Engineering COVID-19 Information

Below is the service availability and contact information for departments and ancillary units within Engineering.

• Office of the Dean

  • Dean, Ken Coley  – wedean@uwo.ca

    Dean’s Assistant – Sue Chapman – schapma2@uwo.ca   

    Director of Administration – Christina Bobier – Christina.bobier@uwo.ca

    Director of Finance – Remington Wickman – Remington@uwo.ca

    Director of External Services – Lesley Mounteer – lmountee@uwo.ca

    Facilities Manager – Mike Gaylard – mgaylard@uwo.ca  

• Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Mechanical and Materials Engineering
• School of Biomedical Engineering
• Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership and Innovation
• Career Services
• Information Technology Group:
  • ITG will be working remotely until further notice but can be onsite if required. Please contact enghelp@uwo.ca for all support inquiries until further notice.
• Finance and Stores:
  • Service will be available at 10am – 2pm for customers and couriers will be assisted between 8am – 4pm. For inquiries, refer to the Finance and Stores contact information.

We have kept the timetable for on-line learning to provide the opportunity for instructors to provide synchronous options for class delivery. Depending on the course, some classes may have opportunities for students to watch live lectures, demonstrations, or participate in on-line discussions and tutorials. Because of this, we have kept the timetable slots to ensure that instructors are aware of the times they have available to them for the scheduling of these live course components.

We recognize that not all students may be able to log in at certain times of the day. Because of this, many live course components will also be video recorded and posted to the course site, so that any students who are not able to participate in the “live” component, will be able to view it on their own time. However, not all live course components will be recorded, so it is important that students reach out to their professors to make alternate arrangements if need be. In addition, your course instructor may use the assigned class times for the delivery of assessments.

All information regarding Engineering undergraduate final grades and how they relate to PASS/FAIL can be found here.

All courses will have a final assessment between now and the end of April. instructors have been provided with options and are required to make decisions regarding exam format by March 30, 2020. Solutions will vary with the needs of individual courses, so be sure to check your OWL messages for updates.

If you are unable to complete your academic responsibilities for an Engineering courses’ final exam/final assessment, please contact Abby Al-Takriti to discuss your options as soon as possible. If you are missing a non-Engineering courses’ final assessment/exam, please contact your professor directly.

The course outlines presented at the beginning of term are likely to change regarding both the assessments and the weighting of the assessments. This includes final capstone projects. The calculation of the final grade is likely to be adjusted from what is currently on your course outline. This will be formally documented in a course outline revision and posted on OWL as soon as the form of the final assessment is approved by the Department Chair.

For undergraduate students wanting to book an appointment with an academic counsellor, please visit Western Engineering's Academic Counselling page. Note: Appointments must be booked in advance to see your Academic Counsellor or Clare Tattersall, Manager, Undergraduate Services. There are no drop-in appointments available.

NEED IMMEDIATE HELP? IN CRISIS?

• Please refer to the TAKE CARE RESOURCE POSTER
• Call Campus Police (519) 661-3300 or London Police 911

Western is committed to the health and safety of our students, staff, and the community. At the same time, we are committed to helping our students navigate this new and changing situation with as little disruption to your studies as possible. Thank you for your understanding during this unprecedented and difficult time.

Beginning March 18, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. all Western students are asked to use a new, online Student Illness Reporting Tool to track and monitor illnesses, whether the illness impacts the submission of course work or not. This tool takes the place of the need to submit a medical note and the Self-Reported Absence System used by undergraduate students.

No medical notes are required.

This method of reporting will be in place until April 3, 2020.

Further information about illness reporting during the final exam period will be communicated at a later date. In addition to reporting their illness through the Student Illness Reporting System, students are being asked to follow the guidelines below applicable to their student group:

Undergraduate Students including Affiliated University College Student (excluding Students in Ivey or Nursing) If students will not be able to submit coursework due to their illness, they are asked to view the information posted by their instructor on their course(s) OWL site.

Graduate Students are to follow the normal procedures for connecting with their instructors/supervisors for missed classes/academic work.

The university is making study space available in the following locations from 10a.m. to 8p.m.:

• University College – Rooms 1105, 1225, 2105, 2110, 3220, and 3225
• University Community Centre – Rooms 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65, and 67
• Somerville House – Rooms 2316, 2317 and 2355
• North Campus Building – Rooms 114, 117, 293, 295, and 296

Students can study in these dedicated locations that will be frequented by security staff and cleaned regularly.

Rest assured you will not lose accreditation. CEAB is working to address the continually evolving situation with COVID-19 on CEAB-accredited engineering education programs. Please refer to CEAB's statements for more information as the situation evolves.

The Wardens of Camp 11 have postponed the Iron Ring Obligation Ceremony scheduled for March 28, 2020 and will be arranging a ceremony in London for the Fall. Once a date is chosen, they will be in touch with all eligible candidates. For those candidates who already paid, registered and got sized, we will hold all of that for the new date.

Remember, you must attend an Obligation Ceremony to receive your ring but it does not have to be here in London. You may attend at any Camp in Canada. As all Obligation Ceremonies were postponed as of March 12, 2020 – we feel confident that the Camps will all be as accommodating as possible. When things settle down, we may be able to offer refunds to candidates who know that they absolutely will not be able to attend an Obligation Ceremony in the Fall.

24th March 2020

The deadline for online Intent To Register (ITR) will be extended to April 30th, 2020.

All Fall 2020 term graduate courses in the Faculty of Engineering will be offered online. This decision has been reached while taking into consideration the health & safety of students, faculty & staff, the allowable occupancy limit on campus in the Fall, and accessibility of courses to all those students who cannot come to campus due to travel restrictions or health risks.

We would like to assure you that we are making every effort to offer online courses with high standards of delivery while maintaining effective learning experiences and learning outcomes.

Please contact the Graduate Office in your Department if you have any questions.

In our previous communication on March 16, 2020, it was mentioned that PhD and MESc thesis examinations will proceed as scheduled. However, SGPS has recently advised to postpone scheduled thesis examinations, where possible. All scheduled PhD and MESc thesis examinations are postponed until further notice, with the exception of those that cannot be postponed due to extenuating circumstances. Grad Chairs in each department will contact students who have scheduled thesis examinations in this regard. Thesis examinations that will proceed under this condition will still have the flexibility for participants to join remotely. No new thesis exams will be scheduled until further notice.

We recognize that the postponement or delay of thesis examinations raises concerns regarding the need for continued enrolment and additional tuition charges. SGPS will ensure that all students affected by postponement of an examination or delay in scheduling of an examination will be enrolled as Thesis Defense Only (TDO) status in the subsequent term to avoid additional tuition fees. Students currently in TDO status this term, and whose exams are postponed to a future term, will be permitted to hold an additional term of TDO status.

For more information on Thesis Examinations, please visit Western's SGPS site. 

Effective 11:59 p.m, Tuesday, March 24, all university research labs will be closed, along with the buildings, with the exception of those deemed essential by the Vice-President Research. These include:

• Labs conducting COVID-19 research
• Labs that must maintain essential biological specimens
• Labs with equipment that must continue to be calibrated and cannot be turned off

For ongoing Graduate Research updates, please visit Western's SGPS site. 

SGPS has been receiving many inquiries about the expectations of GTAs under the current situation. For a full list of work expectations, please visit their COVID-19 website.

Effective March 19, 2020, reduced number of faculty and staff will be physically present on campus, while others will work remotely from home. As a result, it is highly recommended to use email as a mode to communicate with faculty and staff. If any support is needed from the staff on campus, they will try to provide the best support, but some delays might occur.

Effective 11:59 p.m, Tuesday, March 24, all university research labs will be closed, along with the buildings, with the exception of those deemed essential by the Vice-President Research. These include:

• Labs conducting COVID-19 research
• Labs that must maintain essential biological specimens
• Labs with equipment that must continue to be calibrated and cannot be turned off

Research Western has put together an FAQ to address your concerns. If you have additional questions after reviewing the FAQ, please email research.comms@uwo.ca.

The on-line task for the Faculty of Engineering is working hard to set up an on-line OWL course that will take you through all of the steps for setting up an effective and engaging course with assessment methods and models that maintain academic integrity. You will be provided with templates, tools, examples, and one-on-one support to ensure that the process is as straightforward as possible.

We will be providing an opportunity for those who want to record course component videos in a classroom, to be able to do so. However, the timing is unpredictable due to the continuous shifting of the dates of the state of emergency. Because of the uncertainty, we encourage you to consider alternate ways of creating small videos to demonstrate key concepts. We will be providing you with options, examples and support for doing this.

We encourage faculty members to provide a combination of synchronous and asynchronous course components.  For example, you may deliver the key concepts in short 10-15 minute videos and the use some of the timetabled course time to offer a zoom discussion or tutorial. Regardless of how you structure your course, we need to be mindful that some students will not be able to participate in live course components (either due to time differences or because of internet accessibility). We expect that you will, when possible, record those live components for students who are not able to participate, to view on their own time or come up with a way to provide the student through lecture notes and slides, access to the material. 

For asynchronous course components, this obviously does not apply. However, for the synchronous components of your course i.e., tutorials, discussion groups, quizzes, tests, etc. you need to follow the set-out timetable. The times allotted to your course do not all need to be used, but it provides you with some options to schedule the synchronous components, knowing that they will not conflict with anything else happening in other on-line courses.

Some students may not be able to attend in-person components (immunocompromised students, international students with travel restrictions etc.) so we need to provide options for those students to complete the course on-line. This may mean recording lectures for the students to view on-line and offering alternative or on-line assessment opportunities. We will be reaching out to students over the summer to determine who may be in this position so that we can work with instructors to develop accommodations for those students.

The university is investing in an on-line exam proctoring software that will be available to you. We will be providing support and guidance on how this will work and will be providing strategies, best practices and examples of how to create on-line exams that ensure academic integrity.

We will also be advising on alternative assessment methods that will ensure you can determine individual student knowledge without necessarily maintaining the traditional large-format final exam. Whether or not we will be able to offer in-person proctored exams for in-person courses, will be determined based on the number of students and space that is available. We will continue to provide updates and information on this as we have more clarity on social distancing restrictions.

Updates regarding grading schemes for undergraduate students are underway and will be communicated to faculty members by their Department Chairs shortly. Decisions concerning the new formats of final exams will be made by March 30, 2020, and will vary with the needs of individual courses. For graduate courses, please coordinate with your Graduate Chair regarding changes in delivery and assessment.

Effective 11:59 p.m, Tuesday, March 24, all university research labs will be closed, along with the buildings, with the exception of those deemed essential by the Vice-President Research. These include:

• Labs conducting COVID-19 research
• Labs that must maintain essential biological specimens
• Labs with equipment that must continue to be calibrated and cannot be turned off

For further details, please visit Research Western's site. 

For ongoing information regarding Research, visit Research Western's official COVID-19 Updates site.

For ongoing Grant updates, visit Research Western's Funding page. 

Research Western has put together an FAQ to address any of your concerns. If you have additional questions after reviewing the FAQ, please email research.comms@uwo.ca.

NSERC will continue to support its grants, scholarships and awards recipients, as well applicants, peer reviewers and employees. The granting agencies recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic may affect your work, your ability to conduct and review research, and your ability to prepare and submit publications or grant and scholarship applications.

NSERC will provide program-by-program specific information as they continue to monitor and evaluate adjustments to program application deadlines and the reporting of due dates, as needed. These will be communicated through the NSERC website with regular updates. If you have any questions, please refer to NSERC's Contact Us page.