NSERC awards Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering to Concordia University

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded a new NSERC Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering (NCADE) Concordia University, plus $1 million in funding over five years under its Chair in Design Engineering (CDE) program.

To fill the position, the university appointed engineering professor Catharine Marsden, a mechanical engineer with more than 20 years of work experience in the Canadian aerospace industry. Before joining Concordia University in July 2015, she spent six years at the Royal Military College of Canada supervising aircraft capstone projects and teaching structural design and analysis courses.

As chair, she will be responsible for leading the development of undergraduate aerospace design engineering curriculum as well as post-graduate training and research. According to the university, the NCADE approach will promote hands-on experience through project-based content, laboratory experiments and a final year multi-disciplinary Aircraft Design Project.

In addition to funding from NSERC, the university says its NCADE activities will be supported by OEM partners including Bell Helicopter, Textron Canada, Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Siemens Canada as well as SME’s Marinvent Corporation and Altair Engineering, bringing the total value of the chair to $4.4 million.

“Collaboration with industry sponsors is the vital component of the NCADE learning experience,” says Graham Carr, vice-president of Research and Graduate Studies at Concordia. “The creation and delivery of an apprenticeship program in close collaboration with industry takes existing internship and student club activities to a next level. It provides our students with enriched opportunities to “absorb” in-depth product knowledge, corporate culture and practices, and coherent career development throughout their undergraduate studies.”
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