The University of Victoria’s Department of Engineering is the 2nd largest Faculty at UVic with over 3,000 undergraduates and about 600 graduate students. To meet its growth needs for the future, the Department is undertaking a significant expansion project to expand the Engineering Computer Science Building and add a new High Bay Research and Structures Lab will showcase. To meet the growing demand for graduates from post-secondary engineering programs, UVic now got approved provincial funding to grow the program. UVic’s engineering buildings currently include the Engineering Office Wing, Engineering Lab Wing, and Engineering Computer Science building. Existing space limitations had resulted in the faculty creating temporary lab spaces in buildings, trailers, and Sea-Can containers across campus. Adding these new buildings, will enable UVic to consolidate these temporary facilities into new purpose-built facilities, and continue to provide a dynamic learning environment. In addition, co-locating all the engineering design studios and laboratories will facilitate greater student and faculty interactions and support interdisciplinary activities. Together, these buildings will embody the faculty’s vision to construct facilities that are at the forefront of green building design. A project vision has been developed as a tool for values-based decisions throughout the design process. The project vision is: “The Engineering and Computer Science Expansion will be a beacon of innovation, collaboration and learning for an adaptive and sustainable future.”
Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Victoria
On July 1, 2021, Dr. Hoorfar became the Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at UVic. At UBC Okanagan, she was recognized as a top researcher and educator in advanced thermofluidics, partnering with industry on high-impact research, and real-life solutions where she was the head of UBC’s Advanced Thermo-Fluidic Laboratory. Dr Hoorfar’s work has led to advancements in energy, health, and the environment in areas, such as monitoring water quality to detect pathogens, enriching natural gas with hydrogen to reduce its carbon footprint, and developing wearable sensors to track disease. Dr. Hoorfar earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Tehran, then moved to Canada in 1998 to pursue a Master’s, and PhD at the University of Toronto. She has collaborated and worked at research labs around the world, including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley.
