Institutional development · Research, innovation and assessment · Canada
Queen's Smith Engineering appoints Myra Hird as first Chair for Engineering for Humanity
Queen's University in Canada has given Dr Myra Hird a newly created post at its Stephen J.R. Smith Faculty of Engineering, focused on how engineering serves society.
Why it matters: Researchers, teaching staff and students at Smith Engineering will now have a dedicated chair charged with broadening how they understand engineering's purpose.
Queen's University announced that Dr Myra Hird holds the newly established Chair for Engineering for Humanity at the Stephen J.R. Smith Faculty of Engineering, the first person in the post.
The university said the post involves offering direction, advice and links within the discipline and beyond it, so that the faculty's researchers, teachers and students come to see engineering as serving all people.
According to Queen's, the initiative forms part of the faculty's wider effort to rethink how engineers are educated.
Dr Hird said she sees the job as reaching out to Canadians and various communities to demonstrate ways engineering can improve their lives.
Editor’s view
Scott James, Research and Innovation Editor
Smith Engineering's researchers, teaching staff and students are the group most directly affected: if the chair works as the university describes, they will be supported in treating engineering as a service to humanity while the faculty rethinks its approach to educating engineers.
