“We want students to have that freedom to find interesting problems and then assemble teams to work on the challenge together. Faculty members are there to provide insight from whatever discipline is needed to support the work.”
- Program:
Are you the sort of person who values flexibility, enjoys solving problems and doesn’t want to be restricted by rigid disciplinary boundaries?
UBC’s Integrated Engineering program gives students the power to tailor their degree to match their interests and goals. Students gain foundational skills across core engineering disciplines and then specialize in their choice of two engineering programs over the course of their degree.
With a strong focus on hands-on learning and open-ended design projects, UBC’s Integrated Engineering program encourages students to advance their ideas into innovative products and solutions.
Students graduate with the ability to confidently “speak” the language of more than one engineering discipline and collaborate on and lead multidisciplinary teams.
What is integrated engineering?
Some engineers go deep into a specialization, becoming experts in a very specific or niche area of engineering practice. Others take a broader approach, working in areas that require integrating and synthesizing multiple areas of practice.
Think of advances in the field of robotics. Engineers with expertise in mechanical, electrical, materials and computer engineering will certainly drive innovation.
But successful product development can only happen when there are engineers with expertise in multiple disciplines who can be the bridge between different teams or come up with novel solutions based on their expertise in more than one area.
In fact, many engineering problems transcend traditional engineering disciplines. The challenges associated with renewable energy, fuel cells and medical devices – to take just some examples – can only be addressed by bringing together the viewpoints of multiple engineering disciplines.
“UBC’s Integrated Engineering program was created several decades ago in response to a request from industry employers who felt that engineering students were not being trained in the kind of thinking and approaches needed in the workplace,” says Dr. Jon Nakane, Program Director and Academic Advisor for Integrated Engineering.
“They were looking for employees who were comfortable working on open-ended projects and had the flexibility to work on diverse teams. The Integrated Engineering program was designed to meet that need.”
What’s it like to study integrated engineering at UBC?
Students take core courses in areas like materials, solid mechanics and fluid mechanics, and chemical and biological engineering. That foundational grounding is then balanced by the freedom to choose technical courses in areas that align with their interests.
“We require students to combine two engineering areas and put together a package of courses that meets certain criteria and reflects where they’d like to build up their skills,” says Dr. Nakane. “This enables students to develop a strong base of knowledge in two engineering disciplines.”
This means that if there’s a particular area you’re interested in that spans different engineering disciplines – like green energy, for example – you could build a tailored curriculum to gain the breadth and depth of knowledge in that area in a way that might be more difficult in other engineering programs.
In each year, students complete a year-long open-ended project. These design project courses are taught by teaching faculty who are embedded in other departments, with professors coming in to support students in specific areas as needed. “We give a lot of responsibility to the students to choose a topic they want to investigate over the year and what they want to learn,” says Dr. Nakane.
“We want students to have that freedom to find interesting problems and then assemble teams to work on the challenge together. Faculty members are there to provide insight from whatever discipline is needed to support the work.”
Integrated Engineering students are also required to take an undergraduate entrepreneurship course hosted by the Sauder School of Business, where they learn what’s required to launch a successful company, from market research to writing a business proposal.
This is also the only engineering program at UBC that has its own dedicated student-run makerspace, which includes everything from a CNC mill and 3D printers to equipment for soldering, welding and more. (See the most recent master list of tools.)
“Students get trained on the equipment and then they train other students to use it,” says Dr. Nakane. “If students collectively decide they want new equipment, they can make a case and we’ll try to get it.”
What kind of jobs could I get with a degree in integrated engineering?
There are not many job postings targeted specifically for integrated engineers, but you will find many job postings that are relevant to students who have taken this program.
Integrated Engineering students are incredibly competitive at landing co-op jobs and jobs after graduation.
That’s because they have knowledge of multiple areas of engineering (which increases the number of jobs they are qualified for) and because their significant project-based experience stands out in resumes and in job interviews.
“Even at the outset of the program we encourage our students to look at job postings or think about the types of jobs they’d like to do and then figure out what expertise they need to develop to be competitive for the positions they are interested in,” says Dr. Nakane.
He points out that the program also has a long history of training students who go on to become entrepreneurs. The program has strong links with the Sauder School of Business and many students are interested in launching their own companies.
Avtar Mandaher, a graduate from 2019, was interested in automation and control and focused his design project on developing a robotic hand. He continued working on the project during his degree, and after graduating, created Sarcomere Dynamics to commercialize his product. He’s also hired other Integrated Engineering alum and co-op students.
Avtar Mandaher Sarcomere Dynamics
With their multidisciplinary perspective, many students with backgrounds in integrated engineering move into product design, program management and consulting roles.
They also tend to be innovators in their field. “Our students tend to be the sort of people who are looking for opportunities, whether that’s starting their own business or driving innovation internally at an organization,” says Dr. Nakane.
Interested?
Explore the links below to see if integrated engineering could be a good fit for you:
- Watch a video about integrating engineering at UBC
- Explore our program
- Check out some of the projects that second, third and fourth year students have completed
- Take a look at the final year capstone projects by filtering your search for “integrated engineering”
- Read profiles of current integrated engineering students and alumni by filtering your search for “integrated engineering.”
