b'BUILDING SCIENCE EDUCATIONTHE WOOD INNOVATION RESEARCH LABORATORY AT UNBC.ULTIMATELY, MY DECISION WAS TO DESIGNWe had almost a completely free hand, notes Wimmers. The only mandate I received was to create a program that was beneficial to B.C.s AN INTEGRATED PROGRAM THAT COMBINEDwood construction industry. After I consulted with professionals in MODERN TIMBER ENGINEERING WITHarchitectural engineering business and construction manufacturing, I understood that we needed to combine two key disciplines. Ultimately, BUILDING SCIENCE. GOOD ENGINEERS HAVEmy decision was to design an integrated program that combined modern TO HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF BOTHtimber engineering with building science. Good engineers have to have a good understanding of both or they wont be capable of designing OR THEY WONT BE CAPABLE OF DESIGNINGadvanced wood buildings.ADVANCED WOOD BUILDINGS. In creating the UNBC program, Wimmers explains that he looked at other leading universities, including Aalto in Helsinki, Linnaeus in Sweden, Rosenheim in Germany and Innsbruck and Salzburg in Austria. I lookedGUIDO WIMMERS at the countries that are truly leading in engineering these days. None of them have a program that is equal to ours, but certainly I tried to pick out the best of each of them and design something from scratch for our program. We also had the advantage of being a masters program, meaning that we didnt have to go through an accreditation process, so that gave us MARKETPLACE much more freedom and that was a huge plus.As with Dr. Mukhopadhyayas UVic research program, Dr. Wimmers notes, Industry feedback has been phenomenal because every one of our students received at least one job offer before they were even finished the program, and every studenteven those who did not complete our programgot really terrific jobs afterward because they had learned enough to be successful in industry.Even so, Dr. Wimmers observes that though there is a genuine need by industry for the program and every student coming out of the program has BARRY OBRIEN a good career waiting, his team is still unable to fill the available program slots. Were still struggling to get the word out there about this program and the opportunities it offers, he explains. We are involved with industry 518 BRANT STREET, BURLINGTON, ONTARIOL7R 2G7 on the research side, but we havent had any of these engineering firms TEL: 905-639-4956OR1-800-749-8609FAX: 905-639-6162send us students for a year. He added that he hopes some firms will iden-CELL: 905-330-2480 bobrien@dycon.cawww.dycon.ca tify people who they feel are going to be really good, to send (to) us for a year of study that would really speed up their knowledge. 20 BCBEC ELEMENTSA BCBEC PUBLICATION'