Message from TISED’s Director

The past year has been an unprecedented one in TISED’s history; as the world navigated the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and McGill prepared contingency plans based on the regional epidemiological situation and in anticipation of potential public health directives, TISED adapted to the every-changing landscape of the “new normal”. Over the past year our outreach activities were adjusted and moved online, as we tried to take advantage of the virtual platforms to create a more accessible forum for our researchers and community to gather. Our flagship event, the 7th Annual Trottier Symposium on Sustainable Engineering, Energy and Design, was hosted online on September 16, 2020, and saw two distinguished speakers share their thoughts on what COVID-19 taught us about how society can tackle the climate emergency through technological and political means. Dr. Naomi Oreskes and Dr. Michael E. Mann, laid out a challenging yet hopeful roadmap of how the scientific and research community can en-gage with the policy makers to implement the technological solutions to address the forthcoming consequences of the climate crisis.

Furthermore, the SEDTalks! Training Program, TISED’s flagship student training initiative, celebrated its 5th anniversary and saw the largest and most diverse group of students completing the virtual presentation skills training workshops. Delivered in collaboration with McGill’s SkillSets team from Teaching and Learning Services, SEDTalks! continues to receive positive feedback from student participants as it promotes the high caliber sus-tainability research of the TISED graduate student community.

On the academic side, the interest in TISED’s SEAD courses remained strong during the 20202021 academic year and four of our five current courses were delivered remotely. In addition, this year TISED took important steps towards launching a Master’s program in sustainability in engineering and design, a reality. A program proposal was submitted to the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) in May 2020. Thanks to the work by the dedicated group of TISED members and other McGill stakeholders who worked alongside with the TISED team, the program proposal review by the Québec Ministère de l’éducation et de l’enseignement supérieur has been officially commenced.

In addition, progress on the renovations of the physical space designated for the future TISED Master’s program is underway. The project was commenced in mid-2020; project completion and move-in are expected by the end of 2021.

And though some of our acitivies related to programs such as the Research Workshops Program and the Scholar-in-Residence have been suspended while non-essential travel restrictions remain in place, TISED took steps to redirect the unspent funds from these programs to support promising

prospective graduate students wishing to pursue doctorate degrees in areas of sustainability within our Faculty as well as undergraduate students through additional summer research training support.

As we all look forward to returning to campus for the Fall 2021 semester, we are faced with the reality that COVID is likely going to become endemic. Vaccines gave us an incredible weapon in the fight against the virus, saving lives and helping us get back a semblance of our pre-pandemic lives. Yet, while the progress on vaccine development demonstrated the potential and the power of our collective efforts it also brough to light the stark inequalities that exist around the world. Much like with the pandemic, the consequences of the climate change crisis will disproportionately affect the poor and disadvantaged regions of the world.

The greatest opportunities in advancing climate action lie in making significant advances towards implementing renewable and clean energy production and use, increasing energy efficiency, and infrastructure (re)development to reduce our urban and industrial carbon footprint. And as our Trottier Symposium speakers emphasized, political courage in policy development will be needed to bring about substantive change. Promoting ideas and actions that can bring about substantive progress towards a sus-tainable and resilient societies across the world, will continue to be at the core of our activities in the coming year.

During the coming year, TISED hopes to host a Scholar in Residence (2022-2023 cycle), who take a leading role in creating an impactful dialogue that advances policies for sustainability and climate change action. As always, we will continue to strive for creating research exchange opportunities for our members, delivering student support through funding and education enhancement activities and public outreach.

To a successful and healthy 2021-2022 for all,

Subhasis Ghoshal Professor and Director, Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design