Posted on May 13: Senate approves new programs in engineering

At its May 12 meeting, University Senate approved a number of new programs and certificates, including two diplomas in civil engineering, a certificate in leadership for students in governance, and new certificate and diploma programs offered through McMaster's Centre for Continuing Education.

New civil engineering diplomas

Senate approved two new graduate diplomas in civil engineering. Studies for the graduate diploma in masonry, material and structural design and the rehabilitation of civil engineering structures will begin this fall.

The direct entry diplomas allow the engineer to receive recognition of having attained advanced training in the corresponding specializations, without having to commit to a long-term master's program.

The graduate diploma in masonry, material and structural design will provide an in-depth understanding of the analysis and design of masonry systems to practicing engineers. The graduate diploma in rehabilitation of civil engineering structures will provide the engineer with an advanced understanding of why civil engineering structures fail prematurely, and of how to repair and upgrade the overall structural and building performance.

“Both of the diplomas, which are in areas of departmental strength, are geared toward the industry with the objective of getting greater participation from industry in our graduate courses,” writes Dieter Stolle, chair of civil engineering, in a letter of support to dean Mo Elbestawi. “The Department will benefit from having larger graduate class sizes and interaction with professionals in the classroom, with the student benefiting by receiving an acknowledgement of having studied and gained advanced knowledge in the focus areas.”

Certificate of leadership

Students who are active in University governance and who complete all other certificate requirements are eligible for the Mary E. Keyes Certificate of Leadership. The certificate will recognize University governance as one of its eligible activities under “community/volunteer services”.

Certificate and diploma programs

Senate approved new certificate and diploma programs in business analyst development, multimedia communications and information technology, offered through the Centre for Continuing Education. http://www.mcmaster.ca/conted/.

The program in business will meet the needs of students who require business analyst skills. It will serve as a bridge between non-technical business users and a technical solution team. The analyst will elicit, analyze, validate and document business and user requirements to a level of detail that allows the technical team to create a solution to the business problem.

The multimedia diploma is designed to provide multimedia professionals and those wishing to enter the field with a broad range of courses covering the concepts, practices, current issues and areas of specialization important to the personnel function in modern business and industry.

The “InfoTech” diploma is a multi-level program designed to provide learners with broad-based exposure in a variety of technology topics that are in demand in today's workplace, including system security, networking and Web development.

Academic integrity

A statement on academic integrity will be included in many course outlines this fall, in an effort to dissuade the use of plagiarism.

A segment of the statement reads:

“Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: “Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university”.”