Robert Fleisig

Professor, Walter G. Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology

Dr. Fleisig is a permanent teaching professor in the Walter G. Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology (W Booth School) and Engineering 1 with a passion for inspiring empathy, creativity and interdisciplinary thinking in undergraduate and graduate students as well as in academic and local communities. Dr. Fleisig believes that for the university and graduates to make impactful contributions to society, it is no longer sufficient to only have disciplinary expertise. The ‘T-shaped’ graduate is one who is equally at home in the knowledge-centred work of their discipline (i.e., the stem of the ‘T’) and in work with individuals of diverse education, language, culture, beliefs, and values both within their organization and outside (i.e., the arms of the ‘T’). Key to my teaching are empathy, experience and reflection. In Dr. Fleisig's first-year engineering course, undergraduate and graduate students from three faculties work together to create a device to help members of the local community with a complex and unique problem. In Dr. Fleisig's graduate teaching at the W Booth School, his students work with university researchers, hospitals, and local business to identify important problems in health and sustainability to design, prototype, and implement innovative solutions that are meaningful to the community and have an economic impact.