Graduate students in 29 programs at Carleton benefit from a partnership with the University of Ottawa. The majority of these programs are linked via a series of joint institutes that foster co-operation among faculty and students.
“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” says John Shepherd, dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs. “Graduate students at both universities who are registered in these programs can access a much wider range of courses, expertise, research facilities and libraries. As both universities are located in the same city, and a free shuttle bus service between the two campuses, this makes the partnership even more successful as resources are more readily available.”
There are four joint engineering institutes including The Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Civil Engineering (OCICE), Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Environmental Engineering (OCIENE), Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Electrical and Computer Engineering (OCIECE) and The Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (OCIMAE).
A fifth institute, The Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Biomedical Engineering (OCIBME), includes both engineering and science programs.
“Through the combined resources provided by both universities, these institutes make our graduate engineering programs some of the best in Canada,” says Fred Afagh, associate dean (Research) for the Faculty of Engineering and Design at Carleton. “Our students are taught by engineering leaders who mentor students at both universities. Our students not only have access to state-of-the-art labs and resources here at Carleton such as the Pratt & Whitney Canada High-Speed Wind Tunnel, the “elite” Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processing Laboratory, the Alcatel Advanced Networks Laboratory and the 18,000-sq.ft Facility for Fire Research but also cutting-edge facilities at the University of Ottawa.”
Carleton Physics Professor Paul Johns is the director of The Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Physics (OCIP). “OCIP allows us to offer a broader spectrum of physics programs that complement each other. While Carleton specializes in particle physics and medical physics, the University of Ottawa focuses on condensed matter physics, photonics and biophysics.”
Johns points out that all Carleton graduate physics students have U of O faculty on their thesis defence committees while doctoral students also have a U of O specialist on their supervisory committees. “This ensures that our students don’t become too insular in their work as they must be able to explain and think about their research on a much larger scale.”
“Faculty and students both benefit from this umbrella arrangement as, together, we are putting physics on the world map,” says Johns. “Ultimately, this makes our graduate physics programs in Ottawa a perfect choice for prospective grad students.”
Other joint science institutes include: The Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Biology (OCIB), Ottawa-Carleton Chemistry Institute (OCIC), Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Computer Science (OCICS), Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre (OCGC) and The Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (OCIMS).
