1. The division of Engineering into those branches is largely artificial, done mostly for convenience in academic teaching and administration, and it contradicts, flies in the face of, much of modern engineering practice.
  2. It follows that any student who hopes to be successful in engineering practice, [and increasingly in interdisciplinary research] would we well-advised - at a minimum - to learn enough about the other branches to be able to work effectively in teams composed of Electrical, Mechanical and Software Engineers and computer scientists.
  3. Interesting ways for graduate students to achieve this breadth at UVic - with the possibility of course credit - will be suggested.

Biography:

Eric Manning is Emeritus Professor of ECE & CS and almost-Founding Dean of Engineering at UVic. Previously he was Professor of EE & CS and Director of the Institute for Computer Research at the University of Waterloo. An IEEE and EIC Fellow, his research interests have been in computer networks and distributed systems. He held the IBM Chair of Computer Science at Keio University, the Nortel Networks / New Mic Chair at UVIc and is Honorary Visitor at South East University, Nanjing, PRC. Currently he is assisting with the development of UVic's B.Eng. program in Sustainable Civil Engineering and is Consultant to York University on the development of its new Faculty of Engineering.