NSERC CREATE in Competitive Manufacturing for the Aerospace Industry: Technology and Design

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This proposal is directed towards the industrial CREATE stream, the industry being aerospace. The research theme is advanced manufacturing. It is spearheaded by the McGill Institute for Aerospace Engineering (MIAE) in collaboration with the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec. CRIAQ is a non-profit organization established in 2002 with the financial support of the Québec government. Its mission is to 'increase the competitiveness of the aerospace industry and enhance the collective knowledge base in aerospace through improved education and training of students.' CRIAQ has been extremely successful in promoting research interactions between universities and the aerospace industry such that universities now recognise the educational and academic worth of industrial problems and industry now recognises that universities are valuable R and D resources. However, universities are not overly concerned with using research programs to train industry-ready engineers and, consequently, industry is equivocal about the ultimate worth of the HQP being generated by these CRIAQ projects, since it acknowledges a bias against hiring them after the completion of CRIAQ projects. This CREATE will eradicate this bias by making the HQP industry-ready. The increased hiring rate of such HQP will maintain and grow the high profile of the Canadian Aerospace Industry. The training program is based on the CDIO (Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate) initiative, developed for undergraduate programs in the Aero/Astro department at MIT, but modified for higher degree students. In general, the CDIO approach is based on developing personal and professional skills, interpersonal skills, and a better understanding of aerospace product development, design and manufacturing systems integration, quality and cost control. These attributes will be developed through a series of workshops and seminars, many of which will be offered by the aerospace industry. A closely mentored work term of at least 4 months rounds out the CREATE program.