Email: icrc@uwo.ca
The development of professional skills is an integral component of the ICRC CREATE program. Following the continuous improvement methodology, we implement a combination of formal skills training, multiple opportunities to practice these skills, and longitudinal, independent assessment of trainee performance. Management and review of the professional skills curriculum will be the responsibility of the ICRC Academic Committee.
Initially, mandatory formal training for all trainees will be accomplished through a combination of existing Graduate courses – ES 9510 – Engineering Planning and Project Management, ES 9670 – Engineering Communication, ES 9701 Business Acumen, ES 9702 Commercialization, GS 9101 Design-Driven Innovation and GS 9102 New Venture Creation. The objective of this suite of courses is to develop business fundamentals in HQP trainees and to lay the foundation for lifelong learning. These topics have been selected as they address the most immediate ways in which research engineers start working with “the business” in organizations.
In addition, we utilize four existing MITACS Professional Development Workshops selected to address the needs identified by industry: 1) Time Management; 2) Scientific and Technical Writing Skills; 3) Project Management I; and 4) Project Management II. Similar graduate courses at partner institutions can be substituted for the above on approval of the Academic Committee.
The interactive training in the ICRC Program will ensure that time and project management competence will be developed, practiced and assessed by peers and mentors throughout the program. Trainees will be mandated to self-organize in terms of conducting regular meetings to share and discuss research results with and across research areas.
