Engineering Students Supporting Heritage and Sustainability (Heritageengineering)

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The conservation, rehabilitation, and sustainability of existing structures and designated historic buildings is a crucially important issue, both in Canada and worldwide. However, heritage buildings are not the only issue. Even the most energy-efficient new building cannot offset its embodied energy for many years. Rehabilitating these existing structures will contribute to the reduction of the carbon footprint and may help mitigate the acceleration of climate change. Manpower is needed to effect these changes. In Canada's "Economic Action Plan 2012" an additional $150 million in infrastructure funding was earmarked to support the rehabilitation and improvement of existing community facilities. However, in order to develop and deploy advanced technologies, materials, and methods for the assessment, conservation, rehabilitation, sustainability of existing structures and designated historic buildings, there is a pressing and critical need for interdisciplinary training among engineers and architects. This is the core objective of this CREATE program. Our CREATEHERITAGEENGINEERING, an Industrial Stream CREATE application, directly responds to the deficiencies existing in the current training environment that must be corrected in order to produce the workforce capable of addressing the issues outlined above. Specifically, this program will bridge the gap existing between "technology developers" (engineers/architects/scientists) and "technology users" (heritage conservation professionals), where technology broadly refers to a wide range of imaging, monitoring and retrofitting devices, modelling software and multi-media data management, and new materials.As evidenced by over 20 letters of support, there is unequivocal support for a program that will produce this altogether new type of trainee. This proposal, and its elements, is a result of thorough consultation with these national and international organizations.