Message from the Chair
It fills me with immense joy to extend a warm welcome to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at York University. Assuming the role of the department chair is a profound honour that I deeply cherish.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering commenced its operations in 2012 when Professor Alidad Amirfazli, the founding chair, joined the Lassonde School of Engineering. This school was established through significant donations from Pierre Lassonde in 2011. Since then, our department has experienced rapid expansion, attracting 22 faculty members and launching our distinguished mechanical engineering undergraduate program in 2014, followed by forward-looking Master of Applied Science and PhD programs in 2015.
A pivotal moment occurred in 2014 with the generous contribution from Doug Bergeron, a graduate from York University, and his wife Sandra. This donation sparked the construction of a new engineering building, later named the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence. In 2016, this building became the home of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at York University. Presently, our programs boast enrollment of over 400 undergraduate students and almost 100 graduate students, all of whom are being trained by our esteemed team of 22 full-time faculty members.
In 2018, our undergraduate program received accreditation from the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) and has since maintained this status. To date, we have graduated over 400 undergraduate, master’s, and PhD students in mechanical engineering. Our department is equipped with state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, including central teaching labs such as the machine shop facilities, the thermofluidic laboratory, the solid mechanics laboratory, and the instrumentation laboratory. The instrumentation laboratory, notably, was sponsored and co-created with the support of Quanser Inc. Additionally, our common research facility provides access to advanced manufacturing, microfabrication, microscopy, spectroscopy, and materials characterization tools and instruments.
Our esteemed faculty members conduct research across five core areas of Materials and Design, Thermal Sciences and Energy, Mechatronics and Automation, Bioengineering and Health, and Innovation and Outreach. We are proud to host the Manufacturing, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Centre (MTEC), an Organized Research Unit (ORU) at York University. Since 2013, our faculty members have collectively secured over $31 million in external research funding from various agencies and industry partners such as Tri-Council agencies (NSERC and CIHR), federal organizations (CFI, CSA, NRC, and CFIA), provincial sources (ORF, MOE, OMAFRA, and OCE), and industry. Some of the industry partners involved in research with our department are Quanser Inc., Magna Ic., Curso Co. Ltd., Pratt & Whitney Canada, Terrestrial Energy, ABB Inc., and many more.
As a team, we are committed to achieving excellence in teaching and research, striving to be among the best Mechanical Engineering programs in Canada by providing the highest quality education and research opportunities to our students. Our mission is to train the next generations of broad-minded engineers who can adapt to the diverse and ever-changing needs of society, advance the scientific knowledge and engineering principles of our discipline, and guide innovation through our research efforts. We aim to attract domestic and international students, as well as researchers from diverse backgrounds, cultures, demographic groups, and genders.
I find immense encouragement in the progress we’ve made thus far. This moment marks an exhilarating phase for our program and department, and I eagerly anticipate collaborating with all stakeholders as we venture into uncharted territories together!
Pouya Rezai, PhD, PEng, FCSME
Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering