Professional Training

It has become exceedingly important for practising engineers to be highly skilled in both management and technical understanding. Through a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program in Environmentally Sustainable Aviation, in conjunction with the Centre for Research in Sustainable Aviation (CRSA), several initiatives have been instituted to catalyse both technical and professional skills that will prepare students for industrial and academic careers in fields related to sustainable aviation. The goal is to combine the world-class scientific and technical knowledge imparted through performing state-of-the-art research in the UTIAS labs with a broad understanding of the interactions between the various aspects of sustainable aviation and a set of professional skills that will enable the most effective application of this knowledge in the workplace.

 

Colloquiums, Conferences and Workshops: The CRSA hosts an International Workshop on Aviation and Climate Change, the National Colloquium on Sustainable Aviation, and the Summer School on Sustainable Aviation offering exposure to diverse technical and professional expertise in academia and industry.

Research Project Management Workshop: Each spring the program will hosts a Research Project Management Workshop (RPMW) to provide training in management skills useful in academic and industrial careers. Three major themes will be addressed: financial and time budgeting, management of project staff, and intellectual property ethics.

Student Research Symposium: In late autumn of each year, an Institute-wide Student Research Symposium (SRS) features students giving presentations explaining their research to guest from our industrial collaborators. The symposium is organized by the Trainee Advisory Committee, which is comprised of graduate student representatives from the industrial-stream NSERC CREATE Program in Environmentally Sustainable Aviation.

Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation and Technology in Engineering (ELITE): Developed by the University of Toronto, ELITE provides short courses in entrepreneurial skills; students who complete four of the courses are awarded an ELITE certificate.

Prospective Professor in Training (PPiT) program: This program prepares soon-to-be PhD graduates for the rigors of applying to, and holding, an academic position. Students learn how to develop an effective academic CV, teaching dossier, and research statement, as well as how to prepare for an academic job interview. Students also learn how academics can best manage their time and resources between teaching, research, and university administration.

 

NSERC CREATE Training Program

 

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The following opportunities are exclusively offered to students funded by the industrial-stream NSERC CREATE Program in Environmentally Sustainable Aviation.

Industrial Internships: Each NSERC CREATE-funded graduate trainee will spend 20% of their time in an internship position at one of our industrial partners. For MASc students, this will be one four-month internship term during a twenty-month study period. For PhD students, this will be two internship terms during a four-year study period. The program’s industrial partners include Bombardier Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney Canada, the largest Canadian employers of aeronautical scientists and engineers.

Supervisory Experience: Each graduate student in the industrial-stream NSERC CREATE program in Environmentally Sustainable Aviation will be assigned a summer undergraduate intern, for one third to one half of the summer (that is, two or three graduate students will share an intern). The graduate students will be responsible for designing a time and financial budget for the intern, balancing the resource constraints and the need to address the requirements of two or three highly diverse graduate student research projects. During the summer, the graduate students will have primary responsibility for supervising the intern to build their skills at managing research teams.