Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering PhD Program

Overview: The UPEI Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainable Design Engineering (PhD-SDE) program aims to train graduates who have in-depth expertise in applying principles of sustainable design engineering to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research challenges. The PhD-SDE degree program will be research-intensive and require the students to complete their thesis work under the supervision of a Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering (FSDE) faculty member.

Course Requirements:  Students will be required to take at least four (4) graduate-level courses (equivalent to at least 12 credits) in addition to SDE 8010 (PhD Thesis) and SDE 8900 (Seminar). Normally these courses should be selected from the PhD-SDE Graduate level Courses listed below. Cross‑level listed courses may account for no more than one‑third of the total coursework required for program completion (i.e., a maximum of one (1) course), with the Thesis excluded from this calculation. Under this structure, students may complete three (3) or four (4) courses from the 8000‑level graduate‑only offerings, and no more than one (1) course from the 7000‑level, which represents the set of cross-level listed PhD eligible courses. Upon approval of the student’s supervisory committee, up to two graduate-level courses may be taken from outside the FSDE. All students must complete the SDE 8030 (Contemporary Topics in Sustainable Design Engineering) course unless they receive approval from their supervisory committee to take an alternate FSDE graduate-level course. In the case of students who transfer from the MSc-SDE program at UPEI, any PhD-SDE Graduate-level Courses completed during their MSc degree will count towards their PhD degree. Each student is expected to complete these courses within the first 24 months of the degree, before or in the concurrent semester of their PhD Comprehensive Exam.

Thesis and Seminar: PhD-SDE students are required to register for SDE 8010 (PhD Thesis) throughout their degree program.  PhD-SDE students are also required to register in the SDE 8900 (Seminar) course in the first four years of their degree program. SDE 8900 is a Pass/Fail course. Seminars are held on a weekly basis, and each student must present their research work at least once a year and attend all the seminar sessions to receive Pass the SDE 8900 course, unless prior arrangement is made with the Supervisor and the Graduate Studies Coordinator. SDE 8010 will be evaluated as satisfactory/unsatisfactory, and the requirement for receiving satisfactory in the SDE 8010 is explained under the Doctoral Examination subsection.

Duration of Program: A minimum period of three (3) years and maximum period of seven (7) years from the date of first registration will be allocated for the completion of the PhD-SDE program. The date of registration for students who transfer from MSc-SDE program at UPEI will be considered as the beginning of their MSc degree. Exceptional circumstances will be considered provided that they are supported by the student’s supervisor(s) and properly communicated, discussed and supported by the supervisory committee. In all cases, extensions beyond this maximum period must be approved by the FSDE Graduate Studies Committee (GSC) and the Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Mentorship and Supervision:  In the first semester of the PhD program, each student will be assigned a supervisory committee which will consist of the student’s supervisor(s), three (3) members chosen from UPEI faculty. Up to two of these committee members can be UPEI adjunct faculty members with graduate faculty status. The primary supervisor must be a faculty member in the FSDE. Adjunct faculty with graduate faculty status may be faculty members from other universities or professionals with doctorates at external organizations with whom UPEI FSDE has research collaborations. The FSDE GSC has provided a document, “Guidelines for Graduate Supervision”, that is shared with supervisor(s), supervisory committees and graduate students at orientation sessions and this document serves as a reference to follow throughout a student’s program.

Doctoral Research:  Independent research will be the major focus of the PhD-SDE degree. In order to avoid undue extension of the time required to complete the degree, the research topic must be identified early and approved by the supervisory committee. The research should comprise an extensive body of original research in the student’s field, making a true contribution exemplifying the student’s depth of knowledge, creativity, innovation and proven ability to make significant scientific research contributions. The PhD-SDE student must be able to articulate how their research demonstrates aspects of engineering design and sustainability. The supervisor(s) will meet with the student regularly, and the supervisory committee will meet at least twice a year with the student to provide feedback on the student’s progress.

Candidacy Examination:  Doctoral students must complete a candidacy examination within two (2) years of entering the PhD program. Students who register for the MSc-SDE program at UPEI and then transfer into the PhD program must complete their candidacy exam within three (3) years of registering as a graduate student at UPEI (including the MSc period before the transfer). Before the exam, the student must present a thesis proposal abstract to the supervisory committee and obtain a recommendation that the student proceed with the oral candidacy exam. The supervisor(s) will inform the FSDE GSC of this decision, and will suggest the make-up of the candidacy examination committee.  The candidacy examination committee will consist of two (2) members of the supervisory committee and one (1) UPEI faculty member external to FSDE who has graduate faculty status. This external member of the candidacy examination committee must have no conflict of interest with the student’s supervisor(s). A designate from the FSDE GSC will act as Chair of the examination.  The student must submit a thesis proposal to the candidacy examination committee at least two weeks before the examination date. The thesis proposal should address not only the research plan, but also a knowledge and implementation plan that demonstrates the student’s reflection and understanding of the research topic within the context of sustainable design. After the student’s presentation and question period, the examination committee will make a judgment of satisfactory or unsatisfactory. A judgment of satisfactory will result in the student being declared a PhD Candidate. If the judgment is unsatisfactory, the student will be required to retake the exam within 4 months. A second unsatisfactory judgment will result in the student being required to withdraw from the PhD program. If the student has not previously completed an MSc degree, they are then free to enter the MSc program and transfer research and academic coursework.

Thesis Dissertation: Each candidate for the PhD-SDE is required to submit a written thesis dissertation based upon the research conducted under supervision described above. The thesis dissertation must demonstrate the candidate’s capacity for original and independent work, and should include a critical evaluation of work which has previously been done in the field of their research, as well as a clear understanding of sustainable design. The thesis dissertation must highlight new conclusions which are drawn from the candidate’s own research work.

Defence: The examination committee will be chaired by a representative from the FSDE GSC and will consist of the following: supervisor(s), two (2) members of the supervisory committee, one (1) UPEI faculty member external to FSDE who has graduate faculty status, and one (1) external examiner from outside the University of Prince Edward Island. These examiners must have no conflict of interest with the supervisor(s). In order to proceed to defence, the candidate must submit a copy of their dissertation to the supervisory committee for review and approval. Once approved by all members, the supervisor(s) will then submit the PhD dissertation and a list of potential external examiners to FSDE Graduate Studies Coordinator. The FSDE Graduate Studies Coordinator will then confirm the external examiners as well as the defence Chair, and notify the Deans of FSDE and Faculty of Graduate Studies. A copy of the dissertation will be shared with the examination committee and the defence date will be finalized.

Prior to the exam, the external examiners will submit written evaluations of the dissertation to the defence Chair. This brief report will summarize their evaluation of the thesis and normally include a discussion of the scientific significance of the thesis with comments regarding its theoretical framework, methodology, findings, and interpretations. The report will consider its academic standard and quality, reflecting that the candidate meets the minimum requirements to qualify as a researcher, considering the candidate’s formulation of research questions, logical and original approaches to testing stated hypotheses, and understanding of current methods and their limitations.

The final oral examination of the PhD thesis will consist of a public research seminar, followed by questions from the doctoral examination committee. The examination will be public, but members of the audience may only question the candidate upon invitation of the Chair of the committee. After the defence seminar and question period, the committee will make a judgment of satisfactory or unsatisfactory. The members of the examination committee report individually on both the defence and the dissertation. The candidate passes if at least four (4) of the five (5) examiners votes positively. An abstention is regarded as a negative vote. Concurrently, the members sign the Certificate of Approval, to be submitted with the approved dissertation in its final form (after implementation of revisions requested by the committee at the defense) to the Dean of FSDE. The report to the Dean will record the decision as “unsatisfactory”, or “satisfactory”. If “unsatisfactory,” the candidate will be given the opportunity of a second attempt. A second “unsatisfactory” will terminate candidacy at UPEI.

Graduation: The candidate will receive the degree certificate at UPEI convocation upon successful completion of four (4) approved graduate courses (with minimum of 60% in each course), receiving Pass in SDE 8901 (Seminar) course, and receiving Satisfactory in SDE 8010 (PhD Thesis).

Courses eligible to fulfill PhD (SDE) requirements:

List of Courses

1. Thesis and Seminar

SDE 8010 PHD THESIS
This is a research-oriented course in which students will conduct an extensive original research project, culminating in the submission and defence of a thesis. Students must register in this course each semester to maintain enrolment in the program. It embodies the research component of the PhD program.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

SDE 8900 SEMINAR
In this course students attend seminars on current topics in their research area of Sustainable Design Engineering and are expected to be seminar presenters. Techniques in preparing scientific communication (oral presentations and poster displays) are also covered.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

1. PhD-SDE Graduate-level Courses

SDE 7020 QUALITY CONTROL AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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SDE 7021 CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
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SDE 8030 CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN ENGINEERING
In this course students will be exposed to and examine the concepts underlying sustainable design engineering as they pertain to engineering practice and in particular engineering research and the development of new technologies. Sustainable design engineering can be defined as an engineering design process which considers not only the key performance indicators and functional characteristics of the system being developed but also the environmental, social and economic context and impacts of the system. Recent advances in sustainability research have focused on the complex interactions between these areas, evolving from “green engineering” to a full consideration of sustainability. In order to develop sustainable solutions, engineers and researchers must be able to critically evaluate their work in this context. To this end, students will examine case studies and relevant readings on such topics as sustainability indicators, techno-economic and life cycle assessment, stakeholder engagement, real time technology assessment, engineering justice, and design for sustainability. While approaches for addressing the specific areas of environmental, social and economic sustainability will be covered, the focus of the course will be on the interactions between these areas. A key outcome of this course will be a paper critically examining the student’s research topic from the perspective of sustainable design engineering.  Graduate-level project will be required as defined in consultation with the instructor.
PREREQUISITES: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

SDE 7031 CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN USER-CENTRED ENGINEERING DESIGN
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SDE 8040 DESIGN OF EXPERIMENTS
This course focuses on the design, implementation, and analysis of engineering, scientific, and computer-based experiments. The course will examine the proper and scientific approach to experimentation, modeling, simulation, and analysis of data. Various designs are discussed and their respective advantages and disadvantages are noted. Factorial designs and sensitivity analysis will be studied in detail because of its relevance to various industries. Use of software for designing and analyzing experiments will also be used. For experiments that involved mainly physical quantities and natural phenomena, techniques of dimensional analysis will also be introduced.  Graduate-level project will be required as defined in consultation with the instructor.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

SDE 7050 ENGINEERING RESEARCH METHODS & EXPERIMENT DESIGN
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SDE 7060 MODELING, CONTROL, AND DESIGN OF ENERGY SYSTEMS
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SDE 7061 OPTIMIZATION IN ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE
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SDE 7062 SOLAR BUILDINGS AND NEIGHBORHOODS
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SDE 8063 CONTEMPORARY TOPICS IN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
This broadly applicable course discusses global energy usage and exposes students to current trends in local and global sustainable energy initiatives (i.e., energy generation and storage) and applications. Present and future global energy consumption and related CO2 emissions are considered and discussed. Students will be exposed to and analyze case studies as well as develop and design their own globally relevant solution concepts. Students will ultimately gain an enhanced, quantitative appreciation for the challenges and opportunities related to global energy system decarbonization.  Graduate-level project will be required as defined in consultation with the instructor.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

SDE 7070 NOVEL ENGINEERED MATERIALS FOR SUSTAINABLE APPLICATIONS
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SDE 7080 INDUSTRIAL MACHINE VISION
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SDE 8081 MODERN MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS
This course emphasizes how the abstract concepts of control theory and advanced design tools are used pragmatically in engineering practice in the mechatronics field. This course explores current topics of modern mechatronics, from the application of complex systems through dimensionality reduction, machine learning, and dynamical systems modelling to innovative methods and algorithms such as augmented reality, medical image analysis, and automated mapping of environments. Above all, this course is designed to entice students to think, ask questions of existing theory, and understand the essence of mechatronics systems. To this end, students will develop and implement practical, hands-on-with-hardware applications of the control system analysis and design principles that are the subject matter of their research. The findings and results of this project will be presented in the format of a manuscript that incorporates the research methodology, their final product, and critical thinking over the mechatronic topic.  Graduate-level project will be required as defined in consultation with the instructor.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3

SDE 7100 BIOFUEL AND BIOMASS TECHNOLOGY
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SDE 8101 ADVANCES IN BIORESOURCE ENGINEERING
The quest for food security, renewable energy, climate change and demand for sustainable fuels has increased focus on biomass conversion and technological interventions to cope with these challenges. This course covers advanced topics in bioresource engineering to acquire an understanding of sustainability challenges in bioresource sector and propose optimal climate smart solutions by implementing technologies and processes. The course is delivered in three complementary modules: i) deep learning and artificial intelligence for sustainable food production, ii) biofuels and biomaterials, and iii) the design of biomass conversion reactors.  Graduate-level project will be required as defined in consultation with the instructor.
PREREQUISITE: Admission to the graduate program in Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering
HOURS OF CREDIT: 3