Ottawa has the highest concentration of engineers and scientists of any city in Canada–74,500–and the second highest in North America. The Capital’s homegrown technology sector has attracted over $4.7 billion in venture capital investment over the past decade and post-secondary institutions conduct over $320 million in sponsored research annually.
Engineering degrees are conferred by the University of Ottawa–ranked among the top 50 engineering programs in the world by Business Insider–and by Carleton University, whose program is among the best in the country.
These two universities, along with Algonquin College and Cité collégiale, count over 27,000 students enrolled in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) programs. The new STEM complex at uOttawa provides exciting new interdisciplinary teaching, research, and entrepreneurship opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Ottawa was established in 1942 and is the largest and most active of all IEEE Canada sections, with 18 IEEE chapters, 2,000 members, four affinity groups and three student branches. Additional engineering research is conducted by the city’s community of leading Canadian and international technology companies, including DragonWave, Telesat, Zarlink Semiconductor, Calian Technologies, Ciena Telus, Alcatel-Lucent, among many others.
IEEE has already resulted in the city hosting a number of important conferences and will bring at least three additional major conferences to Ottawa:
- 2019 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments
- 2019 IEEE International Conference on Information Fusion
- 2021 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference
